Daily Nebraskan
Friday, November 5, 1982
Page 4
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Students benefited by election of women regents
The NU Board of Regents increased its women mem
bership by 200 percent Tuesday night. Voters in the
3rd and 4th Districts elected women over male opponents.
In the 3rd District, Margaret Robinson of Norfolk
beat Don Dworak of Columbus. Robinson, the president
of Norfolk Iron and Metal Co., won 33,778 votes (with
271 of the 288 precincts counted) and Dworak, a state
senator, earned 19, 982 votes.
In the 4th District, Nancy Hoch of Nebraska City
ousted Robert Prokop of Wilber. Hoch, a homemaker
who serves on several university committees, earned
28,832 votes (with 211 of 213 precincts counted) to
Prokop's 23,990.
Robinson outspent Dworak many times over during
the election. She spent $38,000 - more than any of
the other seven regent candidates - to combat Dworak 's
name recognition. Apparently she put her money in the
right places.
Hoch simply outworked Prokop. She campaigned
heavily in her district, visiting county fairs and going
door-to-door.
The Daily Nebraskan welcomes the two women to the
board. We are happy that the board will have its first
elected female representatives and look forward to the
changes that Hoch and Robinson proposed during their
campaigns.
If all those proposals are implemented - and we hope
they will be - UNL students can expect the following
from Margaret Robinson:
- Sound business judgment. Robinson has headed
her Norfolk company for eight years, a job that requires
wise business and managerial decisions. Although this
newspaper earlier endorsed her opponent because of his
experience in handling the NU budget, we believe Robin
son's business experience will make her a "quick study"
with the NU budget.
- A reduction in overhead costs. During the campaign,
Robinson repeated that the place to start cutting the
budget is in the administration.
- More donations. Robinson has said the university
should seek more non-tax funds; we hope she knows
where to look for them.
- Higher faculty salaries. Robinson, as did most of
the regent candidates, said she supports higher salaries for
faculty members. We challenge her to make that stand a
priority during her term and propose verifiable salary
and benetit increases.
- Town meetings. Robinson promised to have a
yearly town hall meeting in every county in her district
We believe that will keep her in touch with how tax
payers view the university.
And this can be expected of Nancy Hoch:
- Experience with a wide number of university groups.
As a member of the President's Advisory Council, the
Alumni Association board of directors, the Wick Alumni
Center Committee and the University Health Center
Board of Councilors, Hoch is already familiar with a large
segment of the university community.
- Willingness to work with students. Hoch emphasized
that she would communicate with students. In a Wed
nesday Lincoln Journal article, she said she will visit NU
classes. Considering her opponent's poor record on this
point, we hope Hoch carries out this promise.
- Increased faculty salaries. Like Robinson, Hoch
made faculty salaries a campaign issue. We extend our
challenge to her to propose solid salary improvement
plans.
We encourage students to attend the Jan. 15 board
meeting - the date that Hoch and Robinson will begin
their six-year terms as regents.
If all they promised comes true, students may have
won their first two friends on the board in a long time.
Fate deals great American,
John Z., an unjust sentence
One of the more unjustly maligned
inmates of the California State Penal
System has to be John Z. DeLorean.
Overlooked in the hubbub of his drug
Matthew
Millea
arrest have been the virtues he has con
sistently demonstrated - the very virtues
held highest in our society.
John Z. had it all going for him. His
third wife is a professional model whose
own entrepreneurial abilities are of such
a delicate nature that they've adopted a
beautiful son. John Z. commands a fleet
of 22 vehicles. (What a world this would
be if every man had about seven cars for
every wife!)
After John Z. had succeeded in every
possible way at General Motors Corp.,
he naturally turned his tremendous talents
toward new challenges.
The first to present itself was making
fun of CM. He lent his name to a book
named "On a Clear Day You Can See
G.M." Thanks to John Z., undergraduate
business majors across America have
learned what a sluggish, unethical giant
our largest car company really is.
But this great American was not to be
satisfied with merely publishing books.
He saw his fellow human beings oppressed
in a country far, far away - in Northern
Ireland. John Z. realized the injustice
of unemployment for those less tremen
dously gifted than himself, and he knew
the unemployment rate in Northern Ire
land is easily the highest in the Anglo
world. Clearly, John Z. thought, these
people need a car company.
Setting his fabled managerial and
engineering skills to work, this great
American conceived an idea truly worth
of his character. John Z., recognized the
tremendous desire gripping other wealthy
people to own the car that would bear
his name - complete with vertical "gull
wing" doors, oversized wheels, a stainless
steel body guaranteed for 25 years and a
$25,000 price tag.
