A solitary bicyclist cranks past the new north façade of the Nebraska Union on Tuesday. The water feature north of the Union is equipped with water misters to create a fog effect in the colder months.

Photo by Richard Wright

NU, Office of Civil Rights Sign Partnership Agreement

The university and the Office of Civil Rights have signed a partnership agreement resulting from a partnership audit of the university's sexual harassment policies and procedures.

The university has created a campuswide committee to work on the policy/procedure changes suggested by the federal Office of Civil Rights after a site visit earlier this year.

Linda Crump, director of Affirmative Action and Diversity Programs, said she, along with Sally Wise, professor of law and representative from the Academic Rights and Responsibilities Committee; Charlie Greene, representing Student Judical Affairs Committee; and Faye Moulton, representing the Human Resources Grievance Committee, are working on the language changes needed to meet the guidelines set by the OCR.

The changes include specific language regarding responsibility of university officials to investigate and take action on all reported or known violations of the policy, language regarding the range of sanctions for violations of the policy, and timeframes for the major stages of each resolution procedure.

Many of the changes will need approval of campus governing bodies and in some cases approval of the Board of Regents, Crump said.

The changes do not involve substantive changes to the policies, she said, rather they are technical changes and/or clarifications of the procedures.

Crump said the OCR required a campuswide committee to be involved in reviewing the changes to the policy/procedures. This committee is charged with reviewing proposed changes and advising the aforementioned representatives. The campuswide committee members (and the groups they represent) are: Teresita Aguilar (faculty), Cindy Cammack (staff), Eric Lee (staff), Helen Long Soldier (staff), William Olubodun (student), Roshan Pajnigar (staff), Venetria Patton (faculty), Lance Perez (faculty), Andy Schuerman (student), Pat Tetreault (staff), Misty Thomas (student), Brandy Tullos (student), and Sally Wise (faculty).

These individuals were nominated by campus organizations to serve on the committee and the chancellor selected this diverse group to represent faculty, staff, and students. The committee had its first meeting in mid-November and they expect to complete the majority of the work early next semester, Crump said.

She is working on the other aspects of the OCR Agreement.

The agreement calls for an educational plan to be completed by the end of this academic year. In the next academic year the educational plan will be implemented.

The agreement also calls for an increase in efforts to disseminate information related to policies and procedures, Crump said. This will be an ongoing process beginning with this information regarding the agreement, she said.

The text of the partnership agreement is available on the web. Its direct URL is http://www.unl.edu/sv caa/Activities/OCR.html. It can also be accessed from the Diversity Plan at http://www. unl.edu/svcaa/Activities/DiversityPlan.html; or the Academic Affairs Activities page.

Michalecki Part of Effort to Ensure Phones Ring on 1/1/00

By Tom Simons, Public Relations

Will the nation's telephone system shut down on Jan. 1, 2000, because telephone companies' computers can't handle the change from 1999 to 2000?

We'll find out in 392 days, but in the meantime, one of the people who is working hardest to make sure that won't happen is Ruth Michalecki, (shown at right), director of NU's Telecommunications Center.

Michalecki was one of 40 or so people recently appointed to the Federal Communications Commission's new Network Reliability and Interoperability Council at the invitation of AT&T CEO and President Michael Armstrong, who heads the council. The council, she said, is charged with making sure the telephone system clicks over at midnight Dec. 31, 1999, with as few problems as possible.

"One of the first things we have to do is open lines of communication between all these competing telephone companies and (long-distance) carriers so they can share with one another what works and what doesn't," Michalecki said. "If somebody did something that worked (in avoiding the Y2K problem), they need to let the rest of them know so we don't reinvent the wheel. We don't have that much time."

Michalecki said the council is also testing interoperability in customer equipment, such as fax machines, to make sure they'll work on Jan. 1, 2000, and interoperability not only between the hundreds of telephone companies that make up the domestic public-switch telephone network, but also with the international network.

"As far as the domestic public-switch telephone network is concerned, we're in pretty good shape," Michalecki said. "One of the things Michael Armstrong said that impressed me is that a worse thing than to have a complete failure in 2000 would be to create a panic before the year 2000. He said there are going to be a few glitches but we have time to correct them. It's not going to be the end of the world."

International networks, however, are a different story. Michalecki said many haven't even discussed the Y2K problem, often under the mistaken belief that it won't affect them. She used the example of China, where banking executives told their American counterparts that they weren't worried about Y2K because China uses a different calendar than the West. Unfortunately, she said, all of China's data processing equipment works on the Gregorian calendar that we use.

"One of my biggest concerns is the international situation," said Michalecki, who serves as chair of the International Communications Association. "The ICA has many members who have huge international presences - Ford Motor Co., General Motors, General Electric, ConAgra, Cargill. If our public-switch telephone network works OK within the domestic United States, it certainly doesn't help these big firms where a lot of their business is global."

However, she said her role on the Network Reliability and Interoperability Council isn't to represent big international companies.

"Of the 35 to 40 members of the council, I'm the only person in the room who represents the end user. I'm the only person who doesn't represent a carrier, a manufacturer or a cellular, radio or cable provider," she said. "I think that's a real compliment. Something I think I bring to the council that other members don't is the customer's point of view."

Young People Benefit From NU Kindnesses

Only two university departments responded to requests in the Scarlet for information on charitable activities during the holiday season. While small in number, both activities are large in spirit.

Tawny Dowding, a secretary with the Nebraska Forest Service, reported that on Nov. 19, a group of office/service staff from the School of Natural Resource Sciences volunteered at the Lighthouse, 2530 N St. The Lighthouse is a place where teen-agers can go for companionship, games, and to get a good meal. The group made a spaghetti-garlic bread-vegetable dinner for 15 to 20 youths.

