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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 15, 1972)
VvVvVYt'ft tyfJV"V ?-' 10,. editorial p5fe(ni pgs Deficit dump If events continue true to recent form, it appears that students will soon be getting the short end of the stick once again. This time it looks like students may be asked to foot all or part of a $1.4 million dollar deficit incurred by some miraculous means or other by the administration. How the deficit was brought about is not exactly clear. All that has been advanced as a reason thus far is avague mumbling about lower-than-anticipated enrollment, less-than-expected registration hours, and an unexpected drop in residency requirements. It seems hard to believe, somehow, that the University under normal operations would not be able to estimate within a million dollars what its budget need be. On the other hand, it does not seem too farfetched that the University would try to pin that deficit on the students. As the single interest group in the issue among state citizens, faculty, administration and legislators-which has the least political power, it is not hard to see why a tuition hike and scholarship cuts are being perused as solutions to the deficit. Admittedly the tuition hike and scholarship slashes are just two of five ways suggested to defray the red ink. The other three ways asking the legislature for more money, using excess grant funds and reduction of spending seem less likely as courses of action, sadly enough. It seems fairly certain that the Board of Regents would not go to the Legislature to ask for more funds only months before the University budget for next year comes before that group. The regents never have had much backbone in confronting the Legislature in budgetary matters. Often where a few, well-chosen words to the Unicameral would have secured funds to improve the Univetsity, the regents have chosen a deafening silence as their mode of operation. Nor is it likely that the regents would use grant funds for immediate budgetary help. Too many of the regents view the grant as an untouchable item, not to be handled by human hands. And it would provide only temporary help. Possible, but still unlikely is that the regents would find the funds in an area where most of the deficit probably began in academic and administrative spending. Few will begrudge the University its spending in the former area. There is little data to support the idea that the University has misused any academic funding. The latter area, however, would seem to be the ideal .place tor some hatcheting at this time. Even though the Crasap Management Report claims the University is not "over administrated", it seems likely to us that if the money must be found within the University, the administrative areas are the most likely prospects for budget-slicing. To postpone roofing jobs, curtail mimeograph costs and dismiss even a few teachers would be entirely against the goals of an advancing educational system. Throwing away some red tape, on the other hand, might even be an improvement. This, certainly should be a last resort, however, And the regents will probably see it as such. Which means one thing-most likely students will, quite wrongfully, have to pay for a deficit incurred by administrative mis-estimation. And once again students will have to pay more money to get the same or less. Some things never change. Jim Gray Agnew heir apparent for 76 Now that campaign 72 is behind us, it is certainly not premature to begin speculation about who will be challenging whom come 1976. Even though the next Presidential election is not for a seemingly infinite four more years, the jockeying for partisan position has already begun in earnest. Starting with the victorious Republican Party, Vice President Spiro T. Agnew, as of now anyway, must be regarded as the leader of the GOP pack to . succeed Richard Nixon. Voters saw in the "new' Agnew of 1972 a much more moderate, mellow, restrained and independent veep compared to the harsh and divisive 1968 and 1970 model. This change was obviously anticipated as needed by the vice president in order to bolster his chances of winning the White House. On the negative side, however, are Agnew's lingering image as a bumbling bigot and political polemist of polarization, the fact that GOP moderates will be out to cut him down, and the unavoidable reality of some 20-odd primaries in which he will have to take his case to the people. Still, Agnew, as part of a competent and highly popular national administration, his immense adoration among the party rank and file developed from his constant cultivation of them while stumping john vihstodt the country for lesser GOP candidates, and the basically