The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current, December 09, 1968, Image 1

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    Ajniversity of
o
LIBRAR
DEC
BINDING
VOL. 92, NO. $f1
MONDAY, DECEMBER 9, 1968
LINCOLN, NEBRASKA
In,
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CM reports NU Union love-in
Christmas is a ball.
by Larry Eckholt
Nebraskan Staff Writer
University officials are probing
the results and effects of what has
been labeled "Wednesday night's
love-in" in the Nebraska Union.
A spokesman for the Campus In
vestigation Agency (CIA) said that
"evidence is leading to speculation
that it was the work of hippies or
yippies."
"Look at the evidence," the
spokesman said as he released the
recently-completed report.
CONCLUSIONS by the CL
agents were based on investigation
within the confines of the newly
remodeled Union building. There
agents found:
grafitti on the walls of the main
lounge.
colored lights attached to trees
which were decorated with colorful
ornaments.
flowers which lined the main
passageway through the building.
Agents have also uncovered in
formation regarding the leader of
the group.
"HE IS KNOWN to have long,
scraggly hair and has a beard," the
report said. "He wears a red suit
with bells attached to it. He is ob
viously a suspicious character."
The leader of the group was also
termed "an outside agitator" by
the report.
"He has been traced flying over
Strategic Air Command tracking
stations over the North Pole,", it
explained.
One Union spokesman, con
sidered in some circles to be a
liberal, was not worried about this
person.
"AFTER ALL, why did we clean
out the fireplace in the Crib this
year?" he asked.
Meanwhile, Union officials are
pondering whether or not to press
charges if any of the vandals are
found.
"I would say that the place never
looked better," said one Union
employee.
He said he was tired of looking at
the drab walls of the Union during
the recent construction. He said "at
last there is something on the
walls."
ONE TOPIC of conversation is a
tree found in the cafeteria of the
building. The lights on it pulsate
like a strobe light.
"It sure looks like one of those
light shows you find at one of those
dees-co-tecks," said one custo
dian. The Wednesday night decorators
attempted to brighten the North
Entrance to the building. Although
one of the large plate glass win
dows has been replaced by a piece
of plyboard, and the rest of the
windows have not been washed
since the building was completed,
campus observers have noticed an
improvement.
OFFICIALS HAVE discovered
that the decorations are part of a
movement which professes "love"
and "peace" during this time of
year. Also, they are bracing for a
'shutdown of the University.'
"It is expected that the school
will be closed down for at least two
weeks," one administrator said.
In connection with the University
incidents, Lincoln postal officials
have warned the public about an
expected upsurge in mail from
persons connected with the "peace
movement."
"THIS MAIL should reach its
peak around Dec. 25," the state
ment read.
llf: Nil P
0
1 W t iVl
Booth: Discrimination
a problem in Lincoln
Latest
student
by John Dvorak
Nebraskan Staff Writer
"I can go into a chain store in
Harlem and buv a box of ice cream
for 79c, but in Forest Hills I can go
into the same store and buy the
same product for 59c."
It is things like this that cause
unrest among black people, ac
cording to the chairman of the New
York City Commission on Human
Rights, William H. Booth. These
things occur not only in New York
City but all over the United States
including Lincoln, Nebraska,.,
Booth's Lincoln appearance Fri
day evening in the Nebraska Union
was sponsored by the Lincoln
chapter of the National Association
for the Advancement of Colored
People and the Afro-American
Student Association.
LINCOLNITES say "we love our
blacks, our blacks are happy," but
they are not happy, they are
seething underneath, exclaimed
Booth in his fiery rhetoric.
Cjmtlnued on page .4. .
orn
amid
o
air
right
of
Housing issue Talk-in
I
An "Open Housing Talk-In" will
be held in all city campus dorm
complexes Monday at 8 p.m. to in
form students about housing
discrimination in Lincoln, ac
cording to Dan Looker, one of the
Talk-In organizers.
"Our generation has grown up
hearing about prejudice," Looker
said, "but it's usually what we see
on television and it usually happens
in the South or a large city not
here."
"WE PUT together four panels of
people who are personally involved
with Lincoln's problems and
brought them here to show the
reality of the situation that several
thousand people, who are only
minutes away from this campus,
experience," he added.
