The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current, October 24, 1974, Page page 4, Image 4
' - - mi mi i ii in it ' it - ir in ir tiir r - n rrnnTu nimr mi r i ' ' ' - 7 7 i niTimm-Tin rFiT iTrnrnriifi atimiiw I hi eat JH l" ltii:liriilMinrillitl-i1ilT-T -mMMm-Hm- J " " " " " "' fr,.VAW, '::, : . ... -'' ','', V . : . ''-: ' 7 ' ' '',,', o f H " ' ' , LOW BEEF PRtD -UM10NM FARMERS ORGA! 4 1 Student participation ignored in proposed bylaws The proposed UNL Bylaws have at least one major flawstudents too often must fill the role of spectators. Instead of participating in several impor tant campus decisions affecting them, stu dents evidently should be content to sit back and watch the faculty and administration wield their authority. For example, the University president must ask a Faculty-Senate committee for its approval before he names an acting UNL chancellor, according to the proposed bylaws. No mention is made of seeking students' approval. Another example is the Academic Planning Committee, which recommends changes in UNL's education, research and service programs. Before these changes are made, the Faculty Senate must approve methods to be used, the proposal says. Again, students' views are overlooked. The proposed bylaws also say faculty and ;ork oqe-ther on a academic with this administration should continuing basis to pi an UNL's future. Shouldn't students help planning as well? Yet another example of the forgotten student is the Research Council. The council, which promotes research at UNL, should consist of eight faculty members, according uato students, annougn e reosarch at UNL, to the proposal. Gradi they do a large part of V, are not on the council. proposal does .Uity urn' say that staff, should 1 The bo:yd The bylaws ilUUfcTUS, do Wen cJb !a be on the Fee Allocati decides how students fees should be spent. However, the proposal docs not say how many board members should come from each of these three groups. Because the fees are paid by students, students should have the most say in deciding how they arc ;pcnt. The bylaws need to state the number of students who should be on the board to insure they continue to have the greatest representation. These examples point to a prevailing attitude held on campusthe belief that students should not have much to say about the quality of education here. UNL Chancellor James Zumberge will present the proposed bylaws to the Board of Regents in November. He now is reviewing the changes campus groups have suggested. Hopefully, Zumberge will agree with the recommendations made by ASUN execu tives. They would put students on several faculty and -staff committees and would require that students be consulted before many campus decisions are made. A university's main goal is to educate students. Those students should help decide just how they want to be educated. Jane Owens Nation has postcrisis optimism After long anguish over the Vietnam War, student unrest, race riots and whatever else we pass off to the Decadent '60s, topped off by the Watergate crisis, I'm more than V -d to s a big smile return to America's face. "The American psyche bac- httvii under qreat strain,'' said noted psycholoc,;?' Dr, Mindover Matter, who handled the Grange U.G .A .case- lor years. Matter just released a book about trm country and the 16 or so conflicting identities it divided into in the '60s 'and early 70s college students, over - 3Us, blacks, bigots, hippies, VTWi. . . . "But the patient is fully recovered and back to its old self," he assured me. "Now it just thinks it's one personPolyanna." So once again we can don our ro:-eo!ored glasses, put up homecoming display;, read Horatio Aigier's biography and International. join' Optimist noncy scohs Sj Sej s But I don't know ... it seems it's harder, m be an optimist these days. Without something likA an uniust war or a corrupt national leader to protest, we seem to be suffering withdrawal symptoms. College students, the intellectual force behind the new movement, have named it "negative positivism." Nightly, all over the country, mey gatner at me s with their W.I. M. buttons (What s it Matter) to discuss the latest minor crises that haven't occurred and what they're not going to do about them.. When I arrived at a UNL bar, tbyy were beginning a beer chugging contest ever how many problems they could deny in one gulp (denying of course that the alcohol and ciqarets were harming their health). "I win! I win!" screamed one contestant, who just finished off inflation, busing kidnap'ngs, and world Hunger as Lommuni prupagiu. piw;. Su e th Vou're disquanfK. 'Not with a dirty word said a co f league He turned to me. "That's" what siio. You see, inflation doesn't Ford's "WIN" plan can't either.' y..u den't," ii a f-crdkn in He told me he's a judge for a select club that meets weekly to practice the art of negative rhetoric. "For example, you can't say, 'I'm not worried about rising crime, because that presup poses H$ -existence, and people get uptight," he said, fheir leader is a guy named Doubting Tom, a real professional who has it in for anything negative, so much that someone else has to subtract the checks in his checkbook; Last week he was arrested for placing a vertical beam against all the horizu.it-! road blocks in the city to make them into plus signs. One time I noticed students just sat around smilmg at each other, feeling optimistic, until someone interjected, "Don't you think it's about time we don't do something about the energy crisis that doesn't exist?" "What more can't I do?" asked someone. Already I'm driving 75 miles per hour on the interstate, leaving my lights on all night, playing my stereo along with my radio and TV." In one corner a poker game was turning to national issues, "I'll see your disbelief in fuel shortages and raise you SO more over rumors about our weakening prestige abroad," one player said. "And I bet wn all come out richer in the end." I was pleased to see my peers so interested in ' world affairs - whoops, uninterested in un-affairs. That's why t's almost ashamed that when the old TV violence subject came up, and they commented how relieved they were to have the war and Kent State behind us, that I brought up item? I'd recently rext: slaughtering of innocent people tn a bakery ho!dup; Boston junior high students attacking each other over integration; inmates setting 'ire to a prison building . . And yt.-t I wondered: Is reacting with such complacency now that several extreme crises are over , really so wise when just as serious though less obvious problems presist? Problems that maybe don't effect us so directly, or singly as a nabon? Bat one proline r.tucicm, with tho inspiring aura of a preacher, assured me: "Don't worrv. man Don't you know it's better to live than to believe?" page 4 thursday, October 24, 1974 40k, 4- A .