Wednesday, februery 13, 1 SCO
daily nebraskan
mmwM
If there were ever a strange relationship in
journalism, it would have to exist between the
student press and college administration.
The two entities work for the same boss (NU
Board of Regents), serve the same campus com
munity, and sometimes have parallel views toward
what they perceive as the best interests of the
student body. .
But that is where similarities end. Often the
administration meets the student press with resis
tance and, at times, is downright uncooperative.
This isn't unusual from an authoritative "body
and is one of the challenges facing student journ
alists every day.
The handling of the student press can become
somewhat comical when secretaries become the
buffering zone between unresponsive administra
tors and a student journalist anxious to get the
facts. .
"Have you got his permission to do this story"
and "he's out of the office today" are standard
barriers thrown up for elusive administrators. It
doesn't matter that someone just saw that admin
istrator on campus. If it is his day off, he's not in.
Sometimes an inexperienced secretary will be
come flustered and will forget that the adminis
trator is indeed a public official. At these times, a
reporter might hear, "you have no right to ask
these questions' or "he wouldn't appreciate the
nature of that line of questioning. "
Of course, there is always the sound of an
angry telephone "disconnection" which for some
reason can't be reconnected for some time
because of a busy signal.
Then there are the "no comment" tactics em
ployed by some administrators when questions
come from student scribes. That works once or
twice until major newspapers carry comments. the
same day from that particular administrator. At
that point, a kind note demanding an explanation
is sent from the Daily Nebraskan.
- There is nothing more frustrating than adminis
trators who perceive the student press as unim
portant and fail to provide proper communication
to the 22,000 students at UNL. When this
happens, it does nothing more than reinforce a
perception by students of an unresponsive admin
istration which is insensitive to student needs.
Although every college administration in the
country can probably by accused of not coopera
ting with the student press at some. time, UNL
administrators generally have good attitudes
toward the student press.
Meetings between editors and administrators
are planned every semester and this provides the
opportunity to voice complaints by either party.
Communication channels are usually kept open
throughout the semester and an occasional
reminder is usually all it takes to get a requested
response from people who seem to work 26 hours
a day.
Proper coverage of the administration is a deep
concern to the Daily Nebraskan news staff each
semester. To ensure that coverage, there is a re
porter assigned specifically to cover Regents Hall
and the administration in general. .
By proper news coverage, administrative re
sponse to ' student questions and cooperative
channels of communication, the student press and
college administration can continue to serve the
best interests of the people they serve-the UNL
student body.
Harry Allen Strunk
FBI is testing morals instead of doing its job
WASHINGTON-Everybody seems
to be disgusted (though not necessar
ily surprised) that some members of
Congress apparently are willing to
sell their legislative influence. I'm
disgusted, too.
Everybody is feeling good about
;Sen. Larry Pressler, who, apparently
inadvertently, has demonstrated his
incorruptibility. I feel good about
him, too.
But I have another feeling about
this newest "sting" operation: the
feeling that the FBI has strayed. from
investigating crime, which is its job,
to testing morals, which isn't. The
crime the agency has documented on
videotape is of its own invention.
I don't want to prejudge the
individual congressmen who allegedly
accepted bribes from FBI agents
posing as agents for "Arab" interests,
interests. It may be that some of
them intended to report the bribe
attempts and pocketed ' the money
only as evidence.
But I am willing to believe that
some of the legislators caught on
videotape in Operation ABSCAM
were taking bribes, simply and im
purely. Even so, it seems to me that
the FBI succeeded only in "solving"
the crimes it itself had created: that
the congressmen who were caught
with their morals showing were
victims not just of their own greed
but of official entrapment .
Lawyers tell me that a good lay
man's definition of entrapment is the
situation in which the seeds of; a
crime are planted by the law-enforcement
officers themselves. According
to news reports, that is a fair
summary of what happened to the
with thieves and fences who already
have committed the crimes. In the
second, no crime was committed
until the authorities planted the
seeds.
I freely admit planting seeds does
not compel anyone to engage in
instant agriculture. The seeds they
sowed for Larry Pressler apparently
produced ' nothing but crop failure.
But the fact that some men may have
succumbed to what Pressler was able
embarrassed congressmen. "j ' r.
The operation reportedly began as
a trap for big-time hoods trafficking
in stolen securities and works of art.
If the authorities had set up a phony
fencing operation to attract the
"hot" merchandisers, I wouldn't be
squawking. But at some point,
apparently, the FBI stopped trying
to smoke out the possessors of stolen
merchandise and started trying to
smoke out the possessors of easy
morals. -
In the first case, you are dealing
to resist does not settle the matter
for me.
