Wednesday
January 10,2001
Volume 100
Issue 80
dailyneb.com
Since 1901
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Regents
Regents
adjust
quickly
to jobs
BY JILL ZEMAN
Dishing out millions of dol
lars and determining tuition
rates that affect tens of thou
sands of students are just a cou
ple of the responsibilities for
members of the NU Board of
Regents.
As overwhelming as it may
seem, the two newly-elected
regents say they’re adjusting
well to their new jobs.
Regent Jay Matzke of
Seward, who took the position
vacated by Robert Allen of
Hastings, said he’s looking for
ward to taking action as a mem
ber of the
board.
“It’s going
to be fun,” he
said.
Keeping
tuition low and
recruiting
quality faculty
and students
are priorities
for Matzke, he
said.
Several
people have
focused on
recruiting
more out-of-state students, and
while Matzke said he agreed
with that, he said he thought the
university needed to find a way
to make it more affordable for
them.
Regent Randy Ferlic of
Omaha, who defeated incum
bent Rosemary Skrupa in
November's election, also said
he wanted to keep tuition low
and increase financial aid to
students.
Enhancing and focusing on
research that transcends differ
“We’re
talking
about
neurons,
not baby
bra\ns.M
Jay Matzke
regent
Please see REGENTS on 7
Involvement
leader ready
to leave UNL
BYJILLZEMAN
UNL's Student Involvement
office, which oversees more
than 350 student organizations,
will lose its director at the end
of the month.
Marilyn Bugenhagen, who
served as director for the past
10 years, will leave the
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
on Jan. 26 to become director of
the student union at Marquette
University in Milwaukee, Wise.
Bugenhagen will also step
down from her role as associate
director of Nebraska Unions,
she said.
The job at Marquette offers
more than career advance
ment, Bugenhagen said, - it
offers a chance to be near her
family, much of which is in
Wisconsin. /
“It’s kind of sad and happy
all at once,” she said. “I really
enjoyed working at Nebraska,
but this is a great opportunity
forme.”
At Marquette, Bugenhagen
will be in charge of a student
union slightly smaller than
UNL’s Nebraska Union.
She will also oversee a recre
ational building called the
Union Annex.
"It’s a lot more responsibili
ty,” she said.
James Griesen, vice chan
Pleasesee DIRECTOR on 7
Sharon Kolbet/DN
The facade of the former building at 901S. 13th still remains while the rest of the building has been razed to make way for the
new F Street Recreation Center.The construction of the community facility is expected to be completed by January 2002.
Recreating the recreation
■ The new F Street Recreation
Center, now under construction,
will provide activities for all.
BY SHARON KOLBET
Outside the F Street
Recreation Center, a touch-foot
ball game takes place on an
impromptu playground that
used to be a parking lot.
With only a chain link fence
separating the play area from
13th street, time-outs are often
called when a football sails into
the busy intersection.
The community center’s
smaU outdoor basketball court
is also crowded and the game
room inside the building is
much the same.
“We have 175 registered chil
dren, but the building starts to
become full with just 50 or 60
kids,” F Street Recreation Center
Facility Manager Karla Decker
said.
A lack of space is a problem
for the community center locat
ed at 930 S. 13th St., but with a
new recreation center now
under construction, a solution
to the overcrowding is near.
Inside the neighborhood
center Decker welcomes kids
who arrive tor the atter school
program. She points across the
street to the lot that will, in
about a year, be the site of the
new recreation center.
"Right now we have less than
5,000 square feet of space, but as
soon as the new center is com
pleted we will have eight times
as much room.”
Officials at the Parks and
Recreation Department, the city
agency that runs recreation cen
ters, know the expansion will
help all aspects of the center,
not just the after school pro
gram.
“The F Street facility serves
all ages,” said Holly Lewis, a
Parks and Recreation adminis
trator. “It opens at 8 a.m. for sen
iors and doesn't close it’s doors
until 9 (p.m.).”
“People may not be aware
that we offer programs for the
entire community,” Lewis said.
The F Street center has class
es available to the public in tai
chi, Spanish, conversational
English, computer skills and
creative writing.
“I am sure that as soon as we
open it, we will fill the building.”
Lewis said.
The new three-story struc
ture will include a gym, weight
room, walking track on the sec
7 am sure that as
soon as we open it, we
will fill the building.”
Holly Lewis
Parks and Rec administrator
ond floor, a computer room,
community meeting hall and
police sub-station.
The only downside to this
expansion, Decker said, is
because of the cost of the new
building, less money is available
to pay for full-time staff, so the
need for volunteers will
increase.
“The university has really
helped us out,” Decker said.
“The student involvement office
has sent us volunteers and a
number the fraternities^and
sororities have given generous
ly.”
Within the last year, Decker
said they have expanded their
popular after school program to
include an evening meal for
kids.
“With donations from busi
nesses and the local food bank
Please see RECREATION on 7
Super board
could replace
NU Regents
BY GEORGE GREEN
The governing bodies of the
state’s universities and colleges
could be fused into one if a bill
introduced by Speaker of the
Legislature Doug Kristensen of
Minden passes.
LB401 calls for the termina
tion of the Coordinating
Commission for Postsecondary
Education, the Board of Regents
of the University of Nebraska
and the Board of Trustees of the
Nebraska State Colleges.
