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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (March 19, 1984)
Monday, March 19, 1934 Pago 4 "i! O ri O fTiliivprrilJl Justices' action averts doubt in Douglas trial With all the questionable activities of state govern ment surrounding the failure of Commonwealth Savings Co., a decision made last week by three Nebraska Supreme Court justices was a refreshing change of pace. Thursday, Chief Justice Norman Krivosha and Judge D. Nick Caporale disqualified themselves from the impeachment proceedings against Attorney General Paul Douglas because of their friendship with him. Judge C. Thomas White disqualified him self from the case because his daughter is an assistant attorney general District Judge Robert Moran of Alliance and Keith Howard of Omaha and retired District Judge William Colw ell of Pawnee City will fill the three vacancies for the Douglas case. The case came about because of a 27-19 vote by the Legislature Wednesday to begin the impeach ment process. By Nebraska law, Douglas was im mediately suspended from office, but the state's high court will have the final say on his fate. The disqualification of the three justices has caused some grumbling at the Legislature. Sen. Marge Higgins of Omaha complained that she forced herself to vote for Douglas' impeachment, despite the fact that she considered the attorney general a good friend. The justices, she said, also should be able to separate friendship from obligation and make an objective decision. Higgins is to be commended for placing the state's best interests ahead of personal friendships, but the justices, too, deserve praise for removing the possi bilty of any conflicts of interest in the case. Justices the caliber of Krivosha, White and Capor ale probably would have been able to remain ob jective, but they were wise to remove any doubt. The Commonwealth situation already has caused too many hardships, too much distrust of state govern ment, for the state's high court to take any chances. Douglas may very well be cleared of the charges against him and be allowed to return to office. Had he been cleared by a court that contained three justices with possible conflicts of interest, the public would have been outraged. With all the other problems surrounding the case, that's the last thing this state needs. All Nebras ka citizens especially Paul Douglas should be satisfied with the current arrangement. The public can rest assured that seven highly qualified men will hear the case and make a judg ment based on facts, not on personal relationships. Douglas can take comfort in knowing that if the court clears his name, the decision is more likely to be acceptable to the public than it would have been if the three justices had not disqualified themselves. " . A ha JM fV I 1.7 v :x v 1 ' ' '- X 1 Ns fjjp Letters Pretty good progress I would like to comment on Professor Splinter's Guest Opinion concerning Rutgers University and the AAUP. (Daily Nebraskan, March 15). Having taught at Rutgers in the early '60s, before collective bargaining had been adopted, I can testify from direct experience that their salary scale at that time was near the bottom of Category I institutions. Now, they are in the top 5 percent. I , would call that pretty good progress. The average academic year salary for Rutgers full professors in 1982-83 was $47,300. Maybe the professors weren't driving Cadillacs, as Professor Splinter points out, but I imagine most UNL professors wouldn't mind being so deprived. (Our average was $34,200.) Many of the facts presented by Professor Splinter seem to me irrelevant to the debate over collective bargaining. They indicate that Rutgers seems to be having severe budget problems, as many universit ies are these days, both with and without collective bargaining. But why blame that on the AAUP? Professor Splinter presents no evidence to suggest that without collective bargaining those problems would not exist. As for the absence of Kimball Hall or a Sheldon Gallery, I can assure Professor Splinter that, being a 45-minute bus ride from the Metropolitan Museum, Lincoln Center, et al, the Rutgers faculty did not feel culturally deprived. In any case, that too is irrelevant to the issues under consideration. It seems to me there are legitimate arguments on both sides of the collective bargaining issue, and I have personally' decided to support it only after much soul-searching. Dr. Splinter's invective is not, in my view, a useful contribution to the debate. Leo Sartori professor , physics SWAP could lead to future cooperaMon Last week I participated in a lunch eon discussion which was the culmina tion of Operation SWAP a week at UNL when 13 students were paired with administrators for the sole pur pose of sharing a small part of their Guest Opinion lives with one another. It was immedi ately clear that this simple concept produced an impressive range of activities and involvements as the 26 individuals introduced their partners and briefly described their exper iences. This quick-moving 90 minutes of sharing the examples of meaningful activties, issues and insights which touched so many aspects of our "campus community included the fol lowing: an inspiring lecture in the School of Music, the complexity of federal regulations regarding financi al aid planning, busy student sched ules, hazardous waste, interviewing faculty candidates, the art of Akido, a newly expanded Career Development Seminar, student friendships within their houses and halls, departmental staff meetings, violence against wo men, public relations in the State Capitol computers, the impact of long work weeks upon family life and leisure time, an ASUN meeting, study rooms in the library, problems of finding a job upon graduation, union ization, - agricultural policy, budget concerns, large classes, faculty men tors, an atmosphere of intellectual curiosity, and, of course, All My Child ren. All of these experiences were shared by SWAP partners during the previous week. The sponsors of SWAP had created a mini living-learning experiment in the truest sense. This was confirmed by a predominant theme that was unanimously communicated by the participants - everyone agreed that they not only enjoyed themselves but, without exception, each person in their own way indicated that they had learned something. Education is "interaction; education is communica tion. One additional observation was un avoidable. Most of the participants related their newly gained insights in personal terms rather than in the context of global generalizations. This was perhaps most evident in the descriptorsused by students to chara cterize the administrators they had come to know as warm, caring, sincere, dedicated, hard-working in dividuals who are deeply committed to making UNL more responsive to their educational needs. I felt com pelled to look around the room and focus on my administrative counter parts to provide for myself some type of private validation to the student reports. From my years of personal contacts with these colleagues, I re cognized immediately that such qualit ies were generally accurate even though some of our individual and collective shortcomings as admini strators receive considerable public attention. Continued on Pae 5 Faculty, smdenis gain healthy insigh Editor's Note: Operations SWAP 84 was a project designed by the Innocents Senior Honorary to trade places with the m?Jor administrat ive positions at UNL. Thirteen In- ,r 5, and the results Guest Opinion nocents members and administrat ors followed each other to meet ings, classes and meals daring the week of Feb. 27 to March 2 to learn mere about each ether's work and . cf the pre' set were coupled by two of the partici pants. This guest editorial views the project from a student perspec tive and the one below views it from an administrator perspective. For a few brief hours through one week this semester, 26 people at UNL took a crash course in human relations.- As part of Operation SWAP, each of them had the chance to see the human side of the university life. For the first time, administrators were able to talk one-on-one with the student body they serve; sharing in student classes, and taking in stu dents' person?! hopes and problems. Students, likewise, were able to observe men at work in the adminis trative bureaucracy of a major uni versity men who bring to their jobs widely different backgrounds and per sonal viewpoints. Operation SWAP was a small pro ject, a limited program with simple goals. We hoped to provide an oppor tunity for a mix of people and view points that could give each partici-. pant a different perspective on the life and work of UNL. In changing perceptions, at least, Operation SWAP succeeded. At the brown bag lunch that ended the SWAP week, and in evaluations that summarized it, both administrators and students said the biggest insight they gained from the project was quite simply getting to know other people as individuals. Seeing and hear ing first hand the administrator's commitment to their jobs led to com ments by the students about the administrators' deep and sincere con cern for UNL. Administrators, in seeing the stu dents' lives close-up, found UNL stu dents surviving real pressures and tough challenges and who are inter ested in working for and improving their university. Continued cn Ps.e 5