THE TALK-IN is being sponsored
by the ASUN Human Rights Com
mittee. "It hasn't been publicized
too well," Looker explained, "since
we've been spending most of our
time getting the speakers. It's quite
a group and we feel lucky to have
them all speaking at the same
time."
These are the panels and their
locations:
Ilarper-Sch ramm-Smith-
(Television Room)
Mike Shonsey ASUN Human
Rights Committee
Jim Evinger Senior Writer for
the Daily Nebraskan
Gary Hill Chairman of the City
Human Rights Commitee
Joe Butler Human Rights Ad
ministrator for the University
Abel-Sandoz (South Lounge)
Diane Theisen ASUN Human
Rights Committee, Student
Senator -
Mike Burdic Football Player,
Concerned Student
Russ Brown Associate Dean of
Student Affairs
Hugh Shanks Concerned
Citizen
Selleck Quadrangle (Cafeteria)
Jack Todd Daily Nebraskan
Editor
Nancy Nix ASUN Human
Rights Committee
John Calloway Deputy Direc
tor of Lincoln Action Progam
Sue Tidball Concerned
Citizen
Gayle Carter Concerned
Student
Cather-Pound-W.R.A. (North
Cafeteria)
Dan Looker ASUN Human
Rights Committee
Orville Jones Selleck
Quadrangle President, Concerned
Student
Gerald Henderson City Human
Rights Officer
Mrs. Hugh Shanks Concerned
Citizen
by Julie Morris
Nebraskan Staff Writer
The latest in a succession of all-University committees
to talk about student rights drew its first breath last week
in an atmosphere of skepticism and apathy.
The new Student in the Academic Community committee
(SAC) seemed, in one view, to be just another successful ad
ministration ploy to stifle student dissent.
But the committee's formation by President Joseph
Soshnik made only tiny waves on a campus preoccupied
with hour examst grade .point averages, -term, papejxand
' ChristnWglfts. -
.
ONE FACULTY member mirrored the feeling of the
season observing, "The administration could probably line
the entire Student Senate up in front of the library and shoot
them, and the student body wouldn't even notice."
The nine committee members, themselves, reflected a
spectrum of possibly irreconcilable views on everything from
the nature of their task to the importance of women's hours.
Interviews with eight of the SAC members showed a
definite division, in student thought and administrative-faculty
thought on several topics. There are four students, three
faculty members and two administrators on the committee.
Soshnik named the committee one week ago to impli
ment the Student Academic Freedom (SAF) document. His
action came in the midst of ASUN's own push for student
s group
sKepticism
time we've gone into a committee the students have been put
down." He added, however, "This committee doesn't look that
way right now." , '
Another area of disagreement among the new SAC
members is in the interpretation of ASUN's Government Bill
24. The bill, which called for student control of student fees
and rules, was passed by acclamation in the Senate.
Davis said of the bill, "My understanding was that students
said this document cannot be interpreted literally. But that
it represents a feeling and a direction."
Dr. William Colville. professor pj agronomy, sfi-.Vr -
Phillip
Crowl
John
Davis
Royce
Knapp
. ' W;
Russell
Brown
r
control of student fees and rules through Government Bill
24.
Tha faculty and administrators on the committee publicly
viewed their appointments with equaniminity and applauded
Sorhnik for his action.
John R. Davis, dean of the College of Engineering and
Architecture, said Soshnik "would have set this committee
up even if we didn't have an SAF document."
ASUN Sen. Tom Morgan said, however, that Soshnik
established the committee "In view of the fact that we were
going to call for a committee on our own."
Mike Naeve, ASUN first vice president, said, "Everyone
on that committee knows that it was formed as a reaction
to what we were doing."
The establishment of the committee by Soshnik created
a certain suspicion among some students that was reflected
by ASUN President Craig Dreeszen, also a SAC member.
Dreeszen said, "I went into our committee meeting with
the assumption that we have to remember that every other
Second SAC meeting brings little
action on student freedom issues
"would hope" that the bill was only a maneuver and is
not to be taken literally.
But Naeve said that the bill was indeed intended to
be taken literally. The provisions of the bill, he said, "are
a logical extension of the SAF document."
The task of the SAC seems to be another stumbling block
for its members.
Dreeszen was the only member interviewed who stated
specific goals he thinks the SAC should accomplish.
