PAGE 2
THE DAILY NEBRASKAN
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 30, 1969
Students' union?
Editor's Nole: The following letter was submit
ted for the Open Forum column. Answers from
Union officials to many of the complaints are on
Page 1.
Dear Sir:
'The "Student" Union, soon to be embellished
with a reflecting pool of dubious aesthetic value4"'
and certain high cost, puzzles me. Students con
sistently meet high prices and poor service at
an institution purporting to serve them. Some minor
examples: The cost of a box of tissue paper in
the Union is $.35, whereas the same box of tissue
is $.30 at the local grocery store. The cost of
a package of cigarettes similarly increases at the
Union. The student meets also predictably wretched
coffee which is to be enjoyed in marvelously
unkemipt surroundings. Tables go uncleaned even
during the slackest periods of the day. The floors
lack a modicum of hygenic care. The prices of
food items have been rasied while the quality has
diminished.
Is this the sort of service the student is entitled
to? The individual student pays $12.00 per academic
year to the Union. With the enrollment of full-time
students at 16,590, the Union is given $199,080.00
per academic year in support of its activities.
But what is the range of appeal of these activities?
Sergio Mendes is a fine musician, but the at
tendance at his concert demonstrates that few
students are able to afford between $3.75 and $4.75
per ticket, especially if they are treating dates.
Some of the money given the Union may support
the weekend film program, but this is carried
out in a theater capable of holding about 1 of
the student population. Should the other 99 of
the students pay for such obviously expensive
films? I doubt it. Does this money keep the building
open at hours convenient to the students such
as Sunday morning? No. Does it buy a series
of ludicrous grandfather clocks for the lounge of
the Union? Yes. It also pays for the color television
which daily mesmerizes hundreds of soap addicts.
Are the students paying also for the exclusive
use of the building? I see no one checking student
I.D.s on football days now should I. My point
is that the Unlen is obviously a profit-making in
stitution open to the public. As such It should
not be supported with monies taken from the
students during registration. As students we are
receiving a minimum of service in return for a
highly generous subsidy.
If we are to continue this support, the building
and its activities should be directed toward the
convenience and the enjoyment of the majority
of students not toward those of the Union ad
ministrators and a minority of students. If the
administrations of the Union and of the university
can give good reason why the present financial
support of the Union should be continued, they
are obliged to make these reasons public.
David R. Carr
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Nebraskan editorials
at
. Ron Alexander
It's high time we as students take a critical
look at the Student Union, its operations, its pro
grams, and its philosophy. Few people realize that
the Union is built by student fee money, operated
on student fee money, and that every aspect of
the Union operation is financed by part of the
$52 per semester paid in student fees and from
profit from our fee money. Almost $20 per semester
of student fees goes to the Union, the rest going
to Student Health, ASUN and other projects.
Students have representative control over the funds
of ASUN through the Senate. No such control exists
over the fee expenditures of Union and Student
Health.
The Union is run by a board composed of
four students, two faculty members, and the Direc
tor of the Union. Student members of the board
Agiiew modeled on Nixon of 50s
by Frank Manklewtcz and Tom Braden
Washington "The Vice President of the
United States should never be a nonentity," spoke
Richard Nixon when he was Vice President. "I
believe he should have a very useful job."
Granted the self-serving quality of this remark
only a Vice President as puritanical as Jqhn
Adams could tell the truth about the job it
Is unlikely that Richard Nixon is in the slightest
degree worried about the recent public performance
of Vice President Splro Agnew.
Agnew has taken his lumps from the press
and from liberals and moderates in both parties
for such affronts to good taste and the English
language as: "(The moratorium) served as an
emotional purgative for those who feel the need
to cleanse themselves ..."
It's been a long time since a high-ranking of.
flclal has spoken so scatologically. Hut he went
on. "(The moratorium was) encouraged by an ef
fete corps of Impudent snobs . . ." And "Today
we see those among us who prefer to side with
the enemy."
Thus, in one vulgarity, he not only questioned
the patriotism but also the manliness of many
of the senators over whom he presides and whose
votes he may solicit.
The following week he accused Sen. Edmund
Muskie of "playing Russian roulette" with
American foreign policy: "One does not need to
be a foreign policy expert to have common sense,"
aid Agnew. That may be true but, alas for the
Vke President, the reverse is not.
Does all this bother the President, as has been
reported? It cannot be. For when one compares
Vice President Agnew's prose with that of Vice
President Nixon, Agnew e"lrges as a latter-day
Lord Chesterfield.
It was Richard Nixon, as a candidate for Vice
President, who said of President Truman and Gov.
Adlai Stevenson that they were "traitors" and add
ed as an afterthought "to the high principles of
the Democratic Party."
And that "Mr, Truman and his associates were
primarily responsible for the unimpeded growth
of the Communist conspiracy within the United
States."
