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THE DAILY NEBRASKAN
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 4, 1969
askan editorial page
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"A small elite group of men decided what you would or would not see on
television ..."
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Times are changing?
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by Don Stenberg
Student member, curriculum committee
Hi there, faithful readers! I'll bet you
can't wait to find out what's been going
on inside the tower, or in the smoke-filled
room (or wherever it is something
goes on) since Biology 3 sprang to life.
Please allow me then, in my humble
way, to enlighten you.
Two significant proposals received the
support of the Curriculum Committee
at the last meeting. One of the proposals
was for the establishment of a major
in Integrated Studies. The other was
a proposal fnr n mge in the group
E science requirement
The Integrated Studies program. If
approved by the faculty, will allow a
student to establish, in conjunction with
an advisor, his own major requirements.
That Is, Instead of majoring in chemistry
or English, a student miuht set up a
program In Black Studies, Russian
Culture, or any other area for which he
could find a faculty sponsor.
This program also should prove quite
useful to pre-med and pre-law students
who want to have a relatively general
background without taking a traditional
major. As the current proposal reads,
the student wishing to participate in
this program need only draw up a pro
posed course of study and find a faculty
advisor, approved by the Dean, to
sponsor the program.
The proposed change in the science
requirement was essentially that which
was introduced by the Arts and Sciences
Advisory Board. If this change is ap
proved by the faculty, the science re
John Mitchell's
by Frank Manklewlrt and Tom Rraden
Washington Atty. Gen. John Mit
chell, who came here as the tough "can
do" man of the Nixon Administration,
is rapidly destroying himself before the
eyes of colleagues who began their
Cabinet careers in his awe.
The former campaign manager has
been responsible for most of Mr. Nixon's
political mistakes, but that is a minor
problem compared to the fact that he
Is now responsible for the President's
personal embarrassment. The past, one
senses here, Is still prologue.
It begun with Muj. Gen. Carl Turner,
whom Mitchell hired as chief U.S.
marshal without the Investigation which
might have revealed that the Pentagon
was looking into allegations that he had
covered up fraud in the now-fnmous
rase of the Sergeants' King and hud
taken guns In the name of the Army
to sell for personal profit.
There followed the lame attempt to
do away with the Voting Rights Act
of 1!H5 under the guise of imposing
a nationwide standard. Leaders of both
parties virtually laughed it out of
Congress.
Then there was the Judge Clement
Haynsworth case. Almost weekly, the
President was confronted with new con
flict of interest charges, all of which
should have been uncovered by Mitchell
wtio had assured the President that the
nominee was above reproach.
Haynsworth backers in both parties
joined in blaming Mitchell for most of
their troubles.
Meantime, Mitchell had guided the
Administration Into a school-segregation
position so extreme that the President's
newly appointed Chief Justice Warren
Burger joined his colleagues in rapid
nd unanimous rebuff. The spectacle of
the U S, government pleading with the
Supreme Court to continue to delay
equal rights to Negro children in
quirement will become much more flex
ible than is currently the case.
Although a student will still be re
quired to take three courses to fulfill
the requirement, he will be able to
choose any combination of mathematics
or biological and physical sciences that
he wishes to study, the only restriction
being that he participate in at least
one course in which he does lab work.
These two proposals represent the
work of many, many hours on the part
of faculty, student, and student-faculty
committees. They have been discussed
and rewritten a number of times. The
fate of these proposals is now in the
hands of the Arts and Sciences faculty.
I hope that If there are questions
about these proposals, they will be rais
ed and resolved before the faculty
meeting, rather than allowing the work
of many months (20 months on the
Integrated Studies program and 7
months on the science requirement) to
be rejected In the heat and confusion
of a few moments.
I feel that the vote (nine to two on
the science requirement and unanimous
approval for the Integrated Studies pro
gram), of the Curriculum Committee
which is designed to represent as many
areas and factions of the faculty as
is possible, should be given a great
deal of weight and consideration when
voting on these proposals.
At this point a decision must be made.
Will the decision indicate a stagnation
of the educational system or will it
demonstrate a willingness to strive for
the improvement and the advancement
of education ut Nebraska?
star falls
Southern schools will plague t h
Republican Party for years to come.
Rut ull of this Is arguable, as political
judgment always is. Embarrassment, on
the other hand. Is not arguable. It is
the attorney general's wife. Mrs.
Mitchell, who has given the President
his first major political embarrassment.
Then, as far as the "take-a-Bolshevlk-to-luncn"
campaign went, Mitchell laid
down some ground rules. He would
prefer, he said, "academically Inclined
Marxist Communists" to "violent prone
militant radicals." and he would ex
change them gladly, two for one.
