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editorial
One more time
Waverly Sen. Jerome Warner's Education
Committee Monday hosted a public hearing
on LB362. This measure, introduced by Sen.
James Dickinson of Millard, proposes that
students pay all fees on a voluntary basis.
Since the spring 1970 student protest, a
few campus groups have made the fight
against student fees their chief cause. For the
last couple of years this campaign against
student fees has appeared to be the only
reason that certain students and student
organizations remain on campus at all.
The familiar fees foes were in evidance at
Monday's forum. State and district courts
have disapproved legal petitions placed before
them by anti-fees forces. But some legislators
seem less difficult to persuade, so the state's
lawmakers again have been treated to the
opportunity to legislate a new fees policy.
The two conferences co-sponsored last
year by the Nebraska Union and ASUN are
still the center of the continuing student fees
controversy. The fall 1971 Time-Out
Conference on Human Sexuality and the
World in Revolution Conference on Justice in
America the following semester both brought
speakers to UNL who talked about things
which some people apparently did not want
to hear.
Lincolnite S.H. Brauer, who was a fleeting
candidate for the NU Board of Regents in the
1972 primary election, was one of the most
vocal opponents of the current student fees
system at Monday's committee hearing.
Brauer saw a cause-and-effect relationship
between the sexuality conference and
subsequent student demands for coed
visitation in University housing. Brauer either
does not know or chose not to mention that
the visitation issue had been a serious UNL
student concern at least since 1968.
In this testimony, Brauer went beyond the
student fees question and opposed the use of
any public facilities for any sctivity which he
termed "contrary to public decency." Besides
the obvious difficulty in determining what
qualifies as "decent," E iuer misunderstands
the nature of the Union operation. f
The Union is not a "public facility in the
sense that Brauer seems to think. The only
"public" which it must serve and answer to is
the UNL students. No public money, other
than student fees, finances its operation and
maintainence. the only tax ; money ever
appropriated to the Union was a 193 U.S.
Public Works Administration grant which was
matched by funds raised by a local bond
issue. That bond issue was retired several
years later by payments made from a fund
which was created by the establishment of
student fees.
It should be pointed out that the students
and groups opposed to student fees have
never presented their case to the student
community. They have always chosen to
carry their polemics to off-campus forums.
They evidently realize that an
overwhelming majority of UNL students agree
with the collection of these "student taxes"
which finance valuable services.
Tom Lansworth
"
Pop cup
narcs
may lurk
at UNL
bob
russell
When I was in high school, I was on
the student council. The main advantage
of student council membership was being
excused from class. We would have
meetings and plan dances. Once we tried
to get a pop machine installed in the
school, We were soon put back in our
place by the principal, who informed us
that this had been done years ago, but
that some boys had used the pop to glue
toilet paper on restroom walls. Human
nature being rather unchanging, he said,
we would just have similar and perhaps
more bizarre incidents in the future if a
pop machine was installed.
Here at UNL, if you take the average
student off the street and ask him what
ASUN is, he is likely to say "Up yours!"
It is simply unknown among students
that ASU N is our student government
ASUN has had its problems during the
past several years. Besides trying to end
the Vietnam War, racism and sexism it
also has tried to improve the student's life
by attempting to allow him to legally sell
his football ticket and records at reduced
prices. What we see here is a pure case of
.confusion. ASUN simply doesn't know
what things it should be doing.
One thing should be made clear.
ASUN, not being a sovereign nation, does
not have the right to have a standing
army or to wage war. Other than this
limitation, ASUN has no guidelines.
To find these guidelines, we will have
to examine the duties and responsibilities
of a high school student council In my
day, high school student councils planned
dances and sponsored the annual
Christmas assembly where Gideon Bibles
were passed out However, I know that
high schools now have pop machines,
thus providing expanded responsibility
for the councils in policing stray pop
cans.
There is a logical rationale behind this.
We are students. We are incompetent,
otherwise, why would we be here? To
learn about the system, we are given the
privilege of having a student council (or
ASUN, as the case may be). However,
because of our incompetence, we only
will bo allowed to make judgments, with
proper guidance from the sponsor on
trivial matters.
Therefore ASUN's duties and
responsibilities are very clear. It also
points out the lackadaisical attitude of
the present student government.
ASUN should try to gain more trivial
privileges and sponsor dances for
studenti ASUN has not sponsored a
dance in months. To enumerate a few
trivial privileges ASUN should lobby for:
-all students should have a key to the
second and third floor buttons in
Oldfather elevators.
-pop machines should be installed at
each end of each floor on campus
buildings.
-the toilet paper dispensers in the old
part of the Nebraska Union, which force
one to unroll the toilet paper backwards
because of an automatic rip-off device
after two squares in forward, should be
replaced.
-students who can provide factual
evidence of having either diarrhea or
dysentery (for example, stained
underwear) should receive a special ration
of soft toilet paper, in order to avoid a
rash after using the standard UNL paper
an inordinate number of timet
This new redefinition of ASUN's
duties puts added responsibility on the
shoulders of Chancellor James Zumberge
and his cohorts. Until now, the chancellor
has been able to spend time with his
treasured popsicle, hail and iceberg
collection, which he keeps in a
refrigerator in his office,
The chancellor now will be able to
exercise the power that all high school
principals hold dear to their hearts. He
will get to catch students going beyond
their trivial privileges.
For example, with pop machines
installed all over campus, it will mean a
great number of paper cups that are
strewn about classrooms and halls.
Zumberge could hire a corps of cup narcs
from the ranks of needy students. These
cup narcs could inform him of any
violations concerning paper cup disposal
The violator then could be apprehended
and turned over to the proper authorities.
Of course, the rest of the students can't
remain unpunished. With his master
switchboard, Zumberge could turn off
the pop machines in the offending
building for a specified time.
With such enlightened administration,
ASUN could move out of its present
credit card confusion and truly learn how
to work within the System.
t (
page 4
daily nebraskan
Wednesday, february 21, 1973
