thursday, September 1 , .1 977
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daily nebraskan
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Jack Baier should have been clanging cymbals
and beating drums so everybody could hear what
he has to say as he leaves UNL.
Baier, who has been acting dean of student
development, told the Daily Nebraskan in
Monday's issue that he was leaving for Texas
Tech for more money and more stability.
The new twist to his departure was the stability
question,, , -.V
"It makes it so hard to plan beyond one year
when you don't know if you're going to be here,''
Baier said. "Such an unstable environment is
not good for retaining forward-planning, goal
oriented people.", 1
He also noted the NU tendency to look else
where for administrators. ,
, " "The administration will conduct a year-long
national search, looking for one Utopian person
to fill a position, and then they end up by
appointing a person who was already here."
This is the stuff of which an exodus is made.
Baier's complaints are not new. An NU admin
istrator exodus has claimed more than 15 top
level people since 1973. Most left for better jobs
and higher pay.
But the rumblings of discontent in the NU
system have been brewing since the first of the
resignations.
On the record, those leaving have few
complaints. Baier may be the first to openly voice
what has been a common concern. Not for
attribution, some of those leaving said some sur
prising things. .
At least one top campus official, "unofficially
was displeased with the systems concept. .
Others left after being rejected tor jobs they
had sought in favor of administrators brought
in from elsewhere.
The choices may have been the best. But the
problem is despair among local administrators
who want to advance.
The consequence: they leave.
There is a bright spot about the exodus: it
seems to be slowing. We hope Baier's departure '
is the last in the series which prompted concern.
There have been fewer departures this summer
than last.
Normal turnover is expected. As others left,
they publicly said their leaving was just normal
turnover. Baier is the first to publicly tie the
others moving to his leaving.
We have confidence, however, in Roskens,
UNL Chancellor Roy Young, and some of those
replacements. They must, and we believe they
, will, eliminate the rats-leaving-the-sinking-ship
syndrome. If the door continues to revolve with
people coming and going, the university will
suffer.
Tough
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Washington-Outgoing FBI Director Clarence Kelley is
calm and humorous these bittersweet September Days.
When you ask him what advice he would give his
successor, he says jovially, "Learn how to duck."
He is reflective, not angry, at the criticism he often has
received, but knows the one thing he definitely would do
again.
"Those valances," he said, laughing. "Those damned
valances. If I'd known then
He is referring, of course, to the window valances made
for him by the FBI. In an age of nitpicking morality the
valances became a cause celebre against the then-new
director.
But what does Clarence Kelley, the tough Kansas City
police chief brought in at the key moment in FBI history,
knew now? What are his answers to criticisms he just
hasn't used the necessary force to cleanse the bureau?
First interview
In the first interview given since Alabama Judge Frank
Johnson Jr. was named FBI Director last week, Kelley
answered at least three of the most important outstanding
questions.
Why had he not cleaned house of some of the more
avid of the old Hoover palace guard, whom many feel
have sabotaged his efforts? "
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"My attitude is you don't fire people who are good,
you change their attitudes. They're not venal, not at cross
purposes. There was no necessity to dump people just to
dump them. No need for a cosmetic type of change."
Were actions such as surreptitious entries, approved by
higher-ups?
"My conclusions on the Hoover years are that things
just grew," he said. "It became necessary to take the bull
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Ah, summer: writing for fun, profit
While you spent an uneventful summer in Seneca or
Springview, many Daily Nebraskan writers led exciting
lives as professional journalists.
I, for example, free-lanced. I was tempted to sign a
contract;lcfaf Z?er magazine offered me gift certificates
to a local adult bookstore in exchange for several articles.
Despite this lucrative proposition I decided I was too
inexperienced. Instead, I wrote several , articles for
women's magazines. You might have read my "Fun
Fashions for the Nude Beach" and "The Next Use For
Vitamin E: Birth Control."
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As I scoured Lincoln in search of material I noticed
many of the better gardens. A patch of marijuana flourish,
cd at a campus chapd-uniil harvest time.
