Daily Nebraskan ThursdaV' 0ctober 28- '982
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UNL faculty members suffer from budget-ciit-itis
Tuesday, the faculty members of the
UNL School of Life Sciences formally
objected to reducing faculty salaries to
offset budget cuts.
Wednesday, a committee of the College
of Arts and Sciences suggested that univer
sity classes be canceled for one week next
spring and that students be charged a 10
percent surcharge on their tuition-both
to absorb budget cuts.
A member of the Arts and Science com
mittee said the psychology and sociology
departments also approved the committee's
proposal. '
The dean of the College of Engineering
and Technology said 50 class sections
would have to go to meet a budget cut of
3 percent to 5 percent.
The dean of the College of Agriculture
said the purchase of equipment would be
delayed if budget cuts are demanded.
Whatever the mood is that is spreading
through this campus and infecting the fa
culty, it seems to be spreading quickly and
infecting thoroughly.
We think the disease is called budget-cut-itis.
We think the faculty, damn tired
of having vital parts of their departments
eliminated and sick of having their salaries
chiseled away, finally are willing to take
drastic stands to illuminate the severe im
pact of further budget cuts. And wc are
pleased.
Why has the faculty contracted budget-
cut-itis now, in the middle of a semester,
long after budgets are set? Because next
week, the state legislators return to the
Capitol for what is euphemistically called
a special session. Special session, to Uni
versity folk, means budget-cutting time.
Last year's special session was called
because the state appropriated about $25
million more to its agencies than it col
lected in state taxes. This year's special
session, which begins Nov. 5, was called
because state revenue is about $30 mil
lion less than projected.
As last year, the cuts surely will be
made and if they come across the board
as Thone has advocated, faculty salaries
will decrease.
Because of that, the UNL facultv is nn.
paring. What they seem to be saying:
When you start cutting the university bud
get, stay away from our salaries."
To drive home their point, they are re
questing preposterous money-savers: clos
ing the university for a week, assessing tu
ition surcharges, requiring faculty members
to take payless vacations and adopting a
surcharge on football tickets.
We hope that none of these ideas were
put forth for serious consideration. But we
do hope that as university officials and
members of the NU Board of Regents de
cide where to extract the 3 percent to 5
percent that Thonewants, they stay away
from the salaries.
Ihilor 01982
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It's time to pull the tLN.'s plug
George Shultz, speaking for his president, is exactly
right. If the United Nations General Assembly expels
Israel, he said the other day,"the United States (will)
withdraw from participation in the assembly and (will)
withhold payments o the United Nations until Israel's
right to participate is restored.'
Apparently that announcement was sufficient to fore
stall Israel's ouster for now, but as Scarlett O'Hara said,
"Tomorrow is another day." Next week, next month,
next year - the expulsion fires will be heated up again.
Yet the bigger question deserves consideration: Has the
U.N., in terms of America's interests, outlived its use
fulness? Soon after its birth 37 years ago, the U.N. prematurely
entered doddering senility. It began babbling and making
no sense at all. Some Samaritan took it to the intensive-
Ross Mackenzie
care unit, where it wai hooked up to American-provided
respirators that have kept its heart and lungs pumping for
the many years since detectable brain function ceased.
Perhaps, in the name of compassion, the time has come to
pull the plug; perhaps the time has come to allow the U.N.
to drift away into a dignified death.
The U.N.'s intended function was to serve as a town
meeting of the world. It was based on the premise that
nations would not start shooting at one another as long aj
they continued to talk to one another - usually about
peace.
Never mind that its precursor, the League of Nations,
didn't have that effect: The Japanese were talking about
peace in the league when they stole Manchuria; Mussolini
was uttering paeans to peace in the league when his troops
invaded Ethiopia; Stalin was singing hosannas to peace
when he attacked Finland, for which his government was
thrown out of the league.
The U.N. was to be somehow different, but it hasn't
been. And it hasn't been different because of the
communist bloc, which has refused to cooperate in peace.
Indeed, the communist bloc uses the U.N. as a weapon of
war. Lenin and Stalin, and their contemporary Kremlin
disciples, postulated the inevitability of war for the final
overthrow of capitalism. But they postulated as well the
weakening of the capitalist world through the medium of
negotiation and talk. As Stalin said in 1927, citing Lenin:
"The maintenance of peaceful relations with capitalist
countries consists in admitting the coexistence of two
opposed systems."
