Monday, March 15, 1982
Daily Nebraskan
page 5
Students learn economic realities from new cuts
The picture In the Sunday paper was a
perfect yearbook photo for the class of
'82. Caption it: The class of economic
anxiety.
There they were. Hundreds of students
standing together in front of a wide-angle
lens on the steps of the Capitol, all posing
in a demonstration against cuts in higher
education and student loans.
In the front rows, about three dozen of
them were holding posterboard letters
across an uneven line. Like a card section
at halftime, they spelled out: Call or Write
Contress. Support Higher Education.
Together they were the very portrait of
the year that higher education went the
way of the auto industry. The year when
nn Ellen
Kf Goodman
students on every campus wondered from
day to day if they'd get the pink slip from
the government. The year when more and
more undergraduates began majoring in
Economic Realities.
The proposed new slashes in student
loans are yet another powerful shot of un
certainly, yet another fix for the anxiety
that now courses regularly through the
veins of the college community.
Those of us who have been on campuses
frequently in the past half-dozen years
have watched the stress level go up and up.
To this day, I carry snapshots in my mind
of dozens of students all shaken with un
certainties about the things they once
assumed: an education, a job, a future.
The pressures seem enormous. The bulk
of them face the inexorable problem,
semester by semester, of raising funds for a
rising tuition. Let Treasury Secretary
Donald Regan share his memories of stu
dent life like in 1940: . . There is such a
think called working your way through
college. I did it." In 1982, it is virtually
impossible to work through college as a
Letters Policy
The Daily Nebraskan encourages brief
letters to the editor from all readers and
interested others.
Letters will be selected for publication
on the basis of clarity, originality, timeli
ness and space available in the newspaper.
Letters sent to the newspaper for publi
cation become the property of the Daily
Nebraskan and cannot be returned.
The Daily Nebraskan reserves the right
to edit and condense all letters submitted.
Readers are also welcome to submit
material as guest opinions, subject to the
editor's decision to print or not to print
the material, cither as a letter or a guest
opinion.
Anonymous submissions will not be
considered for publication, and requests to
withhold names will be granted only in ex
ceptional circumstances.
Submit all material to the Daily Nebras
kan, Room 34, Nebraska Union, 1400 R
St., Lincoln, Neb. 68588.
full-time student. College tuition is too
high and jobs are too scarce.
In a host of ways, the anxieties of this
economy have trickled down to the class
room and the dorm.
The students in need of loans wait, like
farmers or small business owners, for the
news to delivery their future plans. They
fear that without loans there will be no
college. Hut they also fear that the debt
that comes more and more often with the
degree. At the same time, students who
contemplate dropping out know they'll
enter an unwelcoming job market, and
know that even graduation offers no
guarantees.
It isn't just the cost of higher education
that makes this an anxious time. It is also
wondering about the value of it.
Today there are 1 2 million students in
colleges and universities, twice the number
enrolled just 20 years ago. When half the
high school graduates go on for another
degree, that piece of paper can no longer
offer a head start in the marketplace. The
income "bonus" for a college graduate in
the work world is shrinking, as the price
tag is growing.
In the album of uncertainities, the stu
dents I have met ponder all of these un
knowns and long for some security. In
evitably the class of anxiety talks more
about "marketable skills" than about liter
ature, worries more about access to the job
market in their future than access to their
culture in the past. It comes with the
times.
Nebraskan
Editorials do not necessarily express the
opinions of the Daily Nebraskan's publishers, the
NU Board of Regents, the University of Nebraska
and its employees or the student body.
USPS 144-080
Editor: Martha Murdock; Managing editor:
Janice Pigaga; News editor: Kathy Stokebrand;
Associate news editors: Patti Gallagher, Bob
Glissmann; Editorial assistant: Pat Clark; Night
news editor: Kate Kopischke; Assistant night
news editor: Tom Hassing; Entertainment editor:
Bob Crisler; Sports editor: Larry Sparks; Assist
ant sports editor: Cindy Gardner; Art director:
Dave Luebke; Photography chief: D. Eric Kirch
er; Graphic designer: John G. Goecke.
Copy editors: Mary Ellen Behne, Leslie
Kendrick, Sue MacDonald, Melinda Norris, Patty
Pryor, Peggy Reichardt, Lori Siewert, Michiela
Thuman, Tricia Waters, Rob Wilborn.
Business manager: Anne Shank-Volk; Pro
duction manager: Kitty Policky; Advertising
manager: Art K. Small; Assistant advertising
manager: Jerry Scott.
Publications Board chairperson: Margy Mc
Cleery, 472-2454. Professional adviser: Don
Walton, 473-7301.
The Daily Nebraskan is published by the UNL
Publications Board Monday through Friday
during the fall and spring semesters, except
during vacation. Address. Daily Nebraskan, 34
Nebraska Union, 1400 R St., Lincoln, Neb.,
68588. Telephone: 472-2588.
All material in the Daily Nebraskan is covered
by copyright.
Second class postage paid at Lincoln, Neb.,
68510.
Annual subscription: $20, semester subscrip
tion: $1 1 .
"POSTMASTER: Send address changes to
Daily Nebraskan, 34 Nebraska Union, 1400 R
St., Lincoln, Neb., 68588."
NOW OPEN!
pa i
nofflsfti aS)E mis?
Those lucky enough to have parents
who can pay for school still fit in this mass
portrait. Highly conscious of the sacrifice
of their families, they feel particularly
caught between the parents who want
them to pursue a skill and the teachers who
want them to pursue an idea.
It is rare now to find a college professor
without the same sympathetic lament.
They describe students who are fearful, in
search of answers instead of arguments,
credentials instead of quests. At best, these
young people regard college as a tricky
tunnel to negotiate on their way to life.
Inside the Capitol where the photo was
takcn,4here was a great deal of talk about
education and the economy. interest rates,
inflation, unemployment, government
support, student loans. There was palpable
fear on the part of the college administrat
ors that wc would have a two-track, or
three-track, education: private schools for
the rich, public schools for the middle
class, none for the rest.
But there's already a two-track educat
ion world. Today only the most privileged
can afford what we blushingly call the love
of learning. This is the real casualty of the
times. For the class of '82, the class of
anxiety, the pursuit of knowledge has be
come a luxury.
(c) 1982, The Washington Post Company
L.
Ice Cream Sundae
& Super Cookie
only 75$
with this coupon at
UNION SQUARE
(Good march 15 - 19 only)
3? n
U THE
iJLatssL' iJJ
Jim
Visit the Clipper
barbershop for your
hairstyling needs
' y
' 1 I
Kim
Doing what's right makes us the most popular shop in Lincoln.
124 North 12th
2 blocks south of campus
Monday - Friday 8:00-5:30
Saturday 8:00-4:00
474-4455
Dayspring presents
Can One Reasonably
.
Believe In God?
A seminar, featuring
Dr. Gene Hardy,
English Professor
Chaplain Larry Doer,
Commonplace
Dr. Ward Hill, Ph.D., Sociology
Wednesday, 2 p.m.
Rostrum
Nebraska Union
