January 24

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dn the

dailynebraskan.com

friday, january 24, 2014 volume 114, issue 081

Inside Coverage

Time for change?

Finding your fit

UNL considers Blackboard alternatives

Personal trainer helps students improve health

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5

Nebraska falls to Penn State on road

NU sophomore forward Walter Pitchford had 8 points, including two 3-pointers, and 7 rebounds, but it wasn’t enough as the Huskers lost 58-54 to the Nittany Lions. jake crandall | dn

the

art of dancing

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Sheldon performance celebrates MLK week | photos by Shelby Wolfe

file photo by spencer mrylie | dn

UNL administration suspended Sigma Nu Thursday after an investigation found the house violated fire and other codes.

Sigma Nu suspended for spring semester, house remains closed Colleen Fell DN Members of the African Culture Connection perform during An Evening at the Sheldon event Thursday night.

Charles Ahovissi, artistic and executive director of the African Culture Connection, performs as part of a song and dance routine.

The University of Nebraska-Lincoln Sigma Nu chapter has been suspended at least through the end of the spring 2014 semester, university officials announced Thursday. The suspension and other university-imposed sanctions are the result of an investigation that found fire code and alcohol violations at the chapter’s house, 625 N. 16th St. Juan Franco, vice chancellor for Student Affairs, said the fraternity no longer has any formal affiliation with the university and is no longer recognized as a UNL-approved housing unit. All chapter activities for the fraternity have been suspended, and while upperclassmen will be able to live in the house without fraternity status, freshman members won’tt be able to move back in after it is reopened. He said some of the freshmen will live with their families in

Lincoln. Otherwise, they’re expected to pay for other UNL housing options. Franco said the university is waiting to take more disciplinary action until UNLPD has finished going through a list of fire code and other violations. The inspection took place Wednesday. Police said they expect a list of the violations to be released Friday morning. Lincoln Fire Investigator Rick Campos said Wednesday that it will be at least a week before Sigma Nu members will be let back into the house. Beyond that, he said he’s not sure how long it will take to bring the house up to code. Franco said the university’s main concern is student safety. “We’re working with the chapter and chapter leadership, UNLPD and Greek Affairs to put in safeguards to ensure our students’ safety,” Franco said. news@ dailynebraskan.com

Fees committee OKs Campus Rec budget increase Colleen Fell DN

Members of the African Culture Connection perform during An Evening at the Sheldon event to celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. week at the Sheldon Museum of Art Thursday night. The evening featured a reception and dedication of artist Helen Ramsaran’s work “Sanctuary,” which was recently installed between the Sheldon and the College of Business Administration.

Members of the Committee for Allocation of Fees at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln approved an 8.7 percent budget increase for the Campus Recreation Center at its Thursday night meeting. The committee also approved a less than 1 percent increase for the Nebraska Unions

and stable funding for the Collegiate Readership Program. Union staff members originally came up with a budget for the 2014-2015 school year with a zero percent increase. CFA member Travis Anderson, a senior construction management major at UNL, said he was impressed with and appreciated that the Union staff was able to

cfa: see page 3

Minimum-wage jobs teach marketable skills, money management Students with low-paying jobs say hard work pays off in other ways, despite smaller paychecks Mara Klecker DN At age 19, Molly Chapple was handling thousands of dollars a day. The sophomore journalism major was working at the customer service

booth at Sun Mart, a grocery store in Falls City. It was a minimum-wage job, but it was a job, and her responsibilities showed the trust her employer put in her. The $7.25 an hour grew to $7.85 an hour by her fourth year, but she said she gained more than just the paycheck. She learned how to schedule and manage her time. She figured out her taxes and began saving her money. “I don’t think I could have gotten all of those skills without my job,” Chapple said. “There’s something to be said about actually getting up and going to work 7 to 4, doing work and making money.” Even if LB 943 passes in the Ne-

braska Legislature and raises the state’s minimum wage up to $9 an hour during the next three years, a student working part-time isn’t coming home with a large paycheck. But the experience alone might pay off. L’Ecole de Gouvernance et d’Economie, a private school in Rabat, Morocco, wants its wealthy students to have that experience. The school, which costs $8,400 a year to attend, requires each student to take a month-long internship at a lowpaying job, according to The Atlantic magazine. The goal is to show the students the realities of the other side of the socioeconomic scale, a side they aren’t on. The school reports students com-

ing back from the internships with interpersonal skills and cultural understanding they couldn’t get from their courses or their travel-abroad experiences, which is also a requirement for the students. Emily Wilber, an assistant director at Career Services, agrees that marketable skills and experience do come from minimum-wage jobs, but believes there are other sources of such skills. Wilber said she also sees volunteering and organization involvement as ways to gain the communication, problem-solving, time-management and interpersonal skills that one would get at a minimum-wage job. “At some point, though, students

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need to consider upping the stakes and getting an internship,” Wilber said. “Because that’s where real career opportunities can lie.” Gerardo Soto, a freshman biological sciences major and aspiring pathologist, hopes to find an internship in a research lab within the next few years. Though he was an involved and successful high school student, he doesn’t have any job experience to put on a resume or pitch to internship employers. “I’ve never had to work,” Soto said. “My parents preferred that I spend my time on other things, mainly just focusing on college.” Soto said there’s been times he’s thought about getting a job. He’d like

the extra spending money and he knows he’ll eventually have to enter the workforce. “I don’t think I’d mind flipping burgers for minimum wage,” Soto said. “I do see it as a good experience and there are some skills that I’m probably missing out on – paying taxes, money management, just the responsibility.” For now, though, Soto said he just wants to focus on schoolwork. Balancing extracurricular activities and maintaining grades is harder in college, he said, and he wants the grades necessary to get into medical school. “I’m not worried about it yet,”

wages: see page 3


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