DOWN AND OUT
OVERHEARD AT UNL
Pectoral injury ends season early for Husker Jared Crick PAGE 10
Students share feelings about Occupy Wall Street VIDEO ONLINE
thursday, october 13, 2011
volume 111, issue 039
DAILY NEBRASKAN dailynebraskan.com
courtesy photo
Speech team takes Big Ten challenge title tammy bain
Blas Villarreal, an international business major, will remain at UNL until January when he will return to Mexico. But, Villarreal hopes to return to the United States for graduate school in the future.
SKY’S
L
daily nebraskan
STORY BY EMILY NITCHER PHOTO BY NICKOLAI HAMMER
THE LIMIT
ooking up at the big, blue sky is a constant reminder for Blas Villarreal that he’s far from
home. Coming from Monterrey, Mexico, a city with a population of more than 1 million, pollution keeps the sky from getting quite as blue. The sky is just one of the things the junior international business major has grown to love about Lincoln. Villarreal came to the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in January to study abroad. His college, Tecnológico de Monterrey, regularly does student exchanges with UNL. When Villarreal came to Lincoln, UNL students went to his university as part of the student exchange agreement the two
schools share. Mexico isn’t far from the United States, but Villarreal has encountered a few cultural differences. He often does a hand gesture when speaking that involves scrunching his index finger. “It means ‘yes,’” Villarreal said. “Like if someone asks ‘Are you hungry?’ I could use that sign instead of talking.” The sign, however, is proving to be far from universal. People are often confused when he wiggles his finger at them. Villarreal dislikes the Americanized Mexican food chains. He said it’s nothing like the real thing. He remembers Taco Bell’s brief stint in his hometown with amusement. “Two years ago they opened a Taco Bell
BLAS VILLARREAL Milan Monterrey
From Monterrey, Mexico Returning home in January Dislikes Taco Bell
Stephanie goodman | daily nebraskan
and it went bankrupt,” Villarreal said. “No one ever went. They had to close the place.” But even if his friends like the unauthentic Mexican food, the bonds of friendship Villarreal has formed have proven to be more
important than any cultural differences. “People are really, really nice and gentle,” Villarreal said. “People are more
Student: see page 2
As Reece Ristau took the stage at the Conference Challenge speech tournament, he was one of six finalists in the afterdinner speech event. Ristau would soon become a part of the University of NebraskaLincoln’s first Big Ten victory. The UNL speech team’s tournament win Oct. 8 and 9 at Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill., was the first Big Ten title for the university, Aaron Duncan, director of speech and debate for UNL, wrote in an email. UNL came in first, with a total of 261 points in the two days. This was ahead of the tournament host and secondplace finisher Northwestern University, who totaled 138 points, Duncan said. Ristau was one of 14 UNL students who competed at the meet just outside of Chicago. Twelve schools total participated. “Getting first was a really awesome feeling,” he said. But being on stage and being recognized for his speech was just as awesome, he said. Ristau titled his speech “Men Don’t Read,” which presented humorous solutions to get men to read more. Nick Herink, the team president and a senior secondary speech and English education major, was also a conference champion in prose and dramatic interpretation. He and Grace Kluck, a sophomore broadcasting major, were also champions in duo
interpretation. “It was a really cool experience to get to compete in the Big Ten for the first time,” Herink said. “I was excited to be a part of it, and I was excited to see how our team performed in this particular tournament.” Herink said he was proud of the team, which got its invite to the Conference Challenge last summer. The competitors immediately had big goals, he said. “As a team we decided we were going to try really hard to be the Big Ten champions,” he said. “It was really rewarding to see all of that hard work pay off.” While the tournament was the Big Ten championship, not all schools in attendance were Big Ten schools, and some Big Ten Schools did not compete. The tournament didn’t include debate, though Duncan said there are plans to include debate in next year’s Conference Challenge. Because of national guidelines, Duncan said, “You can’t have a tournament that’s not open to everybody (in the country).” So while Big Ten schools competed with one another, he said, “Other schools were allowed to participate.” Duncan said he was excited about how the team competed in the Big Ten. “The Big Ten has a long tradition of excellent Big Ten teams,” he said. “We were
speech: see page 2
UNL professors project growth in ag sales maren westra daily nebraskan
There is good news for University of Nebraska-Lincoln students studying agriculture. Record farm income and job growth is expected to occur in Nebraska during the next two years, according to a state economic forecast published by UNL’s Bureau of Business Research. The data is based on the relationship between commodity prices and input costs during the last 10 years. John Austin, a member of the Nebraska Business Forecast Council, shared
bristol page 3
some of the reasons for the results and offered a few ideas on what it might mean for students. The growth comes on the heels of profitable crop and livestock management statewide, Austin said. In addition, Nebraska attracts agricultural companies because of its large flat farms, which enable the use of precision agriculture technology and techniques, he said. In 2011, one-third of all income growth in the state of Nebraska was because of farming, Austin said. He attributed the growth of the industry to a growing middle class in developing countries like China and
India. As the need for crops grows, he said, the agriculture field in the United States sees an increase in sales. This is known as “terms of trade,” and the changes have been benefiting not only the Midwest, but the United States’ agriculture industry nationally as well. Austin said Nebraska isn’t the only state that will benefit from the predicted growth, though the programs offered at UNL for agricultural students means young people in the state have a lot to look forward to, with many jobs opening up for managers of supplier industries, sales people and fertilizer or equipment scientists.
Dance page 5
Nebraska is the highestranking state in red meat production and the amount of land under irrigation. It ranks second in ethanol production. This makes UNL an important land-grant university, according to Bruce Johnson, an agricultural economics professor. Johnson is also a member of the Nebraska Business Forecast Council. “For UNL graduates, the business and engineering opportunities relating to agriculture within the state and region are growing,” Bureau Director Eric Thompson said. “The agricultural industry stretches far beyond the farm gate,
and that’s why UNL graduates can move into a variety of venues within the industry.” Thompson predicts people will be spending more on food in the future, he said. “Food is still a bargain in the U.S., with less than 10 percent of disposable household income spent on food,” he said. “But as global demand grows, that percentage of income spent on food will almost certainly go up.” Austin said he believes much of actual farming in Nebraska is still family farming, just with larger family farms as the industry
football page 10
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expands. “Interest in agriculture is growing because of the strong earnings opportunities that people are seeing,” Austin said. And agriculture isn’t the only industry in Nebraska that is expected to grow over the next few years. According to the same forecast, non-farm related employment and personal income will grow 1.2 percent and 3.9 percent, respectively, in 2012. The forecast also looks specifically at Nebraska’s service sector, manufacturing industry and financial services.
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