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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 18, 1986)
Page 4 Daily Nebraskan Tuesday, November 18, 1986 itona T7"1 T Nebrayskan UnlvtnUy ol Ntbratka-lincoln Access impaire Facilities crowd UNL water-polo coach Mike Morosin brought up an interesting problem that seems to be overlooked recreation facilities for the hand icapped on campus. Morosin said the university is meeting the needs of these peo ple academically but not meet ing their personal needs. He was specifically talking about the availability of swimming on campus. After the recent closing of the Coliseum pool the only pool available to students is the one at Mabel Lee. Mabel Lee is accessible to the handicapped. The concern, how ever, is how many handicapped students will want to swim in an already overcrowded swimming pool. Morosin said renovating the Classroom mediocrity Effective remedy still undiscovered Oodles of solutions have been proposed to the dilemma of mediocrity in the schools and low morale among teachers. Most of them involve increasing teacher salaries, toughening stan dards and broadening teachers' career opportunities. Not sur prisingly, most teachers strongly support these solutions. But a recent Louis Harris poll of teachers and educational leaders reveals a strange contra diction in teacher attitudes. Solid majorities of teachers supported the usual solutions to educa tional problems, but only 36 per cent of teachers surveyed felt the changes had actually helped them. The results suggest the most effective remedies haven't been found yet. The individual solutions still look attractive to teachers when considered in isolation. The one exception is merit pay, which was opposed by 71 percent of teachers surveyed. But more than 90 percent of both teachers and educational leaders cited poor pay as . a major cause of an expected teacher shortage, and almost half favored "career ladder" programs that would allow teachers to make much more money in positions of higher responsibility. Two solutions aimed at im proving teaching ability were favored by a majority of teachers surveyed. Eighty-two percent Editorial Policy Unsigned editorials represent official policy of the fall 1986 Daily Nebraskan. Policy is set by the Daily Nebraskan Editorial Board. Its mem bers are Jeff Korbelik , editor, James Rogers, editorial page editor, Gene Gentrup, managing editor; Todd Von Kampen, editorial page assistant and Tammy Kaup, associate news editor. Editorials do not necessarily re flect the views of the university, its Je!TKorbclik,ttfor, 472,1766 James Honors, Editorial Paye Editor Gone Gontrup, Maitayiny Editor Taut my Kaup, Asswiata News Editor Todd von Kamnon, Editorial Pane Assistant d handicapped Coliseum pool would cost only $11,000, including $6,000 for an elevator that would lower handi capped people to the pool deck on the east end. The elevator would make it easier for the handicapped to reach the pool. Morosin's figures underesti mates the administration's fig ure of $50,000 to $70,000. It's unlikely UNL will reopen the Coliseum pool, but two pools would offer handicapped students as well as non-handicapped stu dents more opportunity to swim. When or if the university decides to build a new recrea tional facility, which they should, the handicapped should not be forgotten. The facility should provide access to any sport or recreation, anything from swim ming to wheelchair basketball. liked "master-teacher" programs, which assign excellent teachers to coach others. Fifty-two per cent approved of a national teacher-certification board, which would require teachers to meet the same standards across the country. Despite all that support, how ever, most teachers in the poll remained skeptical of the solu tions. What's interesting is that 78 percent of state education officials and 73 percent of legis lators surveyed in the poll feel the reforms have helped teachers. It seems those farther away from the classroom aren't totally in touch with what's really needed to make the schools better. More money and higher teacher standards are only part of the solution. Students need to be taught enthusiasm about learn ing as well. Teachers have some responsibility to do this, but parents bear the greatest burden in this area. If they don't do their job, teachers have to deal with apathetic students which wears on a teacher and can lead to "burnout." It's good that people are try ing to fix the schools, but this poll indicates we haven't found the final cure yet. Once we decide that throwing money at the schools isn't enough to solve the problems, our educational sys tem will be on the road to recovery. employees, the students or the NU Board of Regents. The Daily Nebraskan's publishers 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. A tragedy of IMgionasBess Story of doctor's lawsuit, insurance