page 10
daily nebraskan
monday, february 13, 1978
Y AFs letter campaign prompted by Fonda speech
By Tarn Lee
Mandatory funding of campus speakers
became an issue for many UNL students
after the appearance of actress and political
activist Jane Fonda on campus last
October.
For other students, the speakers issue
was an old problem which never had been
resolved. Fonda merely served as a focus
for debate on the issue.
Allegations of unfairness and unequal
representation by the Nebraska chapter of
the Young Americans for Freedom were
rapidly disputed by ASUN and the Union
Program Council.
In a letter signed by campus YAF chair
man Jeff Chizek, the conservative youth
group charged that campus conservatives
were not given equal time in the speaker
program.
"During the last three years, this money
(fees) has paid lesbians, Black Panthers,
and Marxists for speaking at UNL. Yet,
there has only been one conservative dur
ing that time," Chizek wrote .
YAF is opposed to paying mandatory
fees to support speakers and organizations
which its members do not support.
Chizek writes, "we believe it is our God
given right to choose which political groups
and speakers we want our money to
support. Can it be any other way in a free
society?"
ASUN responded that UPC's speaker
selection process is open to all students,
and widely publicized, but that YAF
members had never participated.
It also noted that of 80 speakers in the
past three-and-a-half years, 16 were unpaid
speakers from NU faculty or the local
community while more than 40 speakers
dealt with non-polrtical subjects.
The YAF letter encouraged members to
write the NU Board of Regents to voiced
opinions concerning the fees issue.
ASUN recently began a petition drive to
prompt student support for mandatory
fees.
ASUN and UPC argue that eliminating
mandatory fees would eliminate campus
speakers because the cost would be pro
hibitive. For instance, ASUN estimates that the
cost per student to hear a speaker with
mandatory fees is about seven cents. The
cost under a pay-at-the-door system is
estimated at $3 a person.
YAF State Chairman Terrell Cannon
says cost is not the issue.
"It's a philosophical issue. We have great
faith in a person's ability to determine
what's best for himself," he said.
The organization supports voluntary
speaker support and fewer restrictions -on
Although the funding of speakers
by student fees has raised a great
deal of controversy, it is the editorial
belief of the Daily Nebraskan that
the speakers issues is but a minor
part of the larger issue of mandatory
student fees.
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student organizations to allow them to
raise money for prbgrams, Cannon said.
Cannon, challenging ASUN's contention
that elimination of fees would eliminate
speakers said students are willing to pay to
hear someone in whom they are interested.
For example, he said, science fiction writer
Gene Roddenberry and Josh, an evangel
ist, both drew a lot of students when they
appeared in Lincoln. Admission was charg
ed for both events.
The Nebraska University Public Inter
est Research Group, which receives student
fees, concluded after studying the issue
that student fees should be used to support
the programs "that benefit the greatest
number of students." It also recommended,
that the student government, whichSaso
receives student fees, allocate fees to those
organizations. v
NUPIRG recommended a thorough
study of Line B funds, which are used to
pay the universitys contractual obliga
tions. ' -
The NUPIRG study said some of the
line B funds could be eliminated.
Cannon said if there is so much support
for the programs, there should be no
problem with voluntary fundings
ASUN says with charged admission to
speakers, the attendance will go down, and '
ticket prices will be high. " "
YAF not only is concerned with manda
tory funding of speakers, but with the
whole issue of mandatory fees, Cannon
said.
Nationally, the group first became con
cerned with eliminating fees in the 1960s;
when "so much of the money was used to
support demonstrations,' Cannon said.
Their focus is on Line A, or student
activities funds, because it is an issue, which
the students can readily identify with, Can-"'
non said. Students could save money if
Fund A was eliminated, he claimed.
Cannon said students will always have
to pay the contractual obligations financ
ed through student fees, but he said it
should be financed through state taxes, or.
tuition. '
'Tutting bonded indebtedness under the
category of student fees gives the illusion
that students have some control over iC
and they don't," he said. . v" r'
YAF has more than 800 members across
'Nebraska and about 100 at UNL, Cannon
said.
