friday, dccember 14, 1979
p4
daily nebrsskan
Editor thanks staff for efforts
This is the last Daily Nebraskan of
the fall semester, 1979, and, approp
riately, signals the changing of the
guard in the leadership of this news
paper. After today, Rocky Strunk will
assume the post of editor in chief. A
highly qualified journalist and
manager, I am confident he will lead
the Daily Nebraskan to an outstand
ing year. ,.
But before we turn the typewrit
ers, copy paper and pencils over to
those who follow, I must mention
those who made this a memorable
and successful semester.
Randy Essex, Jill Denning, Rocky
Strunk and . Brenda Moskovits co
ordinated the news gathering efforts
of the reporters. During our transi
tion to a five-day publication this
was an especially difficult job.
The entertainment and sports
desks, respectively, were headed by
Kim Wil and Rick Huls. Margaret
Stafford, managing editor, and lay
out editor Deb Shanahanboth de
dicated journalists, endured many a
late night on the copydesk with no
complaints.
Rick Hemphill is our art director
and Mark Billingsley our No, 1
photographer. Both are artists ad
people supreme.
Frank Hassler, .of course, was our
night news editor. His nights were
always long, but his job always done
well. Fathom, our magazine, was
brought you to through the coordin
ated and outstanding efforts of Mary
Fastenau and Gail Stork.
Anne Shank, in her first semester
of business manager, made sure the
paper didn't go in the ted. And Kitty
Policky, production boss, really is
not the tyrant she sometimes tries to
portray.
The advice of and support of
Da id Kotok, our adviser, will always
be remembered and appreciated.
Most thanks, however, must fall to
the staff-the overworked and under
paid reporters, copyeditors, photo
graphers and artists. Without their
dedicated efforts, this paper could
not exist.
Personal gratitude must be extend
ed to Liz, Alice, Karl, Bob, Val,
Bctsie, G.T. and J.P, who always had
an encouraging work or smile when
things were tough.
I'm going to miss you all.
Amy Lenzen
Education more than college
All of this commencing must have gone to my head,
like ceremonial wine.
Watching the parades of graduates filing across the
stages in front of cameras, I suddenly had the image of an
academic assemply line. I saw a million students on a con
veyor belt, each in an identical cap and gown, receiving
the finishing touches: a fresh set of initials, a certificate of
approval, a curriculum vitae to call his or her own.
O'O
2-JUll-JI
I was sure that once stamped by the college of their
origin, each of these newly minted alumni were labeled
for life. Their obituaries, half a century away, would un
doubtedly describe them as graduates.
The speakers, too, seemed to have caught the com
mencement fever. They spoke as if the ceremony were
launching new battleships made out of the new gray
matter, they broke their vintage bottles across the brows
of the assembled, and allowed their favorite thoughts to
bubble over.
With a sense of'urgency, they poured last-minute
knowledge into the ears of their students, try ing to catch
them while they were still hot, still thinking, still in
complete. I AM NOT going to bah-humbug college educations,
like the father in "Goodbye, Columbus" who complained
about his son: "Four years of college and he can't load a
truck."
But I think it is ridiculous to regard universities as
adolescence-finishing factories that produce sanded,
lacquered adults all ready to perform. It is not only
ridiculous, it is terrifying.
We attribute such a large place in our lives to a mere
four yean that commencement is more infused with the
fear of leaving than the excitement of beginning, or the
sense of community. We tell students that they are done
when they feel half-baked.
College is hardly the Peak Experience of the academic
end, aftd an one unfinished product, I say that with a sigh
cf relief. In the 1960s, I went to one of the Seven Sister
schools where they educated women like their "brothers."
It wii, I am told, a first-rate education and J think I
rmsiedu.
I show ed, on paper, a modest profit in the business of
teaming. Like many 18-year-olds in my class, I had been
well educated in one thing: living up to expectations. So I
digested history and regrugitated a thesis.
TODAY, 16 years later, I carry a cum after my name
like a dangling participle. But I didn't think until I was 30
and long past my required reading.
You can take that as depressing or reassuring, but I am
grateful that college didn't finish me.
Of course, I grew up between 18 and 22 when college
was in loco parentis. But I also grew up between 22 and
26 and between 30 and 39. .
NORA EPHRON told the seniors of Wellesley that "
those people who say college was the best time of their
lives didn't lead very happy lives. I realize now that most
of my friends enjoyed college one term and got through it
another. Some weeks we felt euphoric and other weeks
lonely. It wasn't the best of times, it wasn't the worst. It
was just lime, that Mixmaster of feelings.
We hadn't learned that this was normal. We thought
that depression was unusual and loneliness a fault, and
that everyone else was having his best years.
- Commencement is an end and a beginning and all that.
But maybe it doesn't merit a thunderous clap. The line be
tween childhood and adulthood doesn't look like a stream
of men and women in caps and gowns. It lurches and
gropes and leams on toward some higher degree.
In the end, the degree isn't a manufacturer's guarantee
that the work is done. Rather.it is a chit toward continu
ing education.
(e) 1979, Boston Globt Washington Pt Writer Group
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MERRY
CHRISTMAS
TO ALL?
We are required to seek peace and justice in a world
often devoid of both. The avoidance of war, therefore, is
our highest moral imperative while other means are still
available to establish peace and accomplish a just resolu
tion of conflict.
We deplore the taking of hostages. At the same time,
we believe that intransigence on both sides-the U.S.
demand for the unconditional release of the hostages and
the Iranian demand for immediate extradition of the shah
-has resulted in a dangerous impasse. No matter how
frustrating the current situation may be, it has not yet led
to any deaths in Iran, while military intervention would
surely result in many deaths on both sidea.
The repression, torture and corruption of the shah's
regime in Iran are a matter of public record, as are the
roles of the CIA in installing the shah and the U.S. govern
ment in providing him with unlimited armaments. It is
time for our present government to admit the facts on
these matters and acknowledge them publically, thus mak
ing a clean break with the corrupt policies of previous ad
ministration which got us into the present situation.
Therefore,
1) We commend President Carter for his policy of re
straint and urge him to continue to pursue non-military
solutions to the conflict.
2) We regret the clear implication given by the presi
dent that the blame in this matter rests entirely with the
Iranian government. The Iranian people have leg'timate
grievances against the shah and against the U.S. govern
ment for supporting him. These include the imprison
ment, torture and deaths of thousands of Iranians, wide-
spread corruption, massive U.S. arms sales to the shah for
use against his own people and the role of the CIA in de
posing the shah's predecessor and installing the shah in
power.
3) We call for international supervision of the conflict
by an agency such as the UN Security Council which
would provide for the release of the hostages and in inter
national tribunal to consider the charges against the shah
and his regime.
call on the American people to understand the
difficult situation of Iranians in this country and to cease
the harassment of them.
Let us pray that careful and reasoned minds will prevail
and that a spirit of understanding and reconciliation will
infuse the negotiations so that no blood will be she and
just solution realized.
Larry Doerr-Coordinator, Commonpbce-UMHE
Daphne Hamborg-Intern, Lutheran Student Center
& Chapel
Simon Long-Vicar, St. Marks on the Campus
Brent Bohlke-Chaplain, St. Marks on the Campus
Bruce Berggren -Pastor, Lutheran Student Center &. Chapel
