thursday, april 5, 1979
daily nebraskan
page 5
STUDENTS . 7 .
Daily Nebraskan ;
Ombudsman applications for
the fall semester are now
being accepted.
Salary $200 plusmonth
Th ombudsman it tht internal monitor of the
Daily Nebraskan. He critiques the newspaper on
matters of balance, fairness, accuracy end pro-
fessional standards. Applicants should be
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Press adopted by the NU Board cf Ressnts. Re-
tumes should be submitted to and tpp&s&ns -...
completed at the Daily Nebn&an. 'V,;. ,
For further information '" " , ".
; ail 472-2523
UNL does not discriminate in -Its academic,5 I
admissions or employment programs and abides
by all federal regulations pertaining to same.'
The NU Board of Regents has approved a 9,000 seat
addition to the east stadium at Memorial Stadium in their
January regents meeting. The Residence Hall Association
membership has written each editor a letter about their
opposition.
For the record, I opposed that addition because of the
expense Involved for what is being obtained. A new
105,000 seat stadium could have been built much more
economically and coulji have accomodated many more
people than will this addition. The cost of $575 per seat
In comparison to a cost of $50 per seat indicates to me
that building this addition is foolhardy. However, with a
vote of 53, the addition became a reality.
The letter gives three points for their opposition. The
facts need to be brought out in each case since all three
points are in error.
The first states that the regents devote too much
attention to football and not enough to education. Each
regent meeting is about 7-10 hours in length. The regents
have on the football issue not spent over ten total hours a
year and more likely if one were to time it on the tapes,
about two hours. We spend countless hours on business
items and educational interests. If discussing budgetary
matters, and discussing personnel and business items for
about 95 percent of the total time we spent is taking a
backseat to football, someone in the Residence Hall
Association has not attended our meetings.
Each individual in the state should know that rarely do
we ever 'have normally over five students at any regent
meeting and further, students elect student regents in
order to inform them about what goes on at meetings, and
to represent their views. If the concept of student regents,
which you the voters of the state, added to the.constitut
ion of the state of Nebraska, is to be effective, why has
misinformation been given students about the entire
project by the representatives that are on regents from the
UNL campus? Why has the information that is erroneous,
been given to students that there are tax funds when in
effect, they are athletic department revenue?
Hie second point made is that one cannot guarantee
future attendance at UNL football games. Again, one has
to only point to 21.000 ticket orders in 1977 when the
regents announced their plans to expand with checks, to
indicate the strong interest in the state. One can also ask,
why do students refuse to police their own groups for the
scalping of tickets that goes on 'arid the profit making
which occurs due to decreased prices paid by those stu
dents for season tickets? Why have they fought the use,of
photo identification so that the university could control
this ticket scalping problem?
The third point made is that there was not adequate
student input into this decision and that we made the
decision when the students were away from the campus.
Again, one must ask, does not the student regent repre
sent student input on the board? Doesn't the board repre
sent eight districts of Nebraska constituents rather than a
student body only? Can't the students attend meetings of
the regents more readily when they are out of school than
when in? If they are so interested in regent meetings,
where are they when we meet?
The RHA opposes addition of a surcharge to their
tickets. Why should we continue to fleece the general
public with surcharges while the students continue to get
a reduced ticket rate and no surcharge? Why should the
public continue to pay 75 percent of the total revenue
while students pay only 14 percent and get no student fee
charge for the discounted ticket prices to supplement the
Athletic Department budget to sustain the University of
Nebraska athletic program?
The RHA also takes the position that they should not
be required to purchase tickets in the new section, that
they should have prime seating for a discount price, and
that there would be a diminished attendance by students
if their seating was changed. At the present time, the
South Stadium has students in large numbers present.
There is also a number of students on both goal lines. The
sections where the students sit has always been determin
ed by the Athletic Department. If there has been no
marked decrease in student participation at the games and
if the students were really interested as a total group in
athletic events rather than a profit motive, one could
accept that type of proposition. But when that is not
done, then there cannot be special consideration given to
them.
Obviously when the RHA states that the students
should have more influence in influencing the decision of
students at the university, they should pay for that per
erogative. The only decisions they show up for is booze in
the dormitories and coed visitation. Where are the
students when it comes to discussion of improvement of
education? Are students interested only in lobbying for
more financial appropriations to the university without
assurance of increasing educational delivery?
They are obviously misguided if they feel that the
regents are the members of the academic community that
improve the quality of education . I don't know of a regent
that teaches a class full or part time. I also don't know of
a regent that makes up any of the educational material
that students receive. Obviously RHA is a little mixed up
as to who determines the educational quality, if they can
define that word, that the students receive.
Neglecting basic educational needs is a matter of
faculty and appropriations utilization. To suggest that a
stadium addition taken from Athletic Department funds
affects the tax base and support of the university indicates
the maturity of the writers and the thought process that
occurs with misinformation.
One would suppose that students and the RHA would
get the. basic facts first before making absurd statements
that have no basis.
Robert J. Prokop M.D., Ph.D.
NU Regent from Wilber
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