Page 4
Daily Nebraskan
Tuesday, October 21, 1986
TP J
Moris'
C(D.
NebraMcan
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
More ante needed
Areas exhibit one-dimensionality
A university education is more
than advanced vocational
training. Included in the
historical notion of "higher edu
cation" is the idea that students
will be exposed to the great
thinkers of their culture.
In a recent issue of "Technol
ogy Review," Samuel Florman
lamented that "most American
engineers have not read the great
books of Western civilization or
studied the history of their nation
or any other. . . . The fact is that
engineers are not receiving es
sential elements of a traditional
college education."
This is a woeful situation.
Statistics indicate that less
than 5 percent of engineering
graduates take an educational
approach that strongly emphas
izes the liberal arts. This unjustly
circumscribes the education of
the student, but also influences
the social relationship between
engineering technicians and
society at large.
Florman pointed to a research
survey of psychological studies
done on engineers that is quite
unsettling:
"Constricted interests are ap
parent in their relative indiffer
ence to human relations, to psy
chology and the social sciences,
to public affairs and social ame
lioration, the fine arts and cultu
ral subjects, and even to those
aspects of physical science
which do not immediately relate
to engineering."
At UNL the engineering col
Once bitten ...
Soviet 'pullout' subject to scrutiny
The withdrawal of 8,000 Soviet
troops last week from Afghan
istan, where the Soviet Union
has been helping Afghan com
munists fight Moslem rebels
since 1979, looks like a signifi
cant move toward peace in the
region except for two things.
First, of course, the 8,000
represent only a fraction of the
total Soviet troop commitment
in Afghanistan. An estimated
115,000 Soviet soldiers are still
in the country, which hardly
indicates the USSR is close to
giving up its struggle to stabilize
its communist puppet regime in
Afghanistan. The fact remains
that the Soviet Union invaded a
sovereign nation seven years ago
to install a government of its own
choosing and it hasn't given
up on that goal.
The second point: The Soviets
apparently don't have 8,000 fewer
troops in Afghanistan than they
did a few weeks before the pull
out. While the Soviets were trot
ting out their propaganda mach
ine to get the most political
leverage from the pullout, U.S.
Defense Secretary Casper Wein
berger and Pakistani President
Mohammed Zia ul-Haq were say
ing the Soviets sent several
thousands fresh troops into
Afghanistan before the pullout.
If true, the "withdrawal" was
Jeff Korbelik, Editor, 4 72-1 766
James Rogers, Editorial Page Editor
Cone Gentrup, Managing Editor
Tammy Kaup, Associate News Editor
Todd vm Kampen, EdiUrial Page Assistant
lege requires 18 hours in human
ities and the social sciences.
This evidently is the minimum
required by the Accreditation
Board for Engineering and Tech
nology (ABET), which requires
all accredited engineering pro
grams to require a 12.5 percent
liberal arts load. Florman indi
cates that this is six classes
the precise number that is re
quired at UNL.
Additionally, these hours can
be taken in non-traditional lib
eral arts areas such as anthro
pology, economics, geography,
political science, psychology and
sociology. While many of these
subjects are undoubtedly valua
ble, they do not constitute a
general core of what all students
traditionally have been required
to take from a true university.
Ironically, however, Flbrman's
criticism can be applied to a
number of other areas, such as
business education. Sure there
are requirements, bui too many
students in all disciplines are
leaving this school with only
minimal exposure to the rich
tapestry of Western culture (let
alone appreciation for the works
of other cultures).
The Chancellors Commission
on General and Liberal Educa
tion is presumably engaged in
revising its preliminary state
ment. It deserves general en
couragement in seeking to reor
ient UNL's educational emphasis
toward a firmer foundation in
the liberal arts.
merely a troop rotation.
It's true that American intel
ligence could be limited by our
relative lack of allies in the area.
But Zia's in a position to know
and to care. Not only are the
Afghan rebels fellow Moslems,
but Pakistan shares a border
with Afghanistan. If the Soviets
ever decide to move farther south
toward the warm-water ports
they've wanted for so long, Pak
istan could become a battle
ground. Zia noted that the Soviet Union
announced a "withdrawal" four
years ago, but instead replaced
the departing soldiers with fresh
troops. He's right to say, "We are
once bitten and we are twice
shy." The only withdrawal Zia or
anyone in the West cares about
is the one in which all Soviet
troops leave Afghanistan and the
Afghan people are allowed to
choose their own government.
