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Student rights
Students pay tuition at UNL, so it follows that as
consumers of University services they are entitled to
some rights. Correct? Wrong.
In many instances the student's role as a consumer in
the education market is ignored. Students have little
self-determination or input in many aspects of the
University that vitally affect them. When University
officials turn down some student proposal for change
they often justify their action by saying the state's
taypayers wouldn't like the change and after all the
University does belong to the taxpayers.
But they forget the University also belongs to the
students.
While the taxpayer should have a definite say in how
the University is run, it does not follow that the student
should always be sacrificed to the taxpayer. The student
should have a large role in the decision making process
of the University since tuition covers from 30 to 35 per
cent of theccstsof his education and the primary reason
for the University's existence is to educate students.
Some examples in which the student's role as a
consumer is ignored:
Residence hall students have little self-determination
over their living environment despite the fact that
residence halls operate on money collected for room
and board and receive no tax support. The Board of
Regents has been blind to this fact and has repeatedly
vetoed liberalized coed visitation proposals.
The student in the classroom is often treated like a
second-class citizen, not as a paying customer. The
student usually has no say in how the class is run and is
expected to attend every class session. In addition, there
is a deadline after which time a course can not be
dropped.
Some will argue that the student, as a consumer, is
not forced to attend this university. But does this fact
give the University the right to act arbitarily once the
student signs on the dotted line?
Consumer protection is becoming a necessity in this
complex world of ours. It's time that students challenge
University officials as angry consumers and not just as
dissatisfied students.
Death's omen
It is always sad to see a newspaper die as happened
recenty when Courier 1 1, a campus weekly, announced it
was ceasing publication for financial reasons. The
Courier always made interesting reading and served a
definite purpose in providing a different viewpoint than
other campus publications.
At a time when The Daily Nebraskan's use of student
fees is under attack, the Courier's death is significant
since the weekly was a financially independent
operation.
Many people have argued that students should not be
forced to subscribe to The Daily Nebraskan and that the
newspaper should become financially independent. The
use of mandatory student fees for the newspaper is now
being challenged in Lancaster District Court.
In response to these attacks the University's
Publications Committee, which acts as publisher of The
Daily Nebraskan, is currently studying the feasibility of
making the newspaper independent.
Financial independence is a good goal to try to
achieve for The Daily Nebraskan. However, as the
experience of the Courier shows, the road to financial
, independence for a campus newspaper is a rocky one.
Gary Seacrest.
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After numerous protests a.id
arguments the University seems to be
taking at least tentative steps toward
solving the problems created by the
lack of married student housing at
UNL.
With only 57 units of married
student housing UNL finishes a poor
eighth in the Big Eight. The nearest
contender for the dubious honor of
having the smallest humber of married
student units is the University of
Kansas with 300. But, even though a
1968 report here recommended a
minimum of 400 units for married
students at UNL, the University has
consistently ignored the problem.
In the meantime, UNL's 4,000
married students have had to find
some place to live. They have
naturally gravitated to lower income
housing and helped to create an
extremely tight low-income housing
market in Lincoln, causing rents to
spiral out of the reach of many low
income people.
In the past the University has
encouraged those students who qualify
to take advantage of the low income
housing provided by the Lincoln
Housing Authority (LHA). Over 40
per cent of the LHA units are now
rented to students.
It is evident that there is a problem
and it is encouraging to see the
University begin to realize it.
At the last Board of Regents
meeting Regent Robert Prokop of
Wilber introduced a resolution calling
for the University to discourage
students from living in Lincoln's low
income housing. It also called for a
study of UNL's married student
housing needs and the possibilities for
obtaining more units.
However, Prokop withdrew his
resolution after it was announced by
administration officials that a study of
the housing problem was already
under way.
The study will consider the
present and future needs of married
students at UNL, according to.
administration sources. The study is
also considering the financial problems
involved in obtaining more married
student housing.
It was also announced that the
University is removing references to
LHA housing from the literature it
sends to perspective students. This will
presumably discourage some students
from renting LHA units.
There are bound to be many
objections if the University sets out to
obtain more married student housing.
If a significant number of students are
taken from the Lincoln housing
market the availability of low-income
housing will be greater and rents will
probably go down. This is not to the
advantage of the property owner and
there will doubtless be objections from
the city's propertied people.
But the University should not bow
to pressures and help to exploit low
income people by subsidizing high
rents. The University has a social
responsibility which extends to all
citizens of the state. Low income
people are just as important as land
owners and real estate brokers.
We now have cause to hope that the
attitude of the University has really
changed and that positive progress will
soon be made in the housing area. It is
the utmost importance that this much
needed beginning not turn out to be a
false start.
Brevity in letters is request-d sr??1 ;
Daily Nebraskan reserves the rigm :c
condense Iptters. Ail letters rrvist bv
accompanied by writer's t-iie r.,'rK ,
may be submitted for publication ii.ki...
a pen name oi initials. However, letter,
wril be printed under a pen name or
initials at the editor's i'scretion.
Dear editor.
As I was having my car filled with
gas and minding my own business the
other day, a voice called from behind
my station wagon. "You're for
McGovern, eh?" After wondering for
a split second if the young
businessman addressing me was some
sort of Orwellian "Thought Police"
agent, I realized he was referring to the
sticker on my bumper. I braced myself
for a hail of invective and asinine
questions as he walked over, but found
to my surprise that he was full of
praise for the Senator.
