page 4
daily nebraskan
monday, aprll 0, 1979
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Poor shouldn't pay price for American energy follies
Recent events in the United States
have been traumatic for a country as
utterly dependent on energy as this
one.
OPEC decided in late March to
raise crude oil prices another 9
percent, foreshadowing ever-increasing
prices at the pumps. The Three
Mile Island nuclear accident has rais
ed many questions about the ability
of American technology to solve our
energy problem.
And President Carter's decision to
gradually deregulate the price of
domestically-produced oil is an obvi
ous attempt to ration oil consumpt
ion by making it less feasible for the
average person to buy.
All of this is a little frightening for
people who are used to lifestyles of
ease and luxury. Americans, in
general, no longer will be able to
afford large gas-guzzling cars. Large
houses, which would cost a fortune
to heat and air condition, will be out
of the question. And with more and
more money budgeted to meet
energy needs, less and less will be
available for luxuries and the little
pleasures of life.
While the middle class, simply be
cause of its numbers, will bear the
greatest burden, it is the poor who
will suffer most unless Congress
agrees to Carter's proposal to tax the
windfall profits of oil companies and
rebate the money to lower-income
families.
The poor already are suffering
from high prices caused when the
rest of us, fearful of losing our high
lifestyles, refused, to conserve, in
creased the demand for oil and made
deregulation necessary.
The poor who have contributed
least to the energy cirsis should not
have to contribute most to its solut
ion. Amy Lenzen
Column calls for Independent3 voting
It was a dark and stormy night, for when roommate
got snoopy about my column, nothing would stop his
verbal lightning from striking.
I said I was writing about Wednesday's ASUN presi
dential election. I told him some Greeks were working
against Joe Nigro because he was an Independent, and
some Independents were working for him for precisely
that same reason.
Confronted with that detailed analysis of student vot
ing patterns, roommate grimaced, and I knew I would not
escape this debate Scot-free.
"I have long believed," observed roommate, "that it is
possible to base a society on anything, even love, as long
as there isan external society-to hate.
"I suspect those students working for or against a
candidate solely because of where he lives are working
only to strengthen themselves, not student government.
"If they are concerned about who is the best candi
date, the answer is fairly clear: Joe Nigro."
My confusion swiftly turned to gloating, for here was
residence hall roomie endorsing a fellow independent.
"Balderdash!" rejoined roommate. "We noble Scots are
slightly more objective than your average politically inept
TNE member.
"Nigro, is the only ASUN Senator with a perfect
attendance' record at ASUN. He is also highly articulate,
experienced in student government and the type of person
who will stand up to the regents to protect student lights.
I questioned that analysis, especially since Bud Cuca
had told the Daily Nebraskan, "Joe has ASUN experience,
fine, but I have experience with people.'
Roommate was not amused.
"Forgiving Mr. Cuca for his insinuation that ASUN is
not comprised of people,' his point still is moot. Nigro
does have experience with people-in ASUN, the admini
stration and the regents. Those contacts will be valuable in
furthering student concerns.
"Nigro also will not have to waste time fighting with
the ASUN Senate. If Mr. Cuca is elected, he will have to
deal with a hostile senate, as Nigro 's SOAR party swept
24 or the 35 senate seats."
Then, like a tiger stalking a deer, roommate sprang.-
"Unfortunately, some students are bound to ignore
such factors and instead blindly follow a Greek Slate or
someone yelling "Dorm Power!
"One can only hope that they , will take the time to
attend the debate between the candidates today' in the
union, then sit down with a copy of the Daily Nebraskan
and study the two candidates, their positions, and their
qualifications.
"I hope they vote for Nigro, but, for the sake of all
UNL students, I just hope they vote."
Students refute regent's letter on stadium expansion
UNL students are concerned about their
education. Unfortunately, N.U. Regent
Robert Prokop seems more concerned with
expanding the football stadium than with
expanding students' minds.
In his recent letter, Prokop, while claim
ing the regents are not overconcerned with
football, deals not with the Residence Hall
Association's often-expressed concerns
about UNLV educational problems, but
rather with RHA's opposition ot the 9,000
seat, $6 million addition to Memorial.
Stadium.
Not surprisingly, Prokop and RHA agree
that the expansion, at $575 a seat, is "fool
hardy." Prokop, however, wants to build
a new, even more expensive, 105,000, seat
stadium.
Prokop also contends that since stu
dents pay only 14 percent of .the revenue
the Athletic Department receives from
fobtbaj ticket sales, we should not
complain about helping to pay for the
addition.
Li other words, Prokop, who last year
argued., that political speakers should be
paid for only by thfeir users, now cannot
swallow his own medicine. Instead he .
wants the stadium expansion to be sub
sidized by students who will not use it.
