Late-night booze Adults 21 and older may have a little longer to purchase alco holic beverages if one legislative bill passes. LB231, heard Monday in die General Affairs Committee, gives cities and counties the option to sell alcohol to 1:30 am instead of lam Hilgert, sponsor of the bill, said it gave local communities an option to compete with bordering states, such as Omaha being able to compete with Council Bluffs, Iowa. Iowa retailers can sell alco holic beverages until 2 am Hilgert said the time of 1:30 ajn. was a compromise between 1 a m and 9am “Every year something like this is introduced,” he said. “I think we need to give local com munities die ability to compete with bordering states.” Mike Kelley, representing the United Retailers Liquor Association, said the bill would OPEN 24 HOURS Midterm First Aid Not valid with any other offer YOUR24 HOUR SOURCE FOR: COPIES COLOR COPIES BINDING & FINISHING FAXING LAMINATION OVERHEADS PRESENTATION Student u MATERIALS Discount AST COPIES RESUMEPAPER F L / Y E R S LASER PRINTS / 1 1 1 affect entertainment venues such as the new arena in Omaha. Kelley said the bill wouldn’t increase drunken driving citations and would increase safety by keeping alcoholic beverages in the state instead of having drunks drive across the rivet “People are more responsible (with alcoholic beverages) than they were before," Kelley said. "It’s a pro-safety issue.” American Sign Language American Sign Language would be recognized as a separate language under LB669, heard Monday in the Education Committee. The bill would recognize sign language as a language in the fall linguistic sense of the word, said Sen. Dennis Byars of Beatrice, sponsor of the bill Under the bill, the State Department of Education would allow accredited schools to teach American Sign Language, the most-used language by the North American deaf community All students would be eligible tn tala* sign language Hasses, and schools would not be required to teach sign language under the Hill. Byars said similar bills had been passed by 35 other states. “It's very important to the deaf community to have the language that they use every day recognized as a distinct language,” Byars said. The bill would allow college students to use sign language for post-secondary craiit toward for eign language requirements. "It's a matter of credibility and respect to the Nebraska deaf com munity, “he said. Nosmoking? A bin that would ban smoking in restaurants was debated for the second time on the floor of the legislature on Monday. The bin, LB227, was debated Wednesday, but the morning floor debate ended before the Rill was voted on. The scene was the same on Monday _l #_ _l _ The bill, introduced fay Sen. Nancy Thompson of Papillion, would ban smoking in restaurants unless they have a liquor license or a separately attached room used for private social functions. The bill was passed out of the Health and Human Services Committee on Feb. 2. Since then, lobbyists against the bill have been busy talking to senators, and telemarketers have been busy phoning Nebraskans encouraging them to talk to their state senators. Thompson said she didn’t know which telemarketing firm was placing the calls. The chances of the bill being passed this year comes down to four or five undecided senators, Thompson said. "It's an issue that everyone has astrong opinion about one way or die other,’’ she said. If the bill isn’t passed this year, Thompson said, she might bring the bill to the Legislature next yean “Its time is going to come, maybe not this year, but some time,” she said. Supervised fiquor sales For the fourth year in a row, Sen. Dwite Pederson of Elkhom has introduced a bill that would require 19- and 20-year-olds to be supervised when selling alcoholic beverages. On Monday, the bin, LB11, was heard in the General Affairs Committee . Currently, 19- and-20-year olds don't have to be supervised when selling alcohol Pederson said the bill proba bly wouldn't get out of committee because it was heard this late in the legislative session. “Most restaurants won’t hire individuals to sell alcohol until they are 21 anyway,” Pederson said. Pederson said 19- and 20 year-olds need to be supervised because they could give in to peer pressure. Compiled by Gwen Hetgen Comments stun many HUH from page 1 lor for student afFairs, who also attended the Regents meeting, said he was shocked when Miller spoke on minority recruitment “I think we’re all stunned by the comment,* Griesen said. *It surprised almost everyone in the room." In his feet, Miller said many of NU’s campus recruitment pro grams are geared toward recruit ing more minority students. Therefore, Miller said, "a big minority recruiting campaign if it lowered test scores could lower NU’s rankings." He