liability prompts despair If you have any inclination to despair over the litigiousness of America and the appalling effects of it, do not read on; or if you do, take out insurance against suicide. Take it out with a reliable insurance company. It is hard to imagine a more dramatic narrative than that which led to the case of Joe McGinniss vs. Employers Reinsurance Corp. In 1979, an Army doctor was tried. It was alleged that nine years before he had murdered his wife and two children. This astonishing charge against Dr. Jeffrey MacDonald made its way quickly into the headlines and attracted to it, among others, Joe McGinniss, a talented journalist and author who undertook to write a newspaper column on the subject. He put in for an interview with MacDonald and, before long, the in dicted doctor said to McGinniss some thing on the order of: Joe, I like the looks of you. You are smart and a good writer. I need money for my defense. I am, needless to say, innocent. Let's make a deal. I will give you the exclusive inside run on my story, and you agree to write it up and give me a substantial share of the royalties. OK? McGinniss was interested it was a big story, of many dimensions. But he entered into an agreement with caution. His terms were: 1) MacDonald would agree to let McGinniss listen in on all defense conferences; 2) McGinniss would be free to write exactly as he saw the case as it developed; and 3) Mac Donald would sign a release, agreeing not to sue McGinniss for libel in the event he wrote other than what Mac Donald wanted to see in print. The trial was a sensation, and the evidence finally conclusive: This doctor, who had been popular and esteemed by Homosexuality not a UPC concern The University Program Council's decision to form and finance a Lesbi anGay Committee has some serious implications. Students, the UPC and Union Board members must consider the role of the university and the UPC as well as the nature of the committee being formed. Several significant ques tions must be answered before the Guest Opinion Union Board votes on the issue. The first question is, what precisely is the purpose of the UPC? According to its own brochure, the UPC is a student organization which presents "social, cultural and entertainment programs" for the "campus and the involved community." Crafts, art exhibits, movies, parties and minority cultural events are all examples of items falling prop erly within the scope of the UPC. How ever, advancing the views of political and religious groups (or any other groups pushing ideological propaganda) is not by definition the purpose of the UPC, no matter how legitimate such groups may be. A second question: What is the pur pose of the Lesbian Gay Committee? Spokesman Marc Seger said the com mittee would dispel "ignorance sur rounding the gay community. . .through educational programs." In other words, the committee desires the freedom to publicly proclaim homosexuality as a legitimate lifestyle. This is beyond any reasonable doubt an ideological or pol itical purpose. GayLesbian Student Association president Rodney Bell said the UPC's decision was a "nice change" because the UPC "has never had a program for the gay community." A final critical question is, given the purpose of the UPC, why should there be a program for gays? There are no programs for Demo crats, Republicans, liberals, conserva tives, Christians, atheists or anyone else advocating certain ideological positions. The UPC is primarily funded by stu dent fees (about $3 per person). Therefore, if it begins pandering to cer his friends and associates, had indeed murdered his wife and children. Mc Ginniss himself had arrived at the same conclusion. The intimate know ledge McGinniss had after hundreds of hours of association with the doctor made for a best-selling book, "Fatal Vision," followed by a successful tele vision movie. As the royalties came in, William F. Buckley Jr. y abiding by the agreement, McGinnis sent MacDonald his share until MacDonald brought suit. It isn't unusual for authors and publishers to get sued by injured parties, and, accordingly, the publish ing firm of Putnam took out, at a cost of $40,000, an insurance policy with the Employers Reinsurance Corp., protect ing the publisher, and derivatively the author, from legal expenses and adverse judgments (with a $25,000 deductible). The lawyer of the publisher assured his client that it was fully protected. MacDonald, sentenced to prison for life, either himself thought up, or else was introduced by an ambulance chaser to think up, a clever means of getting around the release he had given Mc Ginniss. He would sue the author not for libel or for invasion of privacy, both of which the murderer had immunized McGinniss from, but for "fraud." Mac Dona now alleged that McGinniss had really misreported what had gone on between them, causing him great damage and emotional