Thursday, January 15, 1987
Page 4
Daily Nebraskan
On O
couooa
Nebraskan
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Qmips and! comments
Shortages, noise distracting
Nobody likes buying books,
and it becomes increasingly
stressful when the mate
rials needed can't be found.
Kinko's, take note. Too many
students are complaining that
they are unable to get the packets
distributed by the copyingplace.
Students already have assign
ments due at the end of this
week but are unable to complete
them because they have to wait
for more packets to become
available. Kinko's may not be
responsible, but by now the shop
should know of the early-week
rush and should be prepared.
O The Lied Center for Per
forming Arts is finally under
construction but is already caus
ing some problems. Workers are
laying the foundation and are
hammering large cement spikes
into the ground. The noise is
deafening and is causing prob
lems for teachers and faculty
with classes near the construc
tion site. Construction workers
should work around school hours
or expedite their work.
O National On Campus
Reports was filled with many
noteworthy topics:
O A West Virginia University
professor was arrested for failing
to pay a parking ticket he received
in 1985. The school is cracking
down on overdue tickets and
officials say the professor proba
bly "won't be the last" faculty
member arrested. We wonder
how many faculty members at
Letter
Those who attend the university
should pay for their education
In your commentary, "Let the Regents
levy" (DN, Jan. 13) the author suggests
that the regents at NU should.be
allowed to levy a tax on Nebraska citi
zens to take the university's budget
away from the continually slashed state
budget.
Coming from a Daily Nebraskan un
signed editorial, an editorial that re
flects the ideas and opinions of the DN,
well-known as the paladin of liberal
ism, and its editors, I find this article
no surprise. Let the NU regents solve
the problem by levying a new tax on the
residents of Nebraska. I find this idea
humorous for three reasons.
First, Nebraska has been relying on
taxing its residents to solve far too
many of its fiscal woes. If the author
would have done a bit of research
before turning to the solution of allow
ing the regents to levy a new tax, he or
she would have found an interesting
fact. Nebraska is easily one of the lead
ing states in taxation. Nebraskans pay
more taxes than the residents of at
least 40 states. Need I point out that
those 40 other states have succeeded
in providing a quality education for
their residents without piling taxes
upon them.
Second, the author mentions that
public schools are allowed to levy taxes
upon residents of the different school
districts. With their taxing powers, the
various school districts have succeeded
in making Nebraska taxpayers one of
Jeff Korbelik, Editor, 472-1766
James Rogers, Editorial Pa ye Editor
List" Olsen, Associate News Editor
Mike Reilley, Niyfit News EdiUtr
Joan Rezac, Copy Desk Chief
UNL have been ticketed and
have not paid. Even more astro
nomical would be the number of
students.
O Some Southwest Missouri
State University students and
administrators want their legis
lature to change the name of the
school to Missouri State Univer
sity. They believe it will elimi
nate the confusion between other
schools, like Northwest Missouri
State and Southeast Missouri
State. Name changes should
sound familiar to Nebraskans:
Kearney State is still hoping to
become Nebraska State.
O Phi Kappa Psi fraternity
members on our campus thought
they had it bad last semester
after the publicized "bus bust."
At Penn State 16 fraternities
recently were charged with serv
ing alcohol to minors, police
officials say. Plainclothes offic
ers were sent to various frater
nity parties over a two-month
period, observing the bar areas
and those who were being served
alcohol.
Correction: In yesterday's
editorial "Let Regents Levy," we
wrote that the "state-college
system is financed through a sys
tem independent of the unica
meral." The state colleges receive
about $26.8 million from the
Legislature. They have a total
budget of around $51 million.
The Daily Nebraskan regrets the
error.
the top six in the nation. It is not
unheard of for a Nebraska homeowner
to pay more in property taxes than he
or she pays for a monthly house pay
ment. With such a lead in property
taxes, it doesn't surprise me when a
major manufacturer passes Nebraska
over to for a factory or plant.
Finally, if the regents were allowed
taxing power to solve their budgetary
problems, they would run into the same
problem that many school district
boards have: They would be forced to
levy a tax that would be nonrepresen
tative to a large percentage of Nebraska
residents. Why should a Nebraska resi
dent who does not send his child to NU,
or who does not attend NU, be taxed to
pay the bills of those who do attend the
university or send their children to NU?
