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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 15, 1967)
THE DAILY NEBRASKAN Editorials Commentary Friday, September 15, 1967 Page 2 utitiifiiiiMiMiiitiitiiiiMriiMiMiiiiiiiHifnifiMii tit i:miiitf iiiMMiiiminimrmmtmtmnninrtfnttifnnnimmmmiimiitniirtMiiiitiiinifnntinmtnintiinnnn Tax Challenges ASUN President Dick Schulze should be commended for moving student gov ; eminent funding at the University into a : tax-like structure. :" But perhaps for different reasons than those considered by Schulze. : The new tax-like structure of funding :. would force senators into becoming more jiconscious of their duties and would also :force the student electroate to become bet : ter informed. In past years ASUN has budgeted : solely by program the costs of programs were determined and then the necessary appropriations were assessed as a part of each student's fees. : This new type of funding gives each : University of Nebraska student a voice in : determining how much he wants to be as ; sessed for ASUN activities. :' According to Schulze, increases in the ': tax would be voted on in a general ref : erendum vote of the student body. However, we hope Schulze is aware that he is putting the life, or at least the effectiveness, of student government into the hands of his electorate if increased activities should require more than the 30 cent assessment initially set. We are not condemning Schulze for allowing the student body to vote on the assessment they will pay. For this is as it should be. But if the student electorate is any thing like the national electorate, there could be problems in the future for ASUN funding. One of the basic ironies about na tional taxes is that the electorate wants or expects increased services from the U.S. government, but at the same time does not want to pay increased taxes. Likewise, the student electorate, too, may expect increased ASUN services but may not wish to pay increased assess ments. If increased assessments are to be de cided by the student electorate, there is a challenge existing to be better informed on the workings and needs of ASUN. And that challenge should be extended to both students and the student senators. More students than just the dozen or so who show up at each Senate meeting will have to know and understand the workings of the Senate. Likewise student senators are going to have to work much harder to get back to their constituents, explaining the prob lems and needs of ASUN. If they do not, it is unlikely that their electorate is going to see the need for increased assessments. Because of the possibility of the need for a future increase in assessments, stu dent senators face a second and perhaps' greater challenge: Students will not wish to increase as sessments if they feel the Senate is ac complishing little. Thus, student senators would be faced with stepping up their attempts to think of new programs and implement those al ready passed. If the Senate meets these challenges, it is then left to the student electorate to "put their money where their mouth is." If increased assessments were neces sary for expanded programs, the Nebras kan certainly hopes students would act more intelligent than many of their elders. Rush Woes We were surprised at Panhellenic's report of the fall sorority Rush Week. Perhaps Panhellenic observed a different rush than we did. Panhellenic President Shari Mueller cheerfully reported Thursday that the week went "smoothly" and that she was pleased with the number of pledges. Of the 645 women who were rushed, Miss Mueller said, 470 pledged and 107 voluntarily dropped out. The figures compare favorably with last year's rush when 484 of the 600-plus women in rush pledged. But the figures don't tell the entire story. We've heard rumbles and grumbles about this fall's rush from all corners of the campus sorority world. Many of the grumbles were about how "unsmoothly" Rush went this year. Com- plaints ranged from Panhell's mistake in sending parties to the wrong houses at the wrong times to sending rushees on the open house rounds too early. --: The rushees. sorority members re-'---ported, were dismissed from an orienta tion session the first day 30 minutes earlier than planned so that they arrived for the first open houses 20 to 25 minutes early. Besides the grumbles about small things, however, campus sorority women have been talking about the actual ef fectiveness of Rush Week, something we haven't heard in past years. Women seemed to be more concerned this fall about the number of girls who dropped out of rush, although it was nearly the same as last year, and about the number of rushees who said they had no intention of pledging but were only looking over the houses. We've heard sorority women asking why such-and-such a bright, cut girl didn't sign a preference card and why a certain girl dropped out of rush when she had everything in her favor. Maybe