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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 18, 1982)
Thursday, November 18, 1982 University of Nebraska-Lincoln Vol. 82, No. 65 .Reaganomics divides UNLiDrof essors in debate By Jeff Goodwin Four UNL professors disagreed sharply about the merits of Reaganomics in a debate Wednesday afternoon at the Nebraska Union. The debate was sponsored by the University Talks and Topics Committee. Greg Hayden, UNL professor of economics, and David Rapkin, UNL assistant professor of political science, criticized Reaganomics. Edward Becker, associate professor of philosophy, and Thomas Zorn, assistant professor of finance, defended the president's policies. Zorn, while saying that he didn't agree with all of the Reagan administration's policies, said he was in general agreement with most of them. "The thrust of the Reagan administration, which is toward less government, is something I do agree with," Zorn said. Zorn blamed the poor state of the economy on govern mental expansion. "The chief culprit is the growth of government," he said. "It's easy for politicians to give away benefits but difficult for them to pay for those benefits." Rapkin said the Reagan administration's financial po- Credit courses for non-majors are still popular By Eric Peterson In a period of tight budgets for all UNL depart ments, courses are still .offered that apply only for non-major, elective credit. Richard Boohar, a UNL associate life sciences professor, teaches one such course. He said there are two reasons that courses which only non-major students can get credit for continue to be offered. "The first reason is an academic reason," he said. "Everyone likes to teach people who are vitally interested in their specialities. Arid in teaching such (non-major) classes, they are dealing with students who might become interested," Boohar said many students choose their major through a distinguished course or instructor that isn't very specialized. Boohar teaches Life Sciences 103, The Impact of the Biological Sciences, for non biology majors. The Life Sciences School also offers several mini-courses that don't count for major credit. The second reason Boohar cited was that non major courses are often the most popular. "The real answer is credit hour production," he said. "In terms of statistics, the department must put out. . .your usefulness is measured by credit hour production." Boohar said large numbers of students in very general courses help to finance the P'ore specialized study. "New '..nowledge is extremely important, but not productive of too many credit hours and fear somely expensive to. teach," he said. "They (non major credit courses) not only can, but do help finance more specialized studies." Boohar said his persona) philosophy h that neither reason cited is as important as the classes themselves. "A much better rationale for offering non-major courses in any area is that we should be educating people, not training them." Getting non-major students to study a subject in addition to the specialized majors who plan to work In the area exposes more poeple to valuable knowledge, he said. "The fact remains that every body should have an idea as to what makes the world tick, biologically." Jane Kerber, an advisor at the UNL School of Music, agreed that non-major courses are often the most popular. "We really get excellent enrollment and good res ponses," she said. She said several such courses, including the History of Jazz and the Arts Today, are offered to non-major students who want some music exposure. "I don't think anyone takes the attitude that these ire just frivolous and can be shunted off," she said. licies have failed because they tried to accomplish too many things at once. "It's virtually impossible to reduce taxes, increase military spending and balance the budget all at once," Rapkin said. He said the administration had misread the intentions of investors, expecting them to invest their income in the public sector when in fact they invested it "in things such as condos, rare coins, antiques and art. There has been . much shuffling around of old value but pathetically little creation of new value." Becker said Reagan's policy of restraining monetary growth inevitably would bring on a recession. But he predicted that the economy will turn around. "If we stick to the course we set, we'll have non inflationary growth," Becker said. Advocates of big government may also secretly believe that people are not informed enough to run their own lives, Becker said. "Even if they don't believe that, it becomes a self fulfilling prophecy," he said. "We have to stop treating them that way." Hayden said that Reaganomics would greatly alter the lives of the vast majority of Americans. "What the Reagan administration is about is changing our way of life," Hayden said. He recited a long list of economic woes facing the country and concluded by citing the famous anecdote about the American officer in Vietnam who said a village was destroyed in order to save it. "We have the situation now of Reagan destroying the economy in order to save us," Hayden said. He said that studies have shown that there is a rise in the number of homicides, suicides and mental patients when unemployment figures also rise. Becker rejected charges that Reaganomics is tied to greed. "Self-interest can't be equated with greed," he said. "If I'm at a party and a plate of cookies is being passed around, I'm not being greedy if I take some." Hayden predicted that political pressure would force Reagan to become more flexible. "We already see (Senate Majority Leader Howard) Baker calling for some kind of public works program. Reagan is going to be pushed away from this tilt-down economics of his." Hayden said that decisions had to be made now about the future. "We're going to have to start pushing our elected representatives to do' different things," he said. "We've got to decide the technical answers to some very compli cated questions. We've got to decide what level of pollu tion we will allow in the air, how many carcinogens we'll allow in our food. We're going to have to have an overall system of planning." Hayden said the idea of a democracy and a market system are basically contradictory. "You can't have both a market system and a demo cracy," Hayden said. "Even (Milton) Friedman (Nobel Prize winner in economics) is saying now, i don't care what the consequences are, I want a market system.' If you don't care what the consequences are, a market system is a very good thing." : u-r'" J0 '.'4'. ;i . Staff Photo by Dav Bent Fire fighters from the Raymond Fire Department poke through the smoldering remains of the office building adjoining the Raymond Co-op Grain Elevator Co.'s grain elevator Wednesday morning. By Wednesday, four people were known to be dead in the vicinity of the elevator, which exploded at dusk Tuesday. Story and more photos are on Page 6. Student opinion sought on surcharge Nette Nelson, chair of ASUN's Government Liaison Committee, said GLC will sponsor a public forum today for student opinion on a possible tuition surcharge for next semester. Hie forum will be in the main lobby of the Nebraska Union from 9 ajn. to 1 pjn. and from 3 pjn. to 5 pjn. Nelson outlined the hearing idea at an ASUN meeting Wednesday night. The surcharge was proposed to offset a $3.5 million university system budget cut mandated because of a $30 million to $55 million budget shortfall discovered in the state operations budget. Nelson said there will be no open microphone at the forum. Instead, ASUN senators and GLC members will be available to take down statements from individual students about the tuition surcharge, which may range from $30 to $50 if it is approved. "We're not interested in a big dramatic scene," she said. "We're interested in getting student opinion on the surcharge." She said that concrete testimony and pro posals from students will carry more authority for stu dent action on the university budget problem. Such ideas were presented Wednesday night by Judy Henderson, a UNL junior. She said that as a non-traditional student who receives no financial aid, a budget increase would be particularly hard to swallow. "The idea of having a surcharge . . . means that I probably will not graduate." Henderson said she knew of students who already have dropped out of college because they could not afford the tuition. Henderson's cost-cutting proposals included shutting down the university system central administration to leave each campus separate, eliminating what she called "freebies" for administrators, taking 30 percent of the proceeds of the UNL Athletic Department for other departments, putting a tax on alcohol sold in the entire state to financially help all the state educational institut ions and changing UNL from a bi-semester to a tri-scmes-ter system. ASUN President Dan Wedekind said he hopes to hear further student ideas on the surcharge. "I think people need to realize that the university did not just absorb these cuts an4 move on, but there was an impact, and an impact on students. v1