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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 15, 1966)
J - J ' i V-1 . 4 Page 2 The Daily Nebraskan Thursday, September 15, 1966 Aii Effective Plea The University has grown too quick ly, it needs money and its quality of ed ucation needs to be Improved. University officials, who will ask the Legislature for a large increase in the schools budget next semester, and the students at the University realize these problems. The Daily Nebraskan applauds ASUN President Terry Schaaf for listing a stu dent committee to work with the Univer sity on these problems as one of student government's most important projects this year. Schaaf plans this year to have ASUN help the University pinpoint exactly what its problems are and how they can be solved. He hopes to help coordinate a student committee that can simply but accurately show the Nebraska Legislature why the University needs a great deal more money. In his executive projection for this year, Schaaf explained Wednesday that the students at the University must work with the school's administration in order to show the people of Nebraska that stu dents here do care about the condition of the school. We feel that if this committee works as hard as Schaaf says it will this will be a very effective plea from the students in the state of Nebraska for a higher quality education. Answer The Questions Below this editorial is the full text of a speech given by Steve Abbott Wednes day to Student Senate which calls for a Student Bill of Rights. The complete speech is printed in the Daily Nebraskan because Abbott will not be here this year as a student to rep resent this very important idea. Every student should read the complete speech and consider carefully the things that Abbott suggests. The Daily Nebraskan wishes that it could editorially state right now its support or non-support of some type of Student Bill of Rights. But the concept of students mak ing all their own rules outside of the class room is too important to decide until all other questions concerning such an idea are answered. These questions will have to be answered and considered carefully not only by the Nebraskan, but by Student Senate, admini stration and every student at the Univer sity. The first thing that will have to be done is the students at this University will have to insist immediately that administdation explain exactly what are the present rules. The administration drew up this sum merno telling how quickly what they call a clarification. But in truth it is litre more than pretty language in several pages of the Student Handbook. The administration needs to answer ques tions concerning policies such as double jeoperdy and speakers on campus. Secondly students who feel that their rights or priviledges regardless of what one wants to call them are not being re spected presently at the University should take part in the open hearings on student conduct that ASUN has promised to hold. Abbott's Full Speech To Senate I was surprised and honored when last spring you elected me to represent you on the executive committee. Since sev eral other able, qualified, and more ex perienced senators were passed over, I can only interpret your choice in one way. You elected all CFDP people to that committee because you respected the ideas CFDP brought into student politics. And what, in a nutshell, was the main idea of CFDP? We stated the obvious fact that ASUN does not cannot and does not have the right to call itself a student government unless it has a clearly recognized basis of authority and power to function as gov ernment. Government, by definition, must govern. If it does not do this, then it is something else an advisory council, a coordinating board, whatever it is is not the point here,lhe point is, unless it is a government, it should not claim to be one. CFDP demanded only that we iron out the wrinkle of hypocrisy and deceit ful role-playing that makes so many average students call ASUN a mickey mouse rubber stamp of Dean Ross. Hon esty, honesty is all we ask for. Some J aid this was too radical. They saw the problem as a confusion of what ASUN was because nothing was clearly written in the Student Handbook. They said it would be silly to demand power if we already had it which is of course true. Well we must give all due credit to our president Terry Schaaf that we now know without a doubt where the admin istration stands. They stand not person ally but on paper right on top of us with their feet on our throats. Have you seen that student code clar ification? It confirms completely the worst fears CFDP had, and what is more ob noxious is that this clarification without ASUN approval was promulgated in the Student Handbook as University policy. Let me read you a sentence from this clarification: "The University expects students in many instances to maintain standards higher than those found ac ceptable by society." What audacity- Just who is the "Uni versity" Dean of Students, Chancellor Hardin, the Administration? I say YOU are the University, you people right here, the students! And as proof of what I say consider this: Would thete, could there be a uni versity without you, the students? No! And could there be a university without the office of student affairs? Yes, there very well, best well could be. Thus I say it is we who are essen tial and it Is we who should write stu dent codes If such codes must be. I therefore in my first and last act