MAR8

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make it green UNL students work to make Pinnacle Bank Arena environmentally friendly PAGE 2

Bassists bring pluck to UNL Orchestra members mesh quirky personalities, musical talent PAGE 5

thursday, march 8, 2012

volume 111, issue 118

DAILY NEBRASKAN dailynebraskan.com

Morgan spiehs | daily nebraskan

Party Party candidates, Blake Rostine and Kate Miller, nervously await the election results outside of the ASUN office in the Nebraska Union on Wednesday.

For Party Party, loss delivers sense of relief jacy marmaduke daily nebraskan

The Party Party executives ended their fourmonth Association of Students of the University of Nebraska campaign with an election loss and — what else? — one last party. Seventeen percent, or about 4,200, of the University of NebraskaLincoln student population voted in ASUN elections online Wednesday, and the Impact Party emerged victorious with 59 percent of the vote. Of 23 Party Party candidates on the ASUN ballot, including executive candidates, two won seats in the association. Party Party external vice presidential candidate and sophomore English major Dillon Jones sat in the ASUN office at about 8:30 p.m. Wednesday to hear the news. Kate Miller, presidential candidate and sophomore philosophy major, and Blake Rostine, internal vice presidential candidate and sophomore political science and German major, stood outside the ASUN office and received the results via phone call. Only one party member was allowed in the office during tabulation.

kaylee everly | Daily nebraskan

President Eric Kamler, Senator for College Education and Human Sciences Natalia Santos, Internal Vice President Kaitlin Mazour and other Impact Party supporters celebrate Kamler’s win after receiving the ASUN election results at Buffalo Wild Wings on Wednesday. “I’m just thrilled right now that we basically swept every seat,” Kamler said.

winner’s circle Impact Party clinches ASUN victory against Party Party candidates elias youngquist

Wroblewski, ASUN’s external vice president-elect and a junior civil engineering major, had spent the nervedaily nebraskan wracking day campaigning around campus. His phone rings and the room falls silent, each bright or“I feel like a little kid waiting for Christmas, you know ange and blue shirt-toting person focuses intently on Eric what I mean,” said Wroblewski before the announcement. Kamler, a junior agricultural business major and Impact’s After the announcement, the entire executive board, presidential candidate, as he listens to the voice on the especially Kamler, was mobbed by friends and family. Kaother end of the phone. mler in particular was supported by a table of family, his “You guys, we got it,” Kamler exclaimed. fraternity house mom and family friends. Immediately the room of Buffalo Wild Wings erupted “It’s a real ‘wow’ feeling,” Kamler said. “It’s a feeling of into hugging, hooping and hollering at the news that the true elation, and it’s good to have an end.” Impact Party had won the 2012 Association of Students Current and past ASUN members stopped by to conof the University of Nebraska elections.The Impact Party gratulate the winners of the elections, including past filled every senate position but two, the Hixson-Lied Col- ASUN President Justin Solomon. lege of Fine and Performing Arts seat and a College of Arts Kamler explained that as soon as tomorrow he would and Sciences seat, which went to the Party Party. be meeting with current ASUN President Lane Carr to be“To Mr. President, Eric Kamler,” shouted Justin Spooner, gin the transition of administrations. a junior history and political science major, as he hoisted “We’re just going to take it easy, catch up on some sleep,” his beer into the air. Kamler said.“It’s beginning a new chapter.” The flurry of cheers and hugging went on for the next The election saw some controversy in the election of 15 minutes as the party breathed a collective sigh of re- Wade Walters — who had been dropped by the Impact lief. Party because of homophobic comments made on Face“I feel like I can finally breathe for the first time here,” book — to the College of Agricultural Sciences and Natusaid Kaitlin Mazour, ASUN’s internal vice president-elect ral Resources advisory board.According to the ballot and and a junior history and English major. the Impact Party’s website and Facebook page, he was Impact’s executive team of Kamler, Mazour and Kyle

