Tuesday, October 29, 1985
Page 4
Daily Nebraskan
dDtatidDn to cute
n 1977, the NU Foundation instituted the "Nebraska
Campaign" which raised $52 million for the NU system in
about three years. Given the state's current difficulty in
funding the university, the foundation should again
apply its energies this time to help NU survive.
Historically, the foundation's primary purpose has been to '
pay for the "quality of excellence" at the university, not to
replace tax money not allocated by the state, said Edward
Hirsch, executive vice president and secretary of the founda
tion, in a Daily Nebraskan article.
"The Legislature's responsibility is to provide an adequate
university," Hirsch said. "We provide that extra excellence."
Yet, there won't be an adequate university if $5 million in
budget cuts, eliminate programs and reductions in faculty
positions and pay. Before the aspects of the university's "excel
lence" are supplemented, efforts must be made to maintain .
the programs essential to NU's basic operation. Things like
faculty salaries and program retention need to be considered
first.
To ensure the continued survival of NU, the foundation
should change its basic mission and divert some of its fund
raising activities toward the struggling areas of the university.
If the foundation used the slick public relations pamphlets
it distributes to solicit money for projects such as the Lied
Center for Performing Arts to publicize NU's plight, fund
raisers for necessities would be successful. Once knowledgable
of the university's tight financial situation, the same Nebras
kans and alumni who donate money for projects like the Lied
and Wick centers will see that their gifts and money would be
better used to maintain the university's basic quality.
r A relatively small campaign to raise $1 million to $2 million
for faculty raises, for example, would take onlyafraction of the
effort by the foundation in comparison with its $25 million Lied
campaign.
Recent government action has shown it does not think it can
afford a strong university. NU has no choice but to look to other
sources for funding to keep it competitive in the eyes of
potential students and faculty members.
For 49 years, the NU Foundation has been raising millions of
dollars for the NU system's programs of excellence. Now, when
the rest of the university needs financial help more than ever,
the NU Foundation emerges as the logical institution to throw it
a rescue line.
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ALL MATERIAL COPYRIGHT 1S85 DAILY NEBRASKAN
47
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Break a few rules, watch the reaction
Make tine elevator ride ftan
M
y recent call for pet peeves was
positively underwhelming. A
letter poured in. I did have sev
eral personal conversations with oth
erwise intelligent people whose cages
are rattled by the most innocuous
things. One really struck a chord with
me the strange phenomenon of ele
vator behavior.
As a philosophy student, I spend a
lot of time on the elevators in Oldfather
Hall. These elevators are special. For
one thing, they spend more time on the
second floor than on all the other floors
combined, which brings me to a fine
point of elevator etiquette. If you've got
only one floor to go, do those of us who
have a class ten floors up a favor take
the blinkin' stairs.
Fifteen seconds of cardiovascular
stimulation will not put you in the hos
pital. I never have understood people
who will wait three minutes on an ele
vator to take them ten feet. But this is,
after all, the same generation that gave
us the electric can opener and cruise
control.
Have you ever noticed the unspoken
rules of elevator riding? Step to the
rear, turn around, and look up. I prom
ise you I was in an elevator once in
which the floor indicator lights were
not over the door, but to the side. There
were six people on that elevator; every
one of them looked up over the door the
entire time they were inside. Now that
is frightening.
I never look up at the floor indicator
lights. It just seems the height of rid
iculousness to spend all that time star
ing at lights going on, off, on, off. I look
anywhere else the floor, the doors,
the passengers, th e walls.
"But how," I hear you exclaim, "do
you tell when you get to your floor?" A
couple of tricks here. The floor numbers
are usually painted on the sides of the
doors when the elevator opens. If nothing
else, the light on the button panel will
, go off when you get to your floor. See?
Nothing to it, and you have avoided one
more silly conformity. Besides, inter
esting things happen on an elevator,
which most people miss because they
are taking a course in remedial counting.
James
Sennett
Then there is the unspoken unspoken
law. No misprint. There seems to be a
rule that no one can talk on elevators.
