daily nebraskan
friday, march 10, 1978
Senate ineffectiveness causes 'reluctant' endorsement
page 4
It hurts, but the tough cynical ex
terior of good pressmen won't go
here. Instead we are back to our old
idealism and we are a little embar
rassed about it.
In the middle of ASUN election
campaigns, the Daily Nebraskan once
again takes a stand and endorses a
candidate.
However, our first reaction to the
two joke parties and student apathy
toward elections was to skip the en
dorsement altogether. Our second
reaction was that we really did not
have a choice. With two joke candi
dates and another basing his cam
paign on moving the Apollo space
capsule, our decision was pretty
much made for us.
The Daily Nebraskan is endors
ing Ken Marienau, SOAR, reluc
tantly. We sympathize with Lyle George's
frustrations about student apathy.
He has said that the average student
just does not care about campus is
sues and is trying through jokes to
get them interested. That is an inter
esting idea, but we are skeptical.
Perhaps Charles Engh is right in
campaigning on issues such as mov
ing the space capsule and revamping
ASUN to be as uncomplicated as
possible. He may be realistic in the
idea that rather than a powerful le
gislative body, ASUN should be a
tool for small changes on campus.
Nevertheless, we cannot bring our
selves to give up on the idea of a
powerful ASUN.
That brings us to Jim Bachman
Ending student apathy, voting student regents, controlling student
fees, ending student apathy, voting student regents, controlling student
fees. ..
Practical application prevents
stunted knowledge of three Rs
A Kurt Vonnegut Jr. short story (Harri
son Bergeron, 1961) lampooned America
as it might be under laws requiring absolute
equality. The athletically inclined wear
sandweights and bags of birdshot ; the beau
tiful wear ugly masks, and the intelligent
wear government -controlled radio head
phones which let off a mind-boggling
sound every 20 seconds or so to insure that
they can't keep their thoughts together
long enough to think.
Vonnegut set his story in the year 2081 .
But the shadow of mental conformity can
be seen now. When the topic is education
and the slogans are "back to the basics,"
"cut the frills" or "minimum competency
tests," sandbags and headphones can be
seen on the sidelines.
ray
walden
Back-to-the-basics advocates would ob
ject to this analogy. The nation's youth
is lapsing into illiteracy, they would argue,
while hauling out a ream of studies to
prove their point.
The Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) av
erage score has dropped 30 points in 1 2
"ears. An estimated 20 million American
adults are functionally illiterate.
Still, there is a problem, new or not.
Knough young people begin adult life lack
ing basic survival skills that this is (as it al
ways has been) the greatest challenge for
educators.
The solution offered by the hodge
podge of people collected under the back-to-ihe-basics
banner may be one way out.
Euf it threatens to tic sandbags on the ma
jorjty of students who long since have met
minimum standards.
fart of the pressure for competency
standards comes from groups who don't
trust teachers, who suspect school admin
istrators and who rail in general against
pointy -headed intellectuals
Others in the movement are taxpayers
in revolt against school budgets who want
to cut the frills and limit education to the
Three R's and educational puritans who
claim that school has to taste bad to be
good .
Together they call for a return to tradi
tional education: the Three R's plus disci
pline, dress codes and the Pledge of Alle
giance The public schools barely challenge
many of their students.
Conservative reformers would bore
these good students even more by drilling
them all day in skills they have already
mastered. Cost cutters would put them and
their struggling classmates in large classes
with a single overworked teacher class
rooms where no one can get the individual
attention needed to gain basic skills or to
use them to explore higher levels of learn
ing. Basic skills, even the Three R's, are not
an end in themselves. They are merely
tools. For students, it is the exercise of
these tools, or the "friUs," that motivate
them to learn the needed basic skills.
Here is a college -level example The Kn
glish Department shies away from teaching
grammar. Students and teachers alike de
test the drills; they are a boring grind.
Move a couple of buildings west to the
School of Journalism. Here, grammar, spel
ling, syntax and punctuation are central
parts of most courses at all levels. And the
school is experiencing a population boom.
The difference is that skills are applied as
they are being learned (through reporting .
and editing), and the learning is interesting.
