2
' DAILY NEBRASKAN
Friday, April 16, 1943
JhL (Daily TMioaIuvv
FOKTY -SECOND YEAR
Subscription Kate are SI. CO Per Semester or $1.60 for the College Tear.
$2.50 Mailed. Single copy, 6 Cents. Kntered as second-class matter at th
postoffice in Lincoln, Nebraska, under Act of Congress March 3, 1879, and at
special rate of postage provided for in Section 1103. Act of October 8. 1917.
Authorized September 30. 1922.
Published daily during the school year except Mondays and Saturdays,
vacations and examinations periods by Students of the University, of Nebraska
under the supervision of the Publications Board.
Offices Union Building.
Day 2-7181. Night 2-7193.
Journal 2-3330.
Editor .....Alan Jacobs
Business Manager Betty Dixon
Assistant Business Managers Charlotte Hill, Morton Zuber
EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT.
Managing Editors George Abbott, Marjorte May
News Editors John Baucrmeister. Pat Chaniberiin, June Jamieson.
Marylouise Goodwin, Mary Helen Thorns.
Sports Editor Norm Anderson.
Circulation Manager Don Papez.
Gaining Prestige Plus
Robert W. Devoe, member of the UN Board of Regents,
told a Lincoln luncheon club yesterday afternoon that the
greatest problem of the university is its loss in prestige. j
"In 1908," he said, the university ranked eighth in the
list of the Association of American Universities. Today it has
slipped to 32nd or 33rd position."
Regent Devoe is right; the university has lost prestige.
But we don't think he is right in declaring that regaining the
lost prestige is the greatest problem.
Webster's dictionary defines prestige: "an illusion, a de
ception, power to charm, dazzle or command admiration."
Rebuilding the university following the war cannot be
done in terms of prestige. Students do not want their univer
sity to dazzle, deceive or illude educational associations and
the public. They want a university rejuventated on a cold, hard
fact basis.
A Lincoln newspaper quotes Mr. Devoe as pointing out two
means by which the lost prestige can be regained: "Either we
must get more funds to maintain our present program, or we
must curtail our extensive activities."
There way be two means by which prestige can be re
gained. There is only one by which a real educational institu
tion can be maintained: "WE MUST GKT MORE FUNDS."
Now is not the time to battle for increased appropriations
for the university. True, the university must not be permitted
to degenerate during the war: money must be expended. But
after the war, when the time comes to build the university,
there must be money.
The decline of the university has not been one caused by
the war. Long before the war, many of the fine members of the
faculty resigned for positions at other schools because of in
creased salaries, Nebraska's physical plant has been in an un
satisfactory condition since long before the war. The univer
sity just has not received a large enough appropriation.
Changes will have to be made after the war. Students now
in school, whether they return to school or not will, for the
most part, return to Nebraska, and they will also return at a
.voting age.
They are going to be demanding things and one of the
things which they must demand is more money for the state
university.
The extensive activities of the university should continue:
the present program should be enlarged, the faculty improved,
the physical plant increased. When UN gets the appropriations
it deserves, it will go on a sound educational footing.
Prestige will be gained. But it won't be prestige in the
sense of deception. It will be prestige in terms of men and ideas,
books and buildings, education and progress.
Mail
Clippings
Pat Chamberlin, Censor
$2 for Stone?
Following is a letter about Lt. JOHN II.
RATI1BONE, Delta Upsilon written to reas
sure his father by a friend of his, Lt. E. G.
Sayers :
' TMi T.-. iiii.t n livii 4 n l-4- m.y-.i, 1 ntir T11
have no need to worry about your son, Jack.
True, vou won't hear from him for a while
but I can assure you that he is not wounded
and is definitely still walking around on his
two good feet altho no doubt slightly ham
pered by restrictions and the like.
"The details are obscured, censorship neces
sarily clouds the issue, but it is my belief that
once II Duce is knocked out of the war. Jack
will be with us again. In the meantime he has
many friends with him in a similar predica
ment which, though lamentable, could be far
worse in many respects.
"I'm writing this because I felt you might
like to hear a personal version on why Jack's
letters have abruptly fallen off. Jack and I
were shipmates together coming down here,
and we were also roommates for a happy
month on an African airport. It is my inten
tion of dropping in on Jack in Lincoln after
the war so that we can gaze in rerospect on
our African adventures and enjoy a good,
hearty laugh! ..."
Keep 'Em Flying,
I'd Sayers.
LELAND W1LI1ELM, vice-president of Tn-
ter-Co-op Council last year, has graduated from
OCS at Fort Sill, Okl., ?,nd has received his
commission as second lieutenant. Lt. Wilhelm
is back on the campus enjoying his 10-day
graduation leave before he goes back to Fort
Sill on duty at the replacement training center
there.
Lee reports that Capt. BOB BUTLER, ATO
a year ago, is with the BOC, Battery Officers'
Course there.
EDWIN W. NEUIIARTII, who attended Ag
College until '42 when he enlisted, is taking
training as a bombardier cadet at the Army
Air Forces Bombardier School at Big Spring,
Texas.
Auxiliary BETTY J. SWENIIOLT, Chi
Omega of last year, is in basic training at the
irst WAAC Training center, Fort Des Moines,
la. Her father and twin brother are in the
army, too, in the engineering corps, her father
a Colonel in England, and her brother Richard
is stationed at Medford, Oregon.
