friday, april 28, 1978
page 4
daily nebraskan
Union Board's door is slammed in face of students
Along with Spring Fever there
has come a rash of closed meetings
among UNL groups.
The latest to be affected by this
clandestine disease is the Nebraska
Union Advisory Board, which, for
some mysterious reason, closed its
regular meeting Wednesday night to
decide if it would close next week's
regular meeting.
This was a decision that not only
affects what the board does, but
what the UNL students are preven
ted from knowing.
Students who pay fees (that is
everyone, remember) should be
outraged that the group which
spends a sizeable share of their stu
dent fees is doing its work behind
closed doors."
"Out of sight, out of mind" is
not applicable in this situation.
The agenda items that prompted
the closed-door session regarded a
study of future Union services and
a bylaw change that would change
the structure of the Union Program
Council.
Anyone who uses the Union for
a "living room" of the university
should be asking what the heck is
going on. Students use the services
of the Union sometime in their
college career. Even if they don't,
they pay for the services with each
tuition bill. But they are not being
allowed to find out what is going
on in the group that advises where
that money is to be spent.
This policy is a poor one for any
student group. They should be
more than willing to publicize and
let the students know what they are
doing.
We do not know what is going
on. We wish we could inform you.
Perhaps the students' Union Ad
visory Board will open its doors to
tell us.
Protest
well red,
but odd
"Wear red Friday to protest
YAF."
These messages have been appear
ing on classroom bulletin boards this
week, but mysteriously, no one
seems to know who is doing it.
Perhaps there is a good reason for
this anonymity. The National Blue
Jeans Day pitch to draw attention to
the homosexual cause is one thing,
but using the same tactics to protest
a controversial student organization
raises the question of what all this is
supposed to mean.
We wonder what wearing red to
day will mean to anyone anywhere.
If students want to protest YAF
in a constructive way, their efforts
would be better spent if directed
toward the people who can really
pack YAF a punch the very same
conservative Nebraskans who have
received YAF's letters.
But at least this "wear red"
campaign can be interpreted as stu
dent interest in bona fide campus
issues-an interest that often has
been lacking in past years.
But asking anti-YAF supporters to
wear red is like asking those who
sympathize with the homosexual
cause to wear blue jeans. No one is
going to know who anyone is or
what they support.
If the point of this is to show that
any student roaming around campus
is an anti-Yaffer, the point is weakly
made.
Perhaps students would be better
off saving their red and wearing it on
Monday. At least May Day is one
day where the color red holds a
distinct meaning to many people.
to th oditof
I liked your student opera idea (Wednesday Daily Ne
braskan) very much. I thought this "song" might fit in
well.
Like Being YAF-Owned
(to the tune of Like a Rolling Stone by Bob Dylan).
Once upon a time
speakers were yours and mine,
didn 't cost a dime, you thought all was fine didn 't
you?
YAF would call,
say beware y 'all, they 're bound to fall.
You thought they were just
kidding you.
Fonda and Nader
without fear
Now we don 't
have 'em no more
Now isn 't it
a real bore
To have our own speakers taken away
it was a steal!
How does it feel?
How does it feel?
To have lost our own
Like being YAF-owned?
We used to
go and hear
Kim Wilt
Sophomore journalism major
i i
vNO, I'M
NOT WEARING
RED TO PR0TE5
YAP'
Seekers, keepers, and bearers of the torch
The house is breaking up this weekend.
Cary is going to medical school; Dave is
dropping out of college as a senior to be
come a travelling street mime; and I am
getting married and looking for a news
paper job.
Probably we wiU see little of each other
after this. As a bit of symbolic irony, the
house we three have shared this year will
be torn down when we leave.
wedden
Admidst the clutter of packing boxes,
we talked about the courses axe lives are
taking.
Cary and I shared a residence hall room
our first two years at school. My senior
year I lived with Dave, also at Centennial
College.
Cary studied his way into Innocents and
Phi Beta Kappa, not in pursuit of grades,
but through honest, self-motivated thirst
for knowledge. After a strictly liberal arts
undergraduate education, he abruptly
shifted into the biological sciences to pre
pare for medical school.
Dave spent his time at Centennial get
ting used to the idea that he has a choice.
Not many people have learned that. Ear
lier this year he was resigned to becoming
a graduate student in linguistics, leading
eventually to a faculty job. Now he
chooses to be a clown, living by making
people laugh or cry.
"I'm a seeker, not a keeper," Dave pro
claimed, quoting somebody or another.
He also claims to be a hippie, although I
doubt that there are such critters anymore.
He picked up his guitar and began to
sing "I Want to be Free." Freedom he de
fines partly as not having to be anywhere
or do anything at any specific time. No one
to depend on him and no one on whom he
depends.
We tried to pin down Cary about why
he wanted to go to med school. "Because I
want to be physician," he said evasively.
Pressed on the point, he gave a long string
of reasons:
"I want to move into a higher tax brac
ket so I don't have to use the 1040A short
form . . Power and prestige ... I want to
feel blood and guts between my fingers
Masochism . . . Student nurses ... Go to
Appalachia to sterilize poor people."
"You want to get married, buy a house
in the suburb and have 1.7 children, 0.5
dogs and 0.3 cats," Dave scoffed.
Cary picked up the theme. "And have
2. j cars in my driveway. Mv 0 7 of a son
can drive the 0.75 of a car."
In the midst of the joking, Cary said
something about helping people and giving
his life to pubbc service. He covered the
truth in this with a jesting tone of voice,
but he couldn't hide the central fact
altruism. Only the worst of cynics enters
medical school solely for the money,
though that is the only reason left to many
at graduation.
Dave would reject any talk of altruism
He is reaching for his own form of moral
purity. The world he sees is too screwed up
to bother joining. So he wants to pull up
roots and wander outside of society, seek
ing the company of others who share a
similar society outside of society. Theater
and clowning are his tools for freeing him
self. What is screwed up about society'7 Com
petition is a big part of it, Dave said. He
was raised to be highly competitive, but
now he rejects that. Competition drives
people apart. At this stage in his life. Dave
is more interested in destroying barriers
than in building them.
Cary. on the other hand, is entering one
of the most bitterly competitive environ
ments modern America has been able to
create. The traditional back -biting of med
students led to this variation of an old
Polish joke
"How many med students does it take
to change a light bulb?
"Two One to hold the bulb and one to
kick the ladder out from under him "
