daily nebraskan
monday, january 15, 1978
flO0lltoli
page 4
1
Sfew look, other changes may help defrost icy days
The Daily Nebraskan begins a new semester
amid snowdrifts and sub-zero temperatures. Per
haps a rousing "welcome back" would be unwise
at this time.
We can't do anything about the weather but
maybe the few changes we have initiated in the
Daily Nebraskan for the upcoming semester will
lend just a hint of warmth to our readers.
The Daily Nebraskan has undergone a slight
facelift in the form of a new nameplate and
related titles which we hope will make the news
paper stand out with a reinforced identity.
We also have created a new position, the Daily
Nebraskan ombudsman, whose responsibilities lie,
first and foremost, with the readers. The Daily
Nebraskan may well be the first college news
paper in the nation to have created such a
position .
Jim Kay, who has been selected for the role,
will be responsible for handling complaints from
readers and sources as well as for criticising the
Daily Nebraskan when it fails to adequately cover
the news.
The position of ombudsman is a direct result of
criticism from various activities on campus and in
the community who feel the Daily Nebraskan has
not dealt with them fairly.
In addition, a new name will appear weekly on
AH AH AH AH i
'
NORMALIZATION IS Willi
Regents stress football over books
The 1974 Encyclopedia Britannica, that container of
all knowledge worth knowing, sums up UNL's contribu
tion to American academia in one sentence.
"Over the years," declares the Britannica, "the Uni
versity of Nebraska football team has attained national
prominence, and no single subject holds the attention of
Nebraskans as the plight of the 'Cornhuskers.'"
That's it. No "Harvard of the Plains," no mention of
how the NU Board of Regents plans to "maintain" our
reputation for undergraduate excellence. But encycloped
ia readers need not worry how the 1979 edition will read
for the regents have already seen to that.
By a 5-3 vote Saturday, the regents approved a 9,000
seat addition to Memeorial Stadium at a cost of $6million.
The vote was not even close, as only Scottsbluff regent
Robert Simmons opposed construction. In fact, Regent
Robert Prokop of Wilber proposed that a new 105,000
seat stadium be built at the University's new Lincoln
Airport campus.
Points against
The arguments against the approved addition were
many. How can a university whose business school must
turn away students for lack of funds to hire teachers (and
an engineering college that may be soon forced to do the
same) in good conscience spend $6 million on recreation,
not education?
Furthermore, the new addition, to be built (complete
with elevators) on the stadium's east side, will be almost
as tall as Oldfather Hall, and the projected cost of $575 a
seat doesn't even include binoculars.
More importantly, the regents assumed that demand
for additional tickets will be as constant as are tuition in
creases. But new NCAA limitiations on the number of
football scholarships each school may award are designed
to weaken traditional football powers, making it difficult
for Nebraska to continue its 9-3 seasons. And when a
losing season visits Memorial Stadium, how many fans
will continue to fill it?
Nevertheless, the regents approved the addition be
cause the people of Nebraska want it. But how many will
get it?
No one has decided how the new 9,000 tickets should
be allocated among the tens of thousands of Nebraskans
who have been denied a chance to see the Huskers.
Scarcity severe
That scarcity, of course, is most severe for the typical
middle-class Nebraskan, who after helping his son or
daughter pay the second -highest tuition in the Big Eight,
can't afford a scalper's prices.
Yet the odds are slim. that the regents will direct those
9,000 tickets to be sold, not as season tickets, but for
each game on a random basis, thus insuring equal access
for all Nebraskans . Indeed, if the regents were serious
about helping all Nebraskans to see the games, season
tickets would be sold the same way, instead of being
handed down through generations or bestowed upon bus
iness firms.
Better yet, perhaps the regents could sacrifice their
privilege of purchasing up to ten tickets a game (not to
mention the two press box seats they each receive free
gratis) for the cheapest 110 seat stadium addition on
record.
the opinioneditorial page. Mary Jo Pitzl,
presently attending the University of Bordeaux in
France as part of an exchange program, will write
a weekly column. Her column will deal with
everything from culture shock to food and should
provide new insight into the "American in Paris"
experience.
The new changes at the Daily Nebraskan pro
bably won't help your car start in the morning
or make the long walk from Selleck to the 501
Bldg. at 7 a.m. any easier but we hope that,
at the very least, they will help take your mind
off these wintery inconveniences until the first
thaw.
Communist China
recognizes value
of 'thereat thing
Undoubtedly the most momentous news story of 1978
was the decision of the People's Republic of China, whose
citizens comprise almost a fourth of mankind, to recog
nize one of the West's two great superpowers, Coca-Cola.
The significance of China's normalization of relations
with Coca-Cola after a 29-year hiatus cannot be overem
phasized. Ever since the West's other great superpower,
Pepsi-Cola, formed an alliance with Soviet Russia in 1972,
many observers felt that Coca-Cola was on the brink of
losing the unending battle for men's stomachs.
to bystander
At that time, the signing of a Sino-Cola pact seemed
beyond the realm of possibility.. Mao Tse-tung, himself,
in his Little Red Book, had excoriated Coca-Cola as "the
opiate of the running dogs of revanchist capitalism." And
even the thought of a young Red Guardsman ever crying
out, "It's the real thing!" boggled the imagination.
Thus we see that the recognition of Coca-Cola signifies
vast changes not only in the Chinese hierarchy, but in
world affairs as well.
Clearly, the primary motive behind Peking's surprise
move was to weaken the power of the Soviet Union and
its ally, Pepsi-Cola. With hundreds of thousands of Pepsi-Cola-drinking
Russian troops stationed along its western
borders, China naturally feared the dominance of either.
More obscure is how the decision reflects the current
power struggle among the Chinese leadership. Obviously
it is yet another slap at the image of the Great Helmsman
and all he stood for. It is further proof, if proof were
needed, that the Gang of Four none of whom ever
touched Coca-Cola arestill in disfavor. And it strong
ly indicates that a new group of pragmatists, interested in
technological progress rather than the revolutionary pur
itanism of Chairman Mao, have taken over the ship of
state.
For, say what you will about Coca-Cola, it is certainly
not the drink of wild -eyed revolutionaries who are more
given to red wine, pernod or Orange Julius.
But which pragmatist? Here most analysts agree that
Vice Premier Teng, at 74, has won yet another victory
over 56-year-old Premier Hua, who is unquestionably
more a member of the Pepsi generation.
What does the future hold? Despite initial elation on
both sides, the alliance may be in for trouble. For while it
is true that most things do"go better with Coke'" one of
those things, most experts agree, is not Chinese food.
Therefore, if the Chinese are now willing to renounce
tea and rice wine to achieve hegemony with Coca-Cola,
they may also be forced to give up sweet - and-sour spare -ribs
and Peking duck..
But that is the price one must pay these days for tech
nological progress through liaison with the West -that
and a chain of golden arches stretching along The Great
Wall.
In our next analysis of historical trends, we will discuss
the reasons behind the abject failure of such decadent
Western European powers as Perrier water to conquer
third -world countries like Bangladesh.
(Copyright Chronicle Publishing Co. 1978)