moderate to conservative ideology of the Republican Party will make him difficult to beat for the 1976 nomination. The most promising potential rival for Agnew is the moderate senior senator from Illinois, 53-year-old Charles Harting Percy. Polling a landslide 62.5 per cent of the vote in his re-election bid last week, higher than that of the president in Illinois, Percy represents the best hope for party moderates, liberals and disenchanted conservatives to deny Agnew the nomination. Looking towards 76, the senator is building on "people concerns"-fashioning programs in the areas of care for the elderly, consumerism, and tax reform, for example-programs to which the GOP must address itself if it wishes to elect another president. Handsome and inspirational, Percy's re-election ads proclaimed that "He is his own man . . . free to vote for you," while his blue and white buttons stated simply "proudly for Percy." To be sure, the big winner from Illinois has several liabilities. His progressive and independent voting record has not endeared him to party regulars, he occasionally appears wishy-washy and indecisive, and he will have a lot of catching up to do to build up needed contacts with the Republican organizations throughout the country. While it looks like an Agnew-Percy clash for the GOP nod as of now, there are hosts' of possible candidates' in both wings' of the party should either the' vice presldeKtVr'trie'rhfrf fVom Illinois fail. If Agnew stumbles or decides not to run (the latter a not too improbable proposition since the veep it known to have no burning ambition to become President), fellow conservatives may turn to freshman Sen. Bill Brock of Tennessee, 41, tough and bright originator and director of the gigantic Republican youth arm-the Young Voters for the President (YVP); California Gov. Ronald Regan, who by the next election would be a rather ripe 65; Conservative Sen. James Buckley of New York, perhaps a bit too bland and ideologically oriented; GOP National Chairperson Sen. Bob Dole of Kansas; Florida Sen. Robert Gurney; or Sen. John Tower of Texas. Should the candidacy of Percy somehow dematerialize as a positive moderate alternative to Agnew, there are more than enough dark horses in reserve to take up the slack. Liberal Sen. Edward Brooke of Massachusetts, the Senate's only black and fresh from a landslide re-election triumph in the only state George McGovern was able to carry, is keeping the option open, as is moderate Sen. Howard Baker of Tennessee, . probably the most progressive Republican senator from the South. t Forty-year-old Richard Lugar of Indianapolis, often heralded as Nixon's favorite mayor, is encouraging speculation by both his comments ("I'm hopeful I'll be considered for President of the U.S. in this decade." Newsweek, September 4, 1972) and his actions (He came to Miami Beach with a publicity bankroll of over $100,000, and his staff is mailing fancy multi-color brochures touting his background and qualifications to GOP hierarchy in every state. Furthermore, he is accepting speaking engagements at GOP rallies all around the country, one of them a GOP rally here in Lincoln before the spring primary.) Other possibilities include Cost of Living Council Director (and former Illinois Congressman) Donald Rumsfeld, young, charismatic, and from a strategic state; 40-year-old Oregon Sen. Bob Packwood, who upset incumbent Wayne Morse back in 1963; Michigan Gov. William Midi ken; Sen. Robert Taft, Jr. of Ohio; Connecticut Gov. Thomas Me j kill; Interior Secretary Rogers Morton; and Nelson Rockefeller of New York, who is likely to shoot for a record fifth term as the Empire State's governor in 1974. Representatives John Ashbrook and Paul McCloskey, while both winning convincing re-election victories this year, are unlikely to figure in future Presidential odds. YBE OUR LITTLE 30Y SPIBO UIU- 6Pou op spmePAYTD be. PReSlOEIOT OF THE" MATTER. OF FACT, Well. Vc. OF A6E in Then, of course, there is John Connally, former treasury secretary and more recently National Director of Democrats for Nixon. Chances are that he will be back in the administration next year, perhaps as Secretary of State or Defense. If he is to obtain the GOP nomination in 1976, the script would have it that he formally switch his party registration in late 1973 or early 1974, campaign diligently for fellow Republicans in the 1974 mid-term elections to fortify his new party credentials, and then run all out for the nomination. So while Spiro Agnew must be cautiously regarded as the favorite right now, the plethora of other conceivable candidates hardly make the 1976 fight for the GOP Presidential nomination a foregone conclusion. j page 4 daily nebraskan Wednesday, november 15, 1972