Those who participated were Dowding, Nebraska Forest Service; Susan Vosler, School of Natural Resource Sciences; Laurie Stepanek, Nebraska Forest Service; Lenora Hanna, Nebraska Forest Service; Sandy Lineberry, Nebraska Forest Service; Lois Erickson, School of Natural Resource Sciences; Michelle Sieber, School of Natural Resource Sciences; and Jeanne Andelt, Nebraska Forest Service.

Dowding says the Lighthouse gets the food it serves from the Food Bank or a local grocery store. One sixth of Lighthouse's funding comes from United Way, the rest from individual and corporate donations. They need volunteers to cook, serve, and clean up meals and to coordinate activities for youths. She said their kitchen needs a number of items. The contacts at the Lighthouse are: Bill or Trixie, phone number is 475-3220.

The Student Bar Association at the College of Law secured donations to take a group of about 30 local children shopping for warm winter clothing.

"It's a way the university can give back to the community and enable the children to get clothing they might not otherwise be able to afford," said Marc A. Soto, a second-year law student from Brooklyn, N.Y., and Project Wishlist coordinator.

Law students, faculty, staff and area law firms have donated about $3,100 to date; donations continue to come in. That translated into badly needed coats, sweaters and boots for a group of young people selected by the Malone Community Center. Each child received a $100 budget.

"The entire school population as well as law firms have been very giving. They've given of their time as well as money and everyone has rallied to make a positive difference," Soto said.

Volunteers treated the children and their parents or guardians to breakfast at the law school on Nov. 21 and then accompanied the kids on a shopping spree at the 1/2 Price Store, which discounted its merchandise an additional 15 percent for the project.

In addition to these projects, several members of the Office of Public Relations donated money toward the purchase of books in the recent Harvest of Books campaign. In this project, books are purchased at local bookstores and donated to Lincoln first-graders as an incentive to develop a love of reading.

If your office has scheduled a charitable activity as part of its holiday celebration, send an email to khachiya@unlinfo.unl.edu for consideration in The Scarlet.

University Says DN Report on Minority Enrollment Faulty

University of Nebraska-Lincoln officials said Nov. 18 that the drop in enrollment figures for African American students from 1996-98 was less than 1 percent, and not 10 percent as was reported in the Nov. 16 edition of the Daily Nebraskan.

Lauren Drees, assistant director of the Office of Institutional Research and Planning, said a consistent data comparison of black enrollment from 1996 to 1998 shows a decrease from 430 students to 427, a drop of less than 1 percent. Meanwhile, the university's total enrollment fell by more than 6 percent from 23,887 to 22,408.

The Daily Nebraskan report, which was distributed to other news outlets by The Associated Press, inaccurately showed a drop of 10 percent in black student enrollment.

"This was an unfortunate and, I'm sure, inadvertent error," said Larry Routh, interim director of admissions. "It has caused some confusion about the effectiveness of our efforts to attract and retain minority students.

"But the decrease we've had the last two years in enrollment of African American students is considerably smaller than that for total enrollment during a time when the university raised its entrance requirements," he said. "That indicates that we have had some success in those efforts. But we're still very concerned that African American students account for only 2 percent of our total enrollment. One of our highest priorities is to increase the level of diversity on campus."

Routh said some of the efforts Nebraska has made to recruit and retain minority students include hiring an assistant admissions director for minority recruitment, Cynthia Gooch; implementing a series of multicultural senior days to bring high school students to campus; and developing a recruitment brochure and video targeted at minority students. He said Gooch also has scheduled multicultural senior days in the fall this year, whereas they had been held during the spring semester in the past.

Lt. Gov. Robak to Deliver Commencement Address Dec. 19

Lt. Gov. Kim Robak will give the address at commencement exercises which begin at 9:30 a.m. Dec. 19 in the Bob Devaney Sports Center. Chancellor James Moeser will preside over the ceremony. Approximately 1,350 students will receive degrees.

Robak was elected lieutenant governor on Nov. 8, 1994. She was first appointed to this position by Gov. Ben Nelson in October 1993. Previously, she was Nelson's chief of staff from July 1992 to October 1993, and his legal counsel from June 1991 to July 1992.

During her tenure in government, she has provided leadership for state health care reform, budget savings, tax relief and advances in technology. She was instrumental in passing a 10-point legislative package on health care reform that included small group insurance reform, repeal of Nebraska's anti-group statutes and immunizations for children. She played a key role in the Nebraska Partnership for Health and Human Service Project, a governmental reorganization that merged five government agencies into three. She worked with the governor on a tax comprehensive reform package and was appointed to chair of the Nebraska Information Technology Commission, which was established in November of 1997. Just five months later, she persuaded the Nebraska Legislature to place the Commission into state law.

Robak is a native Nebraskan. She earned a bachelor of arts degree with high distinction in speech and theater arts from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Teachers College, and a juris doctor with highest honors from the University of Nebraska College of Law. She will become the university's vice president for external affairs and corporation secretary in January.

A drop-off area for graduates and mobility restricted guests will be available on the south side of the Devaney Center. Special seating will be reserved for disabled guests attending commencement. Sign language interpreters for hearing impaired individuals will be in section B-12 on the west side of the concourse level of the sports center. A limited number of seats will be reserved for hearing impaired guests. Reserved seats for guests who are ambulatory restricted will be available in the north and south sides of the arena. Guests in wheelchairs will be seated on the northeast corner of the arena floor. Golf carts will be located at the ramps on the exterior north and south sides of the Devaney Center to assist disabled guests entering and leaving the sports center.