And that Adlai Stevenson held "a Ph.D. degree
from Acheson's College of Cowardly Communist
Containment the State Department." And that
Harry Truman fired Gen. Douglas MacArthur "so
that Acheson would be free to make a deal with
the Chinese Communists."
And it was Mr. Nixon as Vice President who
said "Isn't it wonderful to have a secretary of
state (John Fositer Dulles) who Isn't taken In by
the Communists?"
And "We found in
socialism In America."
Uie files a blueprint for
Mail? wmm
As Mr. Nixon was doing all this, the liberal
press was as critical as it is today of Agnew.
ahock and dismay were followed by political
analysis: "Ho does President Eisenhower no
service," was the consensus.
But the liberal consensus, as so often, was
wrong. Ills Vice President was doing Mr.
Elsenhower a considerable service. He was going
after, and nailing down, the so-called "gut Republ
ican" vote. President Elsenhower went his serene
way, above purty, and collected all the "Family
of Man" and brotherhood awards there were to
be had.
And if the Republican faithful grumbled, as
they often did, there was the Vke President to
give them the raw meat they craved. On one
occasion In 1908 he accused the Democrats of "rot
gut thinking."
Mr. Nixon's problem is not Gen. Eisenhower's:
he has the solid Republican vote, whatever tern
porary defections the ABM and Clement
Haynsworth disputes may reveal. But the election
returns of 18 showed him that it is not enough.
Henot), the so-called "Southern strategy," the
effort to capture, by word and deed, a sizable
portion of those who voted for George Wallace.
North and South. Agnew will win no awards from
the Citizens' Union (or the English teachers), the
New York Times will never praise his "moderation
and wise restraint." but the President and Atty.
Gen. John Mitchell hope he will attract enough
of the Wallace vote real and potential to
create a winning majority.
In Mr. Nixon's phrase, Agnew now has a "very
useful job."
are selected by the Union Program Council. The
program Council has the responsibility for pro
gramming which involves speakers, films, enter
tainers and the like. The students on the Union
Board are on the Program Council also.
Program Council each semester selects its own
replacements from those applying who are In turn
usually members of the previous council.
There is no election process involving the
general student population. I feel that, because
the student is left out of the selection process,
Union has cut itself away from a very important
body who would criticize its work, namely those
whom it serves.
A board that has no specific constituency to
represent is in a position to grow lazy, to back
away from inviting controversial speakers, to avoid
laovative programs which might invoke displeasure
from non-students. The laxity is amplified by
pressure from administrators who find It easier
to discourage controversial programs and speaker
requests than facing community criticism. Through
this administrative pressure, be It subtle or not,
the free platform of the university Is aborted.
So the Union programmers get Innovatively
lazy and programatically blah largely because
of the lack of student pressure the electrive process
would establish. The speaker series, the film society
and the rest of the Union programs go relatively
unevaluated over the years. No one determines
how effective the programs are or whether a new
approach might be needed. The nature of the struc.
ture Is such that few committees are eliminated,
despite the fact that some no longer serve a useful
purjwse.
Again it is important to note that the Isolation
factor is not the fault of individuals responsible
but the fault of a system which put students too
far from the deciding process as to how Union
is to spend our money.
Questions such as what speakers are to be
invited, what programs get the money, who shall
deckle what group uses Union facilities need
significant student Input at least by representation.
Simply, we need to assert our right to spend
our student fee money by creating a more directly
representative Union.
At Harvard
Crimson runs
true to name
By Rowland Evans and Robert Novak
Cambridge, Mass. The source of ap
prehension and melancholy felt by a handful of
thoughtful Harvard faculty members 13 seen in
the publication last week by the Harvard Crimson,
the student daily, of an overt incitement to riot.
Writing in the Oct. 22 Crimson, student editor
Richard E. Hyland delivered a justification for
terrorism. "The only reason I wouldn't blow up
the Center for International Affairs," Hyland began,
"is that I might get caught." From that start,
he went on to discuss fully the desirability of
violence. "If buildings begin to blow up all around,"
he concluded, "people may well ask for a new
inquest into the permanent."
The manifesto by Hyland, who doubles as
journalist and student agitator, scarcely sent
students running into Harvard Yard with dynamite
bombs. But it did heighten apprehension over next
Tuesday's (Nov. 4) assault by the Students for
a Democratic Society (SDS) on the Center for
International Affairs, which has sinned by accepting
Federal government funding of some scholarly
and often anti-military studies.
But apart from what may happen here Tuesday,
Hyland's diatribe points to longer range problems
for the nation's foremost university. Significantly,
the Crimson's call for terrorism went unchallenged
by either administration or faculty.
Consequently, the article constituted another
victory in the campaign against established
authority and legitimacy that began here last spring
with the occupation of University Hall by student
radicals. In the hangover from that violence, the
vast majority of both faculty and students have
come to regard the campus turmoil as a spectator
sport.
