Page 4
Daily Nebraskan
Tuesday, March 2, 1982
Editorial
Students can fight
Regents Hall
with their votes
Children.
That's what the NU Board of Regents
thinks students are. Children who are un
able to sort out issues and address them ef
fectively. And so, the regents believe it is their du
ty to guide and direct student's lives for
them. They see no need to seriously con
sult students on issues that significantly af
fect their college careers and their futures.
Well, the regents are wrong.
Students do care about quality of edu
cation, faculty salaries, building mainten
ance, tuition and housing costs. Further
more, students are fully capable of explain
ing and fighting for their views.
So, what has led the regents astray?
What has given them the impression that
students are apathetic and lack initiative?
The consistently low voter turnouts at
ASUN elections.
Students must shoulder some of the
blame. When only about 10 percent of the
student body goes to the polls, how can
student leaders persuade the regents that
they represent the will of the student
body?
The regents repeatedly refer to low vot
er turnout as an excuse for not listening to
student concerns. Students have literally
handed the board its most effective wea
pon in fighting student pressure. And, in
the process, students have not only lost
self-respect, but also any effect they had
on concrete issues.
For example, the regents adamantly re
fuse to pay the student president a salary.
They refuse to trust students with alcohol
on campus. They deny our instructors the
pay and academic freedom they need and
in the same blow, deny students the educa
tion they have so dearly paid for. When
students try to fight these battles, the re
gents drive back their forces with the cry,
"Students don't really care."
Watching the candidates, the political
maneuvering and the haggling over proce
dure in this year's election, a student could
RSI
7
?r I
easily think, "What difference will it make
if I vote for one pretty face over another,
for one unfamiliar name over another?"
The ASUN election often seems like
just one more game for students to play.
But in reality, the election is serious stuff.
It's the one time students can make a dif
ference. If students would turn out in large num
bers on election day, the student president
and ASUN senators would face the regents
and administrators with a real constituen
cy. They could say the student body stood
together and supported them. With that
sort of backing, student leaders would gain
respect, and perhaps students could gain
some leverage over those who control the
pur'sestrings and the policy at this universi
ty. So, don't pass a polling booth Wednes
day and think, "What's the use?"
Your vote Joes matter. With it, the stu
dent body could beat the regents at their
own game -and take its rightful place in
university affairs.
BBun election
NSSA should be reapproved
UNL students will vote Wednesday on continued mem
bership in the Nebraska State Student Association. The
Innocents Society, a UNL senior honorary, encourages
students to vote yes for a continued 50 cents per semester
refundable membership fee.
Last March, students at UNL voted to form the NSSA
and fund it for two years. Because of a UNL administra
tion decision, students at UNL will be required to vote
again this year on funding.
Students at Peru State College also voted to form the
NSSA last March and since that time, the UNL and Wayne
State campuses also have voted to join. In addition, stu
dents at Kearney State will be deciding on membership
Guest Opinion
March 30. The NSSA has spent an ambitious first year or
ganizing Nebraska students, and has just hired two experi
enced, professional staff members, who are representing
students fuh time.
The NSSA advocates the interests of students at the
legislative level. Proposed cuts in financial aids, for e '.am
ple, could price many students out of an education, and
so the NSSA has begun lobbying against cuts in seeded fi
nancial aids. The NSSA will also be dealing with the avail
ability of financial aids to students from agricultural fami
lies. Presently, financial aid formulas exclude families with
large property holdings, regardless of real student need,
which discriminates against many rural students.
Another concern facing students is the declining quali
ty of education. Meager legislative appropriations have
translated into low faculty salaries and an actual 2 percent
cut in university faculty and staff. UNL will have difficul
ty maintaining quality faculty if its faculty salaries remain
the lowest in the Big Eight. Students will continue having
difficulty obtaining needed classes if the university cannot
increase its faculty as student enrollment increases.
For years, students have tried to influence Nebraska
legislators. Individual campuses have made occasional lob
bying efforts, but students have often been frustrated by a
lack of organization and continuity. On a year-to-year
basis, legislators have not had regular student liaisons. In
dividual campuses have often fought each other for appro
priations, negating the potential for a collective student
voice.
The NSSA has a full-time staff that can work with
legislators on a day-to-day basis. Furthermore, the staff
can coordinate efforts across the state, such as voter reg
istration drives and legislative lobbying efforts. This sort
of organization is impressive to legislators, and in fact the
NSSA has already been asked to draft a legislative propo
sal for the distribution of state financial aids.
In times of fiscal austerity, education tends to be ar.
all-too-vulnerable target. However, on Wednesday students
will have an opportunity to bolster their support for edu
cation. Looking ahead, the Innocents Society repeats the
NSSA philosophy, that education is an investment in Ne
braska's future.
The Innocents Societv
Editorial policy
Unsigned editorials represent the policy of the
spring 1982 Daily Nebraskan but do not necessarily
reflect the views of the University of Nebraska, its
employees or the NU Board of Regents.
The Daily Nebraskan's publishers are the regents,
who have established a publication board to super
vise the daily production of the newspaper. Accord
ing to policy set by the regents, the content of the
UNL student newspaper lies solely in the hands of
its student editors.
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