March 5

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dailynebraskan.com

tuesday, march 5, 2013 volume 112, issue 114

Shall we dance?

Sticking the finish

DN endorses Sense for ASUN

Local tango club invites Lincolnites to join in the dance

Women’s gymnastics wins final home meet

Editorial board cites realistic, obtainable platforms

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bearing it all

ASUN hopefuls spar in final debate Conor Dunn DN

Caleb Larsen, a senior computer science major, poses in his kitchen with his 9 mm CZ 75 P-07 pistol. Larsen has been around guns his whole life, but he became a gun owner about a year ago. Larsen has the gun to protect himself and his wife, whom he met at a Bible group at UNL.

Student sentiment toward gun control remains mixed story by Daniel Wheaton | photo by Matt Masin

H

aley Herzog’s gym class inside Omaha’s Millard South High School on Jan. 5, 2011, ended with a gunshot. It was the first day of her last semester, the beginning to an end to her senior year. Then a shot rang out from the assistant principal’s office about 40 feet away. Millard South senior Robert Butler Jr. had shot Assistant Principal Vicki Kaspar with his father’s Glock .40. Shortly thereafter, Butler took his own life. Kaspar, who was supposed to hand Herzog and her graduating classmates their diplomas, died of her injuries hours after the shooting. “I remember driving home and seeing a sunset, and I started to cry,” said Herzog, now a sophomore broadcasting major at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. “I thought about how (Kaspar) would never see one again.” The shooting at Millard South and 2007 Westroads Mall shootings have added Nebraska to an ever-growing list of shootings in the U.S. And just like everywhere else, guns and gun rights prove to be a polarizing topic among UNL students. The gun-rights divide separates urban and rural, Republican and Democrat; gunowners and non-gun owners. In rural Nebraska and rural America,

guns are woven into the fabric of life — kept in the back of trucks and used for sport shooting and hunting. For other students, guns conjure the images of mass shootings in Aurora, Colo., and Newtown, Conn. Student support for gun-control measures both locally and nationally is mixed.

Making a move on gun control

Last week, the U.S. Senate heard testimony for a bill that would ban assault weapons sponsored by Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.). And in January, Obama released a series of executive orders, and proposals for Congress, all aimed at reducing gun violence. Included in these are increased funding for mental health services and more thorough background checks. It’s illegal to carry a gun on UNL’s campus. Last December, more than 300 college presidents contributed to the guns-in-America debate by signing a petition calling for President Barack Obama and Congress to pass legislation that would reduce gun violence. Presidents from three Nebraska colleges signed the letter: Nebraska Wesleyan University, Bellevue University and

gun control: see page 2

“Point Blank: A Conversation About Gun Violence” where:

Nebraska Union Auditorium when: 7 p.m. more information: Free and open to the public. Will be broadcast on TimeWarner Channel 21, KRNU 90.3 FM and live-streamed on newsnetnebraska.org. sponsored by: The Daily Nebraskan, the UNL College of Journalism and Mass Communications, the College of Law and the Center for Civic Engagement

The final debate between parties vying for executive power in the Association of Students of the University of Nebraska tested the feasibility of each party’s platforms Monday night. Throughout the debate hosted by the University of NebraskaLincoln Honors Program, the Revive Party, Engage Party and Sense for ASUN candidates drilled each other with questions on the fiscal responsibility and effectiveness of their platforms. Sense received criticism from Revive for its platform to gauge student opinion on creating smoking-designated areas around campus. In a previous debate, Sense said students who smoke outside of the smokingdesignated areas may have their N-cards taken as punishment. Revive’s internal vice presidential candidate Sierra Allen, a junior marketing major, said she didn’t support the punishment. “What if they have to take a test later?” she said. Sense’s presidential candidate Blake Rostine agreed with Allen and said he doesn’t think Sense will execute the N-card punishment part of its platform. “We’re listening to what students are saying,” Rostine said. “We saw something that isn’t going to work, and we’re going to change it.” Engage Party was criticized for its proposal to create a third Nebraska college prep program in South Omaha. Audience members asked how a program in South Omaha would benefit UNL students and why ASUN should be spending their money on students in Omaha. Presidential candidate Eric Reznicek, a junior marketing and finance major, rebutted, saying Engage doesn’t plan to fund the program with student fees, but through grants and outside funding. “We were all given an opportunity for a higher education,” Reznicek said. “Why would we want to disallow someone else that same opportunity?” Engage’s internal vice presidential candidate Kaitlin Coziahr, a junior finance, economics and management major, came under fire for her role as ASUN’s communications chair. Rostine, a junior German and political science major, said Coziahr has had a year to work on projects as communications chair and hasn’t been because she has been “saving them to campaign on.” Coziahr argued there are lim-

debate: see page 2

Perlman launches mysterious ‘Perls of Knowledge’ Cristina Woodworth DN University of Nebraska-Lincoln Chancellor Harvey Perlman thinks “YOLO” is stupid. On Feb. 25, Perlman started using his Twitter account to promote “Perls of Knowledge,” a new website featuring the chancellor in a series of short YouTube videos. Wearing a suit and seated in a leather-backed chair next to a model ship, Perlman learns how to use “YOLO.” He dispels student fears of a zombie apocalypse – “Not on my watch,” he said. And his “Kevin Bacon number” — it’s two, thanks to a former law school classmate. In one video, Perlman

It’s kind of difficult to control the chancellor when he wants to get something off his chest.”

steve smith

interim unl news director

shows viewers how he really feels about the “Harlem Shake.” The videos have many scratching their heads, but Perlman has remained fairly mum on the purpose of the whole thing. “It is what it is,” he told the Daily Nebraskan on Monday night. In addition to showing Perlman instagramming a stuffed

chick, the Perls of Knowledge website links to the UNL Office of Undergraduate Admissions website, a virtual tour of UNL and the official UNL website, leading some to believe the goal may be to attract future students to the university. “You can probably infer that current students and future students are his intended audience,”

said Steve Smith, interim news director at UNL. Smith also said Perlman’s tweets might not be as out-of-character as some think. “It’s kind of difficult to control the chancellor when he wants to get something off his chest,” Smith said. “He’s always had a little bit of a wild side in him.” Smith said this side of the chancellor has been visible in the past, like when Perlman brought Motley Crue drummer Tommy Lee to campus in 2005 to film the show “Tommy Lee Goes to College.” Student reactions to this different side of the chancellor seemed

PERLMAN: see page 3

courtesy photo

UNL Chancellor Harvey Perlman assures students there won’t be a zombie apocalypse in one of his “Perls of Knowledge” videos.

DN Voter’s Guide Check out DailyNebraskan.com today for an election guide to the 2013 Association of Students of the University of Nebraska races. The guide will feature bio information for all executive and senatorial candidates on the March 6 ballot. The guide will also run in print on Wednesday. @dailyneb | facebook.com/dailynebraskan


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