As a divcrsiou from the rigors cf writing I attended
free pop concerts. My enthusiasm was stifled by tlie irony
pf the setting. As the band swung into a rendition of
"America the Beautiful," a train roared behind the
bandstand, drowning out the music.
Nevertheless, I remained amused thanks to letters
from Grandma. Collected, these notes might be called
"The Saga of the German Shepherd." Recently, Grandma
discovered that Raven, her watchdog, had been blind for
severa! years. She tried a smaller dog, but gave up when it
ate only Meow-Meow Cat Food.
She bought a new police dog named Muffins. It quickly
disappointed Granny by scarfing 3 12 ozs. of Vaseline.
4t least Muffins has a well-lubed bark.
The dog compounded Grandma's worries. Summer it
self is cause for concern, according to her: the hot
summer sun causes sunstroke! "Always wear a hat,"
she warns. Even on her short treks to the clothesline, my
Grandma covers her head with a newspaper to prevent
sunstroke.
Her worries increased after watching a recent news
program that featured a report on child pornography. She
wrote, alerting me of the danger. "Next time you hitchike
to San Francisco, be careful! They'll put you in those
movies."
Thank you, Grandma, for giving me something to
think about besides women's fashions and hairstyles.
by the horns. There was.no accompanying intent to vio,
late the law. My personal opinion is that everything
was approved by higher authorities. This was not a
runaway, maverick type of operation.
Someday
"Someday, I think we will know everything, but I
don't know if it will come soon."
How did it come about that the top law officer in the
United States at one point said he was deceived by his
own men in the case of whether there had been surrep.
titious entries beyond a certain date?
"It sounds strange you don't know about your own
people," he said, "but I made the choice of having
someone outside do it (make investigations into these
entries) in which case I would not know about it." In
effect the Justice Deptarment took over the iikvestigations
into the entries and Kelley, by his own desire, was not
told of developments.
Perhaps what got Kelley into hot water at times is that
he talks with purest fervor, not about the Hoover years
(the abuses of which he has publicly apologized for), but
about restructuring the bureau.
Internal retorm
He waxes eloquent on his programs like participatory
management, career development and hitting quality
esses massively. What you realize is that these programs of
internal reform are his answer to the political abuses of
the past.
This process, if it works, will establish a new structured
legality within an organization that, despite its heroic
cast, had plenty of the rest of society's back-scratching
and favoritism in it.
It is not sexy stuff. Ours is a society that likes either
homesy or angry rhetoric. By the time we realize the
rhetoric has done nothing, it's too late.
So this will probably go down as the saga of Clarence
Kelley, "In years past, this has been a very autocratic
organization," he said. "People have said to me, 'Why
don't you just say autocratically, do it?' "
Yet, had he taken the autocratic route, he would have
continued the way that J. Edgar Hoover today is so
bitterly criticized for.
September Days
September Days. The time is going fast. He seems
genuinely to like Jus successor. "The right balance?" he
says of Judge Johnson. "I do sincerely think so. It appears
to me a good background to have such an intimate know
ledge of the law and the Constitution.
It is a good thing, too, to have the background of
association with agents. He does feel the law is
paramount, and he makes firm decisions and stands by
them. In particular, he is not afraid to make them. He
comes in with a very fine background."
Kelley thinks Johnson's biggest task will be shepherd
ing through the immediate future the changes akeady
made, and making his own. "You don't know how trau
matic was the idea of change here," he said.
As for Clarence Kelley, it may be almost September,
but iff certainly not December. No fading away. Ik
Intends to write a couple of books; he is considering an
open-ended teaching job at the University of Alabama
at Birmingham and he intends to practice law here and in
Missouri.
When the final rolls of history come in, it will be fas
cinating to see how this low-key, dogged man rales next
to the angry young men our society so oftcn-snd so
mistakcrjy-rcvcrcs.
Copyright 1977, tc: Aigltl Timei Syndicate