Toward excellence
The Nebraska Higher Education Facilities
Commission recently released the results of a
study which indicate that the enrollment
pressure is being taken off Nebraska's colleges
and universities. Michael J. Winterhalter,
director of the commission, plans a series of
reports to the Unicameral, detailing his
findings.
The commission found that only 39 per
cent of Nebraska's 1972 high school seniors
were now pursuing higher education in the
"traditional" forms. Four years ago, when
most of UNL's current seniors were just
graduating from high school, 59 per cent of
those high school seniors were planning to
seek traditional higher education. Between
1S63 and 1973 the normal range of high
'tlcJ ooutetuX. vtu weee savih& 6omiuihg- about
school seniors planning to pursue higher
education has been 42 to 49 per cent.
For the purposes of the commission's
study, traditional post-high school education
is defined as four-year colleges and
universities and two-year junior colleges.
Two-year vocational-technical schools were
not included under the definition.
In addition to the lower percentage of high
school seniors going on to college, the
commission reported that there has been a
sharp decrease in the number people in the
12th grade age group. Therefore the pool
from which higher education draws its
students has grown smaller and it is expected
to continue that trend, ...
These reports, in conjunction with others
still to come, are of obvious interest to the
Legislature's education planners. Perhaps the
senators will discover that the state's
commitment to vocational-technical
institutions should be strengthened. It can
be anticipated that the study will have some
negative effects upon Nebraska's state college
and university system. Nebraska's legislators
traditionally have been very
enrollment-oriented in their approach to the
budgetary needs of the state-supported
institutions of higher learning. The size of the
student body has often had a good deal to do
with the size of the appropriation the senators
have been willing to grant
During the 1960s, it often seemed that the
business of the state's colleges and universities
was to get bigger. It now appears that the
opportunity will soon be here to get
better-for improvement to outpace the
growth of the student population. The
Legislature and all others involved in the
planning process should take advantage of this
chance to truly move toward excellence.
Tom Lansworth
Desperate Democrat dips to smear, slander
The Nebraska Young Democrats'
state convention held at Kearney last
weekend graphically symbolized to
what new lows that party has fallen.
Because the YDs had trouble coming
up with issues on which to attack the
Republicans (is it any wonder?), they
resorted to smear and slander, as is
becoming more and more the custom
of the desperate little group.
Frances Ohmstede, the Democratic
national committeewornan for
Nebraska, ir an address that will be
indelibly etched in the annals of
Nebraska political history as one of
the most vicious and fanatical speeches
of all time, managed to imply that the
responsibility for the assassination of
President John Kennedy lay in the lap
of the Republicans! Said Ohmstede:
"When the whole sordid mess
(Watergate) comes to light, I think
there will be a connection between
Watergate and the Kennedy
assassination." Naturally, she did not
elaborate.
This outrageous charge is all the
more pathetic when one considers that
not even Ohmstede's favorite
politician-Sen. George McGovern-has
dared utter such an erroneous
allegation.
Yet this was not the end of her
remarks, The party hack from Guide
Rock then went on to note that the
President's impeachment is "the only
way to retain democracy." "An end to
democracy as we know it," is
inevitable if the man in the White
House is permitted to continue in
office, she further claimed.
This, of course, is the height of
folly. Need we remind her that it was
the people of the United States,
exercising their privilege to vote in the
lamest democracy on the globe, that
barely five months ago gave President
Nixon the largest electoral mandate of
any presidential candidate since
Franklin Roosevelt? It is the people
themselves who currently voice 60 per
cent approval of the President's
iohn vihstodt
conduct in office (according to the
latest Gallup poll). And it is the people
who are siding with Nixon in his
attempts to prune the federal
bureaucracy, get governmental
spending back into line with revenues
and eliminate outmoded and wasteful
programs.
Additionally, it cannot be denied
that here in America we happen to
enjoy more civil, political, social and
economic liberties and rights than any
other people of the world.
Apparently Ohmstede does not set
much store by her Democrat
colleagues who, incidentally, control
the Congress-by margins of 10 seats
in the Senate and 50 in the House of
Representatives. Why isn't the
congressional Democratic majority
doing something about this terrible
threat to democracy she and people
like Sen. Edmund Muskie (D-Maine)
blabber about?
Frances Ohmstede's ridiculous
ravings are not something Nebraskans
will take seriously. Perhaps party
officials like the current national
committeewornan are part of the
reason why Cornhuskers are so stingy
in awarding victories to Democratic
candidates.
Letters aprxsir m the Daily Nebraskan at the editor'",
discretion. A letter's appearance is based on its t imelmess,
orrjiTalit , coherence and interest. AM letters must be
accompanied by the writer's true name, but ma be
submitted for publication under a pen name or initials. Use
of iuch letters will be determined by the editor. Brevity is
encouraged. All letters are subect to condensation and
editing.
Rotten reviews
Dear editor:
There are some critics who will go to great lengths
to point out what they have invented to be flaws m a
play, and it is crushing to thoroughly enjoy a play
and read a rotten review of it the next day. In the
past I have usually been in moderate to severe
disagreement with Jim Gray's reviews, and after
reading his slanderous interpretation of One Flew
Over the Cuckoo's Nest. I'm ready to make a few
obscene phone calls. I am not acquainted with Gray
so I don't know how many theater courses he has
yaken that make him such an expert on drama. I do
know, however, that as an average moron enjoyer of
plays I have never been so aware of the warm reaction
of an audience as I was while watching Kosmet Klub's
production,
Candy Safarik
Susan Kreifels
Law center appeal
Dear editor:
This letter is an appeal on behalf of the Southern
Poverty Law Center, which is located in Montgomery,
Ala., and whose president is Julian Bond. The center's
function is working on behalf of poor people,
particularly blacks, whose plight is partly the result of
unjust and often illegal practices of some institutions,
such as segregated private schools and private (but
state-supported and tax-exempt) white-only
orphanages. The center tries to accomplish its
objectives by bringing lawsuits against such
institutions. For example, the center has asked a
federal court to take away the tax-exempt status of
segieyated juvenile homes in Alabama; to require the
state to refer homeless children to state-supported
agencies without regard to race; and to require the
state to build or license enough shelters to care for all
dependent children who are the state's responsibility.
As things stand now, homeless black children have
nowhere to go (except to reform schools intended for
delinquents or to relatives who lack the means to
support them), There are no public child care
institutions in Alabama, and the private institutions
(some of which are church-related) do not admit
black children.
If you would like to support the efforts of the
Southern Poverty Law Center by contributing some
money (even just a dollar), please write to Julian
Bond, the Southern Poverty Law Center, Washington
Building, Montgomery, Ala, 36101 , and let him know
that you support the center's efforts and would like
to contribute money to help pay for the lawsuits the
center files. He will send you further information.
Linda Deasey
Ladely splash
Dear editor:
This comment is in reference to the "splash" you
gave Dan Ladely in the April G issue of the friday
magazine. I have nothing against Dan personally, but
woe be unto a University that places on a pedestal a
man who takes eight years to complete his bachelor's
degree.
K.R.S.
daily nebraskan
thursday.april 12, 1973
pa go 4