the campus sorority members are waking up about something or maybe they are just talking about something they've always known the possibility that changes should be made. Surely, though, Panhellenic must have heard some of these grumbles. Surely, at least, they know about the mixed-up parties and other goofs. Surely, Panhellenic representatives, officers and directors talk to the sorority members once in awhile. If Panhellenic does know what the campus sorority women have been saying and thinking about the past Rush Week, we believe they should be investigating the matter and not simply covering up by issuing "all is well" statements. If Panhellenic hasn't heard the grurrf bles or hasn't sensed a new mood, maybe they should take a look at something be sides statistics. Tit UtliVt&Ty . btsl&teb fa 4kj-p the rE.suMfc.u ADJUST To UHP'JD UfSL ill! Dear Editor: On September 7, a group of students desiring a block of football tickets inquired at the ticket office if one person could obtain the tic kets if he had all of the identification cards and money at the time of pur chase. They were informed that sales would not start until Monday, September 11, and that ail the persons desir ing to sit together would have to be present in per son to sign for the tickets. Due to the fact that the better part of Monday morning would have to be spent standing in (another) line and most of the stu dents had classes that morn ing, the idea of getting a block was dropped and many gave up hopes of get ting a ticket at all. Wednesday's Daily Ne braskan informed us that one student could have pur chased the block after all. The quality of seats pur chased at this late date, is questionable, however, es pecially since most students purchasing tickets this fall are sitting in the north or south ends. This is just another ex ample of how students have been sold down the river by Pittenger's office. It's time the student body wake up to what's going on and de mand the good seats that Lincoln's businessmen now have. De-blocked Student Dear Editor: Since we seem forever bound like Prometheus, to the rock of a mangled cam pus, it seems imperative that someone should lay a few groundrules for opera tional counter - maneuvers against the adversary. To be an effective team, we should first understand the nature of our opponent. He is a twisting mass of mud that slithers along the ground, leaving nothing un touched except the Chan cellor's home. He is a crane so high that a thousand necks are out of joint from trying to see his top. He is a Maginot line of boards in front of the Union. He has larger tacitcal weapons than the Russkies, and more guerilla maneuvers than Victor Charlie. MacGregor Whitney Daily Nebraskan Bent, li. Utl Vl. II V.. J gecond-ctaaa postal paid it Lincoln, ftth. TELEPHONE: 4H-KM. 4TMSM. 47)-S5M. Subscription rate! r $4 per aemerter M IBr lh academic yjar. Pub lished Monday. Wednesday, Tim red e and FrMar arttg tn achaol tor. ept during vacation and nam period!, by toe student of tht UBIvrit of Nebraska undei tha Jurisdiction of tht r acuity Subeotnmltte ai State Publication, publication thai) be tre from censorship br tb Subcommittee at aar Pereoa outride toe University. Member of the Nebraska art rtenonatbit for what then cause to be printed. lac or- Member Associated Collegiate Prrts, National AdvertiMni Service, orated. Published at Room St, Nebraska Union. Lincoln. Neb.. IMi EDITORIAL STAFF Editor Brurr Gileo; Managing Editor Jack Todd: News Editor Cheryl Trltt: Nlsht New Editor Alan Plessman: editorial Page Assistant Julie Morris: Sport Editor Mark Gordon: Assistant Sports Editor Charts Davie ; gulf Writers, Dave Runtaln. Andy Corrigan, Gary Uillen. Ed Iceoogle, Dan Looker, Mick Lowe, Sheity McGaffin, Jan Parks, Toni Victor: New Assistant Kendra Newland; Senior Copv Editor Dick Tegtemeier: Copy Editor. Lynn Gotlichalk. Randy Irey, BeUy Femmore. Jim Bvinger. Jean Reynolds; Mint News Assistant. Chrta Stock well: Pnotograpners ktiaa ttayman and ban Laaeiy. Bl'SINEM STAFF Business Manager Glenn Friendts National Advertising Manager Roger Boye: production Manager Charles Baxter; Secretary Jane Boatman: Bookkeeping and Classified AUaa Brandt: Subscription Manager Jan Roast Circulation Manager Pavld Kovanaur and Gary Meyer: Sale Kaaagen Daa Crook. Ksthy Drtitb, Rick Buacfi. a Miller and Way Mole. NSA Congress Sets Liberal Reform Line By David L. Aiken Collegiate Press Service Efforts by members of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) to persuade delegates to the National Student Association Congress at College Park, Md. In August to dis band their organization did not succeed, but did serve to highlight the differences in "liberal" and "radical tactics , fof educational and social reform. The SDS members represented the "radical" extreme In th motly variety of political outlooks at the Congress. They tame to organize their own "counter-Congress" draw ing away such speakers as Andrew Kopking and James Ridgeway of the New Republic from NSA programs to speak at SDS-sponsored programs instead. They disrupted protestations that NSA had completely purged itself of all ties with the CIA. Even if there were no ties With CIA, they felt, NSA was still a "government front" because it took money from other government agen cies like the Office of Economic Opportunity and had no real autonomy with which to challenge the policies of the government. 