distress. tain viewpoints, eventually all the opponents would withdraw their fees and it would become insolvent. The UPC should not use student money to advance the interests of gays. If it does, then logically it should finance Demo crat committees, Christian committees, Nazi committees ... ad nauseum. Some might ask: "But aren't the gays a legitimate minority, just like blacks?" Unfortunately, the answer is no. I know several former gays but I have never met a former black. Research from the Institute for the Scientific Investiga tion of Sexuality confirms that homo sexuality is a learned behavior, and 91 percent of the gays themselves actually agree with this assessment. Homosex uality is not genetically innate, it is a choice. Biblical and medical facts as well as common sense confirm this. As the saying goes: "If God had intended man to be gay, he would have created Adam and Steve, not Adam and Eve." In summary, the point of all this is Letter Student defends policies Is it appropriate that Ad Hudler's which are not as capable of defend- column "The beginning of the end?" ing themselves as we are, thus (on Nov. 7) is written from a grade- entails intervention at times. While school point of view? Hudler may disagree with this school While the policies of the Reagan of thought, (many do), he should administration may be distasteful argue from that perspective, rather to some, Hudler's simple-minded than appealing to childish innuendo attempt to link those policies to about the Reagan administration some imminent genocide is not only seeking to create "little Americas" unfair, but also shows an incredible around the world, lack of any grasp of reality. Hudler's claim that making Eng- The Reagan administration is not, lish the official language somehow as Hudler claims, trying to impose the ideals of America on the rest of the world. Rather, it formulates its foreign policy from a school of thought which believes that the only way to protect the freedom and democracy of this country is by maintaining a level of strength necessary to prevent those who would attack that freedom and democracy from doing so. This involves the protection of countries Never mind for a moment how it is possible to damage the reputation of a man sitting in jail for the balance of his life for the crime of killing his family; the law is capable of shoving aside such considerations, at least for the time being. What then happened was that the insurance company refused to defend McGinniss. Ah, you see, said the Employers Reinsurance Corp., MacDon ald isn't suing for "libel," he is suing for "fraud." McGinniss replied as any sane man would do. MacDonald, he said, is ob viously suing over what I said in "Fatal Vision." And the whole purpose of the libel policy (what other purpose could it have?) is to protect me and the publisher from this kind of suit. That he should think to call it "fraud" instead of libel is purely an act of semantic invention. He might as well have sued for alienation of affection there is no question that an account of how someone killed his wife and child ren tends to dispose your erstwhile friends against you. But then that had already been done by a jury. The case awaits a petition for sum mary judgment against the insurance company before Judge Robert Sweet of the U.S. District Court in New York. The effect of it, thus far, has been to impoverish McGinniss the cost of his legal efforts exceeds $175,000. The public is left wondering whether our justice system will tolerate such a travesty as MacDonald, who has run out of people to murder, is now attempting; and is left wondering, also, about the probity of American insurance compan ies. 1986 Universal Press Syndicate Buckley is the founder of National Re view magazine. not to slander the GayLesbian groups, but rather to recognize them for what they are. They are not a legitimate minority, nor are they simply people who were "born different." They are people who have chosen to live in a certain way, and they would like to see their way of life legitimized. In a demo cracy they certainly have the freedom to pursue this goal, but they should not be given any special privileges. Chris tians, for instance, meet on the campus and plan how to spread the Gospel, but they are not supported by student fees. I strongly urge all students (even gays), the UPC and Union Board members to reject the formation of the Lesbian Gay Committee and retain some semb lance of justice and democracy on the campus. Otherwise, I fear we will all lose. Tim Teebken senior arts and sciences restricts ethnic differences is so ridiculous as to not even merit a response. One only need look at the tremendous ethnic differences evi dent in this country's English speaking German. Italian, Polish, Black and Hispanic populations over the decades to see weakness in that claim. ' Marty Sipple junior criminal justice