Pago 4
Daily Nebraskan
Friday, December 5, 1986
H
JefT Korbclik, Editor, 472,1766
James Rogers, Editorial Page Editor
Gene Gentrup, Managing Editor
Tammy Kaup, Associate News Editor
Todd von Kampen, Editotial Page Assistant
Nebraskan
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Money not needled?
Bennett needs more education
Surprise, folks. The amount
of money you pay for your
education each semester is
going up because the colleges
want it that way. At least, that's
what Secretary of Education Wil
liam Bennett would have you
believe.
Bennett told an audience at
Washington's Catholic University
two weeks ago that continued
increases in student aid give col
leges and universities an excuse
to raise tuition beyond what
inflation justifies. Colleges and
universities are basically in good
financial shape, he said, thanks
to increases in donations, better
earnings on endowments and
tuition increases made possible
by "loan subsidies" from the
government.
Now, anyone remotely familiar
with NU's financial woes knows
Bennett is missing the boat, at
least in this case. And Bennett's
major solution to rising loan
costs transferring interest
payments from government to
students leaves a lot to be
desired.
But let's return to rising costs.
Colleges and universities are great
at raising money today, Bennett
says; in fact, they apparently
raise tuition because they know
the market will allow it. Why?
"When the federal government is
expected to help meet a large
share of the difference between
a student's wherewithal and the
college's charges," he says, "col
leges can more easily afford to
let costs rise." If you can't afford
higher tuition yourself, he says,
On-the-job
Procter & Gamble
T
he Procter & Gamble Co. of
Cincinnati is setting a good
example.
Procter is one of a number of
companies offering child-care
assistance to their employees, a
number that has increased dra
matically over the last several
years.
About 2,500 companies offered
day-care advice, programs or
financial help last year. That
number is up from 1 10 in 1978,
600 in 1982 and 1,850 in 1984, the
Council on Economic Priorities
reported. The increase is signifi
cant, but the report noted that
the number is far short of what is
needed. Approximately 44,000
companies in the United States
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 JeffKorbelik , 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
you can always get a government
loan.
That's possible. It's also true
that the NU Foundation raised
$22.4 million in 1985-86, setting
an all-time record. But when NU
is subjected to a midyear budget
cut game year after year to say
nothing of rising costs in insu
rance, utilities and other things
it's hard to argue that the
university is awash in money.
Tuition costs don't just go up at
the whim of the institution.
As for the loan program Ben
nett advocates, it looks good on
the outside. There wouldn't be a
minimum payment; payments
wouldn't be higher than $50 per
month during the first two years;
students could borrow more and
repay over a longer period. But
making them pay the interest
themselves, which they haven't
had to do before, increases their
financial burden during the years
they make the least money.
One more thought: If Bennett's
right about schools' so-called
"greed factor" which seems
highly unlikely at NU how
likely would such schools be to
hold down costs when they know
students can borrow larger a
mounts? Bennett has talked some sense
in the past, as when he sug
gested some colleges and uni
versities could do more to improve
their educational product. But
he doesn't totally understand
why costs go up, and his solution
for controlling federal education
s; iding leaves students a bit
cold. This time, Bennett should
go back and start over.
child care
sets good example
have more than 100 employees.
In leading the way the Procter
company offers two months paid
leave for new mothers, six months
unpaid leave for new parents,
and flexible benefits. The com
pany has $375,000 on two com
munity day-care centers that give
priority to its workers and $35,000
to help open a referral service.
Child care is becoming a more
important issue every year as the
number of women in the work
force increases. The reports said
that in 1970, 24 percent of women
with children under 1 year old
were working. In 1985, it was 49
percent. At this point, child care
should be considered as impor
tant as pension plans and medi
cal benefits.
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.
-
6OSn9 Jerome, talke me - away'
Sleepy Southwestern town harbor for societal 'dropouts '
Sometimes it all starts to get to me
the studying, the stress, the
social pressures and I think
how nice it would be to escape. Just
take off. Mark my mail, "Return to
sender, address unknown."
Some people go clean condos at
Colorado ski resorts; others hide in the
crowds of big cities.
Not me. If I ever decide to drop out of
life, I know where I'll go.
Jerome, Arizona.
There's not even a newspaper there.
The last one, a monthly, folded a few
years ago.
Only one paved road leads in and out
of town. The highway's hairpin curves
and sharp drop-offs make it a testing
ground for new Jaguars, VWs and
Chryslers.
Four-wheel drive is as essential as
good birth-control methods. But even
with it, the town's residents get snowed
in occasionally. The kids get out card
board and slide in the streets. Some
times the adults do too. But mostly they
spend those dark winter evenings in
the town's taverns. "There's a lot of
warm drinks served," says Nancy Smith,
Jerome's vice mayor.