'MEMBERS RADICAL' Many of the NSA staff members sounded just as rad ical as most of the SDS people, but wanted to work within the associaton rather than outside it. There was Mike Vozick, for example, upbraiding James Ridgeway for not knowing about NSA's efforts to help set up experimental colleges to serve as "counter-institutions" to big, impersonal universities. Fozick, who said he was one of the students who helped found SDS (itself originally an outgrowth of the Liberal Study Group formed at NSA Congresses) pointed out that NSA has "taken a leaf from the radicals' book by promoting these free universities and experimental col leges." There too was Al Milano, running a seminar on draft resistance at the Congress, who was interested in finding ways for NSA to become involved in counseling men who were "up tight" about the draft the same thing SDS is doing, he said, but presumably reaching students on campuses where SDS has no chapters. SHAKE-UP NEEDED Even Gene Groves, la&t year's president, talked about how his predecessors' "sell-out" to the CIA was just an other example of the powerlessness of students and other oppressed segments of society. A sizeable portion of the rank-and-file delegates per haps about 20 per cent seemed to think along these same radical lines about the need for fundamental shaking up in "the system," even though they chose to do their shaking in NSA rather than SDS. Most bf the delegates, however, did not seem particu larly concerned with issues much broader than gaining concessions sobti on social rules or perhaps curriculum matters from the administrations on their own campuses. They regarded the CIA link as past history and did not seem particularly interested in hearing it rehashed. SOME MODERATES These, were the moderates, who looked for ways to im prove the NSA mechanism, such as structural changes "to guarantee greater cohesion between individual cam puses and the national office." They were not as interested in the kind of drastic separation of NSA into a "union" structure alongside a re s e a r c h and services agency, which even newly elected president Ed Schwartz was backing as a long-term goal. Finally, there were the out-and-out liberals and the out-and-out conservatives. Both these groups were at the Congress to engage in the annual legislative games of seeing what can put through a liberal resolution without having it emasculated by the conservatives. They had less opportunity to engage in this sort of pol iticking than usual, since this year's national staff had de signed the Congress for more informal discussion of sub stantive issues. CHANGE IN ROLE They were almost deprived of any legislation at all to fight about when a proposal was made to pass only pro gram mandates, not "declaration and principle" state ments. This was beaten down, but the support it attracted showed that NSA is moving away from its past rote as passer of resolutions to one of more active involvement in social and educational problems. No solution seems in sight for the "liberal-versus-radical" hangup, however. The liberals followed the lead of those who are organ izing an effort to "dump LBJ" through Democratic pri maries. The radicals are more interested in building an inde pendent political action movement outside the two-party system. A great deal of common ground is found between the two groups in their ideas about what is wrong with Amer ican society. What to do about it is the problem, and "frustration" seemed to be the work on the lips of a lot of people in College Park last month. As one delegate wrote in one of the newsletters, "There is no agreement hardly even a communality of sym pathies about what will work, or even about why we should work." Political Left Nixes Third Party Presidential Ticket For '68 By The Collegiate Press Service Leaders of the American left, meeting in Chicago at a national conference on "new politics," have decided to work on local political races, rather than run their own candidate for President. Although they finally voted for the local organizing idea' advanced mainly by students for a Democratic So .ciety, the 3,600 delegates, who ranged from Young New Leftists to old-line Reform Democrats, were fairly evenly divided on the question and a third ticket may still develop. Possibly to appease the large group of "left-liberals" who favored the third ticket idea, the delegates decided to . tack on an "amendment which extolled the virtues of pos 'sible independent presidential