The test came swiftly. This week, ex
pressly overruling Secretary of State
William Rogers, Mitchell turned down
the visa application for U.S. travel of
Dr. George Mandel, a Belgian
philosophical Marxist who had been In
vited to repeat an earlier lecture tour
at several American universities.
Mandel. as it turns out. was a leading
Marxist critic of the Russian invasion
of Czechoslovakia, but it took mimimal
research to find that out, and research
evidently is not Mitchell's long
suit.
The attorney general may ultimately
be overruled by the courts In the Mandel
ease, as he was in the rase of the
Southern school districts. Rut a larger
test of credibility and respect lies ahead.
Mitchell despite his enormous power
Is rapidly becoming Washington
joke.
The lest. In short, Is whether a
municipal bond lawyer from Wall Street
can find happiness as the nation's chief
upholder of the Constitution. His remark
after the defeat of Judge Haynsworth
"Some Senators don't understand the
President's constitutional prerogatives"
is being widely used here as an
argument for the negative.
The big stick
being wielded
by Sen. Edmund S. Muskle
I have written and spoken many times about
the dangers of a divided countrv. After the WfiS
election I hoped that some of the bitterness had
been washed out of our system and that Americans
could talk to each other and listen to each other.
In recent weeks I have watched anger and division
rise, aided and abetted by Vice President Agnew.
When a country is torn by dissension over national
issues such as Vietnam, we need leadership dedicated
to the reduction of unnecessary differences. We need
leadership committed to the exchange of reasonable
arguments as the surest road to wisdom and national
unity.
Instead, we have an administration which talks
about unity and does all it can to drive us apart.
This is bad for our country and unhealthy for the
administration.
There is little that is constructive in conceding
the right to dissent, while heaping abuse on the heads
of those who disagree. There is little credibility In
an attitude which describes an "open administration",
while insisting that public demonstrations for ending
the war in Vietnam will have no effect on that
administration. The President and his administration
need not agree with their critics, but they ought
to be willing to listen to what the critics have
to say. None of us is infallible, and few of us are
completely fallible.
There was an ominous undercurrent in the Vice
President's attack on the news media. It was not
that all his criticisms of television news coverage
were wrong; it was the focus of his complaint, his
tone and the implications of his warning. That warn
ing was underscored by FCC Chairman Dean Burch's
direct calls to the three television network heads,
requesting copies of the transcripts of the com
mentaries following President Nixon's Nov. S ad
dress. However the White House may try to explain
the Vice President's remarks, the fact remains that
the trigger for the speech was the reaction by television
newsmen immediately following the speech. Those
comments were generally unfavorable. The White
House, quite clearly, did not want an unmanaged
reaction to a careful effort to build up support for
the President on his Vietnam posture. I think It
is reasonable to doubt that the Vice President would
(have objected to "instant analysis" had it been
favorable to the President. It is also reasonable to
assume that Mr. Burch's official interest In the
transcripts of those commentaries would not have
been very great.
It is true that the administration has not asked
for formal censorship. It has attempted something
fur more insidious: silence by intimidation.
Television coverage does need Improvement, In
cluding expanded regional coverage, greater emphasis
on In-depth reporting, and new efforts at stimulating
dialogues on issues. But I am not certain that this
would please the Vice President and his colleagues.
They obviously wished no dialogue on what the Presi
dent had to say, November 3: at least, not until
the immediate impact of the speech had passed.
I agree that we should not allow ourselves to
be molded by a small group of men in charge of
the television channels whether those men are
In the executive offices of the networks in New York,
or in the Executive Office of the President. I agree
that there should be diversity in the views presented
on television, through reporting and through com
mentary. And I hope that Americans will be listening
to those diverse views, in the White House as well
as elsewhere.
Th Itdgtr Syndic!, Inc.
The Next War
The long war had ended.
Its miseries had grown faded.
Deaf men became difficult to talk to.
Heroes became bores.
Those alchemists
Who had converted blood into gold
Had grown elderly.
But they held a meeting,
Saying.
"We think we ought
To put up tombs
Or erect altars
To those brave lads
Who were so willingly burnt,
Or blinded.
Or maimed.
Who lost all likeness to a living thing
Or were blown to bleeding patches of flesh
For our sakes.
It would look well.
Or we might educate the children."
Hut the richest of these wizards
Coughed gently,
And he said,
"I have always been to the front
In private enterprise
I yield in public spirit
To no man.
I think yours is a very good idea
A capital idea
And not too costly.
But it seems to me
That the cause for which we fought
Is again endangered.
What more fitting memorial for the fallen
Than that their children
Should fall for the same cause?"
Rushing eagerly Into the street
The kindly old gentlemen cried
To the young:
"Will you sacrifice
Through your lethargy
What your fathers died to gain?
Our cause Is in peril.
The world must be made safe for the
young!"
And the children
Went.
Osbert Sitwell (1920)
at
I went to Washington for the Nov.
