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.
