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Return to board parallels dual citizenship effort
Bob Hall stars in a one-man show at TADA Theatre
thursday, november 21, 2013 volume 113, issue 062
Milliken suggests flat-rate tuition
ASUN senator may face impeachment
Fellow senator calls for removal of graduate student from office after racial remarks he made at last week’s meeting
story by Reece Ristau | photos by Amber Baesler
NU president’s proposed plan would have all students pay the same tuition, regardless of credits pAIGE Osborne dn University of Nebraska President James B. Milliken likes the idea of all students paying the same tuition, no matter how many credit hours they’re taking. Last week, he announced a tentative suggestion that University of Nebraska schools switch to a flat-rate, or block, tuition plan. He also suggested that NU increase its offering of massive open online courses, or MOOCs. He made both suggestions, neither of which has a time line, at Face the C h a m b e r, a meeting that occurs seven times Milliken a year with the Lincoln Chamber of Commerce. The flat-rate tuition plan, or block tuition, would allow students to pay a flat rate for any number of credits. Milliken gave the example that students who paid for 15 credits of classes would pay the same amount as students taking 18 credits. The plan pushes students toward graduation faster by increasing the number of credits they take. Milliken said the tuition plan isn’t official yet. “We are considering a number of strategies,” he wrote in an email. “Block tuition is one example of a strategy that we may consider, and we will continue to look at others in the future.” “It depends on the person. If you’re here to get an education you can push yourself to get an education without the university making you,” said Jordann Scow, a senior speech pathology major. But junior meteorology major Jesse Schulz said some students need that push to graduate. “(Students) could go out to the workforce and make their own living more quickly,” Schulz said. “If it pushes them through faster than they graduate faster.” But university officials are unsure of what the outcome of such a proposal would be. “Until there is a proposal, I can’t say what impact it would have,” Chancellor Harvey Perlman wrote in an email. The tuition plan could benefit international students, who have hit record numbers with 3,638 students enrolling this fall at the University of Nebraska campuses, which was a 4.7 percent increase. For the 2013-2014 school year, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln had 1,397 international undergraduate students. Xilin Long, a junior finance major said there was a huge advantage to the tuition plan. Most of the Chinese students will like it,” Long said. “International students’ tuition is very expensive and most of the international students would like to graduate earlier, so I think it’s a good plan.” Students also saw the advantages and disadvantages in Milliken’s MOOCs. Schulz said the MOOCs would only be beneficial for students’ Achievement-Centered Education general studies courses. “My major is a bunch of math and physics and science, and I don’t even understand it when I’m in the class and the professor is teaching it,” Schulz said. “So that would be even more challenging.” news@ dailynebraskan.com
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Members of Association of Students of the University of Nebraska meet Wednesday night in the Heritage Room of the Nebraska Union. Every seat was filled with students protesting recent racial remarks by ASUN Sen. Cameron Murphy.
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en. Cameron Murphy could be impeached from the Association of Students of the University of Nebraska as a result of racial comments he made at a senate meeting last week. Murphy, a graduate student in biochemistry and nutrition, will soon face a hearing with ASUN’s executive committee. He’ll have a chance to defend the comments he made at ASUN’s Nov. 13 meeting during debate about whether a proposed resolution was a restriction of free speech. After the hearing, a senate-wide secret vote will determine whether Murphy is removed from ASUN senate. The hearing was proposed at the weekly senate meeting Wednesday by Sen. Annie Himes, a junior global studies, history and Russian major. After Himes proposed the hearing, senators voted by hand, and it passed. Murphy too voted in favor of a hearing. “Sure, I’ll vote for myself,” Murphy said while laughing. Himes, whose proposal was seconded by several people, said she took action because she thinks marginalized groups need to be fought for. She said if no one else would act, she would. Himes attempted to stop Murphy from continuing his racial slur-laden speech, which included the
Thien Chau, a sophomore political science major, presents his idea for a bike sharing program on campus at the ASUN meeting on Wednesday night. N-word, but was told she could not interrupt because of senate debate rules. The proposal passed while more than 30 students and a few administra-
tors observed the proceedings. Many of the students belonged to the Mexican American Student Association and Afrikan People’s Union. Every avail-
able seat was filled. Dasia Horne, a sophomore child, youth and family studies major, said she is glad Murphy will face a hearing.
ASUN: see page 2
Statement from Chancellor Harvey Perlman Dear members of the UNL community,
It is with a deep sense of disappointment that I write to each of you as a member of the UNL community. We have experienced recent incidents of racial and ethnic intolerance and insensitivity – incidents that have brought pain to all of us who care about the university and the people who make it special, and particularly to those of us against whom they were addressed. The use of the N-word and insensitive racial impersonations are the recent incidents that demand our immediate attention. Racial epithets and racial impersonations are not acceptable anywhere, but especially in an institution devoted to education and progress. These acts are not funny. They are not symbolic. They are only cruel. They reflect either malevolence or ignorance. I am deeply hurt that this language has been used here, for purposes I can’t imagine and in venues where civil discourse and its values are honored. We don’t
need to debate any nuance of free speech to conclude such language is harmful, despicable and intolerable. To those few of us who seem indifferent to the boundaries of basic common decency, I refer you to the fate of those who march on the wrong side of history. To the rest of us, I urge us not to remain silent or indifferent, but to confront and speak out against such outrages and embrace those against whom Perlman they are directed. I know we are not the only place where these actions have occurred. But I ask all of you to rise up and say, “Not here, not now.”
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@dailyneb | facebook.com/dailynebraskan
-Harvey Perlman, Chancellor
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Unexpected encounters ‘Annie & Emmett’ explores aftermath of made-up meeting