Daily Ncbrasksn
Wednesday, October 3, 1C24
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Pega4
Fee iMeirease cotM- keep BmmB
"P" Ycre'3 a vote t0 increase student
0 fees.
A JL Not much of an increase, but
just a little to preserve a university tradi
tion. As fads and trend3 come and go, one
tradition remains intact: Homecoming.
In preparation for Saturday's Nebraska
Oklahoma State football clash, this week
has been tabbed Homecoming week.
As in pa3t years, events such as a
dance, a movie, a parade and pep rally
are scheduled. All to create enthusiasm
for the big game.
But this year something is missing:
money.
The past four years, the Homecoming
committee, which I have been a member
of for two years, has secured a sponsor to
help cover costs. Last year's sponsors
were Diet Coke and Dr. Pepper. Pepsi and
Sunkist also have been sponsors in pre
vious years.
Despite the efforts ofUNL administra
tors and students a sponsor was not
found for Homecoming '84.
The budget had to be cut 35 percent
and donations were solicited.
Although not well known, students pay
four cents per semester to finance Home
coming festivities. The four cents, which
amounts to $ 1 ,609, i3 channeled to Home
coming activities through the University
....,iL..ji. ?t -i - ...if, r'nrrt. Hat at UNL. Homecoir.ir.!! 13 morn
Students of the University of Nebraska, the bill, chc said,
receive student fees under fund A. , Boatman said she will lobby the com
Sara Boatman, director of the Campus raittee for Fees Allocation once Home
Activities and Programs oSce and Home- coming '04 is over to try to Increase the
coming Committee aavrer, esia sne wuuw money eaxmajKsa lor ncmscorair.3
lika to increase that four cents to 23
cents.
The additional 24 cents, Boatman said,
would five a $12,000 budst for Home
coming. The money would allow UNL to
So for cne shot at a video rime or a half
a can of Pepsi, students could help keep a
university alive.
So when someone comes uo and asks.
"Key brother could you spare a quarter
have a Homecoming celebration in grand for Homecoming?" think twice before say-
style, she said, trying no.
At most colleges. Homecomin.ii3 geared Uctiawemcse
toward alumni and events are solely for
DiUy Nefcras&aa Editor
eater seats
.estroy nifty f eelin
A
udience members shush
each other expectantly.
The houseltahts dim once.
twice, three times. A few stragglers
with flat tire, traffic or babysit
ter excuses slip through the
theater doors just before the
ushers close them for good. That
is until intermission.
The actors take stage one by
one. As usual, a thrill of anticipa
tion makes my ears twitch and
my skin goose pimple. I'm set for
another trip into the world of
make-believe, as fresh and new
an experience as a kiddie's first
trip to the movies.
But one thing mars this nifty
feeling:
EmiSty Seats,
Mona
Koppslman
The American Repertory Thea
tre Company was in town this
past week, performing two pro
ductions of a relatively modern
Pirandello play and one night of
classic MoUere one-acts. Some
thing for everyone, right?
Evidently, wrong.
Sunday was a good night About
80 percent of Kimball's 849 seats
were filled. Monday night, the
percentage dropped to 50 per
cent. And by Tuesday afternoon,
marketing and promotion man
ager. Amy Meilander was expect
ing about 50 percent for that
night's production.
"I have no theory," Meilander
said. "I was disappointed. Maybe
two nights of the same produc
tion, maybe Homecoming, maybe
lack of interest in these plays it
could be any or all of these
factors."
Meilander said Kimball aver
ages 00 percent seats sold over
each year's 25 to SO productions.
But that figure can be deceiving,
for a wide range of seats are sold:
anywhere from complete sellouts
with waiting lists to just 450 seats
sold.
"That 90 percent is kind of a
weird figure," she said. "We do
have our bad nights like every
body else."
A better figure might be a mean:
perhaps a 75 percent figure. And
though sales are up this year
according to Meilander, it's the
first time. in about four seasons.
Meilander said season tickets
sales are usually split 6535 be
tween community sales and stu
dent sales. She said she's trying to
even out that split.
"We try to make student ticket
prices attractive," she said. "When
I look out and see empty seats on
this campus, I have to think we're
not tapping our student resourc
She's right, and Kimball is doing
the best they can to make the fin
est quality of art that can be
brought to Nebraska available to
students with bleak pocketbooks.
But it's a two-way street, buckos.