as a student senator urge you to make ASUN's first act of business a Student Bill of Rights. St. Paul said: "When I was a child, I played with the things of a child, out now that I am a man, I have put away the things of a child." Don't you see? We are not little children to be told what to do outside of class. We face up to the laws like other citizens and that's it! Now, am I to be called impractical and irresponsible because I express con fidence in your leadership ability. You are all mature. Do you doubt yourselves? If you doubt your maturity Dave Snyder why did you run for a Senate seat? If you doubt your ability Terry Schaaf, why do you stay here with us. You people don't have to prove yourselves, you al ready have proved yourselves. You have proved you are mature and responsible. But will the Administration accept this you say, it is Impractical and irresponsible. Let me tell you this: more sins in history have been committed in the name of practicality and more weakness es have been tolerated under the name of responsibility than any man could count Neville Chamberlain went to Munich wearing a suit and tie. Oh, he was a re sponsible man! And Benedict Arnold and the torries of 1776 oh, they were eminent ly practical men ! Well if you want to be a Neville Cham berlain or a Benedict Arnold to the stu dents of the University of Nebraska I guess I can't stop you, but one thing for sure, I'm not going to let anyone disquise such lack of courage and insight with the words practicality and responsibility. I have proved that the only way we can be a student government is to de clare our authority and power to be one. Because this is the only right thing we can do it must be possible. What I have to say now may shock you .more than anything I have said yet. All this can be accomplished according to the Administration's definition of a uni versity. Again I quote from the admin istrative clarification. "A university has the primary objec tive of providing facilities, staff and en vironment directed toward a goal of 'to tal education.' 'Total education' includes acquisition of a pattern of knowledge, skills, attitudes and values that will re sult in increasingly responsible and pro ductive behavior." This definition is a psychological tru ism. No one familiar with the psychology of learning would refute it. But it is also a psychological truism according to Karl Rogers and others that no learning is meaningful or significant except that which the student gets on his own. I am now a classroom teacher my self. The first thing I told my studetns is that I couldn't teach them anything. "The only person in the world who can teach you anything is you," I told them. A teacher can do nothing more than provide a favorable, exciting atmosphere which hopefully will motivate the student to dig into the subject matter on his own. Thus, according to the administration's very own definition of education, we that is student government should have the right to make our own rules. Arbitrary and autocratic administra tive control simply cannot teach people how to participate in democracy. I want to point out clearly, I do not doubt or question the sincerity of anyone in the administration, but the fact that they are sincere in their wrongness does not make it any less wrong. It is the present system that is in-" trinsically wrong, and we must have cour agenot of heroes, but of ordinary good citizens io demand that this wrong be corrected. I have heard silly rumors that since I am leaving, all hope of a Bill of Rights will die. I cannot believe this. I cannot believe that you thirty senators are mere puppets to be manipulated by me or any one else. If you want to prove yourselves, prove yourselves here. You see we face a crisis, a show down. There will never be another chance to declare for a Bill of Rights, because once you have backed down, you will keep backing down and the precedent of self-doubt and the habit of cowardice will never be overcome. I am proud to be standing here as a student senator. To be standing here rep resenting the more than a thousand stu dents that voted for me means something. And I am proud, and very honored that you elected me to be your representative on the executive committee. Please, never make me ashamed of this day. Please, do not make a mockery of your office. Even though I had to make a 300 mile round trip to come be fore you today I want to say that I am willing to come back and publicly face Dean Ross, Chancellor Hardin, or anyone else to discuss these principles of student government, if you or anyone else care to arrange it The principles of democracy must be defended wherever they are in danger of being engulfed. -flU BEAT .. Ill ! P, NOW) S WAR in I II GSCs I I fVAT M c n If up's the weird or in other words if this is real ly going to be my colum I plan to write about all the things I often look for, but never ril iinu in a paper. In this first col u m n, I happened to be ex cited about a new book which Baker is just starting to become a craze at Nebraska but has been very popular on other campuses for sever al years. Wait and see next time like other Nebraskan col umnists I might be ada mant about getting rid of administration too. Don't be shocked if someone greets you this fall with "May the hair on your toes never fall out" or leaves you with the parting words, "May your beard never grow thin." These words of wisdom come from Lord of the Rings which is (or will be) the newest "in" thing to hit