United Appeal drive-
$11 ,000 short of goal
The Lincoln-Lancaster
United Appeal at UNL is about
$11,000 short of its projected
goal for this year, Dean Henry
Grether, campaign co-chairman
said in a recent interview.
"I'm still hopeful that we'll
top our goal," he said. "But
the campaign will close
sometime in the next couple of
weeks so if we're going to
reach it we're going to have to
do it now."
Before a last appeal letter
went out to UNL faculty and
staff last week contributions
totalled $37,039, Grether daid.
Last year $44,364 was
contributed.
Helen Glover, who is taking
the contributions, said $37,900
has been collected, counting
contributions that have come
in from the last appeal letter.
"It is slowly climbing but
I'm afraid it's not climbing fast
enough," she said.
Asked why the campaign is
having touble this year,
Grether said the wage-price
UNL's port-time students
get campus activities OK
The motion passed by the
Council of Student Life recom
mending that all regulary
enrolled students shall be
allowed to take part in
extra-curricular actvities is now
official University policy.
Former policy required that
a student be registered for 12
or more credit hours in order
to participate in
extra-curricular activities.
Interim Chancellor C. Peter
Magrath informed CSL
chairman, Franklin Eldridge,
that he has accepted CSL's
recommendations with one
modification.
Agribusiness plows under small family farms
by Bart Becker
UNL student, John K. Hansen has the cards
stacked against him. The game hasn't been going very
much in his favor for quite a while now. And he's
slowly turning over a hand that looks like aces and
eights under the barrel of an economic pistol held by
a fellow named Agribusiness.
And all he wants to do when he's finished with
college is move back to the Newman Grove farming
community in which he grew up, to work the land his
father and grandfather worked before him. That
doesn't seem as if it would present any problems.
BUT THE ODDS are against him. The Nebraska
Department of Agriculture Statistics showed the
number of farms in the state dropped from 73,000 to
71,000 between the 1970 and 1971 surveys.
According to the statistics, an average of 2,000 farms
in Nebraska have succumbed to the economic pincers
of corporation farming yearly since 1961.
The problem of the small farm has been
emphasized recently with the appointment of Earl
Butz, who some people feel represents agribusiness, as
secretary of agriculture. Although some agricultural
interest groups, including the powerful Farm Bureau,
expressed support for Butz, many other groups and
individuals voiced emphatic opposition to his
appointment.
After several weeks of debate, the Senate
Thursday confirmed the appointment of Butz by a
vote of 5 1 -44.
University of Nebraska economics professor
Wallace Peterson ticked off several reasons why it is
nearly impossible for a small family farm to continue
in operation today.
"SINCE 1947 the prices in the grocery stores have
risen about 60 per cent, Peterson said. "But the
price the farmer gets for his product has remained the
same. The only thing that has kept the small farmer
alive at all is an increase in efficiency and that can't
last forever.
"This seems unjust, with a sector of the economy
isn't rewarded for its efficiency. The trend to larger,
corporate farms needs to be checked, halted and
reversed.
Peterson said eight corporations control most of
the food processing in the U.S. and the 200 largest
corporations in the country control 60 per cent of all
the economy.
freeze might have had an
impact.
"That's just speculation,
but none of the faculty have
yet received a pay raise
although inflation has
continued," he said.
Competition with other
drives also might be a factor,
according to Grether. He said
the PACE drive is going on at
the same time as the United
Appeal drive but that he
doesn't see why people
wouldn't contribute to both.
"I really don't see why
there should be much
competition between these two
drives," he said. "Maybe I just
haven't .beat the drums hard
enough."
"I'm optimistic that the
goal will be reached," Grether
said. "The price freeze is now
off so maybe some people who
felt they couldn't contribute
before will do so now."
Contributions should be
sent to Helen Glover at the
Administration Building, room
404.
The Chancellor could have
sent the CSL action to the
Board of Regents for review.
Since the vote on the
motion was close, 8-6, and CSL
recommended that the policy
change be reviewed in one
year, Magrath said he wants to
have the policy reviewed by
the Chancellor within two
years.
According to Magrath's
letter, "This review should deal
with the impact and effects of
allowing part-time student to
participate in government -activites."
The review would
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2)
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 3,
CSL sets special open meeting
to discuss birth control book
by Carol Strasser
The Council on Student
Life will hold a special meeting
Monday to discuss whether
student fees should have been
spent to purchase the birth
control handbook distributed
in dormitories last month.
After discussing the
background of the incident in
executive session Thursday, the
Council decided the issue
should be discussed further at a
public meeting Monday at 8
p.m. in the Nebraska Union.
The Board of Regents
requested that a report on the
distribution of the handbook
be prepared for their December
meeting after Paul O'Hara,
executive director of the
Nebraska Catholic Council,
complained that the pamphlet
was forced on students.