Some regents have said they are in favor
of eliminating mandatory funding of speak
ers. Others have said they want to continue
funding for campus speakers, even though '
they may not agree with all of them.
The rest of the regents are waiting until
their Feb. 18 meeting to decide the future
of student fees.
Omaha campuses also affected by fee recommendations
J0-
By KathyMcAuliffe
The recommendations made by the task
force on student fees are facts of life for
the University of Nebraska at Omaha, the
University of Nebraska Medical Center as
well as for UNL.
The recommendations are designed to
standardize the fees policies of the entire
NU system. NU President Ronald Roskens
will present his recommendations based on
the task force report at the Feb. 18 NU
Board of Regents meeting.
If approved as policy by the regents,
flexibility on the three campuses will be
the key word for implementation of the
recommendation.
"What we're trying to do here is come
up with general polity guidelines and not
operating procedures," said Hans Brisch,
chairman of the task force on student fees.
"At most what we want to do on a univer
sitywide basis is to set some policy and
allow the individual campuses to blossom
to the best of their abilities."
The eiTects of the recommendation
would differ on each campus. The results
of the recomn.e,dation which limits
mandatory fees to certain agencies would
have much the same effect at UNO as at
UNL.
UNO's Student Government Associa
tion, the student newspaper, Gateway, and
the Student Program Organization would
receive continued mpport from mandatory
student fees. AH other groups would be
eliminated from mandatory student fee
support, excluding agencies supported by
SGA.
There are some significant differences
between the amount and percentage of
Fund A money each campus receives.
UNO's Fund A budget for 1977-78 was
$200,500 or 22 percent of the total
amount of student fees paid. In contrast,
UNL's Fund A budget for 1977-78 was
$158, 950 or five percent of the student
fee total.
Ronald Beer, UNO vice chancellor for
educational and student services, attributes
part of UNO's higher Fund A costs to the
centralization of the SPO. This program
ming organization, which received $74,750
in 1977-78, may require a higher budget
because it is responsible for nearly all UNO
entertainment events, he said.
in contrast. Beer said, the Union Pro
gram Council at UNL, which received
$55,000 in 1977-78, is supported by other
agencies which plan events for students.
UNO offers more support to the campus
newspaper than UNL does, Beer said. The
Gateway was budgeted $44,200 in 1977-78
as compared to the $30,000 budget of the
Daily. Nebraskan. There are reasons for this
disparity, said Beer.
The Daily Nebraskan is able to support
itself almost entirely through advertising
because it is located next to a business
district which depends heavily on the stu
dent consumer, he said.
The Gateway is not as heavily in
demand as an advertising medium because
the college is not adjacent to a business
district and the paper serves only a small
portion of a large city, he said.
The recommendations of the task force
would have the smallest effect at the medical
center, said John Aronson, assistant to the
chancellor for student services. The
medical center's $25 a semester student fee
is not divided between Fund A and Fund
B. More accurately called a health services
fee, it is used only for funding the student
and employee health clinic.
Other programs which require student
fee funding either do not exist at the
medical center or use another source of ;
funding, he said. For example, a . bK7
monthly student news publication Is put '
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uui oy uic kjuhx oi ruout uuuniuuuu.
Student Senate expenses are caid bv the4
revenue from certain candy and pop ,-1
machines on campus. . it -
Nefl Vanselow, medical center chancel-,
lor suggested that the student government - -and
news publication are much smaller
operations because the campus is smaller
and serves graduate students. r-;.; .
Aronson said the future may mean a
student union and an increase 7 in
mandatory student fees at the medical
center. But not without seeking the.
opinions of students who would use and
pay for a student center, he said, -r - ' '
"I don't think a fee would ever be
established here without a referendum cf
students," he said. ' - '
The Student Senate' has prepared a
ballot which will be used to poS students
on the advisability of building a student
center and increasing fees. Rodney
Anderson, student body president and stu
dent regent, said he expect; a negative re
sponse to the poll until students become
better educated about campus needs.