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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 21, 1977)
uckley: conservative philosophy suffers blows from left and riaht By Rex Henderson William F. Buckley Jr. focused in a speech Tuesday night in the Nebraska Union on the reasons the conser vative philosophy has suffered recently. Buckley appeared to leave the UNL student audience scratching their heads after his display of a prodigious vocabulary and insight into history, philosophy, econo mics and literature." Many students glanced nervously among themselves when Buckley made comments like, "We should examine the civil consequences of the pursuit of Utopia as it bundles us down the road to serfdome, making music of abundance, justice and joy." Buckley presented four basic reasons for the decline of conservatism. The academic community was one of Buck ley's targets. 1 ' . Buckley commented on the amount of criticisms academics devote to conservatives. "One wonders where the complementary academic criticism is when Senator (Edward) Kennedy makes his characteristic economic statements," he said. However, Buckley said the intellectual and histor ical case against socialism is strengthening. Buckley also criticized those in control of capitalism. "The alleged intellectual inferiority of capitalists is less a factor than the moral vacuity of capitalists," he said. . Buckley said that the "predatory nature of their belief in the market place" damages the capitalist cause. " ' Buckley cited the example of the sale of instruments of political repression manufactured in the United States and sold to the U.S.S.R. Buckley characterized capitalists as "a class of self conscious men benumbed by two generations of con tempt heaped on' them by acamedicians and poets." Buckley then suggested "the use of . humanitarian cliches should be regulated." He used the example of the phrase "profiteering from human suffering" as one he had heard used in argu ing for socialized medicine. He said it was misleading. . Based on those slogans, morticians industry also should be nationalized, Buckley said. Finally he argues that Americans are "losing sight of the case for human freedom and the relevance of the marketplace to human freedom." Buckley also discussed current political issues in a press conference before the lecture. On the Bert Lance affair, Buckley said that Lance's chances of survival are better than they were a week ago. He said that President Carter "is a highly political man and is going to wait for public reaction before taking any action." He also compared the problems of the Carter adminis tration to those of former President Gerald Ford. "The sluggishness of the Carter administration is of a different character than that of Ford's," Buckley said. Carter's sluggishness is "an inability to catalyze ideals which were explicitly stated. Ford was not expected to come forward with original ideas," Buckley said. '- -' '" ' ' - ,.-n.Li..,..i..J... i..-i..-V'1-n m ". - ! -I I: , . - Photo by Ted Kirk Conservative lecturer William F. Buckley d Wednesday, September 21, 1977 vol.101 no. 12 lincoln, nebraska ''' ' .i''ttrl ' , . . X ' f A :"-.f i. ':-::. ' S ' X ' u . ' ' has few remedial courses NU Photo by Ted Kirk NU Regent Robert Simmons By Mary Jo Pitzl NU regent Robert Simmons' suggestion that the univer-' sity discontinue remedial education programs may have little effect on the NU campuses. Remedial education programs are a rarity in the NU curriculum, according to officials. Also rare is the incoming freshman with educational deficiencies, officials say. Freshmen academically unpre pared for college are the target of Simmons's concern. The Scottsbluff regent has suggested that the' university raise its admission standards to screen out incoming freshmen' in need of remedial education. - Simmons said his concern about academically deficient freshmen, especially in English and mathematics; arose "over the expense the university has in furnishing re '' medial education education courses." Simmons suggested that by raising admission standards, responsibility for remedial education will be shifted back to the high schools. Therefore, the university will not have freshmen with educational deficiencies. . "The university is a university, not a grade school or a high school," Simmons said. Years ago, the university was the. only school in the state offering remedial education, but that is no longer the case, according to "Simmons. Technical community colleges and correspondence schools, for example, now offer such classes, he said. ' Reports indicate the university is doing a better job of remedial education, he said, "but we don't need to do it here." However, there hardly are any remedial courses within the NU curriculum. Earl Green, director of course programs for the Uni versity Extension Division, said "The only one that I can point to is Math 90." Math 90 is a non-credit extension course for students with weak mathematics backgrounds, Green said. The English Dept. is not spending a great deal of time worrying about deficient