Friday, April 25, 1986
Page 4
Daily Nebraskan
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NebraMcan
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
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W W U W VaJ IS VI yr y" N.
Decline blamed on Kerrey
We've heard it before, but
that's slim consolation.
Pay for UNL professors
ranks last in the Big Eight.
Of all those leaching here,
only instructors receive salaries
higher t han last place among t he
eight institutions and they
came in seventh.
The statistics represent lost
ground for UNL professors. Last
year UNL was fifth in pay for
professors, assistant professors
and instructors and fourth for
associate professors.
Hardly a stellar performance.
But while UNL remained frozen
at these levels, other institutions
remained active and surpassed
the UNL levels.
Blame for the salary decrease
must be placed squarely on the
shoulders of Gov. Bob Kerrey:
More than any other governor in
recent history, Kerrey has treated
the university with contempt and
has laid the groundwork for a
significant long-term deteriora
tion in the university system.
Years from now, Kerrey at
least will be remembered for one
thing: commitment to a shoddy
university. This assessment may
appear too harsh at first glance,
but the facts support the claim.
Lasfi taimg?
State leaders should fight feds
The risks are large, but Wyom
ing Gov. Ed Herschler wants
to tango with the folks in
Washington.
Herschler recently announced
that his state won't buckle under
pressure or "blackmail," as
he calls it from the federal
government to raise Wyoming's
drinking age to 21. The Reagan
administration has told states
with lower drinking ages they
will lose a significant amount of
federal highway funding if they
don't raise the limit.
They have until Oct. 1 to do so
or they can lose up to 5 percent
of their 1986 highway revenues.
If they don't do so for another
year, they can lose up to 10
percent in 1987.
Herschler's remarks are a
breath of fresh air amidst the
constant "yes, sir's" of politics.
The stakes are big. Wyoming
could lose $4.5 million in 1986
and up to $9 million the following
year, state highway officials told
the Associated Press.
Herschler's remarks come dur
ing an administrative term that
supposedly is working to channel
several federal powers down to
the states. Reagan and his col
leagues on Capitol Hill have
Editorial Policy
Unsigned editorials represent
official policy of the spring 1986
Daily Nebraskan. Policy is set by the
Daily Nebraskan Editorial Board. Its
members are Vicki Ruhga, editor;
Ad Hudler, editorial page editor;
Thorn Gabrukiewicz, managing edi
tor; James Rogers, editorial associate
and Chris Welsch, copy desk chief.
The Daily Nebraskan's publishers
Vicki Ruhga, Editor, 472,1766
Thorn Gabrukiewicz, Managing Editor
Ad Hudler, Editorial Page Editor
Jim Rogers, Editorial Page Editor
Chris Welsch, Copy Desk Chief
Throughout Kerrey's term, uni
versity officials and certain sena
tors have rung warning bells.
They believed that Kerrey's policy
was the result of simple ignorance
about the truly desperate straits
that the university soon would
enter.
Kerrey had plenty of time to
heed the warnings, but ignored
them and intentionally pushed
for deeper and deeper cuts in the
university budget. Kerey knew
what he was doing.
The seeds that Kerrey has
sown still have much fruit to
bear in the future. While other
professors may practically have
to take the abuse that irrespon
sible politicians like Kerrey have
dished out (because these pro
fessors have deep roots in UNL
and Lincoln), this is not the case
with younger professors.
As a result, as older professors
retire, vacancies either will go
unfilled or will be filled wit h less
than optimal professors with
quality being compromised se
verely. No more excuses or justifica
tions from Kerrey will do; his
actions are only slightly short of
criminal for the future of the
state.
delegated responsibilities to the
states in the areas of housing,
education and revenue sharing.
Threatening to cut the purse
strings of highway funding
hinging on state legislation
strays from this policy. Those are
pretty tight strings for what is
supposed to represent an in
crease in state authority.
Should Wyoming and other
states decide to deny Reagan's
request, they can lose a lot. They
would be stuck with the problem
of maintaining their highways,
which is no small task.
Herschler will be leaving
office soon. Perhaps that's part
of the reason for his boldness on
the issue.
But other state leaders should
take heed and learn a thing or
two. They should begin looking
now at alternatives for funding
such as a gasoline tax or a lottery
with proceeds that would be
directed exclusively at highway
maintenance and projects.
In their cost-cutting efforts,
Congress and Reagan likely will
continue to cut state funding for
all programs not just the
highway system. State Legisla
tures should start to combat the
Washington hypocrisy.
are the regents, who established the
UNL Publications Board to super
vise the daily production of the
paper.
According to policy set by the
regents, responsibility for the edi
torial content of the newspaper lies
solely in the hands of its student
editors.
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Waoite: Mew image ffor UWL
Buildings and basketball don't equal brains
The image of the university as an
institution that emphasizes intel
lectual achievement suffered a
few dents in the last week.