ticket. The amendment put the convention in favor of such a ticket "in those states where local groups and organizations want to run such a .campaign and feel there is a base therefor." FEW OBJECTIONS Some delegates saw an apparent contradiction between the primary resolution and its amendment, but most 'seemed satisfied that the main focus of effort would be on 'local organizing. There would be nothing to stop coalitions tjf lovat groups from forming to back a third ticket in sev eral :ates, lioawer. Mom .if he fifort would be devoted to electoral cam piO"r r "oflv'trks ''J tate and local offices, "education :k1 t-irit awtim" e!JorK uxainit jepression of black foy.e of fiie visTAm vsr, n1 i-uilding dramatic WinUr h'iMt;out ir tic'iafur-nintf regular institutions so aj to cate rjdiual ;hoLg, uo-ops, etc." For example, former SDS Vice President Carl David son ( a former University graduate student) urged those in the white "radical" caucus to channel more energy into efforts to "radicalize" such professions! as school teachers and welfare workers and get them to align themselves with the poor people they serve. SOME ATTEMPTS MADE A number of white students have already moved into work in white communities. Some, such as those with the JOIN project in Chicago, work in "poor white" urban neighborhoods, while others, such as those with the Vietnam Summer project, attempt to reach working-class and middle-calss whites. They see the need at present as "building an organi zation (in poor area) which seeks power over the decisions of landlord, loan sharks, caseworkers, policemen . . .," as a position paper by JOIN organizer Rennie Davis and former Yale professor and pacifist Staughton Lynd phrased it. "The idea of an electoral campaign should arise organically, when people feel that there are certain prob lems which they cannot solve by other methods and can perhaps solve by electing a candidate," Davis and Lynd wrote. The opposite view was that a national "peace and freedom ticket" would offer the left "the opportunity to occupy center stage where the real debate on national and international issues takes place." This was the position outlined in a paper by Jerome Baiter of Voters for Peace in Rochester, N.Y. COMMUNIST PARTY SUPPORT The third ticket idea has the support of the handful of Communist Party members and the several dozen DuBois Club members at the conference, though these people are considered by many leftists to be too dogmatic and even old-fashioned. Both these viewpoints, however, oppose the sort of campaign that will be staged by students in the "Alter native Candidate Taskforce" (ACT"B8), announced at Au gust's National Student Association Congress. ACT'68 want to work to get good nominees by the major parties, ex pecially the Democrats. The people at the New Politics con vention had a definite lack of interest in working within either of the two national parties. Loud boos greeted Theodore Weiss, a reform Democrat from Manhattan when he pled for leftists to work within the Democratic Party. Almost as many delegates seemed to despise Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, whom many ACT '68 supporters seem to favor, as they do President Johnson. Representatives of an "RF in '68" organization were not even allowed to join the convention delegates, but had to be content with "observer" status. Although the radicals who favored local organizing were the apparent winners, it was the black militants who really dominated the conference. THREATENED WALKOUT Before the major tactical question even came up on the conference floor the blacks stages what amounted to a coup. By implying that they would walk out if their de mands were not met, they succeeded in getting the con vention to approve a list of declarations ranging from sup port for "the concept of self determination for black people" to condemnation of "the imperialistic Zionist war" in the Middle East. The latter was qualified with the disclaimer that "this condemnation does not imply anti-Semitism," but it aroused the most vehement debate of any of the points. Under the ultimatum laid down by the black caucus, the entire list of positions had to be accepted without change. It was. COUP OF VOTES One of the major financial contributors to the National Conference on New Politics, Harvard University professor Martin Peretz, reportedly left the convention because of this, saying "there is no place for people like me." The black cacus later took advantage of one provision of the 13 points, giving blacks half the membership on all the committees at the conference, to successfully demand half the votes on the plenary floor. Votes had been allotted to organizations on the basis of how many "active members" they had. Against stren uous opposition from many "radicals" and some "lib erals," the argument that black people accounted for at least half of the "active" people in the "liberation move ment" was accepted.