students, said Gerry Brookes, department vice chairman, Brookes added that there are no remedial courses in English at UNL. Admissions and advising counselors at UNL and the University ot Nebraska at Omaha (UNO) appear to be not too concerned about academically unprepared freshmen.; "As I .iook at the academic profile of our incoming iresnmen, i aon t oeneve u s suo-par, saia Al rapik, UNL director of admissions. - Papik said "that out of about 4,000 incoming fresh men, 82 per cent.were in the upper one-half of their high school graduating class. V UNL freshmen consistently ranked higher than the national average on college entrance tests, Papik added. "I know that test scores and class rank do not answer the question, but test results do measure the developing reasoning ability necessary for college work," Papik said. t j f J I TTKTT S' i C 1 . wary unmngnam, urNL. assistant director oi admis sions and advising, said that UNL students are slightly above average in grammar skills. "I don't think most of our students are functionally illiterate," Cunningham said. She added that very few freshman come to UNL with less than three years of high school English, and that they show few deficiencies for college work. Advising counselors at UNO echo UNL sentiment that the "Johnny can't, write" dilemma is not prevalent at NU. , "This is something that would have been relevant CAtArril Iroipp rtnn " pniA (lrAr UnMn ,1 C awviai jrvai ogu, aaiu uuiuuil liau&CU, aSMSlillU UUUU Ol the College of Arts and Sciences at UNO. Hansen said that the trend toward sagging English skills has reversed. lie attributed this turnabout to a "tightening up of the high schools." ' 9 I . i i : i i r- v i i - .-. - i onnDit rn fVQrioQ AriOT nor I imnn Kncsrri m inconr ctnrie . By Anne Carothers Allen Bennett, Nebraska Union Director, is on his own this week in regard to a $165,600 budget cut for union renovation plans. T Bennett, who originally supported funding for most of the items cut from the budget, must decide whether to go along with the board's recommendation or rewrite the budget before he passes it on to other UNL officials. The Union Advisory Board last week cut $165,600 from an improvement budget for the Union:. The budget figure, originally $414,523, is now $248,923, said Dave Roehr, Union Board president. The board's recommendation for the $248,923 budget inside vednccctaij Not Danish in the Cathedral: Portions of NlTs role and mission statement listed today p. 6 Students sign Voits like the big boys: Overdrawn check ing accounts are not limited to bureaucrats. V. ... p. 8 Katie, bar the door: However, construction for the new East Campus entrance soon will begin p. 10 was sent to Bennett for his approval this week and then will go to Richard Armstrong, vice chancellor for Student Affairs. The money to pay for the Union improvement comes from the university's bond reserve fund. The reserve fund is the excess from student fees not used to pay for the ori ginal principle and interest on the bonds sold to pay for the University Health Center, the Union and residence halls. Student input Roehr explained that the Union Board voted to make a specific recommendation on the improvement budget as a form of student input. "If Mr. Bennett adds er deletes something from the budget, he is on his own," Roehr said. The Union Advisory Board is an advisory body to the union director. The board cut $80,000 from $90,000 requested for ad ditions to the west entrance of the union to meet the federal code for entrances for handicapped people, Roehr said. "The board wasn't ready to approve .of a project of that magnitude without some study. The $10,000 we ap proved represents a start on the plans, such as architect's plans and research," Roehr said. No to renovation He added that the board also is holding off on plans to renovate the old television lounge since that area may have to be used for the entrance changes. The $24,000 for the controversial sign project was ap proved, he said. Although the Union intends to take new bids on the project this fall, the bids received last year were between $20,000 and $22,000, Roehr said. The board hopes to be able to get the project done for less money, but if the bids are high again the money will be there, he said. , Money for a delicatessen near the Harvest Room was cut until the Union completes its long-range planning sur vey to see what kinds of food service students want, Roehr said. , The board cut $15,000 from the $30,000 requested to renovate the Harvest Room entrance and $35,000 for "other serving equipment" for the Harvest Room was cut, Roehr said. Cash register Money for plants was cut from $10,000 to $2,000, and the board cut $2,600 requested for a new cash register for the Faculty Club. The Faculty Club will use old cash registers being re placed by a new system of registers in the Union, Roehr said. , $2,300 was approved for a donut cutter for the bakery since the board thought the donut cutter would save labor costs in the long run, Roehr S3id. He added that the bakery is selling an average of 100 dozen donuts a day.