Nebraska and the Mid west. J. R. R. Tolkien wrote Lord of the Rings (not Lord of the Flies) more than ten years ago and the series is just beginning to receive the critical ac claim it deserves. Lord of the Rings consists of a tril ogy of books plus an in troductory novel entitled The Hobbit. The action takes place in Middle Earth and revolves around the central theme of a worldwide struggle for power. The characters in this fantasy range from Hobbits (small furry creatures which bear a resemblance to Wayne Moles) to hu mans and ores (subterra nean dwelling variants of goblins and trolls). Bilbo Baggins, prominent citizen of Hobbiton and hero of The Hobbit, initi ates a long chain of events when he comes into pos session of a ring which renders the bearer invisi ble and (he is to discover later) gives the wearer great power over other people. Ownership of t h e ring and control of ail Mid dle Earth are the factors which guide the action through the next three books. Bilbo leaves the Shire of the age of 111 (only slight ly elderly for Hobbits) and gives the ring to his fa vorite nephew "Frodo. this act begins the trilogy's first book called The Fel lowship of the Ring. Lord of the Rings is a fascinating story which can be read for sheer en- BY KELLY BAKER joyment and pleasure. It makes a valuable addition to anyone's fantasy world as well as a refuge for es capists. Tolkien's work is truly a masterpiece which will keep you busy between classes, cause you to stay up late at night reading and prevent you from studying for tests. Pick ' the books up soon if t h e bookstores still have any copies. Our Man Hoppe- A Comer Of Old Viet Nam Arthur Hoppe Fort Ord Join the Army and learn a trade, I say. Today's Army offers training in a wide range of specialities to prepare young men for use ful careers in civilian life. For example, you can join the Army and learn how to build an authentic Vietnam ese village. Where our young men are learning to build an authen tic Vietnamese village is way out In the dusty boon docks of this sprawling training command. You drive for miles on a dirt road, round a bend, and there they are rice pad dies! Just like in Vietnam. "Of course, we don't have any water in them yet," said an officer apologetical ly. "In fact, we're having a little problem because we don't have any water piped out here. But we may bring it in by tanker truck. And anyway," he said, "they'll be nice and mucky for the troops from November through March." I inquired what the Army would do with the rice it harvested. He laughed. "Oh, we're not going that far," he said. And knowing the Army you can see the wis dom of this. For, sure enough, the Provost Mar shal would come along and put up signs saying, "KEEP OFF THE RICE!" Anyway, from the rice less paddies, the road leads up a knoll to where the au thentic Vietnamese village sits under a cluster of oak trees, guarded by a stock ade of oak limbs wired to gether and a large sign say ing: "KEEP OUT" - a de fense the Vietcong has not yet thought of. But a nice young sergeant said we could come in and look around. Inside the stockade were a dozen au thentic straw-thatched huts, the straw having been scrounged from neighbor- !lllllllllillilllllllllll!!llllllllllllllllilll!IH)lilllllll Ill Jlltf IMIlllUlM'lIlll J f IMini II JIIIMMSf lllf UMIflllllltf II tiriflf Itllf 111 lllllMMJIJIlltl J Jil IIMMJ11II JI1 J J If MU Bob Samuelson's I xTLll of he jConelu (Peooh of- "All the lonely people. Where do they all come from? All the lonely peo ple. Where do they all be long?" mused "Ringo" Laase about two weeks ago. "In lines, of course,' came a distinguished voice across the intercom. "Ah yes, of course," said Ringo, already indignant for not having remembered the place on her own. If we sometimes become Impatient with the lines, ve must temporize our anger with understanding, for within the last four years the number of studpnts at tending the University has nearly doubled, and the problems of running this University have increased tenfold. It is my feeling that stu dents should begin to take an active part, a useful part, in the shaping of their University. In the past, students have tended to let administrators ' handle the problems, and until recently this bad worked out rather well. However, because of the University's unprecedented growth, the administrators have come to recognize that students must be given a part in decisions which af fect students' livlihood During this semester, th's column shall discuss some of the drastic changes which are going on at this crucial time in the growth of the University of Nebraska. These changes will affect every student attending the University. eop, We shall discuss, among other things: the inevitabili ty of a tuition hike in the near future; the possibility of the changeover to the quarter system: the elimi nation of cars for freibmen and sophomores; the Uni versity's new budget, and whether to fight it or sup port It; the advisability of the new science complex; the outgrowth of major pol icy decisions by administra tion; and most Importantly, what students can do about the decline of the quality of education at the University. Next time this column shall discuss the inevitabili ty of a tuition increase, and the possibility of students' paying more money for Jess education. ing ranchers. A score of sol d i e r s were hammering, sawing, digging, and, ine vitably, looking on. Stepping Into one of the authentic huts, I found It had a plywood roof