15 peace march. I participated in the
October activities in Lincoln and wanted
to participate again in November.
The idea of a half-million people con
verging on Washington sounded like an
occasion of history. We were going to
tell our elected government that we
wanted an early end to the war. It
sounded like It could have been a
politically significant event In the anti
war movement.
We wanted to talk to our Individual
congressmen, hopefully to the President,
and indirectly to the people of America.
Letters were sent to our Senators and
representatives for appointments when
we arrived. We hoped to talk to them
about the war, about their feelings and
to discuss America's commitments
abroad.
When we arrived in Washington, all
of our congressmen were "out of town
for the weekend." The President who
asks us to lower our voices and talk
was barricaded behind buses in the
White House watching a football game
refusing to see any marchers or hear
any of the people. And the people of
America watched an Apollo shot.
Despite the disappointment In not
Open
Dear Editor:
The University of Nebraska is by
tradition a progressive institution with
the best educational interests of Its
students always considered in a modern
fashion.
Should anyone dispute this statement,
he has only to consult the "Family
Report" newsletter recently sent to ail
parents of students, prepared by the
propaganda branch of the university's
''monarchial administrative complex"
(the Board of Regents and Its supporting
bureaucracy) to have this statement
verified. Of course, those of us living
In subjugation, at the hands of the duly
elected and ordained members of this
"central committee" do entertain
blasphemous doubts
After reading the aforementioned
"Family Report," I have concluded that
the Board of Regents and Its helpers
have, though the years, become expert
at methods of propaganda liberally dot
ted with half-truths.
This report does have merit In that
it tells when financial assistance forms
should be submitted and lists university
oriented television viewing.
lilowever, the reed visitation Issue Is
aot pmested quite as clearly or as
truthfully as the public deserves. For
example, the proposal for visitation In
graduate dorms Is presented as a
aeboluus statement claiming greater
maturity ef graduate students as the
mala point la Its favor.
In reality, the average age of students
In graduate dorms is in the mid-twenties,
several Roman Catholic nuns reside In
these halls, and residents are exclusively
graduate students.
The lounge experiment Is outlined In
accurately, to the point that one dorm
it cays. Pound Hall, la part of the ex
periment, which it Is not. Further, it
says student assistants and floor officers
are responsible for control of behavior,
which is not necessarily the case.
Tt Issue now before the Regents is
not visits by members of opposite sexes
in dorm rooms, but who has the right
to decide whether such visits will be
allowed. Should it be decided by the
Regents, who recently toured the dorms.
PdHdoiH Kn Alexander
talking to our officials I hoped the march
would cause some thought on the part
of these Americans who still have not
thought about our Involvement in Viet
nam. We didn't succeed in starting a
debate.
All in all, I think the intention of
the march was to be a political ex
pression to our officials and our fellow
citizens. It failed because our president
and congressmen refused to talk. It fail
ed because America couldn't see beyond
the radicals and into the concerns of
those assembled peacefully.
The march became a mini-Woodstock
festival of friendship for the participants,
bewildering to the viewers.
Rut the facts of the affair become
more serious when one considers that
our officials wouldn't talk, that five
Nebraskuns were not around when ap
proximately fifty Nebraskuns came to
talk. The march speaks ill for those
newspapers who dwelt on the Inslgnlfk
cant amount of violence in Washington.
Perhaps a mass march can never
achieve satisfactory political response.
But the march served to show that our
officials are avolders and that accurate
coverage is not a thing one can expect,
particularly in our local Nebraska
papers.
Forum
or by the students who live in these
facilities? Beyond this lies the question
of who shall set rules and regulations
for any and all outslde-the-classroom
student activities.
The Regents approved creation of the
Council on Student Life, a body which
they empowered to determine and set
student social regulations. Now they ap
parently wish to take back this right
before the CSI, even can consider an
issue.
These arc the men In charge of the
I'nlverslly of Nebraska, the reverend
Board of Regents. These are not the
men I want In charge. I want men
who don't set rules en everything I
do without even listening to me. I want
men who don't follow the great
bureaucratic tradition ef Ignoring basic
lues and problems of the academic
community. The Church did this sort
or thing in the 1400 s, and look what
huppenrd to It.
We can have the right men In charge.
What we will have to do is explain
to the voters of Nebraska the real issues,
truthfully, honestly, frankly, not with
slanted propaganda. We will have to
seek out and support the kind of men
Nebraska needs on its Board of Regents.
We will have to see that voter interest
Is generated, and that the candidates
ami their qualifications are known to
the public. We will have to publicize
all facts pertinent to the election ol
five Regents in November, 1970.
Through a concerted effort on the part
of our 20.000-member political Interest
group, we can do all these things.
AUia Glesa
ASUN senator.
DAILY NEBRASKAN
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