Tuesday, November 11, 1888
PQ0 4
Daily Ncbrcskan
I
Nebrayskan
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
I
U.S. colleges
The recently released educa
tion report headed by former
Education Secretary Terrel
Bell just muddies the waters of
higher-education reform. The
most newsworthy proposal was
the call to double the number of
adults with college degrees by
the year 2000.
There is certainly value in
studying and proposing reforms
for post-secondary education. But
the Bell report's scope is not
holistic enough to merit taking
its recommendation seriously.
The report laments education
deficits that are more approp
riately addressed by elementary
and secondary schools.
The report argues that "Amer
ica has far too many people
whose abilities are never awa
kened." Certainly nobody quib
bles with that assertion. But far
too many people already attend
ing post-secondary institutions
do not have the skills necessary
to allow their abilities to be
awakened by colleges and uni
versities. If this primary problem is not
first faced and dealt with, simply
playing the numbers game and
expanding enrollment in colleges
and universities will result only
in a massive waste of resources
and will end in frustration for all
concerned.
No swimming allowed
Closing of Coliseum pool unwise
o swimming: At least not in
the UNL Coliseum swim
ming pool.
The pool will remain empty
after a committee organized by
John Goebel, UNL vice chancel
lor for business and finance,
made the recommendation when
they found it was too expensive
to update the pool's equipment.
Goebel said in Sunday's Omaha
World-Herald that it would cost
the university as much as $50,000
to $70,000 for repairs. And with
the ongoing budget cuts already
digging into the university's
academic programs, a pool doesn't
seem to be worth that much
money.
What this situation really points
to is the need for the university
to build a new campus recrea
tion facility; one that wouldn't
be paid for from the ever
decreasing budget.
The closing leaves only one
pool available to students, the
one at Mable Lee Hall. UNL has
two other pools, one at the Bob
Devaney Sports Center, the other
at Abel residence hall. Devaney
is only open to varsity athletes
and Abel is only open to the resi
dents of the hall. Goebel said
Abel provides the best solution
to the inevitable overcrowding.
Abel, too, will have to undergo
some reconstruction in order to
be open to zl students. Goebel
ssid it would need larger rest
N
Jeff Korbelik, Editor, 472,1766
James Rogers, Editorial Page Editor
Gene Gentrup, Managing Editor
Tammy Kaup, .Associate Afews Editor
Todd von Kampen, Editorial Page Assistant
get a bad rap
In a press interview Bell him
self made the point: "It ought to
be easy to get in, but we ought to
make it more meaningful and
difficult to get a degree." So
while universities are supposed
to let in more people without the
requisite skills to succeed, these
same schools are expected to
turn around and then flunk these
people right out. What sort of
reasoning is that?
Institutions of higher learning
should not be turned into schools
primarily oriented toward devel
oping basic skills and learning
behaviors, they should be places
where these fundamental blocks
are built upon. Bell's proposal
deleteriously attempts to expand
the scope of the university's mis
sion. On a more positive note, the
Bell report's recommendation to
support greater access to finan
cially disadvantaged groups
should be heeded.
It is a shame that competitive
candidates for post-secondary
education cannot complete their
schooling because of extraordi
nary financial pressure. Certainly
in a land of opportunity, money
sufficient for investment in
America's future could be found.
There is little question that the
money would be well spent.
rooms and showering areas would
need to be built.
Really not much of a solution,
considering it's still going to
cost the university money.
Programs are being affected
by the closing. No classes yet,
but water polo that used to last
two to three months is now in
one weekend. Family swimming
hours have been eliminated.
The Coliseum's pool is just
another example of the atrocious
recreational facilities available
to students on campus. If one
remembers, last semester the
administration thought about
closing the Men's Physical Edu
cation Building. Part of the rea
son the building was decrepit.
A campus of 24,000 students
should not tolerate inadequate
facilities. A look around the Big
Eight and one can find large
recreational facilities. One also
needs to look at the number of
students on this campus who use
the facilities. The numbers are
high and are reason enough to
take a closer look at the problem.
The university, though the NU
Foundation, could solicit outside
money to fund a new facility.
They did it for the training table
and the Lied Center. Why not a
rec center?
Something needs to be done.
The problem is only getting worse
end is still costisg money.
lAMNdTA
IMDUCK!
ValMitg Midwestern Iboredom
Bohemians find hometowns both tormenting and inspiring
After many years of discontent and
vacillation, I have finally decided
that I like living in Nebraska. I
don't exactly love the thought of resid
ing in a region where agriculture and
football games are cultural phenomena,
but I have learned that living here can
be both satisfying and creatively stimu
lating. I'm not talking about all the trite
Great Plains literature and the fresh ,
air and open spaces. I'll take smog and
subways over Willa Cather and the
Sandhills any day. The homogenized
sterility, old-world morality and pros
perity of the Bread Basket seem to form
a void in creative Midwesterners that
forces them to search for a way out of
the mainstream and its virtuous "peace
and quiet."
However, the "peace and quiet" of
the Midwestern gives social infidels a
chance to contemplate and a reason to
create. In their hometowns, artists,
actors, writers, musicians and poets
are considered "eccentrics" or "char
acters" to the locals who don't always
understand them or respect them. But
the static social milieu becomes part of
the basis for their creative energy,
anger and artistic vitroil.