Actually, the per student contribution
to the Athletic Department is $3.92per
student ticket, "virtually the same as the
S4.12 that comes from each general admis
sion ticket. Is Prokop Implying that finan
cial contributions should determine who
has input and votes on football stadium
questions? Strange; : students provide 14
percent of the revenue and have exactly
zero percent of the vote on the N.U. Board '
of Regents. i , - x 1 -
Prokop also condemns miA for saying
that state tax dollars were paying for the
expansion. Nowhere in the RHA letter,
however, did RHA ever say that the expan
sion .was being subsidized by the state at
the expanse of education.
I But it is. Although football revenue
usually pays for women's sports at UNL,
nextear $357j000 for women's sports
will have to come from the state general
cash fund because football revenue will be
paying for the stadium expansion instead.
But even more misleading are Prokop's
arguments about students and the regents.
pi
Denying RHA's contention that regents
devote too much time to football, Prokop,
who told the Daily Nebraskan in December
that he had spent 150 to 200 hoursjon the
expansion issue, says the regents have spent
J no more than 10 hours in their meetings
discussing the expansion.
According to Prokop, their meetings last
7 to 10 hours each month, an average of
about 8.5 hours. At their April meeting,
the regents covered 78 items, so with
eleven meetings a year and about 78 items
of business to discuss at each meeting, they
have about 93 total hours to consider 860
items. Yet just bfte itemfdotbaH stadium
vcxpansion-Hnsumed a full one-tenth of
the regents, time, at the expense of 859
educational problems.
Discussed stadium
Indeed, Lincoln Regent Ed Schwartz
kopf summarized his term as board chair
man by saying, We discussed stadium ex
pansion at our January, February, March,
April, May, June, July, and October meet
ings. Equally misleading is Prokop's claim
that students only appear at regents meet
ings to talk about alcohol and visitation in
the residence halls. -
Yet in ; the past. three years, students
have 'presented only one .limited,, experi
mental visitation proposal, and no propos
als at all dealing with alcohol.
Rather, UNL's student government has
lobbied in the Nebraska Legislature on bills
dealing with UNL teaching salaries, tuition,
the university budget, and renovation of
classroom buildings (some of which the
State Fire Marshall may condemn as fire
hazards).
And at the last regents meeting, held
during Spring Break when students were at
home, not in Lincoln, a standing room
only crowd of Students attended to show
their concern about tightening UNL's
admissions policies.
In short, if Prokop claims he never sees
student input on educational issues, it may
be because none is so blind as he who will
not see.
Indeed, Prokop has rejected student in
put on numerous issues. At the last regents
' meeting, he voted to kill a plan that would
allow the non-voting student regents to
cast not a vote, but a 'formal opinion' on
each item.
And it was just last year that Prokop
helped kill the UNL political speakers pro
gram, despite the opposition of the UNL
Administration, the Faculty Senate, the
UNL student government, a petition signed
by 5,000 students, and the virtually unani
mous opposition of every major student
organization on campus, Including RHA.
Petition drive
The student opposition has been just as
strong against the stadium expansion. Last
year, a petition drive against the expansion
yielded 2,000 student signatures in only
eiht hours. Student regents have consist
ently opposed the expansion.
pe regents reacted to this opposition
by holding their Deeerpber meeting during
finals week, when students were busy
'studying for examinations, and then by
approving the expansion over Christmas
break, when nearly all students were visit
ing their families at home.
But Prokop's most disappointing argu
ment is that RHA is "obviously misguided
if they feel that the regents are the memb
ers of the academic community that im
prove the quality of education."
Yet if the regents, whose own bylaws
assign them "constitutional and statutory
power for general supervision over all
elements of the university", are not respon
sible for improving education at UNL, then
who is?
Lowest salaries
Who, except the regents, are responsible
for that fact that UNL has:
-The second highest tuition of all Big
Eight schools,
-the second lowest teachers' salaries in
the entire Big Eight, low salaries that dis
courage high caliber instructors from com
ing here, and:
-A College of Business Administration
and a College of Engineering which last
year turned away over 2,000 students be
cause they did not have the money to hire
enough professors?
Yes, we as students and as student
government leaders, are concerned about
education at UNL, and make every attempt
to voice our concerns to help improve edu
cation at this university.
We can only hope, however, that Regent
Prokop will help us in our goal by devoting
any future public letters to UNL's prob
lems with education, not football. To
gether, perhaps we can make this a univer
sity that the football team can be proud of.
Jay Curt iss
President RHA, 197940
BZlSkoneki
President, RHA, 1978-79
Michael Gibson
President RHA, 1977-78
Judith Skninoe
President, RHA, 1976-77
Robert A. Gtaon
Gun-rasa, Government Lidsoa Committee
Kenneth II. Marienan
President, ASUN, 1978-79