Long ago the U.N. ceased to be a world forum for the
airing of views, and became instead a pit for the baiting
and bearding of Uncle Sam and his allies. The process was
complete when the practice of universal membership re
placed the principle of selectivity stipulated in Articles 4,
5 and 6 of the U.N. Charter.
Instead of accepting into membership only those
nations that embraced civility and decency, the U.N.
began accepting every tin dictatorship, every regime of
every panjandrum and potentate - almost all of whom
have joined together in beating on the United States and
its friends.
So Nationalist China and South Africa were expelled
(in ironic violation of the practice of universality), with
Israel probably soon to follow. So the U.N. has demanded
independence for Puerto Rico, while effectively ignoring
the gassing of innocents in Afghanistan and Southeast
Asia by the Kremlin and lis goons. So the U.N. has
intoned about racism in the United States without utter
ing a word about the Soviet gulag. The influence of the
Soviets in the U.N. General Assembly and in U.N.
committees and agencies has become pervasive - and
where that influence prevades, of course, the interests of
the West accordingly suffer.
Back in the Os, Charles de Gaulle saw clearly. He told
President Eisenhower: "You will lose control of the
United Nations to the developing countries and the city
states, who will inevitably be easily manipulated by the
Soviet Union." We have learned how right he was.
Let the Reagan administration, then, deciare that
henceforth the United States shall continue to participate
in U.N. deliberations, but that it no longer will vote - on
anything. Thereby, the United Nations would deny mean
ing to every U.N. vote. And if the panjandrums and the
ccrimissars fail to get the message - the message that we
are done with being rhetorically roasted largely at our
own expense - then, surely, we ought to pull the plug
Maybe, even now, the moment for pulling it has arrived."
(c) 1232, Tnbun Co Syndum, Inc.
Campus notables
send Roskens (hie)
get-well messages
Once again, the university community has reacted
with a typical spirit of unity at the plight of one of its
members. This, of course, refers to President Ronald
Roskens, who was forced to miss the last NU Board of
Regents meeting because of "a case of uncontrolled
hiccups."
Unfortunately, the Omaha World-Herald, in its Sa
turday edition, reported only the reaction of Regent
Robert Koefoot (an eminent physician in addition to
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being a fine regent). Koefoot said there wassomething
wrong with Roskens' diaphragm and -prescribed the
university president a "muscle relaxant." "
However, the campus reaction to Roskens' ailment
was unreported by the World-Herald's crack staff of
top-notch journalists.
The ASUN Senate voted to send Roskens a get-well
telegram. The measure originally was defeated because
many of the senators felt it was not a matter appropriate
for ASUN to consider. However, the action eventually
squeaked through as an amendment to a bill condemning
the Tylenol killings.
The Office of Scholarships and Financial Aids sent
its best wishes to the ailing president. A spokesman for
the office said, "A greeting card will be sent to President
Roskens with extreme speed, just like we do everything
here." The spokesman said Roskens would receive his
card by early 1 985.
The UNL sociology department, anxious to prove it
bears no grudges against Roskens for an alleged misquote
to The New York Times denegrating the department,
hoped for his speedy recovery. The department chair
man suggested that he 'Think a lot of alcohol and eat
all his food real fast" as a sure cure for the hiccups.
The UNO faculty also sent Roskens a card to remind
him of their concern. The letter came back, marked
"Return to sender, addressee unknown."
Coach Tom Osborne hoped to quell rumors that
the Missouri football team had something to do with
Ronald Roskens hiccups.
"They're a good team and they like to play tough,"
Osborne said. "Sometimes, though, university presidents
just get sick. It's not Missouri's fault. Really. I love
Missouri. Honest. I do."
Supporters of the proposed Veterinary College, trying
to show the practical application of their field of exper
tise, also voiced their concern. "Sounds like something's
wrong with his gizzard. Or maybe one of his stomachs."
The Daily Nebraskan also revealed plans' to pay tribute
to the president. Soon to appear on the front page is
what is captioned as a photograph of "workers waving
get well' to NU President Ronald Roskens while working
at a really big building in downtown Lincoln."
Continued onPajeS