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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 9, 1980)
page 4 daily nebraskan tuesday, december 9, 1980 o) Bwug et request needs support of all. The Nebraska Legislature starts its lc)81 session in January, and all members of the university communi ty are urged to do everything pos sible to tell legislators why the NU budget request is necessary. The request for an 18 percent in crease, just because of the figure 18, is sure to meet opposition from those who think that 7 percent is a big enough increase for any institu tion in any given year. The fiscal conservatives in state government, in order to ensure re election, won't bother to listen to NU officials and others who will present thorough documentation ex plaining the university's needs. And, of course. Gov. Charles Thone is sure to trim whatever figure the Legislature approves. Thone, who ran for office promising to guard the state treasury just like lie guarded his mother's egg money during the Depression, has been very hard-boiled about university appro priations. In the university's effort to get enough money just to stay even, each faculty member and each stu dent can play an important role. Letters and phone calls to senators, if they come in great enough numbers, will augment the NU Board of Regents" and the NU administra tion's presentation of facts and figures. November's election brought a number of new faces to the Legisla ture. Freshmen senators traditionally are willing to listen and read, and would be good choices for citizens to contact with concerns about the uni versity budget. All of the senators, from the least to the most experienced, fully realize the limitations of state government funds. What they need to be told, in as many ways as possible, is how the investment into the university will return benefits to the entire state. There is no branch of government so important as a major university. Policy-making bodies often like to think they are looking to the future, but a university does that all the time, and an appropriation of funds helps the entire state move forward. UNL is the flagship of the NU system. It is a quality institution, but it can be better. It must be the first priority in financing. Despite difficult times, Nebraska must invest in itself. This university, and particularly this campus, will return every cent Nebraska invests in it. The university community is capable of playing a major role in de ciding how ureat the investment will be. Sex issue unfair to working women If you could harness the energy devoted to office gossip in any workplace, you probably could solve the oil crisis. The Bendix Corporation is no exception. But the stor of Mary Cunningham and William Agee has made the ordinary office viciousness look positively benign. In a matter of days in corporate headquarters, 2l)-year-old Mary Cunningham was promoted up to vice president and then humiliated out of the business all be cause of rumors that she and Agee were having an affair. Needless to say, this story would have bubbled around any water cooler for quite a while. But it also landed on page one of almost every newspaper in America, and for llie past week it has been a catalyst for debates between men and women, bosses and employees. goodman The Cunningham-Agee story is an updated version of the favorite male fantasy about women who sleep their way to the top. It is absolutely ripe with hostility toward uppity women, especially young uppity women, especially pretty young uppity women. On the surface, the argument is whether Mary Cunning ham won her promotion because of "favoritism." But once you get two sentences into the debate you can hear the old subconscious fear and anger rumbling around: The feeling that women really have an "unlan ail vantage" over men in the business world. The belief that they take that unfair advantage. I would like to dismiss this notion as the bitter raving of a rejected male executive overdosing on martinis and testosterone. But it's too widespread and too destructive to simply write off. Just think about all the "unfair advantages." As far as I can see. every promotion to the executive suite is based in part on a personal relationship. Bosses promote the people they like and know. nebraskan UPSP 144O80 Editor in chief: Randy Essex; Managing editor: Bob Lannin; News editor: Barb Richardson; Associate news editor Kathy Chenault. Assistant news editors Tom Prentiss and Shelley Smith; Night news editors: Sue Brown, Nancy Ellis, Bill Graf; East Cam pus Bureau Chief: Jim Garret; Assistant night news editor Ifpjika Okonkwo; Entertainment editor: Casey McCabe; Sports editor: Shelley Smith; Photography chief. Mark Billingsley; Art director David Luebke. Magazine editor Diane Andersen. Copy editors Sue Brown, Nancy Ellis, Maureen Hutfless, Lon McGinnis. Tom McNeil, Jeanne Mohatt, Lisa Paulson, Kathy Sulm, Kent Warneke, Patricia Waters. Business manager Anne Shank; Production manager Kitty Policky; Advertising manager Art Small; Assistant advertising manager Jeff Pike. Publications Board chairman Mark Bowen, 475 1081. Pro fessional adviser Don Walton. 473 7301 The Daily Nebraskan is published by the UNL Publications Board Mondav through Triday during the fall and spring semes ters. -ept Uinntj vacations Aficss Daily Nebraskan. 34 Nebraska Union. 14th and H s'r.-.-is. Lt oir. fxjfh . 68588 Tipnoie 47??r88 M.itffia! "uy ! reported v!hauf permission if attributed to -. f).iv Nb'iMn ecept " at "rial t overed by a ropy right i ! t iss iio'.mqi' y.i (l r i "j, t) (5Hi 1 0 It's no news bulletin that the ambitious still jockey for casual friendship in the steam room, the golf course, the private club. These are precisely the places often closed to women. Men don't consider that an "unfair advantage." The other informal path to success is to stop for an after-work drink, or sign on for the out-of-town trip. This is the way a man convinces his leader that he is charming, intelligent and a good business hustler. This is also the eas iest way for a woman to convince her boss that she is another sort of hustler. The after-work drink and the road trip work for men. but not for women. Men do not consider this an "unfair advantage." When you come down to it. a woman who wants to diffuse the sex issues had better be plain, happily married ami talk about her husband incessantly. At that point, of course, she will probably be passed over for promotion be cause she doesn't M i l) the pay raise. Women do not have a set of separate-but-legal unfair advantages. It is plain old hostility that assumes that a woman can only get to the top on her back instead of her merit, li is plain old fantasy to envision nubile young business-school graduates cutting through the competition with a little pillow talk. If women can sleep their way to the top. how come they aren't there'.' Only o percent of all the working women in the country have squeaked into management. Only 600 of the 15.000 people on boards of directorships are female. There must he an epidemic of insomnia out there. I'm not naive. The workplace is not a convent; people meet and fall in love over stranger things than blueprints. But nobody calls the reporters in when yet another boss sleeps with Jus secretary. If you look at the sexual har assment statistics, it's women at the bottom who are considered fair game. The sex issue in work is loaded against women pre cisely because there are so few in any kind of power, bach one is the exception, scrutinized, assumed to have some mysterious power to cloud men's minds. Did they or didn't they? Are they oi aren't tlie? Does it matter? All I know is that Mary Cunningham is out and William Agee is still president. There's an old proverb: Wheihei the lock hits the pitcher or the pitcher hits the rock. u going to be bail for the pitcher. Well, no matter what happens, or why. in .his sort of collision, it's the less powerful person who gets shattered. In corporate America. Mary Cunningham was just another pitcher. (c) 1980, The Washington Post Writers Group The Boston Globe Co. ( M A r"! So the editor While Mr. Issex has alternated his daily sermons this semester between averting us from nuclear immolation and solemnly proclaiming the need for an egaliterian world order, he has not mentioned the obvious fact that in the graveyard there is an unambiguous condition of equality. But I would suggest other prospects of the "divinity that shapes our ends." Ciiven the pacifist diivel Mi. I sse and his surrogates have offered us this semester. I would agree with T S. I hot that the world will go out "with a whimpoi . not j bang." Credit due S.Mil St anion! Sippic On behalf of the University Progiam Council Talks and Topics Committee. I would like to thank ou veiy much for the article wiitten on Ivan Voges (Dec. 4). What distresses me and the committee is that tioviedit to Talks and Topics oi I 'PC was given in the article. We would request in the Inline to please give credit when credit due Paul I collev I aik v and I opu v ( oinmittee More loiters m Pam 5