There were, of course, always the
doubters. This was before President Rea
gan's plan to make investment capital
available to America's risk -takers, and John
Z. had a little trouble getting the cash
together to put the Irish back to work.
Luckily, the British government was almost
as concerned about unemployment in
Northern Ireland as this bold American
and managed to come up with $135
million to help him out.
Everything looked great for John
Z., but it always had. Always the optimist,
he scoffed at his marketing analysts who
were insisting he couldn't possibly sell
more than 4,000 cars per year. John
Z., the great American, went for it all:
He set his Irish factory up to crank out
20,000 of his stainless steel beauties
right away.
Continued on Page 5
i 4 ss -'
rm Letters
Only a college prank
In response to Denise Wiedel's letter
(Nov. 2),regarding a fraternity throwing a
brother in the fountain:
First of all, the percentage of fraternity
sorority members that are strong religious
believers and church-goers is probably
quite comparable to the percentage of non
Greek. Although we hear much "talk"
about it being otherwise, there are never
any statistics to back it up.
And second, I think it is ludicrous to
condemn a group of people for having
innocent fun by throwing sofneone in a
fountain. It's all part of college and if that
is the most "horrifying experience" that
you have ever witnessed . . . thanks be to
God!
Karen Morehead
senior, business
More letters on Page 5
Ogling, catcalls, "hey, sexy' are not compliments
Karen Downs, 28. is. bv her own description, a !arie
busted woman of above average looks.
Which is why, for half her life, she has received catcalls,
whistles and lewd suggestions from the men she passes on
the street.
Roger Simon
"It can be anything from 'Hi, baby,' and 'Whoa! What
a set of knockers!' to indecent and degrading obscenities
like invitations to sex," she said.
"I have outwardly tolerated these lewd remarks for 14
yean and I've had enough. I have begun to fight back."
Downs' case is not unique. A lot of women attract such
comments. And she admits that some other women even
envy the attention she gets. But she feels there is nothing
enviable about being shouted at on a street.
One day, Downs, a Ph.D. candidate in biology, was
taking a commuter train home. She found herself alone in
the car with the motorman.
"He had turned around 180 degrees from the tracks
and just kept staring at me," Downs said. "1 asked him
why he didn't keep his eyes on the tracks.
"He said: 'Why should I when I have such a fox on the
train to look at?' "
Downs told him she didn't appreciate his comments
"You're crazy," he told her. "What's wrong? You're a
sexy looking thing."
When Downs got off the train, she complained to a
train employee at the station. She said the motorman had
not kept his eyes on the tracks but had spent his time
ogling her and making comments.
"I don't rightly blame him," the employee said.
The next day, Downs called the headquarters of the
railway and - this I find astonishing - got action. A hear
ing was held. "The motorman was put on probation for a
year and suspended for three days without pay," Downs
said.
I asked her if she didn't think that was a little severe
"No," she said. "Why should I have to be called things
even things like fox or baby or honey? I don't like being
treated like an object instead of a human being."
Downs next success came at her local fire house. "For
two years I got catcalls everytime I passed it," she said
"They whistled at me like I was a dog or some kind of
animal.
"They'd shout things like 'Hey, sexy' or 'Look at those
knockers' or worse. After two years, I finally called the
fire chief.
"He reacted immediately. He said if it ever happened
again, the men doing it would be fired. That was a year
ago and 1 have never been harassed by anyone in the fire
station again."
TU i .. i.
iwu cases involved puoiic employees, wnu
might be more likely to react to a citizen's complaint. But
Downs has even had success complaining about con
struction workers.
"There was a construction site across from my home
two months ago," she said. "I would get catcalls and
whistles and then one day really crude sexual threats, real
obscenities.
comP'ained to the supervisor at the site and he said,
Awe, c'mon, they were just admiring you. Who
wouldn't?'
Which is not something you say to Karen Downs. She
went to the police and filed a complaint. The owner of
the company said he'd fire the guys who had harassed
her. But Downs finally settled for the promise that the
men would never dc it again. And they didn't.
At first, even some of the women I worked with
thought I went too far," Downs said, "but I really believe
that a woman who permits a man to sexually harass her
on the street is admitting that she is inferior.
u js imP,vin8 that man can say anything he likes
to her. She is implying that she does not have to be re
spected as a dignified human being."
But don't some men think they are giving you a
compliment when they say those things to you on the
street? I asked.
"Yes," she said. "And I am letting them know they are
wrong.
(c) 1&32, Lot Aftt Timtt Syndicate