RAPPING
Dear Editor:
I'd like to respond to H. R. Everett's letter in the February
27th, Daily Nebraskan. I'm going to refrain, however, from
answering the ill-founded, ridiculous charges and insults directed
both at the students and Adam Clayton Powell and concern
myself with what I feel provoked the letter - that being
the Union speaker program.
First I'd like to straighten out one thing. Even though
the University is tax-supported, no tax money Is used to
finance any Union-sponsored speaker. The speakers are paid
for by the students themselves through student fees.
IT WAS mentioned In the letter that we have not brought
in one laudable speaker in the last two or three years. Well,
in the last 2 years, writer, George Plimpton; lawyer, F. Lee
Bailey; news announcer, Sander Vanocur; politician, Julian
Bond; and ex-Prime Minister of Northern Ireland, Terrance
O'Neill, have spoken on our campus, courtesy of Union.
If there is not one laudable speaker on that list I guess
it's time I consulted Webster for the new definition of laudable.
WE IN UNION have tried to plan a well-balanced speaker
program reasoning that one cannot intelligently and objectively
form his own opinions until he has learned both sides of the fence.
I think you'll agree that bringing in only men like Hruska
or Batchelder as speakers would be just as detrimental and
harmful to objective opinion formation as would sponsoring
only men like Powell or Dick Gregory. A combination of
both types has been our goal.
It's somewhat of a pleasure to hear II. R. Everett's com-
ments about Adam Clayton Powell. Evidently Powell stimulated
some thought and re-examination of ideas and values of so
meone. Bob Pfeiffer
Pres. East Uuion
Editor:
Discrimination? Segregation? Sure, but I'm beginning to
wonder just who is discriminating against whom.
Blacks are people that's all. If they want to be Greek
they should be admitted or rejected by the same standards
as whites, or the standards should be changed for everyone.
BLACKS SHOULD not be pledged because they are black.
That is just like saying, "We have our pompon girl, our
tassel, our beauty queen and our black."
I can speak only for my house; we have tried to get
the black students to come and speak to us and to explain
their position while we explain ours. We were told that they
were no longer interested in discussion.
If a black came to our house during rush she would
be treated like anyone else. We have no discrimination when
it conies to grades, activities, character and personality.
OF COURSE I realize there has been discrimination against
blacks in the past, but to put down the Greek system because
of past mistakes is, in my opinion, a narrow-minded,
discriminatory position on the part of the black students.
Why don't you rise to the challenge and meet us half-way?
Charol Smith
r
HIP
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In the Ivory Flower
by Steve Tiwalcl
Educational reform is a very
broad term encompassing the
whole process of socialization
that occurs through the educa
tional system. The socialization
starts when a person is just a
few years old and continues
after his formal education is
completed.
There Is no doubt that
educational reform is badly
needed, simply because society
Is changing, people are
changing and they have dif
ferent needs than people of SO,
20, or even 10 years ago.
I COULD write pages about
this university in particular,
detailing the structural ineffi
ciencies, outdated teaching
methods, Irrelevant curricula,
etc. etc., but I don't have
enough space here.
Supposedly, wwk Is being
done toward Improvement in
these areas by the Teaching
Council, the college advisory
boards, and various Faculty
Senate and Student Senate
education committees.
MEANWHILE, what do we
do? Many students are in
terested in learning, but find
themselves stifled by the
present system. There Is an
alternative. It is not a complete
alternative because it doesn't
hand out diplomas or satisfy
the Selective Service System,
but the Nebraska Free
University does provide
student-centered learning that
the regular university lacks.
The purpose of the Free
University is related well in the
NFU statement:
"OUR TURPOSE is simple.
As stated by education
reformer Johann Amos Com
cnlus, 'I seek a method by
which teachers teach less and
the learners learn more. The
NFU sees education in terms of
striving for Increased
awareness, both of one's self
and one's world; and of helping
to establish a constructive
relationship between the two.
To this end we have no need
for grades, requirements,
credit, or exams.
Nor is the concept of free
university graduation viable,
for (unlike the other large
university In Lincoln) we do not
presume to be able to certify
someone 'educated'.
RATHER we seek a personal
educational process, continuing
far beyond the land of tests and
grades."
While students actively work
for education reform In the
regular university, they should
take advantage of this
alternative structure.
PAGE 5
THURSDAY, MARCH 5, 1970