Dreeszen said he thinks the committee should recom
mend that representative student organizations, like AWS
and the Inter-Dormitory Associaton, be given complete
autonomy to make student rules.
The views of other committee members were more
general.
Russell Brown, asst. dean of Student Affairs, said he
thinks the SAC should "make some changes in the processes
through which student rules are arrived at." But Brown
could not make specific recommendations.
Colville said "I am not prepared to say exactly how
and where and what" student regulations should be changed.
ROYCE KNAPP, Regents professor of education and SAC
chairman, also could not specify what changes should be
made in student regulations.
The SAC members attitudes toward student voice in
University decision-making varied from Dreeszen's recom
mendation for autonomy to history chairman Crowl's referenc
to "this so-called Student Bill of Rights (the SAF document)."
Colville said, "Frankly I think there is too much emphasis
being put on women's hours and coed visitation. Students
have ways and channels of being heard that aren't being
used." Colville could not name what channels he referred
to.
Brown commented. "Students should have a voica
in the spending of money directly related to their lives."
Morgan said, "Students just don't have equitable partici
pation now."
Morgan said women students should make the decisions
Tom
Morgan
The University's new Student in
the Academic Community com
mittee (SAC) held its second
meeting Friday as the members
began comparing ideas on the
issues of student freedoms.
No resolutions, recommendations
or calls to action came out of the
two-hour meeting and, as indicated
by chairman Dr. Royve Knapp,
there may not be any for as long as
two months. A progress report is
due to President Joseph Soshnik by
mid-January.
Two members of the all-male,
nine-member committee, D x .
William Colville and Student Sen.
Bob Zueker, did not attend Friday's
session.
DISCUSSION CENTERED on the
wishes of the student body as ex
pressed in ASUN's Government Bill
24, but wandered into topics in
cluding open dorms, coed visita
tion, police powers on the campus,
the history of. universities, the
purpose of the committee and the
existing student rules.
The committee was appointed
two weeks ago by Soshnik to imple
ment the provisions of tha Student
Academic Freedom (SAF) docu
ment. A half dozen student spectators,
including three student senators
and two dormitory presidents, at
tended the meeting. The weekly
meetings, to be held at 3:30 Fridays
at the Faculty Club, are open to all
members of the University com
munity. KNAPP TOLD the committees
at the outset of Friday's meeting
that the purposes of the committee,
as explained to him by Soshnik, are
to:
"see what this University is up
to now in accomodating itself to the
SAF document."
"see if there are areas where
student involvement should be
greater or less."
The committee moved from there
to a brad discussion of campus
issues, ideas and arguments. A
snatch of the conversation ran like
this:
Craig Dreeszen, ASUN president:
"There are a series of regulations
governing this area."
Dr. Philip Crowl, chairman,
department of history: "Who
makes these regulations?"
Russell Brown, assistant deaa of
(student auairs: Lengthy cxplana-
tion of interaction of Student Af
fairs and faculty and student
groups in writing regulations.
Knapp: Example from another
university.
Crowl: "Well, as I see it, student
want freedom and the faculty
doesn't give a damn, b u t the par
ents do."
'
GROUP: GENERAL comments
and discussion of the morality of
open dormitories.
Knapp: "We cannot legislate the
morality of the students on this
campus."
Crowl: "But if a sophomore girl
gets pregnant who is
responsible."
Group aloud: She is.
iff r
' -4,
Mike
Naeve
1 f
i i
V : ' l;
. .. "j Iwi
on their hours and the decisions "shouldn't have to be approv
ed by anyone."
Chairman Knapp said "Student affairs should be ap
proached experimentally. But there is nothing that prevents
anyone in this University from asking for change."
"I always wonder, Knapp said, "why so many youth and
naive professors always claim the Establishment is 'sneaky'
or 'conspirital' when it searches for change."
THE RELATIVE conservatism or liberality of the SAC,
one of the first concerns to many students and faculty, is
almost the last thing the committee members, themselves,
want to talk about
But most of the members would rather wait and see who is
a liberal and who isn't.
Morgan observed that the ideology of the committee may
not matter at all since the final decision on SAC's recom
mendations wiQ be made, as always in the past, by the Univer
sity Regents.
According to Dreeszen, that decision by the Regents may
not be made for six months.