The Soviet "pullout" that
wasn't a pullout reminds us again
to beware of blatant propaganda
ploys. One can't expect the Soviet
government to give the entire
picture to a media system that it
runs itself. When the Soviets
remove all their troops from
Afghanistan and keep them out,
then we'll be ready to believe
them.
400 represent ricln off rich
Inclusion of Mem Griffin would make Marx laugh in his grave
Fortune magazine came out last
week with its annual list of the
400 richest men and women in
America. Once again I didn't make
it. Neither did any of my friends. But we
had a lot of company. Bob Hope didn't
even make it this year. Bob must be
importing more laughs than he's ex
porting. Sam Walton made it, though. He was
the big number ONE. In case you
haven't heard of him, he's the guy who
founded the Wal-Mart chain of dis
count stores, which are sort of a poor
man's Sears. Sam has somewhere around
$4 billion in his checking account. I
wonder what his credit limit is. But the
big news is that he had only about $2.6
billion last year. A little addition shows
that means he made about $1.4 billion
in the past year. Sam's quite the
breadwinner, isn't he?
I don't know what that works out to
per hour, but it seems to me that Sam
has no need to read "What Color Is Your
Parachute?"
There's a lot of other familiar names
on the list your Rockefellers and
your DuPonts.
Pete DuPont I don't know if he
made the list or not, but I bet he'd be
on the honorable mention list is
running for President in '88. I guess
being filthy rich and governor of Dela
ware just isn't enough for some people.
DuPont has proposed that all high
school kids be subjected to mandatroy
drug testing. What a waste. If Pete's
really serious about this, all he has to
do is send them to that place that Liz
Taylor, Betty Ford and Chevy Chase
Conservatism and Reagan's urinal
lead to '90s progressive period
In his new book, "Cycles of Ameri
can History," Professor Arthur
Schlesinger Jr., with that didactic
flair that has made him so obnoxious so
much of the time (actually, he is mel
lowing), speaks of the upcoming cycle
in American politics. It is due in the
vicinity of 1990, when what we may as
well call the "conservative" period,
capped by Ronald Reagan, will yield to
what we may as well call another "pro
gressive" period, of the kind we had
under Teddy Roosevelt (1901), FDR
(1933) and JFK (1961). Cycle-stuff is
perhaps more interesting to historians
than to laymen, but it is worth noting
what The American Spectator has come
up with for its October issue.
The Spectator is a lively monthly,
one part sheer japery, another solemn
as Cotton Mather, which for 19 years,
under the spirited leadership of R.
Emmett Tyrrell Jr., has traveled from a
kind of college conservative "Animal
House" to true distinction, with scho
larly features giving extensive atten
tion to professors renowned and obs
cure, journalists with readable opinion,
the lot of them having the common
objective of finding liberal political
dogma quite utterly rotten, aestheti
cally, empirically and philosophically.
It is a most wonderful tonic, recom
mended to all who like a touch of
empyrean springwater, with maybe a
touch of Southern Comfort.
The current issue has as one of its
features a symposium on what Ronald
Reagan should focus on in his two
remaining years, a wonderful cornuco
pia of suggestions written, one hastens
to remark, before the Iceland Summit,
which had it been anticipated might
have mixed up some of the suggested
agenda. But we have here 19 conserva
tives giving out free advice, some of it
tongue-in-cheek, some of it deadly
serious, and it is worthwhile pondering
this rich assortment before resolving
that a few years from now conservative
energy in the United States will have
been swept away by one of those pro
fessorial cycles.
On the matter of the succession, one
is amused by Jeffrey Hart's brief survey
of the opposition. "Maybe for the first
time in history, the presidency will
went to. If Pete can't afford it, I'm sure
he could borrow some from the rest of
his family.
It makes you wonder why anybody
with that much money would want to
Geoff
Goodwin
spend two years of his life sleeping in
Holiday Inns and eating banquet food.
Power must be a powerful incentive. Or
perhaps, it's the free room and board
the job offers.
Another thing about the list: Merv
Griffin yes, that Merv Griffin
former talk-show host and the king of
inane chatter, made it.
Merv is worth about $235 million,
folks. Who says you have to be talented
to make money? Karl Marx must be
laughing in his tomb at the news.
(Assuming, of course, that Marx reads
Fortune). Nothing that Marx everwrote
is as damning to capitalism as the fact
that Merv Griffin is one of the richest
men in the country. The only worth
while contribution Merv every made to
Western Civilization was reviving Jeo
pardy. Even there he proved to be mis
erly. It used to be that if you finished
second or third you got to keep the
money you won. Now, after Merv, you
just get some lame-o prizes.
remain vacant for the years 1988-92.
