friday, december 9, 1977
page 4
daily nebraskan
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NU would be better off if the Board of Regents
takes Sam Jensen's advice and does not set up any
hurdles.
Jensen, president of the UNL Alumni Associa
tion, says he opposes entrance requirements for
the university. The idea of entrance requirements
was bandied about earlier this year by some re
gents who expressed concern that freshmen were
not properly prepared for college.
That concern prompted NU President Ronald
Roskens to propose a committee to look into the
state's college preparation.
We agree with Jensen on this point. NU is a
state university partly supported by taxes. It best
serves the state by accepting students and letting
college pressures weed out those that don't
belong.
That does not mean that education in the state
cannot be improved. Indeed, we would like to
see continuing efforts to upgrade the state's
schools. But tough entrance requirements are not
the answer.
In opposing the entrance requirements, Jensen
made another suggestion worth looking at.
He proposed spending $25,000 to $30,000 a
year to recruit top students.
Our only possible quibble with the idea is its
price. Where would the money go? Promotion
packages and recruiting trips don't seem to fit in
with the idea of a state university (unless you're
the Athletic Dept.).
But if money can be channeled into scholar
ships and grants, the recruiting idea should work
within this setting.
Currently, the top academic scholarship the
university hands out is the Regents Scholarship. It
pays for tuition.
We know that Chancellor Roy Young has been
looking at alternatives which might provide more
money for academic grants. The idea would be to
pay tuition plus more-like an athletic
scholarship.
The visible commitment of money to such a
project might encourage top students to take a
second look at NU. Further, if they received the
scholarship, they might not go elsewhere.
As it is, too many Regents Scholarship winners
leave the state for college.
As opposed to accepting bowl bids during
finals week, such strides only can improve NU's
academic image. We should pay top scholars to
go here just as we pay top athletes.
(
yards from one goal line to another, then its metric
length is 100 meters and not 120 meters.
One final point: only the most crass football fan
would celebrate with a fifth of Jack Daniels. A true
connoisseur would choose 0.76 liter of Glenlivet.
Laird A. Thompson
Banding together
f o the editor
Although Anita Stork cleverly recounted many
interesting but pedestrian anecdotes in her article on
metric conversion (Daily Nebraskan, Dec. 7), she had
better study her own conversion tablgs a bit more
carefully.
If the football field in Northfield, Minn, is 109.36
To Eileen Duffy and any other person who is
against the band going to Memphis (see Daily Neb
raskan, Dec. 5):
It sounds like you are jealous and, because of this,
you have been very inconsiderate toward the band. Let
me clear up a few things you forgot to mention.
First, anyone is welcome to try out for the band so
if you think it is unfair and you want to crash cymbals,
try out next year.
Next, if you read the papers, the money the band
received was not from UNL, but from the meeting of
Big 8 Conference officials in Kansas last week. Thank
you to Bob Devaney and Vice (sic) Chancellor Roy
Young for their support of the band.
You are right. Some of the members will not be
taking finals as scheduled. The finals that are resche
duled will be taken before the band leaves so they will
not get extra time to study.
Now, I have a few questions for you. If there wasn't
the band, who would play school songs: the crowd?
What would they use:a kazoo, slide clarinets, humming
or the bottles they drink from?
Who always shows up at pep rallys? Who has several
small groups that play at several small pep rallys
throughout the city and state? All of this the band
does.
They have within their organization unity, trust,
friendship and spirit. Not just band spirit, but spirit for
the team and UNL. They support a lot more than what
you think.
So if you are still jealous, why don't you just try
out next year. But remember, you have to be coordin
ated to march and crash cymbals at the same time.
People from all over the United States have compli
mented the band on their fantastic performances.
The UNL marching band is the best band in this coun
try and I think everyone in this school should be
proud of the band and support it instead of fighting
against it .
Rodene Essman,
Band member and Squad Leader
Editor's note: Roy Young is UNL's chancellor, not
vice chancellor.
Wanted: Americans; willing to pay
Congressional investigators revealed last week that the
Korean CIA budgeted $750,000 to buy up every political,
religious and opinion leader in the country -and thus the
loyalty of every American. But, heck, I knew that. I just
couldn't believe it.
I guess it was a year ago. I was sitting in a laundromat
1 frequent if there's nothing good on television, when this
Oriental guy in a blue suit and dark glasses sidles up to me
and says, "lU give you this $50 bill for. . ."
"Gladly," says I, removing my shirt on the natural
assumption he's a detergent salesman.
"No, I wish to buy you," says he.
arthur hoppe
Innocent bystander
"Get away from me, Buster, or 111 call a cop." I
respond politely,
"Please, Mr. Cronkite," he sa"ys desperately. "South
Korea needs your network."
When I inform him I'm not Mr. Cronkite, he pockets
the fifty. "Darn,"he says, "all you Americans look alike to
me."
Ace newsman
I tell him I'm an ace newsman, however, and he cheers
up. "Let's see," he says, taking out a Blue Book, "'News
men, Ace. . .' I can give $1 .93 for you."
I tell him he can't get two lambchops for that. "Look,"
he says, "I've only $750,000 to buy up 200 million
Americans. That's less than four-tenths of a cent apiece."
Now I'm sore.
"Listen, mister," I say, "we've spent five billion bucks
over the years making sure you lovable Suuth Koreans re
main members of our Free World. That comes to $15 1 50
per lovable Korean."
"And you couldn't have made a better buy," he says.
"We're loyal, hard-working and compact."
"Maybe so," says I, "but what makes you think you're
worth all that while you can buy us for a nickel a dozen?"
Teeming millions'
"Supply and demand," he says. "Think of your
teeming millions crowded into your decaying cities, your
landless peasants scratching out a bare existence,' your
hopeless unemployed, your. . ."
"Are you saying life is cheap in America?" I demand
"Well, four-tenths of a cent isn't exactly dear," he says
with a shrug. "But if you get a better offer, take it."
He had more to say, ranting on about "Manifest
Destiny," "Eastward the course of empire," and "the
yellow man's burden," but I was too furious to listen.
So let us rise up, fellow Americans, and throw off the
yoke of Asian imperialism in human wave
attacks! Let us dream of the day when we will twice again
be free with souls to call our own!
Imagine the gall of these mercenary foreign exploiters
going around actually trying to buy up the loyalty of the
citizens of a distant land for a bunch of filthy lucre. Who
do they think they are?
Us?
Copyright 1977, Chronicle Publishing Co.