Smith, a 43-year-old from "back East,"
is a dropout herself. She came to
Jerome 14 years ago to visit a friend.
After two weeks, she sent for her
things. She hasn't been able to leave
since.
"I couldn't get out," she says. "It
just has always held me."
Smith is curator and archivist of
Jerome Historical Society. She can tell
you just about anything abou the old
mining town.
Jerome was incorporated in 1883
and peaked back in 1928. About 15,000
people lived there, and three compan
ies mined gold, cooper, silver.
But by 1953, the mines had closed
and the town's population dwindled to
less than 100 mostly retired miners,
their families and professionals who
just didn't want to leave. It was pretty
much a ghost town.
In the 1960s, the "hippies" and
artists began to move into the town's
abandoned buildings and fix them up.
They feuded with the oldtimers at first.
The thrill of an off-course chase;
Reagan's critics lose track of facts
Here is an aspect of the imbroglio
in Washington we ought to reflect
upon; namely, the thrill of the
chase.
It is a documented psychological
phenomenon. We are separated from
the beasts by the all-important posses
sion of a soul, which, pace Charles
Darwin, makes us closer to God than to
a gorilla. But many appetites of the
gorilla we do have. When we are hungry,
' A.
Too y. ,. a
f II 1 '
But gradually the two factions came
together to keep the town alive. Vis
itors today discover a thriving artists'
colony, a conspicuous lack of commer
cialism and a sense of peace.
Despite the rapid population growth
in the valley below and a steady trickle
of tourism to the mountaintop, Jerome
residents feel an enduring sense of iso
lation a detachment from the rest of
the world. An essence.
"It's a very relaxed place. A leisurely
atmosphere. People are just into doing
their own thing. They valley is red
necked and narrow-minded," Smith
said. "Jerome is not."
1 :
1 T
Lise
Olsen
But Jerome, too, is growing, at a rate
of about 10 new faces a year. It's not
Arizona's typical flock of snowbird reti
rees the average is 39.
"Most people come to see a friend
and fall in love," Smith says.
Others just see the 276 buildings
perched on the mountaintop and feel
drawn.
Today, about 90 percent of the town
structures, built mostly between 1910
and 1930, are used by the 480 or so
residents.
At city limits, Jerome is 5,000 feet
above sea level and the city streets
climb another 1,500 feet. Every home
has a view. A lot of them are on stilts,
"you look out your door on a neighbors'
roof," Smith says.
Things don't change much in Jerome.
But life goes on even when they do.
Back in about 1926, a couple of acic
dental mining explosions rocked the
town and began shifting the fault that
lies just below Jerome's surface. In the
next dozen years, a whole block of
main-street buildings fell down the
mountain. One man locked his hard
ware store one Saturday afternoon;
when he unlocked the door the next
William F.
Buckley Jr.
I
T )
:
we will even kill in order to eat. When
day, he was temporarily blinded by a
strange cloud of dust. When it cleared,
the back of his store was gone.
One building on the ill-fated block
survived the old town jail. Folks call
it the "sliding jail," because it moved
more than 200 feet, across the road and
down from its original site.
No natural forces have shaken the
town since the 1950s. But the town's
residents were very shaken up by the
events of 1985.
Fourteen Jerome residents were
arrested by federal investigators in a
marijuana-ring round-up in October
1985. Among them were the vice mayor,
a council member, the chief of police
(Jerome has a force of three) and a
former mayor.
"It was like we were on a blanket
and got thrown into the air. Fourteen
people were pulled out of their beds,
some were with other people, some
were by themselves," Smith said.
A helicopter bearing reporters and
cameramen landed near the old town
jail. The story made the New York
Times.
And nobody in Jerome much liked
the attention.
More than a year later, things are
nearly back to normal in Jerome. The
world doesn't bother Jerome and Jerome
doesn't bother the world.
The big news explosions at Cher
nobyl, attacks on Libya, arms deals
with Iran comes to the mountain
through TV and radio broadcasts.
Sometimes the tavern current-events
discussions get pretty heated. But
mostly folks mind their own business.
They live and let live.
"We've been called anarchists, which
may or may not be true," Smith says.
"We are a community."
There will always be a Jerome,
whether the tourists are there or not,
Smith says. Even if the buildings start
falling again or the geologists playing
around in the old mine discover that
vein of gold the oldtimes say runs right
though town, Jerome will survive.
It always has.
"There's something here," Smith
says.
Olsen is a senior news-editorial major.
we lust, we violate sacredly proffered
oaths, destroy families, become single
minded in our pursuit. And when we
ride the hounds, little seems to matter
other than to corner our quarry and
destroy him.
This is an instinct one feels when on
horseback pursuing a fox. It is the
identical feeling of the spectator at a
See BUCKLEY- on 5