Vet recalls Vietnam experience
by Duane Leibhart
Robert Kerrey, a 1965 UN L graduate, lost a
foot in Vietnam but returned from the war
with a Congressional Medal of Honor.
Kerrey was awarded the medal for bravery
during a search mission in the China Sea as a
Navy Seal, an underwater demolition expert.
UNMARRIED, the Vietnam veteran now
lives in Omaha.
Kerrey is working with the Nebraska Easter
Seal Society, helping in a drive for funds to
help construct a new resident camp for
handicapped children and adults.
He said a friend who is chairman of the
Society had trouble with the drive. "He took
me to the temporary camp that the
handicapped are using and showed me the
barbaric conditions there, and I agreed to help
them raise money," he said.
KERREY SAID for the price the U.S. has
paid in Vietnam, we've had "a very poor return
on the investment." Kerrey said of his part in
the war, "I feel like I had gone to a car dealer,
bought a car, took it home and found it didn't
work."
He said a lot of the anger veterans have had
over the war is realizing that they have been
"screwed," and there is a lot of doubt in their
minds as to what they were there for.
He said many war protestors think of our
front line troops as war criminals. "Contrary to
that, the people I met in my Seal team had
more human compassion than any other group
of people I have ever met", he said. "They
appreciated the value of human life."
THE VIETNAM policies of Presidents
Johnson and Nixon have left a lot to be desired,
he said.
He said Johnson chose a mass technology
move against North Vietnam but all evidence
says it's necessary to fight that enemy at their
own game with small unit guerilla warfare. He
feels Johnson and Nixon have been deceptive in
many areas.
Kerrey said he thinks there are a lot of
excellent candidates for president so far. .He
said he favors Sen. George McGovern because he
has been honest about Vietnam and the
economy, and has been non-partisan in his
criticism of Presidential candidates.
KERREY SAID he was not in Washington
D.C. this spring for the Vietnam veterans'
anti-war rally. He said he has no desire to throw
his medals away, because that wouldn't
accomplish anything. "I would polarize
opinions of people whom I might be able to
convince to call for an end to the war."
Kerrey says UNL students have changed
since he was enrolled. "They have more hair
and wear sloppier clothes", he said.
But students are more honest now and more
interested in making contact with the outside
world, he added. Students now seem to have a,
"finely developed moral conscience" and tend
to seek out injustices in our society, he said.
'-' I ' 4
ikLii J
da yl u II J
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 1971 LINCOLN, NEBRASKA VOL. 95, NO. 15
Grants encourage
teaching innovation
Army ROTC enrollment drops
Enrollment in Army ROTC is continuing on
a downward swing at the University
of Nebraska-Lincoln but the Air Force and Navy
ROTC programs seem to be enjoying an
upswing in enrollment.
Army ROTC suffered an enrollment drop
from 242 to 208 last year. And only 146 cadets
were enrolled as of September 1 this year.
Major Richard C. Skaggs, asst. professor of
military science, attributed the steady decline
of ROTC enrollment to two factors. He cited
the ROTC Revitalization Act of 1964 which
eliminated compulsory ROTC enrollment for
the first two college years.
IN ADDITION he said, the unpopularity of
the Vietnam War has had some bearing on the
number of cadets.
The decrease is not alarming, however, he
said. The UNL program is only required to
graduate 25 officers per year to maintain the
program. About 75 commissioned officers will
be graduated this year.
Only about one-third of the 1970 graduates
were called to active duty and that percentage
shrunk to 20-25 per cent for the 1971 class,
according to Skaggs. He said he foresees that
the number of officers being called to active
duty will continue to decrease as the war winds
down.
Maj. Gerard Nutting, asst. professor of
aerospace studies, cited freshman enrollment
figures as those more representative of the
trend. He said freshman Air Force ROTC
enrollment climbed from 54 in 1970 to 62 for
the current year.
NUTTING SAID it appears that the
enrollment slide has bottomed out with the
increased first year cadets and that the whole
program will see the increase after a lag of
one or two years.
Small grants to encourage
innovation and experimenta
tion in teaching programs at all
levels will be available to
students as well as faculty for
the first time this year.
The small Grant Program is
handled through the University
Teaching Council (UTC),
according to Robin West, UTC
student member. In the past
the money has assisted faculty
members in developing new
approaches to teaching, like
the replanning of Biology 1
for discovery learning, analysis
of student participation in the
grading process and
sponsorship of a seminar on
innovative methods of teaching
literature, she said.