And such feelings don't occur only in
the heartland of America. Alienation is
the virus of small towns everywhere. In
France, the Bohemians of the pastoral
regions flock to Paris. In Holland, they
r n to the chaotic freedom of Amster
dam. And in England, a country filled
with grimy little industrial towns, the
kids make a beeline for the cosmopoli
tan veneer of London.
In America, Los Angeles and New
York are the meccas of modernity,
where small-towners congregate to
escape the indolent world of coffee
klatsches and rumors that they were
raised in. But in the big city, it seems as
Ambitious Democrats try to make
electoral mountain out of molehill
o then, what have we learned from
the recent experience at the polls?
Waal, said the wise man. reflect
ing on it all nothing. That's right,
nothing. Democracy, the late Max
Eastman pointed out, is most valuable
as a negative instrument, the oppor
tunity for the voters to tell their gover
nors to get out of town and send in a
new set of people. No such thing was
done last Tuesday. A shift of 1 0 percent
in the Senate has melodramatic conse
quences in terms of Senate leadersip,
but none at all in terms of voters, who
didn't go to the polls motivated by
whom they wish to see organizing the
Senate. They went to the polls to vote
for this man or the ether, and it hap
pened thit the sum total of votes for
Democratic senators exceeded voters
for Ef publican senators. Adding cp to?
But her is what pundits will try (are
if everyone is an artist, and competi
tion becomes tremendously intimidat
ing. Sometimes competition is so high
in the upbeat urban world that trans
plants decide to give up their goals and
return to the "peace and quiet" they
1
Scott
Harrah
abhorred as children.
In a small town or a big small
town like Lincoln the bohemian can
be a novelty item, ridiculed and admired
for being "different." In the melting
pot of Manhattan or any other mecca
for outcasts, everyone is quirky, and
nobody really cares if one is offbeat.
Perhaps the main difference between a
small town and a metropolis is a matter
of conformity. In Lincoln, everyone
tries to be like everyone else; in New
York, people make an effort to be mar
velously original, and sometimes it is
difficult to live up to such a rule.
It takes time, but eventually crea
tive people learn that their hometown
is also their Muse, and it must be toler
ated and appreciated instead of hated.
The Midwest and its counterparts repre
sent a standard of normality and the
flawed virtues that standard is based
on. To challenge normality in a place
where it is lauded is the ultimate test
of emotional and artistic strength, for
it makes one aware of one's back
ground and the entropy it caused.
Perhaps the most interesting thing
about life in Lincoln is meeting people
who want out of Nebraska but are
forced to stay in the interim because
trying) to make of it. They very day after
me eiecuon, democratic nront-runner
Gary Hart had a piece ready for The
New York Times. In a single paragraph
he lists the complaints of the people,
whom he tacitly identifies as backers
William F.
Buckley Jr.
r
of the Democratic Part?, "First, we
must acknowledge the dark side of
Reaganomics' legacy: California's Sil
icon and Pennsyivarda's Monogahela
valleys are both reeling from a Quad
rupled trade debt. Steel employment
has been cut to half. Farm foreclosures
J
they aren't finished with school or
haven't saved up enough money to move
elsewhere.
"I'm tired of Big Red and clean
streets and cornfields," they scream in
disgust.
Eventually they realize that it is
more constructive to get some use out
of their social limbo and use it to
sharpen their creative acumen.
The years between Midwestern dis
content and urban success then can
become a moratorium instead of an
insistent cry of discomfort. Soon, the
absurdities of home and the years of
struggling will pass and the creative
people can leave knowing where their
alienation came from, what caused it
and where it will take them in other
cities, culture and sensibilities.
Today, it seems that outcasts are
becoming trendy. First came cartoon
like bums and bag ladies of pop like
Boy George and Cyndi Lauper. Now Hol
lywood seems to feel that outcasts are
"in." Three of the fall's most popular
films - "Jumpin' Jack Flash," "No
body's Fooi" and "Something Wild"
feature iconoclastic, rebellious heros
and heroines that sport one-of-a-kind
attitudes with aplomb. All of these
characters are outsiders from small
towns who move to the city and make
their own conventions and rules.
In these times of tradition, a resur
gence of old norms has eclipsed the
"do-your-own-thing" virtues of the '60s
and 70s. Perhaps the idealistic, indi
vidualistic fervor of our pop cultural
icons is a refreshing indication that the
fall of conformity and the establish
ment might occur sooner than we
think.
Harr&h is a UNL junior English and
speech communications major and the
Daily Nebraskan Arts and Entertain
ment Editor.
are at record levels. The march toward
energy independence is in chaotic
retreat, with net oil imports up 36 per
cent in one year. Bulging bank debts
threaten Latin American democracies
and U.S. financial institutions from the
oil patch to tiie Farm Belt."
So there are problems. Our high-tech
people are losing out in their competi
tive struggle with South Koreans and
Japanese. Well, Eeaganomics is as much
to blame for that as Halley's comet. The
problem of American competition is a
problem of productivity. Productivity is
hampered by overhead. Overhead is
what happens when there is a substan
tial difference between the cost of hir
ing labor and the earnings that inure to
labor. And the reason for that differ
ence, which is .called the wedge, is
See CUCKLEY on 6