Despite this, high school newspapers are
one of the "frills" the cost-cutters want to
cut. This is a cost that even a Three R's
freak can't calculate, as minimum stan
dards become maximum standards.
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(POOR) and Ken Marienau.
Bachman has some good ideas
such as concentrating on the campus
parking problem and scrutinizing
Fund B. We also agree that his party
is realistically avoiding such issues as
a voting student regent and an alco
hol on campus proposal.
We agree these goals are unrealistic
and probably nothing more than
campaign rhetoric, but we believe
that the strength of an ASUN presi
dent is his position as student regent.
For this reason, we cannot support a
candidate who wants "to forget
about the Board of Regents."
In the end we support Ken Mar
ienau. Marienau has been active in
student government and has worked
with administrators. We feel he is re
sponsible and could be a good liaison
between students and regents.
We also agree with his idea to ex
pand current ASUN services such as
the book exchange and Free Univer
sity. But Marienau as well as most of
the SOAR candidates worry us with
repetitive and idealistic cries of get
ting a voting student regent and de
creasing student apathy. We hope
they realize the odds against solving
either problem.
Without ideals, ASUN would not
have worthwhile goals to direct their
energies toward, but idealism needs
to be backed by determination and
tenacity.
We hope Marienau has both. He
will need them.
Idealism complicates goals;
ASUN misplaces good efforts
Perhaps we're deluded by the role
student government should play.
As idealists, we would like to
think student government could be
effective, pull a lot of weight with
the administration and work miracles
to benefit the general student
population.
But such is the stuff dreams are
made of.
Year after year, ASUN campaigns
ring of curing student apathy, getting
the vote for the voting student
regent and controlling student fees.
You'd think that if these issues were
important enough to be talked about
every year, something would be
done.
But the point is that there is
nothing to be done. At least not
within the structure of UNL student
government.
This is not a criticism of ASUN
past and present. For too long,
campus politicians have blamed
senate members for ineffective
government. But what's the use of
blaming someone when their hands
are tied by the very framework
they're working within0
Is ASUN worth it0 Outside of the
fact that a student government is
necessary for UNL to keep a good
accreditation and that a year on stu
dent senate looks good on the old
resume, do we really need it?
Look at the evidence this year.
Fveryone chuckles at the joke parties
and the pseudo issues they address.
But these joke parties are telling us
something reflecting students' atti
tudes toward ASUN. A joke?
As for the more serious candi
dates, as noble as their intentions
may be, we question if they will have
much power as student president
student regent to achieve the lofty
heights outlined in their platforms.
Perhaps they should re-evaluate and
direct their energies and talents
toward more practical, feasible goals.
We're not knocking their idealism,
just reminding student leaders with
stars in their eyes that always reach
ing for the best often results in a
handful of empty air-or hot air, as
a lot of past student leaders have
demonstrated.
For example, instead of breaking
backs trying to get a voting student
regent (an effort that's run into brick
walls for years) why not take a more
realistic approach and push for a
student to run for one of the eight
voting regent spots? The Lincoln re
gent spot is up for re-election this
fall.
Student apathy can only be cured
by doing something. Student govern
ment, instead of spouting proclama
tions that all ASUN nwds is a "little
enthusiasm," should abandon this
pep club routine and work to
improve existing student services (as
past senates have attempted), or to
create new ones.
The sad fact is that so many of
these constructive activities already
are being performed by other stu
dent organizations. These are stu
dents working quietly within admin
istrative channels to actually accom
plish somthing.
And it's working. Look at the pro
grams sponsored by UPC. the legis
lative lobbying and student fee
research done by NUPIRG and the
budget-cutting, service-oriented
efforts of the Union Board. And gee,
these hard-working students are not
even paid for their efforts.
As terrible as it may sound, per
haps ASUN is an expensive duplica
tion of student efforts. Most of
ASUN's work could be absorbed by
other student organizations. As for
ASUN's duty to appoint students to
various committees and policy
making boards, do we really need 35
senators, two vice presidents and one
president working with a 535,UUU
budget to do all that'.'
We strongly urge next year's
senate to re-i'valuate their role at
UNL
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