Either that, or you can only talk to the
person you got on with, making the
other two in the car feel like yester
day's newspaper. Often I've wanted to
start a group sing or therapy session or
something (it's a long way to the tenth
floor), but for this one, I still haven't
gotten up the nerve.
You can make an elevator ride more
interesting without pulling out your
mouth harp and beginning a chorus of
"Red River Valley." Sometimes I'll get
on a crowded elevator and not turn
around. I just stand there, with my
back to the door, staring at the people.
It really unnerves them, and tends to
make my day. Or just say "Hello" to
people as they get on. Most will respond
kindly, but you often get the type who
cannot stand to have their elevator rit
uals disrupted.
' : Of course, there is always the "Ele
vator Boy" routine. Call off the floor
numbers as the doors open, and make
up contents. "Eighth floor ladies'
apparel, notions, and assorted non
descript attempts at meaningful edu
cational experience." That one always
gets the math majors upset.
Well, I hope you are more aware than
you were when you picked up this
paper. What with trivialities like
hyackings, special legislative sessions,
and the constant threat of total ther
monuclear annihilation to fill our minds,
it is easy to neglect the matters that
make life the fulfilling and challenging
chess game it can be. Happy floor
hopping! Sennett I a UNL graduate student
in philosophy and campus minister of
the College-Career Christian Fellowship.
Reagan ignores plight of growing
number of America's poor children
NBC News has aired a series on
black poverty, particularly as it
affects children. ABC more re
cently did one on poverty-stricken
children of all races. Major U.S. news
papers have written story after story on
the subject of childhood poverty, and
Congress has weighed in with a hefty
and troubling report of its own. The
results are in: No one gives a dama
Of course, "no one" is something of
an exaggeration since clearly the news
media, organizations such as the Child
ren's Defense Fund and even a few
members of Congress do care. But "no
one" fits just fine if it refers to the
Reagan administration, the majority of
Congress and, of course, the American
people. From them, childhood poverty
elicits nothing but a yawn. Better to
move the kids to Ethiopia. Then we'd
hold a concert for them.
But if these kids live in St. Louis, the
locale of a recent ABC report, then they
are out of luck. Some of them don't
even have a home not a house, not
an apartment, not even a welfare hotel.
ABC found kids who have never lived in
a place they could call their own. One
little girl, age 4, spends her nights in
shelters with her mother and her days
in the public parks.
It's hard to say if that girl, or any of
the homeless children seen on tele
vision, is typical of childhood poverty
in general probably not. What is
certain is that an increasing number of
kids are living in poverty and that a
disproportionate number of them are
black.
Being a black kid is becoming
synonymous with being poor. As Con
gress has documented, these children
are twice as likely as whites to die in
their first year, three times as likely to
be poor, four times as likely not to live
with either parent and five times as
likely to be on welfare. For black kids
born to a single parent, the poverty rate
is 85.2 percent.
1
Richard
Cohen
For some time now, it has been
apparent that an underclass, mostly
black, has been developing in the
United States. It is debilitated by
pessimism. It is addicted to welfare. It
lacks initiative and entrepreneurial
skills. It seeks emotional succor in
children and then does not have the
independent wherewithal to raise them.
It is a spawning ground of criminality, a
huge consumer of municipal services,
and it is reciprocates by paying no
taxes. Ignoring reality can be an ex
pensive proposition.
But that, so far, is what we have
managed to do. Some of the blame for
that is yours, dear reader, but if blame
is to be apportioned then yours is
small. As for the media, for once it is
blameless and th'at ought to suggest
something. Unlike the early 1960s,
when Michael Harrington brought
poverty to national attention with his
book, "The Other America," the finger
pointing accusation "Why didn't we
know that?" cannot be asked now of
the news media. The answer is that we
all know or we should.
If there is a fundamental difference
between the early 1860s and the early
1980s, it is the occupant of the White
House. John F. Kennedy reacted to the
Harrington book with shock and a call
to action that soon became The War on
Poverty. Ronald Reagan has reacted by
going for the moral equivalent of a
horseback ride.
Please see COHEN on 5