Recently graduated from the Roswell Flying
School, Roswell, New Mexico, with commissions
as second lieutenants and their pilot s wings
are RAYMOND E. CRAWFORD and JOHN
IRVING KERL. Both Ray and John attendee:
UN until last year when they enlisted. Ray is
a member of Alpha Gamma Rho, arid John is a
Phi Gamma Delta. They will soon be assignee
to another post for duty.
It is part of the tradition of the university, you know, for
a class to pool its resources and buy a stone bench or an iron
fence or some permanent memorial in us name.
The plan is part of maintaining the theory, "Once a Corn
husker, Always a Cornhusker." As a matter of fact, the idea
that the class of '43 should purchase such an cdilice likely
originated in the alumni office. Perhaps not!
Regardless of its origination, the idea seems to be a poor
one right now. Traditions cannot be permitted to die because
of the war, it is true, and the tradition need not die.
It can be continued tho perhaps not in stone. The letter
writer suggests the Red Cross, War Bonds, many worth causes
connected with war relief to which the money lor such a memo
rial could be donated.
Such a donation, it itself, would represent the greatest
memorial any class could give to the university.
The class of '43 should collect $2 from every senior as pro
Dosed. But that $2 should be spent wisely. The wisest course
. . ...... . 1 V A- it!.
of action seems obvious to trie leucr-wrner ana aiso w ima
paper.
Lt.
ROBERT A. GELW1CK, Sig Ep of las
. .1.1 1 1 A I t
year, writes mat he has icen iransicrrea irom
Camp Claiborne, La., to Camp Swift, Texas
V-Mail prints excerpts from his letter:
"I like to read the Daily regularly because
it takes me back to the school days when
everyone was wondering what new thing Walt
1 1 1 1- 1 1 i T l-
Kuntnn nau done, or wnat neianous pioi ionn
Mason was cooking up. But most of all 1 lik
your V-Mail column, lt is the only way I hav
of keeping track of the old gang that I one
knew.
"For your files and information I am now
a company commander here at Camp Swift in
an Air Base Security Battalion having been
yanked out hy the Jrd Army irom my nice
comfortable job at Camp Claiborne. I am work
ing with Negro troops and find it quite di
ferent from the men I have had to date. These
Air Base Security men are air force troops of
UN Post-War Plan
For a period of too many years the univeis
sity has had a program too extensive for the
amount of money that has been available for
its support. Through some parts of this ex.
tensive program are today, rather fortuitously,
at a relatively high level of performance, too
many parts, because of insufficient resources,
have been unable to keep abreast of rising
standards of performance in institutions of our
type and size.
The standing of the university as a whole,
relatively, in comparison with other institu
tions of its type and size, is lower todav than
. r ------
it was thirty years ago. This does not mean
that the university is not actually as good an
institution as it was thirty years ago, because
it is now better than it was then ; but it does
mean that the number of institutions generally
recognized as ranking higher than the univer
sity was smaller then than now.
This has come about because, though it has
been possible to maintain some parts of our
program at a fairly high level of performance
in spite of grave handicaps, it has not been
possible for other parts to keep pace with other
institutions in the improvement of quality of
performance. Just as a whole is judged by the
uality of all the activities it sponsors and its
general standing is lowered by the deficiencies
of any of its parts.
The development of transportation during
the last three decades has progressed from the
lorse and buggy to the automobile and the
aeroplane. The automobile costs more than the
horse and buggy; the aeroplane costs more
than the automobile, but the performance of
ach is so superior to its predecessor that it is
egarded as worth the different in cost. Just
as the performance of changing methods of
transportation has ben improved, but at in
creased cost, so has university performance
been greatly improved, but at a rate of in
crease in costs less than in transportation.
Some universities today are in what may be
called the aeroplane class, others are in the
Cadillac class, some in the Buick class, some in
the Plymouth class while some, due primarily
to poverty, are in the Model T class. In the
ast two decades the university has made a
valiant effort, with some degree of success,
to maintain good standing. With adequate sup
port it could, in a decade, be brought back to
its erstwhile position of unchallenged member
ship in the group of first-class institutions.
The two accrediting associations that mean
most to the institutional life of the University
are the Association of American Universities
and the North Central Association of Colleges
and Secondary Schools. It was a remarkable
achievement for the Unjversity of Nebraska to
have been given membership in the select com
pany of the Association of American Univer
sities as early as 1909. In comparison with the
leading universities of the country Nebraska
could then justly hold her head high with
pride.
Today Nebraska's position in this Associa
tion is not high enough to warrant complac
ency or contentment. In the North Central As
sociation that our educational expenditure per
student in recent years has been below the
level that periodic surveys have shown to be
necessary for the attainment of median per
formance among institutions of our type and
size.
In the numerous associations of professional
schools and colleges of which the University
is an institutional member of virtue of having
in each instance such a perofessional college
or school, our standing runs from high, through
median, to low or very low.
ficcred by Infantry officers and others from
Cavalry, Field Artillery, etc. These are stream
lined battalions, specialized troops whose mis
sion is to defend air fields against enemy para
troopers, air borne troops and infiltrating
ground troops.
"Any prospective company commanders at
Nebraska had best study up on supply for one
thing and learn to get along without any sleep.
At times I wish I were back in charge of a
platoon instead of my present company . . . H