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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 13, 1987)
Daily Nebraskan Tuesday, January 13, 1987 Jeff Korbelik, Editor, 472-1 766 James Holers, Editorial Page Editor Use Olscn, Associate News Editor Mike Reillcy, Night News Editor Joan Rezac, Copy Di'sk Chief .tv't ii Daily NsDraskan Univtrsity ol Nebraska-Lincoln wo fti?em mem Page 4 . ' ' " -4 Crockett, Vamer gave much The contributions of two key individuals will be sorely missed this semester. D.B. "Woody" Varner retired as chair man of the NU Foundation board of directors on Jan. 1, and long time sociology professor Harry J. Crockett died Dec. 14 after los ing a seven-month battle with lung cancer. He was 59. Varner has retired from the day-to-day activities of the foun dation but will still play a part in the foundation's efforts. He has been instrumental in raising money for such projects as the Lied Center for Performing Arts and the proposed indoor prac tice and student recreation cen ter. In fact, Varner has invested $10,000 of his own money into that project. Edward J. Hirsch, NU Founda tion president and executive director, called Varner a "tre mendous fund-raiser" and said his expertise will be missed. We would like to thank Varner for all he has done for the Uni versity of Nebraska. Why would one man d6 so much? Obviously,, this school means something to him. In light of budget cuts, it's nice to see someone who cares, Crockett was also a man who stood Up fot what he believed. He devoted his career to academic freedoisn, tolerance and noncori- TT Hi myemtfsr. All Nebraskans should be concerned with the November action of the NU Board of Regents which approved major construction projects for non-educational agricultural activities. The board approved the construction of a headquarters-public events building at Mead, a support center and a staff conference center at Whitman, and a headquarters remodeling at the North Platte research center. The Mead building cost alone is $4.65 million. This action clearly dem onstrates that the university continues to pursue a non-academic commitment to agriculture as opposed to a realloca tion of assets to the future needs of the state. Is the university pursuing a commitment to excellence by reallo cating university assets to meet the needs of the future, or is it influenced by the needs of the past? Guest Opinion The summary of the current UNL general operating budget provides some interesting cost comparisons between the colleges at UNL From 1980 to 1986 College of Agri culture enrollment dropped 28 per cent while state-aided operating ex penditures increased 28 percent. From 1980 to 1986 the ag college's state aided operating cost per student increased from $2,1 24 to $3,794. During the same interval, business college enrollment increased 19 percent and the state-aided operating cost per stu dent increased from $960 to $1,372. What is the vital need? The ag college's per student cost is $3,784 and enrol lment is sharply declining. The busi ness ccl'ep's per student cost is $1,372, cr.rc"r.cr.t is sharply increasing 71.2 viid r.scd would seem to be to formity. For his efforts on behalf of community and university civil liberties, the former chairman of the UNL sociology department and professor of sociology and psychology won the James Lake Academic Freedom Award, given by faculty members. Henry Baumgarten, Foundation professor of chemistry and chair man of the Lake Freedom Award Committee, called Crockett a "man of great personal integrity. He stood up for what he believed in, regardless of the conse quences." Crockett not only made an impression on his students but also on his peers, earning deserved respect. The UNL community benefited from his resources. Thank you, D.B. Varner. Thank you, Harry J. Crockett. Editorial Policy Unsigned editorials represent ' official policy of the spring 1S37 Daily Nebraskan. Policy is set by the Daily Nebraskan Editorial Board. Its mem bers are Jeff Korbelik , editor; James Rogers, editorial page editor, Lise Olsen, associate news editor; Mike , Reilley, night news editor and Joan Rezac, copy desk chief, Editorials do not necessarily re flect the views of the university, its employees, the students or the NU Board of Regents. expansion provide quality education, to contain the per-student cost in agriculture, and to meet the student demand in the business college. The regents have approved myor construction projects for non-student-related activities. Ag students, busi ness students, university faculty mem bers and taxpayers must ask: Does an increase in plant and equipment fulfill students' need of the future? This con struction will result in an increase in the annual operating costs needed to maintain the plant and equipment. An increase in staff and personnel will be needed to staff and maintain the build ings. Does not a commitment to excel lence require major salary increases to a reduced staff, as opposed to increased expenditures to an increased staff? Our university must provide leader ship in preparing students for the state's business and industry needs of the future. It should be committed to establishing the premier business col lege in our region, just as it strives to be the premier agricultural school in our region. It must provide the research and the support for those businesses and industries which can be important to out state's future. A commitment to excellence does not mean more tax dollars, but rather a major reallocation of university assets to the needs of the future. I submit that major construc tion projects, regardless of how funded, should be scrutinized very carefully to determine whether or not they meet the future vital needs of the student body as well as of the state as a whole. Robert E. Johnson Jr. Omaha Johnson is a grad si&te of the ?.TU College cf Essiaees end College of Law end nerved far 12 yezrs cs Cs UNL Alxnri uOF X(A A&MNST F&VoKSWb OUR !RAN-CDUT( R6PoRT ftGHT AWAY... IT WOUWT GW5 )S A CHANCfc Tp 16 AK IT " TT j Q m Ti . T7TS jlfs me mm mea m Take a right and then don't go to UNL, To those freshmen and transfer students who are just beginning their academic careers here at UNL, I would like to extend a warm welcome and my sincere wishes that you can get out of this school before it's too late for your education. . When I came to UNL in the fall of 1389 I felt good because I felt I was starting out at a good school At that time a lot of people felt that UNL was on the way up. Students, faculty and the citizens of Nebraska locked forw ard to aday not so far in the future when this" state U in the middle of the nowhere belt could lock the very best colleges in the country right straight in their academic eyes. Then the economy of Nebraska took a dip. Not so bad a dip, really, but the government took it seriously. It was decided that a lot of the differences could be made up by trimming the fat from the university budget, fine. Then it happened again. Then it happened again. Now it's about to happen again. The fat of the university has been gone for years. Now they're trimming the meat, and pretty soon they'll be sucking the marrow out of your education. Maybe you think things will get better. Maybe you're willing to gamble. Things aren't completely hopeless, are they? No, not completely. After all, there's a brand new administration in the governor's office. Kay Orr has called higher education her highest affordable priority. Gov. Orr could still throw the Rumania's 'perfect' shutout election proves accuracy of tyranny index Jn 1982, Albania held an election which Communist Party chief Enver Hoxha won by 1,627,959 votes to 1. A decisive victory. It suggested to me at the time a key to what political philfr sophers had long been seeking: a relia ble tyranny index. The Tirana Index (named .after Albania's capital) holds that repres siveness correlates with electoral suc cess. The higher the score rolled up by the ruling party in elections, the more tyrannous the regime. At one end of the spectrum are places like Albania, the Soviet Union and Syria, where 89 per cent of the vote is the norm. At the other end are freewheeling semi-anarchies, like Italy, where it is unsafe to drive and where the ruling party never gets half the vote. In between lie orderly democracies like the United States (winning mar O T7T Tl weight of her office wholeheartedly behind higher education and save the university. Will this happen? Will a Reagan Republican go out on a limb for some very little people who have been abandoned by a progressive Democrat? Stranger things have happened. Some where. Sometime. Probably. Chris McCublin Then there's the NU Foundation. The foundation is a bunch of rich people who go out and ask other rich people to support NU with their money. The foundation does lots of nifty things for UNL. Right now the foundation is building UNL a nifty new performing arts center. If all the rich people at the foundation asked all their rich friends, and all the rich companies that the rich friends work for, to give UNL money, UNL would probably have all the money it needs. The only problem is that the foundation asked so many people for money to help build the nifty new performing-arts center that nobody had any money left for a long time to give for things like academics or the library. Things like that just aren't nifty enough. Now the NU Foundation has just raised $800,000 for a nifty new indoor gins of 60 percent, tops) and moderate autocracies like Mexico, which will broach 70 percent but not much more for fear of embarrassment to all concerned. Charles Krauthamnk . A few weeks ago, the Tirana Index met yet another challenge. In the midst of a severe food and energy shortage, Rumania held a referendum. The result: 17,699,772 Rumanians voted yes, no one voted no. A shutout. A perennial contender for the honor cf most repres sive regime on earth' (in Rumania, columnist advises practice area and recreational center, so it will be a little while longer before the rich people will have extra money to give to academics. The foundation president said the foundation decided to raise money for the nifty new indoor practice area and recreation center instead of, say, the library because football fans would send money for a nifty new indoor practice field and recreation center, but there are no library fans to send money to the library. Now Reagan has taken away the rifyi people's tax breaks, so if the foundation ever does get around to asking rich people to give money for academics, fewer of them will want to. Reagan also is taking away financial aid, so unless your folks are rich you probably won't be able to go to school here much longer whether there's a school here for you to go to or not. You expect to graduate in 1990? In 1990 UNL will be a few rich kids and football players all playing games in their' nifty new indoor practice field and recreation center, ignoring plays and ballets in their nifty new performing arts center, and never going to class at all because all the professors will have either quit, been fired or starved to death. If you're not rich, or a football player, or if this isn't your idea of an education, I suggest you get while the getting is good. McCubbin is a senior English and philo sophy major and a Daily Nebraskan Diversions editor. typewriters must be registered with the police) had conducted what may be the most perfect election yet. The Tirana Index is a proven instru ment. But events over the Christmas holidays have convinced me that, not withstanding its accuracy and elegance, there is another measure of tyranny, more subtle and more qualitative, that needs to be explored. Call it the Par don Index: the more lawless, capri cious, and imperious a regime, the greater its propensity to make use of the pardon power. There have been a lot of pardons issued over the holidays. In the most famous of these, Mikhail Gorbachev phoned Andrei Sakharov and released him from exile in Gorki, to which Sakharov had been banished as See KftAUTI1A!.ir"n on 5
