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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 29, 1982)
n Daily s II x x f A Friday, October 29, 1982 University of Nebraska-Lincoln Vol. 82, No. 51 Jordan: History will look favorably on Carter By Pat Higgins Hamilton Jordan, Chief of Staff in the Carter administration, came to the Nebraska Bookstore Thursday afternoon to peddle copies of his new book. Jordan's book is titled "Crisis: The Last Year of the Carter Presidency." Portions of the book were excerpted in Newsweek recently, and it is climbing the best-seller list. Sporting a conservat ive blue suit with a red tie, Jordan dis played a wry sense of humor and a fair amount of candor on a wide range of topics including Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, writing and beer. "Crisis: The Last Year of the Carter Presidency" has been praised by literary critics for being well written. "I'm not sure if I am a writer. I've never written in this style till this book. Most of the writing I've done has been of an analytical nature on politics," Jor dan said. Jordan said he read Southern writers including William Faulkner and Thomas Wolfe while growing up in Georgia. Be fore this book, Jordan was best known as a writer when he drafted the blue print plan for Carter to win the presid ency in 1976. "If we would have lost nobody would have remembered that plan," Jordan said. In addition to teaching at Emory Univer sity in Atlanta, Jordan spent the last year researching and writing his book. History kind History will judge the Carter administ ration more kindly than current public opinion does, Jordan said. Since leaving office, he hasn't been in close contact with Carter. "Maybe history will judge by the sales figures of the book. It's on the best-seller lists now. You don't mind me being immodest, do you?" On a personal basis, Jordan was most pleased with his role in the Camp David peace process. The most serious failure of the Carter administration was dealing with inflation, he said. "We didn't focus on inflation early enough. The economic policy of those four years ,were a series, of reactions to world energy prices," Jordan said. 4When we ame in oil was $8 a barrel. When we left it cost $35," he said. "As far as personal accomplishments go, I'm proud that I convinced President Carter to call the Camp David summit. It seemed that if problems between Is real and Egypt couldn't be solved by the three principals, the diplomatic bur eaucracy could never do it." In his book, Jordan describes some inner workings of diplomacy that were down home in. approach. One anecdote involves Panamanian strongman Gen. Tor rijos giving Jordan a six-pack to go when leaving Panama. Personal attacks While in Washington, Jordan was subject to a series of allegations con cerning his personal behavior. "None of those charges were true at all. Somebody would make an anonymous charge and then I would deny it. It seemed like the denial would never catch up to the allegation," he said. Because most of the inner circle of the Carter administration was from Georgia, Jordan said, the Washington establish ment was suspicious of them. . "There we were, from Georgia of all pTaC8sr WeweWdTfcrv WCirfettelh'bfnf' we'd been from Nebraska. There was an enormous curiosity about the presii dent and his people. That left us very vulnerable to those charges but that's just part of being in government these' days," he Said. The. elections on Tuesday have been overplayed, Jordan said. If the Demo crats gain around 20 seats in the House as has been frequently predicted, not much will change in Washington. I sun J&UKitaA I Ail I! ij,,, f T V- ! Staff Photo by Dave Bent Hamilton Jordan, chief of staff during the Carter administration, autographs a - copy of his new book during a session at Nebraska Bookstore Thursday. "I live in a little town in Georgia. You years, Jordan said. probably have better information than I do on the election. People have a na tural inclination to want the president to succeed. I want him to succeed. I pay taxes, too," Jordan said. The Carter administration had to take both credit and blame for the eco nomy within a few months after taking office, he said. President Reagan still is blaming President Carter after nearly two I think it s bogus. To his credit, President Reagan had his entire econo mic program passed withint a few months after taking office, . but he only takes credit for the good things in the econ omy," Jordan said. Jordan said there is a record number of unemployed and farm failures and the federal budget will have the larg- Continued on Page 2 Union Board denies request to waive room fees By Ward Triplett Calling it a move to set a precedent, the Nebraska Union Board voted Wednesday to deny a request from Richard Armstrong, vice chancellor for student. affairs, to waive room reservation fees for the organizers of the 1983 Big Eight Conference on Black Student Govern ment. The board then voted down a second motion to reduce those room rates in half. Armstrong had sent a letter to the board before its Oct. 13 meeting, stating that the students would be short in reaching their projected budget goal and sug gesting the board consider waiving the $490 room fee. Board member Tim O'Keefe objected to the motion, saying the board rejected a similar request by the Greek Yearbook Staff earlier this year. "I feel we should stick by that decision," O'Keefe said. "We should, by this decision, tell other campus organizations what our position is on room fee waivers." Referring to the $154 room fee set by the conference budget committee, O'Keefe said he believed the budget was made under the assumption that "they (the Afrikan Peoples Union) knew they would get a rate reduction." Other board members who objected to the waiver were Pat Meister, Sue Noel, Brian Wacker, Molly Platter I f w- I dy, V . H vr li . - - .X- MP 0 A f M r 'Lie-. 1 v.. "rflfc. jjn ,fr& ,,1 Chances are that not too many trick-or-treaters will be stopping by this north Lincoln house, but wait ... A trail of Reese's Pieces! and Sid Pinney. They all cited the need for the board to establish a consistent policy on the matter. "We had the chance to reduce rooms rates for 3,700 fee-paying students and we didn't," Meister said. "I can see the need here, but I can also see the economic need for the unipn, which is why I can't support it." About 200 UNL students will attend the conference, scheduled for February, according to the conference chairperson, Cynthia Gooch. Gooch spoke at the meeting's open forum. After the original motion was voted down, Kay King proposed a reduction of the rates. "I think- they (the Afrikan Peoples Union) made a mistake in budgeting. The university is not able to help them out like they expected," King said, adding that "we could reduce the fees as our way of helping them out." "1 think our consistency standpoint overrides a 'ges ture to help this group out," O'Keefe said. The motion failed 6-5. Board President Laura Meyer referred to the matter as a "no-win situation," but said she was proud of the way the board handled the discussion. In other action, a request by the UPC-Video Committee to use the small TV room during the noon hour for the "Rockworld" program was tabled, but com mittee director. Regina Crapson will be asked to find another location. O'Keefe presented a proposal concerning the union contingency fund. He said it would set guidelines for the Committee for Fees Allocation's handling of the account and establish an amount that could be used to accommodate any large emergency the union might have. 'The fund, which Union Director Daryl Swan son said should stand, at $150,000, has been used to finance the East Union, to aid renovation in the city union in 1971 and to pay for small purchases. The proposal also raises the question of whether small purchases should be included in the contingency fund, O'Keefe said. The next board meeting will be Nov. 10 at 7 p.m. in the Nebraska Union.