To fill the void, the bill would
create the Nebraska Higher
Education Board of Regents, a
super-board vested with the
powers and responsibilities of
all of the institutions it usurped.
The board would be gov
erned by 15 regents. Eight
regents would be elected and
the remaining seven would be
appointed by the governor with
approval from the Legislature.
Kristensen said his bill
would bolster Nebraska’s com
mitment to secondary educa
tion by giving all of the institu
tions involved in secondary
education a “unified voice.”
By fusing the three organiza
tions, he said, one voice would
speak for higher education, as
opposed to three different voic
es with a myriad of legislative
requests.
It is especially vital for sec
Legislature
ondary education institutions
to join forces now because the
percentage of state spending
allocated for education is
shrinking.
If the groups had one voice,
Kristensen said, they could
more effectively maintain the
amount of state aid they receive.
Officials from the
Coordinating Commission for
Postsecondary Education, one
of the groups that would be
eliminated under the bill, don't
see many benefits to merging
the institutions.
Patsy Martin, a spokes
woman for the commission,
said proponents of the plan
believed it would increase effi
ciency on the administrative
side of education.
But Martin said the efficien
cy argument had never been
conclusively proven.
“One is not necessarily more
efficient than many,” she said.
Kristensen, though, said
efficiency would increase, but
efficiency wasn't the most valu
able benefit of the plan. A uni
fied voice in higher education is
the plan's main purpose.
Regardless of efficiency,
Please see BOARD on 3
Paper's stories
spark UNL talks
BY LINDSEY BAKER ■■■■■■■■
At Tuesday’s Academic
Senate meeting, Interim
Chancellor Harvey Perlman
made his first response to the
Omaha World-Herald’s four-day
series on the university, which
he said delayed an update on the
prioritization of university pro
grams.
"UNL: Confronting
Mediocrity’’, details problems
within the university The World
Herald said results in UNL’s low
academic ratings and funding
difficulties.
The series, concluding
today, centers on what The
World-Herald called five “key
shortcomings,” what the news
paper listed as: “lack of high
quality research, low tuition rev
enue, low classroom spending,
lack of standout programs and
historically open-ended admis
sions.”
Though Perlman said he dis- -
approved of the “negative tone”
of the series’ headlines, he said
Academic Senate
he agreed the content of the sto
ries was accurate.
“I’m embracing the articles,”
he said.
“We are not what we want to
be or what Nebraska needs us to
be. Our vision is to be a first-tier
research university. The series
increases the urgency of our
task.”
Senate President-Elect Miles
Bryant agreed that the headlines
“misrepresent what’s in the arti
cles themselves.”
“I think that the content of
the stories is useful and interest
ing,” he said.
Academic Senate Executive
Committee member and
Theater Arts Professor Tice
Miller said the series presented a
fair view of UNL.
“I don’t think they’re too far
Please see PERLMAN on 3
■ In both cases friends and family said
no warning signs were given before the
students took their lives.
BY LINDSEY BAKER
Two recent student deaths have left
university students mourning and cam
pus administrators calling for groups to
come together to provide support and
strength in numbers.
Junior Jason Ponec, 22, jumped from
the roof of Abel Hall on December 13.
“He was a good kid,” said Nancy
Ponec, Jason’s mother. “He loved politics.
He loved his church. He loved helping
people. The eagle and his flag were his
two favorite things,” she said.
Sixteen days after Ponec’s death, jun
ior Greg Renard, 22, committed suicide at
his home near Curtis.
Renard was well-known in Pound
Hall, where he lived, and worked part
time doing computer repair work for the
university.
The deaths came as a shock to many.
“Everyone was completely shocked,”
senior physics major Alex Kieckhafer
said. Kieckhafer lives on the sixth floor of
Pound, where Renard did.
“Greg was one of the louder guys. He
was a major factor in our social life. When
we did something, he was around,”
Kieckhafer said. “It’s been a lot quieter.”
In both deaths, fellow students didn’t
see the men publicly struggling with sui
cidal thoughts, though Ponec’s family had
suspicions because of Ponec’s long battle
with depression.
“Jason did have a real serious battle
with depression,” said Nancy Ponec. “He
hid it from a lot of people.”
In the wake of the suicides, students’
awareness should be heightened to signs
of depression, said Dr. Bob Portnoy,
director of counseling and psychological
services for the UNL Health Center.
“There’s a myth out that if people talk
about suicide they’re not going to do it,”
Portnoy said.
In actuality, he said, 75 percent of all
people who commit suicide give some
sort of warning. “It’s important to listen to
these cries for help."
Portnoy said suicidal feelings could
be triggered by recent losses, major dis
appointments, major life changes and
physical or mental illnesses.
Nancy Ponec said her son had made
some poor financial decisions, and his
doctor, in retrospect, believed Ponec may
have been bipolar.
Visual indicators of a suicidal person,
Portnoy said, include a withdrawn, low
spirited attitude; difficulties relating to
others; changes in behavior; crying; irri
tability; a decrease in physical care; tired
ness, sleeping problems or lack of con
centration; and a change in eating habits.
Portnoy said some verbal warnings
may include a person stating a loss of
hope or self-worth, as well as indicators
of suicidal methods, such as saving up
pills or driving without care.
“(Suicidal people) are generally pretty
Please see SUICIDE on 3