The cause of the dents are three sets
of money figures revealed to the univer
sity community basketball coach
Danny Nee's $75,000 salary, the addi
tional $4 to $8 million heeded to build
the Lied Center for Performing Arts
according to original plans, and faculty
salary figures that rank lower than
almost any in the Big Eight.
Seeing these financial reports sepa
rately has not been that alarming. But
when examined in relation to each
other, something evil arises. A single
message the university should not be
sending is being transmitted through
out Nebraska one which elicits a
clear and confusing picture of UNL's
priorities and values.
On Saturday, the NU Board of Regents
approved Nee's salary, making him one
of the two highest-paid basketball
coaches in the Big Eight. But instead of
a flood of public outcry criticizing the
extravagance of such a high salary,
Nebraskans breathed a relieved sigh.
Obviously they thought, now that the
potential for athletic excellence had
come to the basketball program, foot
ball wouldn't be the only thing related
to, the university that Nebraskans
kans supported.
Raid on Libya not a laughing matter;
bad taste shown by administration
1 remember a picture an official
White House photo taken in 1975
during the Ford administration. It
showed Gerald Ford, Henry Kissinger,
Donald Rumsfeld and two other officials,
dressed in formal wear, exulting in
news they had received about the U.S.
attempt to rescue sailors from the
Mayaguez, a ship captured by Com
munist Cambodians. The rescue opera
tion, as it turned out, was something of
a botch.
Hard to tell, though, from that
picture. Kissinger is leaning back in a
broad smile; Rumsfeld is beside himself
with laughter; Ford, holding a pipe, is
gesturing and laughing; and Robert
McFarlane, then a staff member of the
National Security Council, obviously
thinking the matter funny is pictures
do not lie smiling weakly. Since
then he has learned to control himself.
But not the Reagan administration.
For more than a week, it has been
playing out its own version of that
night. In exquisite bad taste, it has
shown the same capacity to celebrate
the odious. White House Chief of Staff
Earlier this week, Nebraskans also
learned NU's value of artistic excel
lence. Even though UNL officials announced
that the Lied Center would have an
estimated cost over-run almost half its
total cost, Lied and NU Foundation
representatives vowed to continue the
project.
V
) I Tonathan
( Taylor
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But, unlike the regents' management
of UNL's meager state money, Lied offi
cials decided to "narrow the scope" of
the building and admitted they couldn't
afford the wide range of features they
had planned to offer.
Later in the week it was reported,
yet again, that UNL faculty members
were underpaid. But stories like that
seem to have become so commonplace
that they won't have the impact they
should.
Although UNL coaches, buildings
and professors get their money from
different sources, the three aforemen
tioned situations are inter-related.
When people see how university money
is spent, they also see the schools' atti
Donald Regan (the little brain that
could) had a joke to tell last week. He
said a friend of his had suggested new
lyrics for the Marine Hymn: "From the
Halls of Montezuma to what's left of
Tripoli." It is reported that no one
laughed.
0 Wdiard
Lohen
As for the Defense Department, it
has almost daily released information
celebratory of the Libya strike. Un
mentioned in all the hurrays for this or
that technical feat is the fact that
civilians were killed, that some of the
F-l 1 planes from England did not drop
their bombs, that one F-ll did not
return, and that two American pilots
were killed.
Americans have been treated to war
as a televised video game. On the TV
tude toward higher education.
In these cases, UNL's priorities lie
with excellent basketball teams and
buildings.
That's a confusing image the univer
sity doesn't need to portray, especially
since it has been trying to attract qual
ity faculty with already low and still
declining salaries.
If the university sends the message
that quality education is not its fore
most priority, it never will get support
from Nebraska's government or its citi
zens. Academic respect goes only to those
universities that work for all-around
excellence. Maybe UNL needs to devote
more effort to finding the Danny Nees
in the educational profession.
By the way, I'll be getting married in
about two weeks. It's been warm out
and I found someone who said yes, so it
really seems like the thing to do. Love
has a lot to do with it, too, but as the
good book says, ". . . two are better than
one." Being volatile youths, though, my
fiance Heidi Ore and I figured we
always had the opportunity to pull out
of it all if it ever started to feel too silly.
But no more now, we have to go through
with it we got the first wedding
present this week. A consummation by
salad bowl, if you will.
Taylor is a senior journalism major.
screen, we zoomed in on the coast and
then swung toward the barracks where
Moammar Khadafy is said to live. We
passed it once, and then doubled back
at something like nine miles a second
and there! released our bombs.
In the corner of the screen, you could
see nine little bombs, just lrke in the
video games, and then Kerpow!
you were told they hit. The president
says we may have to play again.
And so we may. It may be our only
recourse something we have to do
because we think of nothing else to do,
nothing that will work. There is no
sense of obligation in some of the:
statements coming from the admini
stration no sense that we are off into
something where the end is unknown.
Already, hostages have been murdered
in Lebanon; a U.S. diplomat shot in,
Khartoum; and the United States is,
being seen by the Arab world as a
colonialist-Zionist caricature. In attempt
ing to control events, we just may havf
lost control of them. This is the way it k
sometimes. '
See COHEN on 5