It seems that more and more
people--like this "Tiemann
Republican" at the filling station - are
beginning to appreciate George
McGovern's "one issue" candidacy.
That issue is much broader and more
fundamental than ending the
Indochina war and taking care of our
crying domestic needs. Embodied in it
are the need for honesty,
straightforwardness and positive action
in the highest office of this nation.
Think about it. McGovern is trying
to get elected without indebting
himself politically to big business;
without wooing the Dixie vote;
without playing up to the paranoia of
the Pentagon and the American
Legion; and without making
meaningless homilies to the type of
"law and order" that involves
redirecting law enforcement away
from eliminating crime and towards
suppressing dissent.
We've been calling for a candidate
like George McGovern for a long time.
Let's get him elected.
Andy Cunningham
Goodbye, pill: tomorrow's contraceptives
by M.J. Wilson
(Newsweek Feature Service)
It was just 10 years ago that birth control pills
were first introduced to the American -market- and
declared the ultimate in contraception. They were
supposed to be easy to use, reliable and completely
safe.
But it was only a few months before the Piil was
discovered to have some critical flaws: it was east to
forget to take, occasionally unreliable and definitely
unsafe for certain women.
So for a decade, drug firms and the government
have been spending millions of dollars on a research
campaign to find an alternative to the Pill and its
equally dubious counterpart, the intrauterine device
(IUD).
Now, scientists say, it appears that just such a
breakthrough may be right on the horizon. In fact, so
many new contraceptive techniques are being tested
on humans that many scientists are predicting that at
least a couple of brand new, safe, reliable and
easy-to-use devices will be marketed within a year.
The one closest to final success is another pill,
known informally as the "mini pill." Like current
pills, it must be taken every day. The difference is
that the min pill does not affect ovulation. Rather, it
seems to change the makeup of the mucus in the
THE DAILY NEBRASKAN
cervix so as to stop sperm from entering the uterus.
So far, doctors have found in the mini-pill none of
the damaging side effects that have plagued users of
the Pill.
Other promising newcomers involve drugs,
hormones, rings, tubes and plugs-all of which prevent
conception in a variety of ways. Some kill sperm,
some prevent fertilized eggs from fastening
themselves to the wall of the uterus and some even
act as quick and painless abortive agents.
For instance, two new techniques may end the
danger of a woman forgetting to take her pill. In one,
a tube of Silastic plastic is implanted under the skin
of the forearm. It contains the synthetic
contraceptive hormone progestin which constantly
seeps in the bloodstream at the proper rate and lasts
for a year.
The other features a ring full of progestin that is
placed in the vagina and is removed every month to
permit a regular period.
There is also a new kind of IUD called a "copper
T"; the properties of the copper prevent conception
for reasons researchers are unable to explain, as yet.
And there is also a new drug that brings on a
menstrual period every month, even if the woman has
become pregnant, so any fertilized eggs have no
chance of staying attached to the uterus.
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 20, 1971
Beyond that, there are drugs that should allay the
fears of the most forgetful woman--"morning after"
pills, containing synthetic estrogen, which apparently
accelerate the passage of eggs through the Fallopian
tubes to such a rate that they have no time to be
fertilized before reaching the uterus.
Even if a woman forgets to take any birth-control
precautions, scientists think they will soon have
"fail-safe" drugs that can be taken just after the first
period is missed. These are called prostinoids and
they seem to induce abortions when the embryo
barely exists as a jumble of cells.
Prostinoids are already being used in Britain,
Sweden and Uganda with success and without side
effects.
The ultimate form of contraception, of course is
sterilization, but it is a tough concept to peddle.
Many men have fears of losing their virility -and both
men and women hesitate to take such a final step.
Researchers are working on a birth-control pill for
men. But there seems to be greater promise in efforts
to remove the finality from sterilization: giving men
the chance to change their minds.
The normal method of male sterilization involves
snipping the tubes that carry sperm; but the process is
irreversible. Now, scientists are experimenting with
tiny plastic plugs that can be used to block off the
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 20, 1971
tubes. If a man later wants to have children, the plugs
can be removed easily.
Men already have one way to change their minds.
If they don't want to have children now but are not
sure about, say, six or eight years from now, they can
deposit their sperm in sperm "banks" before they
have a vasectomy. Frozen sperm remains fertile for at
least 10 years and perhaps as long as 20 years.
Curiously enough, one of the most dramatic
developments in birth control involves the technique
that has always been least reliable of all: the rhythm
method. In the past, doctors figured that, at most, 6
out of 10 women could count on rhythm to work.
Recently, though, two Illinois doctors have come
up with a simple saliva test that has so far proven
nearly infallible.
Because a woman's body chemistry changes just
before ovulation and the change registers in her saliva,
it is possible to tell whether she is about to ovulate by
placing a piece of treated paper in her mouth for a
few moments each day. When she is about to ovulate
the paper turns blue and she knows to abstain from
intercourse for five to seven days.
So far, according to a California gynecologist who
has tried the test on 700 women, "we have had no
case where someone conceived vhen the test did not
show ovulation."
THE DAILY NEBRASKAN
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