Where, I keep wondering, is the
evidence that these men would have
engaged in bribery-in this parti
cular bit of bribery-if the FBI
hadn't talked them into it? Where,
by extension, is the evidence that
maybe three-quarters of the members
of both houses wouldn't have been
tempted if the bribe had been
sufficiently attractive?
I suspect that if you made the
temptation great enough, with
sufficient payoff and sufficient likeli
hood that we wouldn't be found out,
a healthy majority of us Americans
might find ourselves lured into a
criminal act. '
But it doesn't follow that we are a
nation of crooks and that most of us
ought to-be locked up in preventive
detention. None of us is pure, but it
is not the business of law-enforce-"
ment officers to transform us from
potential crooks into actual ones.
In the earlier local "sting" opera
tions that apparently provided the
model for ABSCAM, the FBI and the
D.C. police simply set up a phone
fencing operation and let it be
known that they were in business.
The "hot" merchandise they attract
ed had already been stolen; the
crooks were already crooks-at first.
It seems reasonable to suppose that,
later on, some people who hadn't yet
stolen anything might have been
tempted into thievery by the easy
availability of a top-dollar fence.
But in the present case, all the
FBI had, apparently, was a list of
potential outlaws. , There was no
actual crime until the FBI contrived
to create it.
(c) 1980. Tht Washington Post Company
Control
over
foreign
uni versifies often is shared
Note: this h the second part of a column dealing with
universities overseas.
:?- Although much or all of a foreign university's money
may come from the government, control usually is shared,
with the government taking a back' seat. Students have
more power than here, in most cases, sometimes closing
universities completely by going on strike .
'Germany has a tradition of free universities," Maria
Nussbaum said. "Control is shared by professors, the ad
ministration, and the government. Our student parliament
has power over some university policies, plus a lot of in
fluence." Jose Da Costa said that although the University of
Vicosa, Brazil is a federally financed school, "the rector of
the university has the most power. He is normally a pro
fessor appointed by the deans of the colleges."
Exams are a major part of every foreign university
system but are sometimes quite different from those ?t
UNL
,4We don't have multiple choice exams (in Ife, Nigeria),
only long essays," Tony Ofili said. "You might write a 30
page history exam with a three-hour time limit."
, Cheranjit Sodhi attended the Punjab Agricultural
University in Ludhiana, India.
"At PAUwe have grades A to F, but very few get an
A. If you get two Cs, you go on probation; a third C will
get you expelled," he said.
Sodhi deemed himself lucky to have gotten by this
easily, saying that "most other universities have one exam
per course-a final at the end of the year. The questions
are sent by a professor from another university, and the
grading is done at yet another school.
"This ensures that students read outside materials to
get complete information, because the questions may not
come from texts their class is using " he said.
The government steps into the grading process in Pakis
tan. Naeem Adamjee said that Universities run on the
same grading system as UNL, but general colleges-far
more numerous than universities-have national exams
graded by the Board of Education.
"The grades are first through third division; first
division is 60 percent or higher, but is not easy to achieve
Seventy-five percent is distinction , like A here. No one
gets a perfect score, except maybe a genius."
Entering a foreign university is often more difficult
than entering an American one, even for foreign students.
Entrance requirements vary widely, but either exams or a
high school diploma, or a combination of both, are
needed.
"It's very difficult to Ret into the government
uiuivmusj yui jayau, ivanoru lanaita saia. ; wc mium
take five subject exams, which are math, Japanese,
history; English, and either physics, chemistry , or biology.
And then we have five more exams, which differ between
the universities.".
Once you're in, the situation may be drastically
different from UNL Some systems are more rigid, others
more flexible. West Germany, for example, gives students
much greater freedom in selecting their classes.
Registration is no hassle, either, Nussbaum added.
"You register a week after classes start, by sending a
note to the registration office saying you are taking the
class. There's no limit on number of students for any
class, except on the higher levels. Some of those require
professor's permission to enter," she said.
In Nigeria and- Japan, the system is more restrictive
than here, and this is what convinced Ofili and Tanaka to
attend UNL
"In Japan, it's almost impossible to change majors. But
5cfore entering we should apply for a certain field. At
Hokkaido, my major is environmental engineering. I be
came interested in anthropology but couldn't switch
majors. That's why I came here," Tanak said. She plans to
return to the University of Hokkaido next year to
complete her major.
Even if everything seems different on the surface.it all
boils down to students, professors, textbooks and exams.