UTC secretary Charles
Adams estimated that S15.000
is available for the program this
year. Grants usually range from
S50 to S3,000 according to
Robin.
The application for funds,
which should briefly explain
the purpose of the project, the
amount of funding requested
and how it will improve
instruction at the University,
are due Nov. 8 to Dean
Bruning, Teaching Council,
106 Love Library. Fourteen
copies of the application are
requested.
Varner adds to
pub committee
President D. B. Varner has
appointed two additional
members, to a - special
committee asked to draft
appropriate guidelines for
University of Nebraska
publications.
Those named to serve are:
Ann Pedersen, UNL, and
Richard D. Brown, UNO. Both
are members of their campus's
respective Publication Boards.
The committee was created
in response to a resolution
passed by the University of
Nebraska Board of Regents
which said that University
publications should "be
required to meet journalistic
responsibility and the code of
ethics of the working press of
Nebraska."
ASUN unanimously approves ombudsman
by Carol Strasser
ASUN will seek funds from the Administration
or the University Foundation to establish an
ombudsman office at the University.
At its meeting Wednesday. ASUN unanimously
approved the ombudsman proposal from the
Student Legal Rights Committee, and rejected an
alternate proposal for a student advocate.
According to the Legal Rights report, the
ombudsman will receive and investigate complaints
from faculty, staff and students and use persuasion
to resolve the grievances.
The report recommends that a committee of
student and non-student representatives establish
criteria for selection. Although the report doesn't
specify, it strongly recommends "that the
ombudsman be chosen from the student or faculty
population." The ombudsman would be appointed
for two years.
The report also suggests that an assistant
student ombudsman be employed part-time under
the work-study program. The ombudsman office
would be located on campus but separate from the
Nebraska Union or Administration buildings.
Although ASUN will work on original funding
of the office, the report states that "the funding of
this position should be included in the University
budget." The report recommends a salary
equivalent to that of an associate professor, about
$15,000.
John Humlicek. Legal Rights Committee
member, told the Senate that he has talked with
interim chancellor C. Peter Magrath about the
proposal and quoted the chancellor as saying. "If
there's enough interest in the ombudsman
concept, I'll find the money for it."
The Senate rejected a proposal written by Ed
Anson for a student advocate. Anson defended his
proposal to the Senate claiming that a student
would be as effective in the ombudsman position
as faculty member.
He said he has met with faculty and
administrators on the question, and "it seemed to
be the consensus that faculty don't need an
ombudsman." Anson pointed out that the faculty
have the Faculty Senate and Faculty Liaison
Committee to handle complaints.
Also present at Wednesday's meeting was Fred
Otio from the Committee for Undisrupted
Education (CUE). CUE plans to set up an
ombudsman committee of volunteers to handle
complaints. Otto said.
Otto told Senators that CUE will attempt to
publish complaints and responses in campus
publications similar to the Omaha World-Herald's
Action Line
In other action. ASUN passed a resolution
asking the Council on Student Life to investigate
"alternate structures" for the Student Health
Center, "with an eye lo establishing a University
community health service with a governing board
composed of Health Center's constituencies."
After half an hour of debate and two roll call
votes, the Senate failed to pass a resolution
criticizing Abel Hall for allowing the sign "Aggies
:tre Faggies" in its windows last weekend.
Although the majority of senators present
favored the resolution, there were enough
abstentions to kill the proposal for lack of a voting
quorum.
The resolution stated, "this body deplores the
blatant contempt for gay people as exhibited on
the east and west fronts of the top floor of Abel
Hall. ..and requests education to avoid such action
in the future."
Those in favor of the resolution said ASUN
should take a stand in support of gay liberation
and condemn that type of name-calling aimed at
any minority group. Most of those abstaining said
they felt the resolution wouldn't do any good
from a practical standpoint since Abel's staff was
handling the matter.
The Senate also voted to hold its Oct. 1 3 and
Dec. I meetings on East Campus. Because of the
Time Out conference, ASUN will not meet Oct. 6.
There are three vacant senate seats, one each
from the colleges of Arts and Sciences, Business
Administration and Home Economics. Anyone
interested should contact the ASUN office in the
Nebraska Union.
Y
k.
n
i' '.
J
Y
X -" ?
r