Mario Cuomo would be a potent candi
date in the year 1936. He would cer
tainly carry the Dust Bowl. In 1988, he
would carry the poor people of the Dis-
William F.
Buckley Jr. f
trict of Columbia, period. Sen. Gary
Hart is a nice fellow, but he has a
problem. He seems to be a Sandinista."
On one point, a half-dozen conserva
tives home in, with near-objurgative
obsession, namely the need to do away
with the ABM Treaty. They judge it a
bad historical mistake and an impedi
ment to the SDI of possible fatal con
sequence. One observer feels that the
Reagan Revolution "is now concen
trated in the departments of Justice
and Education. Attorney General Edwin
Meese and Education Secretary Wil
liam Bennett have built able staffs of
true believers, young persons who have
somehow avoided both the budget
cutting blues and the corruption of
Washington's money culture."
The formidable Edwin Feulner, the
head of the Heritage Foundation, says
6
Letter
Student says accreditation not proven
I read with interest the front
page story on "nature doctors" (Daily
Nebraskan, Oct. 9). While I haven't
made a decision on how I feel about
this type of alternate health care, I
do find mention of "an accredited
four-year naturopathic college" lack
ing in proof. A thorough scan of
"Lovejoy's College Guide" (Monarch
Press, 1983) curiously does not men
tion any programs in naturopathy.
Nor is there any mention in "Health
Careers Guidebook," (U.S. Depart
ments of Labor and HEW, 1979).
Perhaps the Daily Nebraskan can
I had a friend who went on Jeopardy,
and he got a year's supply of rice. Not
even a soldier in the North Vietnamese
Army can eat that much rice. And they
gave him a pair of tires for a car that he
didn't have. So a once-great show is
reduced to giving miserly prizes.
If you've read this far you're probably
wondering what the point of all this is.
Frankly, so am 1. 1 thinking it's some
thing like this.
We love lists like this. The 400 list
appeals to some strange, perverted
instinct in all of us. We'd like to be on
that list each and every one of us.
Fortunately, most of us can handle not
making it. But for some reason we look
upon this list as a sign of success
that these people have accomplished
something.
Of course, a lot of times they have.
(Even, perhaps, Merv Griffin.) But some
of them have done nothing more than
being born with an American Express
gold card.
There's none of the drive, the hard
working entrepreneurial spirit that
President Reagan claims made this
country great in selecting and putting
a Rockefeller or a DuPont on the list.
They were on it the moment they were
born and will be until the day they die.
They are America's royalty.
But don't despair, fellow peasants.
You can still make something of your
self even if you don't make the list. And
if, by chance, some of you out there
reading this should ever make the list,
don't forget your friends.
Goodwin is a graduate student and a
Daily Nebraskan night news editor.
that Reagan has no alternative than to
deal substantially with Social Security,
with the view eventually to privatizing
care for the elderly. Vic Gold says that
Reagan needs to be careful about the
matter of stylistic deterioration, an
awful temptation during the last two
years. "What, for example, was the
president of the United States doing
this past spring, taking part in the
trendily banal 'Hands Across America"
exercise?. . .Who could possibly have
talked the president into the idea that
an Oval Office urinal was a fitting salvo
in his 'war against drugs'? The presid
ency is a bully pulpit, yes; but a bully
pissoir?"
Several admirers of Ronald Reagan
are most excited about what is gradu
ally going by the name of the Reagan
Doctrine. The Truman Doctrine said:
Hold the Communists in place; the
Brezhnev Doctrine said: Nothing that
was ever ours will ever be alienated.
The Reagan Doctrine says: Anybody
willing to fight for freedom will have
our help (money and arms, not Marines)..
And Joseph Sobran says: "It isn't
critically important that Reagan do
anything in particular in his remaining
years as president. ... He has made
conservatism seem inevitable."
1988 Universal Press Syndicate
Buckley is founder of the National Review
magazine.
investigate and do a follow-up arti
cle on the education and accredita
tion process. In fact, I challenge the
DN to find a school in the United
States that has a program accre
dited by any of the six regional
accrediting associations or an
accrediting body approved by the
Department of Education or the
Council on Postsecondary Educa
tion. Could it be that I'm wasting
' four years of my life?
Jay Hinkhouse
sophomore
UNMC