That creates a vacuum most suitable for the
microscopic number of student radicals typified
by Hyland. The fact they are actively opposed
by only a few faculty members (inappropriately
labelled "conservatives") poses a question mark
against the future of Harvard.
For instance, the "conservatives" feel ir
reparable damage was done to Harvard's academic
standards by last spring's hasty agreement under
pressure to creation of an Afro-American studies
department a victory for black militants more
complete than was accomplished at either Columbia
or Berkeley, where administrators were under
greater duress. Thus, Harvard is now offering a
credit course in post-conviction rights and privileges
of felons as part of the new program.
An even greater departure from academic
norms was the selection of the new Afro-American
department's head. Instead of the usual ad hoc
selection committee, black student militants had
the deciding voice.
Since no self-respecting Negro academician
would accept the post under those conditions, it
went to a non-academician: Ewart Guinier, whose
only post-graduate work was in law school and
who ran unsuccessfully for Manhattan borough
president in 1949 as candidate of the Communist
dominated American Labor party. That Guiner
should be elevated to the academic pinnacle of
a Harvard full professorship Is appalling to many
senior faculty members here.
Moreover, the events of last spring have
menanced academic freedom. At that time, a
visiting professor drastically altered a course on
prevention of urban riots because of protests by
black student militants establishing a precedent
for student censorship for academic content. Yet,
the great majority of faculty members seem
oblivious to the danger.
Nor have they fully realized what is now ob
vious to the Berkeley faculty: no matter how many
concessions are made to student radicals, there
always will be one more demand. Although Harvard
capitulated to all demands last spring, the new
fall term has opened with the call for closing
the Center for International Affairs. Once that Is
accomplished, a new demand as the basis for
agitation is a certainty.
Indeed, the SDS motive is not really that
demands be granted but to trigger a radicaBzation
of the silent majority of students the result
last spring when President Nathan Pusey called
on the police to clear University Hall of agitators.
Therefore, faculty foes of the radicals generally
oppose any forcible interference with the
demonstrators next Tuesday as playing into their
hands.
But the alternative has its price. If the radicals
are permitted to occupy the Center without in
terference, the legitimacy of authority at Harvard
will have been eroded still more deeply.
To some gloomy "conservative" faculty
members, this means the small, disorganized, fac-ctlonally-dlvlded
cadre of radicals has life-and-death
power at Harvard. That appraisal will be essentially
correct until such time as the faculty majority
jcgins to view an Invasion of University Hall or
the Center for International Affairs as Uie prelude
to an invasion of its own classrooms. It is Harvard's
misfortune that this time ia nowhere in live
foreseeable future.
VENDETTA
In case you missed it, fans, our state was
the fortunate locale of one of the most impressive
gatherings of the decade recently. A trio of na
tionally known celebrities crusaded for a better
America before cheering throngs of citizens.
No, I'm not talking about James Farmer, F.
Ie Bailey, or Shirley Chisholm. I mean Dave
Martin, Roman Ilruska, and are you ready?
Barry Goldwater. Barry Goldwatoer, whose mouth
makes Splro Agnew's look like Cal Ooolidge's. Bar.
ry Goldwater, the equalest egalitarian of all. Barry
Goldwater, who we all thought was relegated to
history's scrap heap five years ago.
Barry hasn't changed much. He still has
dreams of mushroom clouds and he still conceives
of himself as the great master of a plantation
called America, where field niggers know their
place and house niggers wait on him hand and
foot. For Barry Goldwater, the epitome of American
conservatism, knows only one set of values:
property and pride.
It's pride, you see, that's at stake In Vietnam.
"I'm for peace, but . . .." Barry says charac
teristically. Goldwater considers saving face more
important than saving legs or arms or lives. And
the worth of a man is measured by his property.
Goldwater's philosophy Implies that our basic
human rights are not intrinsic but must be earned.
by Fred Schmidt
Barry subscribes to the freedom-loving tradition
of William Howard Taft, William McKlnley. and
William the Conqueror. The best should rule, Barry
seems to be saying, and we all know who's best,
don't we?
Of course, had he been elected, Barry would
have wn the war long ago, even though it was
his own policy that Lyndon Johnson instigated
shortly after the election. Maybe poor old LBJ
just lacked that magic Goldwater touch for making
blood smell like perfume.
And you can bet your Inst dime Barrv wouldn't
have put up with any sass from students who
never earned a cent in their lives.
Instead, the nation's youth would have been
revitalized by the Young Americans Freedom while
the Nigrah problem would have been contained
by good old law and order. Inflation would have
been checked by eliminating Social Security,
thereby liquidating elderly spenders.
And In Nebraska with Marti
Ro.man It sounded as though Barry's back In the
saddle again. He may never be President but
he figures he can still save this country, yesisir
. . ... ... w qxism mm Kill IV ttIU
John Mitchell s lists of names, plus the myth of
a silent majority, and who knows? A new Atil'a
may yet arise!