With my last point I attempt to lead
into my suggestion on how NU should
make up for its budget woes. The
simplest and most straightforward
approach to solving the NU budget
problems is to have those who attend
the university pay more for their educa
tion. Instead of turning to the always
present, blatantly liberal solution of
increasing the already staggering tax
burden on the Nebraska taxpayer, the
people who benefit from UNL should be
asked to shoulder the burden of their
education.
Fritz C Gottschalk
senior
marketing
CMistmsis commie
Columnist gives disoriented readers quick serial strip fix
The first week of a new semester all
too often brings with it a general
feeling of disorientation, an "out-of-sortedness"
of sorts. The old
guideposts are gone. The natural rhythm
of the first semester has been lost in
the three-week Christmas break. The
source of this feeling of disconnected
ness is, of course, losing the story lines
of the serial comic strips in the morning
paper.
Well, while so many students were
gallivanting about on their respective
homefronts blissfully unaware of
the impending threat of mental chaos
I was determined to take pity on my
negligent fellow men and kept on top of
the plot development of the Lincoln
Star's comic strips.
"Oh, bless you, Jim," you say? "Naw,"
I say, "jus doin' my job, ma'am."
Undoubtedly the hottest story on the
backpage has been developing in "The
Heart of Juliet Jones." Serial comic
readers were shocked and dismayed
several years ago by the brutal murder
of Julie's husband, Owen Chatrell, at
the hand ofajealous would-be suitor of
Julie's. Well, after a stint over in
Europe to recuperate from what had to
be a devastating loss for Julie, she
returned to the states in a far better
frame of mind that the one in which she
left.
All was going smoothly for Julie until
the strip's author, Stand Drake, treated
his readers to quite a novel plot twist:
Julie spotted an Owen Cantrell look
alike while Christmas shopping. She
was, naturally, consumed by a desire to
track down this man which she
ultimately did after a truly brilliant
show of deductive reasoning.
Machines perfected to keep us safe,
but 'human factor' still most crucial
In technical terms, I am what is
known as the "human factor." So
are you.
Once upon a time we were just plain
people. But that was before we began
having relationships with mechanical
systems. Get involved with a machine
and sooner or later you are reduced to a
factor.
Today, for example, 1 am interacting
(this is what it's called) with a word
processor and an entire computerized
system. No matter how perfect this
setup is, I have the power to botch up
the results. From the machine's point
of view, I am the loose cannon, the
dubious and somewhat unpredictable
human factor in its life.
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If the processor that I write on had a
separate existence, it would probably
send messages to its colleagues saying,
"You won't believe what my human fac
tor did today. Coffee! Right down the
old keyboard!" But on the whole, I am
not very dangerous to the wider world.
Indeed, the most common evil I spew
forth from this machine into the envir
onment is a grammatical error.
But what about the other human fac
tors out there? Last week, the National
Research Council reported with alarm
that there is virtually no safety research
being done by the Nuclear Regulatory
Commission on the "human factors."
The focus has been on the physical
plants, they said, and not on the "peo
ple who design, operate, maintain and
manage" nuclear plants. I suspect that
it's like that almost everywhere.
The disaster at Chernobyl, the near
disaster at Three Mile Island, each had
its-human factor and yet most of the
original attention focused in on the
buildings, the systems. The Challenger
explosion one year ago initially was
billed as a technological disaster. It
tvio mWs name is Harlev Benson,
you know, of tfteBensons. Well, Harley,
not being a blind fool, immediately fell
in love with Julie. In the meantime,
poor Julie, who once so anxiously
longed to meet her husband's look
alike, became rather confused by the
suddenness of Harley's passions toward
her. Julie's own words so poignantly
summed up her feelings. "I ... I don't
know . . . I . . . need TIME . . . !
