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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (March 19, 1979)
pago4 monday, march 19,1979 daily nebraskan PGUP ff . ... ft MB Statistics show intentions of equality are not enough Statistics have always spoken louder than promises and good inten tions. Such is the case here at UNL where a study by UNL's chapter of the American Association of Univer sity Professors (AAUP) shows that female faculty members still are gett ing the short end of the salary stick. Charges of discrimination ulti mately result in heated debate, wounded pride and self-righteous indignation among administrators and their detractors. The AAUP has been careful to avoid that particular charge. The AAUP has decided to let the statistics speak for themselves. And those statistics may not be just whispering. Some of the inequities existing five years after the university attempted to right them are: -Salaries of female faculty memb ers average about $600 lower than male faculty members of similar rank, years in rank, college and other professional characteristics. -Women are found more often in untenured positions and lower ranks. -Women are consistently less like ly to hold tenure, graduate faculty status and higher rank. -The differences in salary, by sex, are highest at the professional level and least at the associate professor level. Although the more recent hiring of women faculty in an attempt to raise the percentage of female staff members may account for some of these present inequities, the AAUP study says they may also be the re sult of a certain reluctance on the part of UNL to promote and tenure women as quickly as men. But the fact is, these inequities do exist. The statistics are. saying that UNL is not yet totally committed to righting some very grievous wrongs which have been perpetrated upon the female segment of our society for too many years. We would suggest that the University re-examine its salary, promotion and tenure positions in the spirit for which the noble quest for equality was intended. Primitive neurosis spreads throughout our shining cosmos Scene: The Heavenly Real Estate Office. The Land lord is happily humming "When You Wish Upon a Star" as he polishes the corona of a middling-size sun in the Andromeda Galaxy. His business agent, Mr. Gabriel, dispatches in one hand, Golden Trumpet in the other. Gabriel: Really, sir, this time you're going to have to put your foot down and evict them. The Landlord (without much interest): Who's that, Gabriel? Gabriel: Those tenants of yours on the tiny blue green planet you love so much, Earth. Not only have they thoroughly mucked up that valuable piece of prime real estate, but now they're doing precisely what I always feared they'd do. They're spreading. The Landlord: Spreading Gabriel? Gabriel: They sent one of their little machines io buzz around your huge planet, Jupiter, snapping pic tures and now it's on its way to Saturn to take some more. Filled with wonder The Landlord (proudly): Ah, how filled with wonder and awe they must have been to see the beauty of Jupiter for the first time. Tell me, Gabriel, did they pause in their daily rounds and lift their eyes to the heavens? Gabriel: Of course not, sir. They went right on be fouling your atmosphere and burning holes in your forested carpets. Worst of all, their little machine will leave their solar system and head for the center of their galaxy, searching for intelligent life, a voyage of 600 million years. The Landlord: What's wrong with that, Gabriel? Gabriel: They placed a little package on the machine to show others what they were like'. Look at this photograph, sir. YouH note it depicts a naked couple holding hands and the woman is pregnant . The Landlord (nodding): Lovely, Gabriel, lovely. Gabriel: Yes, sir. But at the last minute, they substituted this black silhouette of the couple for fear the photograph with its anatomical details would give offense to people back on Earth. Never mind The Landlord (frowning): But if they were sending the photograph to the stars, how could it give offense to people on. . .Never mind, Gabriel. Gabriel: Exactly, sir. They're insane. You can't let them spread their primitive neurosis throughout your shining cosmos, (raising his trumpet) Shall I sound The Eviction Notice? The Landlord (bemused): For three million years they thought, when they thought at all, that they were the all-important center of a universe created just for them. Now at' last they are reaching out. Now at last they realize where their future lies. Gabriel: If they don't blow themselves up first. And look how far they have to go. The Landlord: Yes, at last they are just beginning to understand how far they have to go. Gabriel (wavingthe silhouette): But don't you find their sending out this shame-filled depiction of their you -given bodies sick and neurotic, sir? The Landlord (tmUtng): No, Gabriel. I find this evi-. dence that they are bravely venturing forth so pre maturely oddly touching. Ccjyr$t Cfcronlcle Pul2ig Company 1979 Desegregation orders seen as futile Despite its surface appeal, it is a fair bet that the recent proposal to exempt racially integrated communities from a local country -wide busing plan will be defeated. There are lots of reasons why this is so, but the key reason is the same one that produced the law suit that triggered the busing in the first place: Blacks don't trust white people to be fair. william raspberry In Prince George's County, adjacent to the nation's capital, as in most of the places