said he pointed this out at Saturday's meeting as a potential problem and emphasized the importance of recruiting students with high standardized test scores. Miller wrote: "I never said, and never would say, we should not recruit minori ty students because of this poten tial school disadvantage "Any suggestion that I am against minority recruiting or biased is wrong." Miller also emphasized that he voted in favor of the resolution that included increased minority recruitment Schafer said he thought Miller should have clarified his com ments during the public meeting. Schafer, who attended Saturday's meeting, emphasized that Miller didn’t speak on behalf of the university or the Board of Regents. “The fact that test scores and national rankings are more important (to Miller) than diver sity is something I abhor;” Schafer said. Schafer said he wanted Miller to visit the UNL campus and speak with students and student government representatives about his views on minority recruitment. Griesen said Millerfe quotes may have been taken out of con text Miller's comments in the Daily Nebraskan didn't include what he said about the cultural biases in standardized tests. Griesen said he didn't think Miller meant his comments to be taken negatively. Nonetheless, Griesen said he didn't share Miller's view on minority recruitment "Our campus is still not as diverse as it should be," Griesen said. Regardless of Miller's state ments, Griesen said as of now, minority recruitment wasn't going to decrease at UNL. “We will still be as aggressive as possible in recruiting minori ties,” he said. Even though Griesen said Miller didn't say that minority stu dents were intklectually inferior to whites, it was still disturbing that national rankings would take precedence over drawing more minorities to UNL "For a minority student to hear someone say it’s more important to rank high than to have us in that institution - thatfe negative." Earl Key, a UNL graduate law student, said he was in disbelief when he read Miller's comments in Monday's Daily Nebraskan. “I couldn’t believe it," Key said. “I had to drde the paragraph (with MiUert comments) and re read it" Key, who is president of the Black Law Students Association, said he had talked to several peo ple - both minorities and white students - who were offended after reading Miller's comments in the newspaper Key said he hoped to bring Miller to campus to discuss his stance on minority recruitment with student organizations. Key said he was shocked by what he read and he hoped the other members of the Board of Regents didn’t feel the same about recruiting minorities. 'Diversity has to start at the top,” he said. Do Something About it •H 13rd Annual Housing Fair Wednesday March 21, 2001 10 am to 2 pm Grand Ballroom Nebraska Union L i L \ L l L Biwgfct to yw by time partkipatiag mrdiuits ASUN's files erased after break-in MmAKY from page 1 Schafer their card usually isn’t swiped when they check out the key, which is how the key could have landed in anyone’s hands. Daryl Swanson, director of Nebraska Unions, said he only considered the theft offilesasecu rity violation, not a burglary. Swanson said he considered it a security violation caused by his staff because it was reported to him that sometimes the ID card was not swiped or looked at when students asked for the key About 50 names are on the checkout list inducting senators, executives and committee chair men and chairwomen,he said. ”1 think the conclusion I would leap to is that this was very possibly an authorized person on that list," he said, Despite this, Swanson said he was surprised someone would delete important files. ‘Thatseemsunlikelytoixie.lt seems like a person who knows the system wouldn't take that chance,” Swanson sakL Schafer said he was also unsure why someone would even want to vandalize the office. Ttfe sort of one of those sense less acts of vandalism,” he sakL SPARE TIME? ■ men and women ■ 19 to 65 years old ■ .smokers and nonsmokers ■ availability: variety of schedules MDS Pharma Services MARCH 2-9 2001 WOMEN’S WEEK + ‘LOCAL TREASURES’ Tuesday, March 6th Chancellor's Commission on the Status of Women Chilly Climate Forum, 11:30-1:30 p.m. Nebraska Union.* * GLBT Speakers Bureau: "Everything you wanted to know about being GLBT that you were v afraid to ask" 2:00 p.m. Nebraska Union.* PREVENT Roundtable Discussion, 7:30 p.m. Nebraska Union.* Wednesday, March 7th Chancellor's Commission on the Status of Women Award Presentation and reception, 3:00 p.m. Nebraska Union.* Career Services Presentation, "The Internet: An important tool for Women's Career Development" 7:00 p.m. Nebraska Union.* ,eventJ wj„ be posted _A in the Nebraska Union a STUDENT ^AvTOCiicnsri call 472-2597 for more W centeiv. information.