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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 24, 1975)
-if i Wednesday, September 24, 1975 page 4 daily nebraskan you get what you aiSmiinrTarrMiiM Mil wiiiiiii 1 r : i mn, wi i ii hibim i iipif 1 mm i in 1 it ' Which of us... is to do the had and dirty work for the In Juf rest-and for what pay? Who is to do the pleasant and clean Nebraska employes for example, you ni v.vrfr nnAfnrwhatnav? than you pay for. But NU employes, oe uicy work, and for what pay? J ohn Ruskin faculty members, administrators or staff, should not be doing champagne work for beer salaries. Pass the hat for your credit's sake, and pay- pay-pay! Students who are supporting themselves should Rudyard Kipling not fce spending their inflation-era wages for a deflated education. Teachers should not be facing too-full classes Ancient Axiom with too-little teaching material and supplies. You get what you pay for. vine street irregulars Law and graduate students share library policy plight By Michael Hilligoss Yossarian suggested that we meet for lunch at the Palms, where he expected, from all reports, that a tasty meal would be expertly served in a genuinely charming atmo sphere. Although the service was terrible and the fried rice a disaster, the delightful decor of the place did inspire Yossarian to dash off the following note of greeting to his comrades in the College of Law while we waited 25 minutes for our orders to be taken: Dear Law Students, Welcome to the library system at the University of Nebraska. As students within the university library family, you are now learning what most graduate students at UNL have always known-that the library system cares little about your particular needs or study habits. It was warming to see at least a token demonstration of your dissatisfaction with the change in library policy which drastically affects your study and research patterns. You made enough noise that even the Lincoln Journal took notice and sided with your cause. The Journal was at a loss to understand how a library system could deny the requests of students who wanted only the opportunity to study and do research. The Journal may not understand, but those of us who have lived with the UNL libraries as graduate students were not surprised. It is unfortunate that our library system does not plan for or take notice of variations in user needs. The opposite attitude is recommended in a Purdue University study by Philip Rzasa and John Moriarty which appeared in the November 1970 issue of College and Research Libraries. In their study, "Types and Needs of Academic Library Users," the authors suggest, "It is desirable to identify functionally different user groups, not only to gauge library effectiveness but also to guide its programs." Although graduate students and undergraduates now are lumped together in the UNL library lending code, there is evidence that these two groups have quite different library needs, just as law students have different needs. I In the study cited above, the authors reported, 'The graduate student group and the undergraduates were not homogeneous with respect to their reasons for coming to the library, nor in the library materials which they used." What is needed at UNL is the identification of special user groups combined with imaginative and comprehensive planning for their needs. The VSI is sympathetic with your library plight and lends its support. You are to be congratulated for bringing the issue of special library needs to the surface. However, we hope the special requirements of the much larger group of 3,600 graduate students are not forgotten during tho search for a solution to the needs of 470 law students. Keep up the good fight! And again, welcome to the system. ' Yossarian Researchers should not be exploring exciting new fields in old, unsafe buildings or with ancient history equipment. Monday we cited Gov. J. James Exon's senti ment that NU should be competitive with other Big 8 institutions. We took issue with that, saying this school should top the Big 8 in all areas. But that takes money, and ' NU's current financial resources are combining with other factors to push us closer to the bottom than to the top. ' Determining the areas covered in the ranking takes some guesswork, but we'd include salaries,' equipment and buildings, as well as such hard-to-define areas as academic atmosphere, chance for advancement, professional standing and prestige. Yet every year at budget time, NU's corners get cut a bit more; the Legislature puts "cash ceilings" on as many parts of the budget as possible, and Exon walls in the rest of it with line-item mortar. What Exon, the legislators and the state's tax payers don't seem to realize is that the quality of NU directly affects almost every facet of Nebraska life: agriculture, environment, urban development, criminal justice, social services, the arts, profes sional communities. . . all of these and many more depend on NU. Nebraska now is rated high in various surveys examining standards of living throughout the United States. That rating is being endangered by the state's miserly approach toward the university budget. All members of the NU community should begin, lobbying now for higher priority to be placed on the university's next budget request to the state. If we do not, we may have to change our slogan to, "Nebraska-The Average Life." 1 Rebecca Brite The Daily Nebraskan welcomes letters to the editor and guest opinions. Choices of material Eublished will be based on timeliness and originality, etters must be accompanied by 'the writer s name, but may be published under a pen name if requested. Guest opinions should be typed, triple-spaced, on nonerasable paper. They should be accompanied by the author's name, class standing and major, or occupation. All material submitted to these pages is subject to editing and condensation, and cannot be, returned to the writer. . 81000 TOO.mHY, WHAtS YOOR m , BEDHO0M EfS ? I LONS PARK MR, BIS 8R0WN EYES AND ft PLEASANT DISPOSITION. 1 4k H k.'.v-vv',. Awn, n IV f7 1 2 I WINK THE SPACE CfiOBT IS SVLL ON AWfi. L a rO (SISH) y l 1 11 it M ajority's" sense of humor ques Honed Editor's note: Art Alexander, a former ASUN senator and Abel Hall student assistant, is a senior in political science and English. , I wonder if people in this country have learned anything in trie last 15 yean. I speak to Jim Fisher and all those who consider themselves part of his "majority" (letter to the editor, Sept. 20). Many people seem to think black people were "para noid" and "hypersensitive" in their reactions to Ron Wheeler's Sept. 1 1 cartoon. I disagree. While it is true that many other group have been stereotyped in "Ralph," it must also be noted that they had every right and opportunity to respond to the jibes. .Black people responded because, unlike with the other cartoons, there is justifiable concern over whether the Sept. 11 "Ralph" was a blanket racial stereotype or the stereotyping of a segment of the black population. Unfortunately, the benefit of the doubt is not eas'ly given. Two centuries of wholesale abuse, often borderimt on genocide, are at least 200 good reasons not to give anyone the benefit of the doubt. It was not paranoia, but reason able fear, that prompted the black community's response to Wheeler 1 cartoon. The fact that the concerns of black people (as voiced both peacefully and violently throughout the sixties and seventies) have seem ngly gone unrecognized, misunder stood or ignored oy Fisher and his "majority" a tests to the continued misconception that the problem is a black problem. It is a problem with the white community and will continue to be so as long as the white community deludes itself about its black racist tendencies. ,. Fisher's comment about what minorities would 00 well" to stop doing had the disturbing air of a threat about it. It is my belief that this country was founded by "vociferous" minority which didn't seem to think thai becoming a part of the majority was a "positive goal. To me, Ms. Drite's apology was indicative of the courage to admit an error in judgment. I guess Ffcher can't identuy with that. Perhaps I lack a "keen sense of humor," but 1 can laugn at myself. My question is whether Fisher is laughing wun me or at me. I fear that, at best, he and his majority don really know.