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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 25, 1974)
v. - V. X, V -V ' It . editorial r 9 & rWA I. Ar tVfffK - Open files: no Pandora's box In opening a student's academic files to him, Congress has not opened Pandora's box, despite the warnings of many higher-education officials. The long-overdue action is part of the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, which went into effect last week. In a measure sponsored by con servative Sen. James Buckley (R-NY), the act cuts off federal funds to any college or university which refuses studenis access to their school records. Many, college administrators contend the new law will create chaos on campuses across the nation. 'Their biggest gripe seems to be that students' letters of recommendation will become meaningless. The authors will not evaluate a student candidly, if they know he will have access to the letters, administrators say. The college officials also complain that students now can inspect their parents' income information filed with financial-aid applications, even when parents don't want such information made available to their children. Another complaint is that students who have visited college counseling services now will have access to their psychiatric and psychological records. This could damage their emotional well-being, the argument goes. Some of these complaints are based on misinformation. Others are trivial, n light of what the law wil accomplish. For instance, parents' income tax records will not be covered under the law. which stipulates that the avail able information must relate directly to tho student. Nor will patients' records be subject to student scrutiny. Psy chologists usually keep separate files. law pertains to students' person al academic files and not to college medical records. As for letters of recommendation, the author hopefully would remain as forthright in evaluating a student as he would be if the letter were confidential. Even if this is impossible, other benefits make the open files a necessity. Students' files can contain information which is misleading, maligning or simply untrue. If the student has no say about what his file contains, he can be subjected to unwarranted discrimination during his college years and afterwards. The Buckley measure originally was designed to give parents the right" to inspect their children's public school records. It allows them to challenge any information in the records'they believe is incorrect. The measure also requires parental con sent before information in school records can be released to public or private agencies or to other third parties. Most of the protesting college officials agree the provision for elementary and secondary school children is necessary. Shouldn't college students have the same protection? Regardless of a student's age. sucn secret dossiers may affect the sub ject's life, yet they are completely beyond his control. Whether they are factually correct or riddled with errors and guesswork, they become the official truth about a person and give him a permanent "character" he may not want or deserve. The provision in the education bill allowing for open academic files is a big step toward what should become a government goal: making every kind of file kept on U.S. citizens available for inspection and correction by the persons concerned. Jane Owens Americans concerned with backyard politics Mr and Mrs. John Q. Public live in their pleasant home at 111 Typical St.. Anywheresville. If you were to draw an infinite series of concentric circles around their home, you would have a fairly good map of their social and political concerns. The world may detonate or starve itself out or existence, but the average American inherently will be much more concerned with the current backyard political topic. . An example of this political axiom ( Proximity equals importance") is the case of the Boston school desegregation conflict. Since the original Supreme Court ruling back in 1954, hundreds of school districts have been ordered to desegregate. Bostonians never reacted much (aside , from a little moralistic fingerpointing at the South), either for or against the practices or principles of school desegregation. It was not a prime concern. But in 1974. when the buses rolled to desegregate their schools. ..POW! Demonstrations, rallies, angry voters, petitions any and all forms of protest were used. This is not to say the participants were right or wrong in their opinions, but why must the people wait to have a problem deposited on their doorstep before they will do anything about it? On our own doorstep, we have a similar problem in the Papio Watershed project. After the disastrous flood, of 1964. Congress authorized the Army Corps of Engineers to construct the watershed in eastern Nebraska. Since then, numerous hearings have been held, studies conducted and reports filed. Out of this emerged a proposal for the construction of 21 dams and reservoirs. f O n n mark b rosmussen n M if If H . . A JMfie avowed purpose tf this, project has bcferTTl prevent any future reoccurrence of the catastrophic loss of life and property which has resulted from past floods. During the entire time of the proposal's conceptuali zation, limited, if any, dissent was voiced. Now that the final plans have been announced, and condemnation hearings are proceeding to acquire land by Eminent Domain, the public outcry echos loudly along the Papio basin. Affected landowners have called for new hearings, new studies and more. Enormous interest centered on the election of directors for the obscure Papio Natural Resources District. Family homesteads were at stake. Somebody's ox was boing gored. Unfortunately, throughout this latest protest of the project, many of the landowners have sought paper tigers to attack. The project has been labeled as predominantly recreational in purpose and decried as a waste of precious cropland needed to feed the world's hungry. The first allegation is patently untrue. Recreational facilities have never been more than a byproduct of the watershed. As for the humanitarian appeal for the world's hungry, it is unlikely the food raised on Mr. A's farm would save more lives than the needed flood control WOUld. The residents' contentions in this area would sound more sincere had they been voiced prior to finding out their land was involved. Progress will be progress, and. rightly or wronqly the Papio project will be completed in its present form' Human nature also will continue to be human nature and social political issues forever will be just news items to most people, until they begin to knock on'thp individual's own door. If lol If ImI Pep Cs CsP 1 if Dear Editor, Is Paul Hudson for real? ("Letters to the editor," Daily Nebraskan, Nov. 13) Has he ever heard of the "Rape of the Sabine Men"? While blasting Amy Struthers, he uses the exceptional and extraordinary to justify such objection able behavior Struthers was courageous enough to complain about. Really, it is his letter which seemingly expresses some not-so-vague grudge against women. For instance, no normal, mature male is terrified at the sight of the normal female anatomy. And, even for the immature, there are the offerings of such at the Embassy Theatre or the so-called Adult Bookstores. Even in the time of Father Abraham and Moses, certain codes were invoked to prevent humans from indulging their most primitive and basest urges in defense of the common good. To be sure, defecation, urination, menstruation, parturition, douching are all, with the exception of the last named, biological animal functions. But one would hope that except under extreme duress one would not have to witness these acts in the hallway of Oldfather, at the entrance of Hamilton Hall or even in the lounge of good old Selleck. One would assume that the culprit in this instance is an adult, so it is rather doubtful that his exhibition if accepted by the subject, is going to lead to growth "into a fuller sexuality" as Hudson expects. Furthermore, Hudson is doing exactly what male chauvinists have done since the d3ys of yore He is attempting to prevent women from telling it as they see it from a woman's point-of-view. " Struthers is NOI trying to tell the story from a man's point of view, which has long been the only noint of view in human society. The person involved should not have been fired but tie certainly should have been instructed to seek professional help and not to repeat his action. Yenno Notsla page 4 daily nebraskan monday, november 25, 1974 t !tff &