where desegregation suits have been brought, the object was not so much to end . racial separation as to end racial discrimination. It was the reluctant conclusion of many, black parents that the only way to prevent discrimination against black children was to put them in school with white children. Quality education Sylvester Vaughns put it bluntly the other day and we misunderstood. "Black children in Prince George's County cannot receive quality education in all-black schools," he said. Many who saw that statement took it to mean that the presence of white children is required for the intellect ual stimulation of black children. What Vaughns really meant was expressed more clearly five years ago by Margaret Wheatfall, one of Vaughns' co plaintiffs in the desegregation suit. "We're not looking for busing," she said. "We're not even looking for integration. Even if We got it, I know they (whites) are gonna run. All I Want is for my kids, wherever they are and whoever their-classmates are, to have the best education Prince George's County can offer." She was convinced that the whites who control educat ion in the county would not be concerned about her children if they were isolated in black schools. Busing exemptions Vaughns, a former president of the county NAACP, agrees absolutely. That is why he is so adamantly opposed to the agreement recently worked out by his newly elect ed successor and the head of the county school board. That agreement, which requires ratification of both the school board and the NAACP chapter, calls for exempting integrated neighborhoods from the busing plan. Vaughns, who says he is sympathetic to what his successor, William R. Martin, had in mind, is afraid the exemption would simply let white people off the hook. He is deathly afraid that letting white people off the hook spells educational disaster for black children. The frustrating question, in Prince George's County and across the nation Js how to avoid the disaster. Black parents are reluctant to put their trust in court orders to equalize resources. Such orders are too easy to circumvent, so long as white people control the resources they believe. Futile orders But they have also seen again and again the futility of desegregation orders, which can be rendered meaningless by shifting residential patterns, as has happened in Prince George's. The same thing happened a few years back in Pasadena, Calif., where a busing plan had been drawn up to assure that every school would have a white majority. When housing shifts led to a substantial resegregation of the Pasadena schools, a district court judge ordered the attendance patterns redrawn. The U.S. Supreme Court, in a June 1976 decision, overruled him. So long as the racial isolation resulted from voluntary housing patterns and not from official action, the court said, there was no constitutional issue. So what hope is there for black education in the face of white unfairness and judicial impotence (or indiffer ence)? No legal victory The first thing, in my opinion, is for black parents to recognize that there is no once-and-for-all solution to the problem-no keystone legal victory to be won that will set things perpetually right. The second thing they must do is stop underestimating their political power and above all, their ability to in fluence what happens in their local classrooms. The truth is, quality education doesn't happen auto matically for white people either, even when their child ren are In overwhelmingly white schools. The price of decent education is the same as that of freedom: eternal vigilance. There must, of course, be an equitable distribution of resources. But it seems at least reasonable to go to court to demand a fair share of school resources as to sue for busing orders that frequently turn out to be only tempor ary solutions at best. The nice thing about suing for the money Is that you can go back to court as often as necessary to make it right. The Supreme Court says you only get one shot with busing. (mm "Bitter herb of exile, deprivation , despair" (Mr. Ahmad Daily Nebraskan, March 9) as a people, as with their .country, ceased to exist. At first a displaced people fol lowed by a non-existant people" (Tim Rinne, Daily Nebraskan, March 9). Is this not the story, in fact, of the Jews for the last couple of thousands of yean? If the Palestinian was dis possessed, was not the Jew also dispossessed? Show us, Mr. Ahmad, where Jews are given peace to Eve in Arab territories? By 'living in harmony" do you not mean with Jews as second-class citizens (at best); Siow us also, your free society in any Arab state. 'Too bad," to quote Mr. Rabin, that Israelis will not Be down and die as a race (or as a religion). As has been shown In recent peact talks, Israel is will ing to jeopardize her very sovereignity to give those same Palestinians their place in Israel Whose shame is it that Palestinians live in "deplor able refugee camps"? The Israelis take care of their own, but these outraged Arabs cannot do the same for their brothers. As for Zionism, first the definition of Zionism, as coined by Jews (surely theTirst) It is merely the desire for a, homeland, not the exclusion of othert. In retro spect "Palestinian" appears to me, to be i far more racist word, Mr. Hashashibi. r The Israelis are willing to share the la'ndi fitting only to guarantee their continued existence. Can the tame be said for the Palestinians? . Mr. Statmore, believe me, is fir less a racist than you. - , - T: Sarah Learned Freeman, Burfnesi Administration CoathueJoafa