and walls to which the straw had been tacked. Plywood? "Well," said the sergeant with a grin, "it's authentic plywood. And look here," he said, pulling up a section of the plywood floor. "This trap door leads down into a tunnel. We dug 3600 feet of tunnels running every which way under the whole vil lage." I said that much labor certainly showed d e d i c a tion. "Yeah," said the ser geant, "we got a trench dig ger in, roofed the ditches with two - by twelves and covered them over with dirt." The officer explained that the whole village would be booby-trapped and defended by troops in black-dyed fa tigues and coolie hats. Sol diers in advanced training would then be given the Job of flushing them out of the maze of tunnels and sniper platforms built in the trees. I said gosh. I could make a fortune selling plans to the tunnels to the attacking troops. "No," said the ser geant with a grin, "every body knows where we dug them." Well, I'm sure that, as the officer said, the Vietnam ese village will prove "an invaluable training aid" to our troops. And it's already proved an invaluable train ing aid to the men construct ing it. I say this after looking down a well In the middle of the village to find a pri vate at the bottom, slowly lapping wet concrete around the edges of a trap door. I Inquired politely if he felt he was preparing himself for a useful career in civilian life. "Yeah," he said with that age-old expression of a n y soldier stuck with an unhap py task, "I can always be a Vietcong." Satirist, Columnists Featured For the first time in many years the Daily Nebraskan is featuring a syndicated political satirist along with a new cartoon strip and fifteen columnists. Arthur Hoppe's political satire column "Our Man Hoppe," which started in Wednesday's paper with a satire on government aid programs, will appear reg ularly. Hoppe, who has worked as both a reporter and a columnist on the San Fran cisco Chronicle for many years, will send the Ne braskan his column by way of the Chronicle Features Syndicate. He is a graduate of Har vard University and a na tive of San Francisco. In his own description of his column and what he tries to do with it, Hoppe says, "Columns should ex press outrageous opinions to be of any value. I don't want to tell people things. I don't know anything. I want to stir people up so they'll do their own think ing." The new comic strip, "Odd Bodkins," features a weird collection of people and animals who demon strate and depict contem porary problems in many humorous ways. The strip, which is cre ted by Dan O'Neil also of the San Francisco Chroni cle, will replace the "Pea nuts" cartoon strip which has appeared in the paper for many years. Last semester's four car toonists, Wayne Moles, Gary Hill, Jim Sandall and Ron Psota, will continue do ing cartoons for the Ne braskan regularly. The University colum nists who will write one col umn every two weeks in the paper include: Liz Ait ken, Kent Meierhenry, Cath ie Shattuck, Sabra McCall, Phil Boardman, Bob Sam uelson, Jan Itkin, K e 1 1 e y Baker, Bill Minier, Gene Pokorney, Lee Marshall, Andy Taube, Sue Westerhoff and Roger Elm. Steve Abbott will also send the paper a column from Clairfield, la. These fifteen columnists, in the editor's opinion, rep resent many groups at the University and ways of thinking. The backgrounds of t h e columnists range from stu dent government for Liz Ait ken, Kelley Baker and Bob Sarouelson to political par ties on campus with t h e Young Republicans Presi dent Cathie Shattuck and the Young Democrats Pres ident Sabra McCall. All the columnists have been connected with such varied things as the Uni versity Theatre for Sue Westerhoff, Friends of the Studitnt Nonviolent Coordin ating Committee for Gene Pokomey and Independent government and organiza tion for Phil Boardman. Included in this list of writers are also many in teresting personalities such as Kent Meierhenry, Phi Delta Theta man about town, and Lee Marshall, who has just returned from year's study in Europe. Daily Nebraskan Sept. U, M4 Vol K, Ne. 1 Neb. Member Associated Collegiate P r e , National Advertising Service, Incorporated, Published at Room 51 Nebraska Union, Lincoln, Neb., 8518. TELEPHONE: 477-8711, Ex tension 2538, zm and 2590. SubecrlpUoa ntea an M per acmee. t-r or 14 lit the academic year. Iub i'l Mod. Wedaeeday. Thured.r and Friday durtn Uta wheal year, e. Pt dur.ni vacation, and tun pert, "by the atudeata of Hat Unlveraltr nebraaka under the Juriedlrtioa of the Faculty ilubromntlttee on Student Publication. PubueaUvea afcall be free, from cenaorihlp by the. Sabrommtttea or y Peraon outride the Lniverelty. Membera ol the Nebraakwi are reepon. alble (or what Uiey eauee to be printed. EDITORIAL STAFF Editor Wayne Kreuerheri Manaln M tor Uae (luinnet; New Kdllor Jan Italsi Night Newa Editor Bell Mlnleri L -,E(,Uw " rieaweki Senior Stall Wrltere, Julie Moiiia, Handy Irey. Tort Victor, Nancy llendrlckaoni , Wrltera, Ciatrrl Trill, tnerrl puniap, John fryer. Bob H. p burni Newa AatlaUni Klieen Wlrthi Photorrapheri Tom nut,m, Howard r""'r' Copy Rdltora. rm Bennett, oiiu ,'W,,W J"M ". Bruce BUSINESS STAFF' Bualneee Manner Bob Oinni Nnllonal Advertielnf Mauler Lnrtaht fclarkl LomI AdYtrtlelne Manaeer Ctarleo Baiieri Claaelled AdverUaiaa Munaa- Cilim, Mary Jo McIMn ""I .secretary Linda Ladei Binlneai Aaelatanle, Jerry Wolfe, Jim WiiBera. i!ii. 'm' O1'"" TEH:., Bri'" M,,,, " Rnrri M""r Jim Buntzi Clr. " '" r Lynn RaUijem Clr tulattoa AeeUaat Gary aUy.r.