ASUN bought 10,000
copies of the book for $500
last year and gave them to the
Association for Birth Control
to sell.
CSL-member Harry Canon,
interim associate dean of
student development, said it
may be a "wild assumption,"
but the outcome of the
Regents. investigations may be
that they impose a reviewing
board on all literature
Elton Berck, president of the Nebraska Farmer's
Union, cited the Tenneco Corp. as an example of a
corporation which has moved into the agricultural
economy. He said Tenneco owns huge amounts of
farm land which it operates purposefully at a loss to
cover tax burdens on "several hundred products"
which the company produces.
"MORE IS INVOLVED than simply farm
income," he said. "Ownership of farmland resources
can determine the politics of the country."
"The land is a resource which will never expand in
quantity. New businesses can be established but we've
got all the land now," he said.
Hansen, whose father, Merle, operates a farm in
the Newman Grove area, agreed.
"The object of any corporation is to make money.
In agriculture they have a captive consumer. People
have to buy food and the corporation can name their
own price. When the corporations own all the land
they can control he food prices.
HE ALSO SAID the government contributes to
the rise of the corporate farm by rewarding large
plots of land more than small. The government, be
said, uses food surplus to drive prices down and
contribute to the dtmise of the small farmer.
"The government should be responsible to the
D
RAW
LU
1971
LINCOLN. NEBRASKA VOL 95. NO. 49
distributed on campus.
The Office of Student
Affairs currently is charged
with reviewing any literature
that is potentially inflammatory
or which may incite violence or
destruction of property, said
Ely Meyerson, interim
executive dean of student
afairs.
Student Affairs determines
if literature or speakers on
campus violate statutory
standards, and he suggested
that "the decision was made
that (the pamphlet) isn't
pornographic."
Some issues dicussed by
CSL were whether
controversial literature should
be banned from campus,
whether birth control
information is necessary and
should be distributed to
students, whether the
pamphlet is sound and
distributed in accordance with
University policy.
In other action, CSL
accepted a proposed code of
student disciplinary procedures
which, if implemented, would
revise procedures outlined in
the Campus Handbook and
would require a change in the
Board of Regents by-laws.
Before adopting the code,
CSL voted to send the proposal
people who produce the food," he charged. "The
small farmer is more efficient. Farmers are more
efficient than the rest of the economy. And
efficiency isn't the single most important thing.
Efficiency and quality combined are."
The elimination of the small farmer may have
effects that reach unsuspecting areas. Peterson cited
two such possiblities.
"We are forcing the farmer into early unemploy
ment, early retirement and into overcrowded urban
areas," he said. "This isn't good."
"SECONDLY THE economy is shifting to a
services-orientation. Agriculture is primarily a goods
output industry. But if the people leave, no services
are needed and a region like the Great Plains is left
high and dry,"
And Hansen commented that statistics show five
to seven farmers maintain one small town business.
He said that with 2,000 farmers per year leaving the
farm, a proportional number of small-town businesses
also fail.
Peterson suggested a "national public policy
commitment designed for preserving family farming"
to stunt the growth of the corporate farm. The most
immediate way to introduce income into the farm
sector would be through a price-level raise, he said.
Berck agreed that a "national interest policy"
should be established through legislation. He cited
bills which have been introduced concurrently into
the House and Senate which would prohibit
conglomerates in agriculture.
A bitterly realistic joke sometimes makes the
rounds at a gathering of farmers.
THE JOKE INVOLVES three characters: an
investment broker, a factory owner and a farmer who
receive a million dollars each, they're asked what they
plan to do with their new-found fortunes.
"I'll invest mine on the market in stock that will
double in value by tomorrow," the broker answers.
"I'll use my million to expand my business and
add to my income," the factory owner replies.
And the farmer, with a sad smile, says, "I guess 111
just keep on farming until the million's gone."
Says John Hansen: "Farmers are simply asking for
the right to do what they want to do and what they
know how to do, and that's to grow food for other
people."
to the University attorneys for
"review and recommend
ations" to determine if due
process is being served.
The lawyers are expected to
determine if the new
procedures will be consistent
with a code of student conduct
which they are writing at the
request of CSL.
The new code would require
a change in the Regents'
by-laws since it takes final
authority for student discipline
away from the Office of
Student Affairs where it was
delegated by the Regents.
Under the proposed
procedures, the Student
Tribunal would hear a
student's case and any
sanctions.
Currently, the Student
Tribunal hears a student's case
and only makes recommend
ations to Student-Affairs.
Student Affairs has very
rarely overruled the Student
Tribunal in the last four years,
said Ron Gierhan, assistant in
the Office, but the power
exists.
The report provides that
any student accused of
misconduct which could bring
a sanction of suspension must
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