impact wins: see page 2

“I’m kind of happy,” Miller said. “I know I shouldn’t be, but I am. I’m not coming within 500 feet of this office for the rest of my life.” Miller said she felt “an overwhelming sense of relief” because she didn’t feel ready for the responsibility of the win. Jones agreed, citing numerous Impact Party-filed complaints and fines, the last of which was resolved just minutes before the election results. “I’ve really become disillusioned with ASUN in general,” said Jones, who joined ASUN his freshman year. “I’m actually really relieved to not have to deal with it ever again.” Both Jones and Miller said they don’t plan to return to ASUN, but Rostine said he will stay involved. Party executives said they saw a strong response to the party’s humorous social-mediacentered campaign. “They respond to this because it’s something similar to them,” Rostine said. Jones said the Party Party could have won, had the voter turnout been higher, but he said

party party: see page 3

for Full voting results: see page 2

Engineering student dies after stabbing in Omaha dan holtmeyer daily nebraskan

Vedant Patel, a senior studying electronics engineering at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, was stabbed and killed in northwest Omaha early this week. Police arrived at 10435 Sahler Plaza, off of Interstate 680, just before 10 p.m. Monday and pronounced Patel dead at the scene. Patel lived at the address with a roommate, according to information provided by the Omaha Police Department. The next morning, police arrested Gregory Dodds, 23, on charges of criminal homicide and use of a weapon to commit a felony. His first court appearance was Wednesday. News reports indicated that Dodds was the brother of

Koenig page 4

Patel’s roommate, and police reports show Dodds was arrested at the same address. There was no information available on a possible motive, OPD Officer Jacob Bettin said. Patel had been studying at the University of Nebraska at Omaha through the Peter Kiewit Institute, a collaboration between the Lincoln and Omaha campuses that linked UNL’s College of Engineering with UNO’s College of Information Science and Technology. Patel would have celebrated his 23rd birthday a week from Wednesday. One of his professors said in a phone interview that the loss was keenly felt in the program. “Our department, CEEN, is really a small and very tightly wound learning community,”

said Bing Chen, a UNL engineering professor, referring to the computer and electronics engineering department. “The faculty and the students really are very intermingled,” Chen said. “Vedant especially, I think, had a very warm place in the hearts of the staff, the faculty and his classmates.” Chen described Patel as a “bright star” of the department, a student who’d transformed from an unsure freshman from India into a confident and capable senior and mentor for new freshmen students. “His team is now missing a key member,” Chen said. “He was a person that always had a ready smile, a little quip to share with us.” Patel was one of the College of Engineering’s Diplomats,

performing arts page 5

who work in the recruitment and mentoring of incoming students. He was on the Honor Roll and Dean’s List. On the college’s website, Patel said he worked on a research project on wireless communications and robotics with Yong Cho, an associate construction professor. “I just feel very sorry,” Cho said by phone Wednesday after a moment of speechlessness at the news. “I cannot believe this would happen.” Cho added that Patel wasn’t the perfect student — he didn’t make it to every class, Cho said with a slight chuckle. But he said Patel was a hard worker who enjoyed the subject and was steadily building his research skills. Patel also mentioned on

UNL’s engineering website that he was interested in renewable energy, a field he considered pursuing in graduate school. The greatest tragedy of Patel’s death was the loss of his personal and technical potential, Chen said. “He was on the cusp of achieving his dream of becoming a practicing engineer,” Chen said, adding Patel had been offered a job with John Deere in North Carolina. “I feel badly for humanity at the loss of this kind of person.” Patel’s team members and the students he mentored were unavailable to comment Wednesday. Chen pointed to the department’s unusual system of friendship, where seniors and freshmen knew

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@dailyneb | facebook.com/dailynebraskan

vedant patel each other well. “There’s just so much grieving going on,” he said. “If we could have a department flag, it would definitely be at halfmast.” danholtmeyer@ dailynebraskan.com

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