Monde., March 17, 1986
Daily Nebraskan
Page 5
o
o
Letters
Palestinian funeral may open dialogue
The United States made a good ges
ture when Morris Draper, the U.S. con
sul general, attended the funeral of the
assassinated Palestinian mayor of Nab
lus on the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
I hope such a move will be followed by
an open dialogue between the U.S.
government and the Palestinian people.
Had the Palestinians been recog
nized as a nation that has the right of
self-determination, they never would
have resorted to violence. The time has
come for the U.S. government to resist
any pressure from anti-Palestinian
groups and meet with the Palestinians.
This is, I believe, the first step toward
achieving peace in the Middle East.
Abdullah Hamad
linguistics
DN distorts situation in Curtis
As one of the 20 percent of the NU
School of Technical Agriculture gradu
ates that now attends UNL, I feel com
pelled to comment about the Daily
Nebraskan's coverage of UNSTA and its
fight to stay open.
There are a lot of people, in the
UNSTA and Curtis community, upset
with how you reported on the school.
After three years of reading the DN, I
wasn't surprised at its warped version
of Curtis. Someday the staff has got to
realize that it is not Woodward and
Berstein, and they are not writing for
the Washington Post.
What Curtis needs now is empathy
and support, but what the DN gave it
was sympathy and humiliation. The
paper also missed the importance of
keeping the school open. It's not that it
serves only to keep a town alive, or that
90 percent of its graduates stay in
Nebraska. Why do you suppose 90 per
cent of us stay in Nebraska?
This is an agriculturally based state
and UNSTA is an agriculture school.
With the agriculture economy in the
rotten condition that it is, the more
education we can give the agricultural
ists in this state, the better. Closing
UNSTA is not a solution to the problem.
So the next time the DN sends
reporters out to do an in-depth report,
why don't they look a little deeper,
rather than take pictures of arranged
tumbleweeds.
Elizabeth Stevens
UNSTA graduate, 1981
teachers college
senior
COHEN from Page 4
Anyway, Biff, there was no way we
would say anything. The money was
rolling in. Anytime the good old U.S.
of A. sent the Philippines aid, I
would show up at the palace gate
with my order book. Just last year,
we offered them a $900 million
package over five years economic
and military aid, you understand.
Biff, she gave me a weak smile
and then started calling out the
order. I'll take 600 pairs of sling
backs and 800 pairs of pumps.
. And then, Biff, just like that it
was over. Some lady named Corazon
Aquino, a size 7 probably, took over
the Philippines. One look at her and
you could tell-no sale there.
? 1986, Washington Post Writers
Group
Cohen writes an editorial column (or
the Washington Post.
DN challenged
ydget nee
I
NUfo
ds open debate
am writing regarding the editorial
"Library $ Automation wrong
choice" (Daily Nebraskan, March
4).
My reason for writing Is to compli
ment the editors, to criticize their
position and to challenge them into
thinking further on the subject they
raised.
First, I compliment that paper on
recognizing that priority decisions are
the key items on the agenda facing
today's university faculty administra
tion, as well as many other stake
holders in our state. I compliment you
for challenging the library automation
project in terms of its place on the
priority list.
Now for the critical element of my
letter. Frankly, I don't believe that the
writers had the necessary information,
prospective and wisdom necessary to
suggest that "UNL library officials' first
priority should be to update the stacks,
increase the meager selection of news
papers and periodicals and spend more
money repairing and maintaining the
materials we already have."
Over the years, I have known a
number of administrators in the UNL
library system. Everyone that I knew
wrestled on a daily basis over almost
their entire professional career with
various priority problems. The problem
we are talking about might be charac
terized as "increased access" versus
"increased material." It would be fool
ish to claim that all library officials
come down on the same side of this
question.
"What is true is that given the time,
experience and intelligence spent on
the problem, by a highly qualified
library staff, it is presumptuous to
challenge this allocation process as
definitively as the writer has done. This
criticism is not meant to stifle ques
tioning or inquiring. I think it is good
to challenge officials to defend their
priority setting mechanisms. The criti
cism is meant to suggest that this
should be done a bit more humbly.
Now let me suggest a challenge. The
discussion of how and where the uni
versity spends money; how it allocates
resources and how it sets priorities,
needs to be openly debated within the
university community. What's more,
the extended university community of
Nebraska taxpayers should be permit
ted and encouraged to participate in
this debate.
Guest Opinion
This debate process that I am sug
gesting needs to be organized and
presented on a regular basis with key
issues and agendas continually updated
and presented to the public. The uni
versity is indeed one of the state's most
important resources.
From my point of view, the editorial
touched on a key item that concerns
the flow of information in a university
community and how the technology of
information processing is radically
changing the answer to the question,
"What is worth knowing?" Technology
is changing learning techniques, teach
ing techniques, testing techniques and
research techniques. Discussion and
debate must be held on how these
issues are best addressed.
However one views the effect of
technology on the university, one would
have to admit that there are other major
competitors for the limited resources
available. For example, how would you
prioritize the need for counseling ser
vices for students under stress versus
the request for library technology. Who
has the wisdom necessary to make that
kind of decision?
Let me be more specific with my
challenge. I challenge the DN to bring
the debate concerning priorities and
the demand for scarce resources to the
attention of the entire university com
munity. I challenge the DN to invent
and sponsor forums to debate this
priority problem or perhaps even for
mulate a series, which over a number of
months, will report and discuss this
on going debate.
We would attempt to bring the best
minds of the university to bear on this
problem. It is important to the well
being of all the members of the univer
sity community.
Donald Costello
associate professor
computer science
Letter Policy
The Daily Nebraskan welcomes brief
letters to the editor from all readers
and interested others.
Letters will be selected for publica
tion on the basis of clarity, originality,
timeliness and space available. The
Daily Nebraskan retains the right to
edit all material submitted.
' Anonymous submissions will not be
considered for publication. Letters
should include the author's name, year
in school, major and group affiliation, if
any. Requests to withhold names from
publication will not be granted.
Submit material to the Daily Ne
braskan, 34 Nebraska Union, 1400 R St.,
Lincoln, Neb. 68588-0448.
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