Personally, I was embarrassed
to sit before a nationally known
company nay, internationally
known flanked by a half-dozen
empty floor seats. I know it was a
Sunday night. I suppose even Mon
day and Tuesday night produc-.
tions may interfere with say,
homework, for example.
But there are 25,000 students
and teachers on this campus.
Surely some of you weren't doing
homework, grading papers, etc.
And there are 180,000 Lincoln
'residents, many able-bodied with
extra cash. If a fine company like
the American Repertory Theatre
can't pull you away from your
Monday night football (or home
work), what can?
Certainly not the work of your
peers. Pat Overton, theater man
ager at Howell Theatre in the
Temple building, provided the fol
lowing figures. They indicate the
percentage sold of possible full
house ticket sale last season: ,
Key Exchange, 81 percent;
Major Barbara, 55 percent; Jesse
and the Bandit Queen, 68 per
cent; A Christmas Carol, 81 per
cent; Meg, 94 percent; Much Ado
About Nothing, 75 percent; Beyond
Therapy, 93 percent; and Summer
and Smoke, 51 percent.
Overton said attendance aver
ages about 76 percent of full
house. The biggest house she has
to fill is about 376 seats for main
stage productions in Howell
Theatre. Studio theatre produc
tions seat 150 to 200.
Ovcrtcn czid that choice of
plays and outside events make a
difference over the years, but un
til this season Howell felt a defi
nite decrease in season ticket
sales.
"We felt we were down on cam
pus sales the past three years,"
Overton said. "But this year we
are about 200 season tickets
ahead of last year."
Though this may indicate a
resurgence of interest in Lincoln
theater, I refuse to get my hopes
up. As Overton said, it simply
depends on the year. I trust 75
percent averages.
Pity the possibility of a project
like the Lied Center. If on an
average we can't fill more than 75
percent of 350 seats in Howell
and "90" percent of 840 seats at
Kimball, how will Lincoln fill 2,500
seats or more in a new perform
ing arts center?
That's a lot of seats to fill,"
Overton said quietly.
She's right That's a lot of seats
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Author says 'doomsday clock9 forces U.S. foreign policy
Lloyd Cutler has been pro
ducing dark thoughts oc
casioned by his experience
as (talk about gathering dark
ness) White House counsel dur
ing the last two years of the Car
ter administration. The thoughts
A .
3. . I
Will
concern the impact of television
news on foreign policy.
Writing in the journal Foreign
Policy, Cutler argues that televi
sion forces the pace and injures
the product of the policy process.
Television repo rts about troubling
events create, he says, "a political
need" for prompt presidential re
sponses. Television accelerates public
awareness of events, and presi
dents and advisers "feel bound to
make a response in time for the
next evening-news broadcast,"
lest they seem divided or indeci
sive. With most administration
news announced from the White
House lawn, television makes the
president the embodiment of
government, and "anyone who
has worked recently in the White
House has felt this recurring sense
of a TV doomsday clock" But
Cutler's examples are unconvinc
ing. In late August 1979, w hen rati
fication of the SALT II treaty was
the principal issue, intelligence
data indicated the presence of a
Soviet combat brigade in Cuba.
The data quickly leaked and be
came a big story on the otherwise
newsless Labor Day weekend.
Cutler writes: "Senators on both
sides of the SALT II debate went
on camera to demand removal of
the brigade. To save the treaty,
Carter also went on camera to
announce that the continued pre
sence of the brigade was 'not
acceptable.' "
Cutler says that within a week
the intelligence agencies decided
they had just re-discovered a bri
gade that had been in Cuba for 1 7
years. But the furor delayed
committee action on SALT II for
10 weeks. "If the news 'of the bri
gade had sheared orsty in print
; and not on TV, the Csrter admin
istration might have ben able to
delay its responses at least a few
daya to, permit ths intelligence
a'gsncies to ' re-examine their
findings,"
But held on. Although televi
sion rajiy have amplified the furor
and thereby provoked Carter's
statement, the statement changed
nothing. There never were going
to be 67 votes for SALT II; and
even if the brigade had been new,
the Soviet Union would have
ignored Carter.
Cutler believes that if television
had not so instantly and vividly
covered the 1982 massacres in
Palestinian refugee camps, pub
lic horror would have been less
and President Reagan might not
have announced, two days later,
the re-introduction of Marines
into Lebanon. :
" Ccstlased ca PS 5