Jim r?y
Rogers
Peter Parker, ul Spiderman fame,
isn't doing much better in his personal
life. 01' Spidey proposed to M J. again,
who, as always, turned him down. But
in this rejection, the real reason for her
reluctance to wed Spiderman (whom
she desperately loves) was' confessed:
M J. fears that the same accident that
gave Peter his amazing spiderman
powers radically altered his DNA
structure. For some strange reason,
M J. doesn't covet raising a nest of baby
wallcrawlers. Peter went to the doctor
to determine if M J.'s fears are true. But
at the "what the . . . !" of the doctor,
Spiderman presumed the worst and
left without talking to the doc.
Once again a spurned lover, Spidey
returned to superhuman heroics. As
usual, though, a beautiful woman was
just around the corner of Peter's
"turnpike" life. This time Peter stopped
to help a woman change a flat tire (her
car contained the wrong jack for the job
was a while before the inquiry shifted
from the state of the O-rings to the
state of the decision-makers.
At Bhopal, India, where some 1,700
people died, and at Basel, Switzerland,
where the Rhine River was poisoned,
we heard first of chemical leaks and
spills, and impersonal safety "proce
dures." We heard only secondarily of
workers who may not have sounded
alarms or known enough not to hose
chemicals. Even in the recent low-tech
Amtrak disaster, the attention was first
on the state of signals and only then on
the signal-readers.
I suppose there's a reason for our
reluctance to focus on the human fac
tors. During recent decades, we have
all become more conscious of the cen
tralization of danger. We know that
more lives hinge on fewer "things": on
nuclear missiles and plants, on chemi
cals and computers. It may be easier to
think of "systems" that can be per
fected than on people who aren't per
fectible. But it is human factors who read
nuclear-plant blueprints backwards.
Human factors who cut corners to meet
deadlines and use lower-grade con
crete to save money. Human factors
who try to cover up errors. Human fac
tors who make those errors. Human
factors who get cranky, careless, tired.
Sometimes even fall asleep on the job.
And when we try to design plants and
procedures that guard against human
error, it is humans who design them.
In my 3-o'clock-in-the-morning fan
tasies of nuclear war, I have one that
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that's why she needed Sniff pv'c
assistance). As payment for a job well
done, Robin (we don't know her last
name yet) invited Peter over to her
house. And it is some house it's
more of a mansion of you ask me!
Anyway, the strip concluded yesterday
with Robin's wealthy father implicitly
disapproving of the general company
Robin keeps, and Peter in particular.
Boy, what a pill.
Mary Worth, the resident manager of
one of the strip's apartment complexes
(or are they townhouses?), is faced
with confronting some mischievous
pranks (lawnchairs in the pool, etc.).
Under suspicion is the bright but
impertinent son of Jerri Monclova, a
new tenant (ostensibly with some
underworld relatives). Jerri is very
protective of her sonTeddy's reputation,
so Mary faces some task in satisfactorily
dealing with the matter at hand. But
Mary is a true diplomat, in her own
nosey way.
Bloom County's biggest news is that
Steve Dallas is trying to give up
smoking. The doctor told him that he
had six months to live unless he gives
up cigarettes. Steve's initial response
was "you can do a lot of living in six
months, Doc." But he ultimately quit
anyway. I'm sure a number of rib
ticklin' situations will be spawned
from this already hilarious story line.
Now, doesn't that feel better? Can
you feel psychic peace once again
descending on you with every passing
moment? Well, to paraphrase my
namesake: "I thought you would."
A lapsed philosophy student, Rogers
now studies graduate economics and
law.
features a series of improbable mis
takes in some silo deep under the
North Dakota earth. I have another that
shows a light going on in the White
House and a single man who must,
without a shower, without a cup of cof
fee, without time for consultation or
double-checking, decide whether or
not to send the missiles up. Such fan
tasies are not reassuring.
But during daylight hours, most of us
choose to think of the human role in
our sophisticated technological society
as a minor part of the equation. We
accept a walk-on part in the modern
world and give the machines, the sys
tems, the lead.
Again and again, in the wake of a
catastrophe, we look for solutions that
will correct "it" rather than "us." The
risks we live with, particularly those of
chemicals and atoms, are so enormous
that it is comforting to believe people
can people-proof their lives. But it is
illusory.
Consult my computer if you must,
but no machine is more trustworthy
than the humans who made it and
operate it. So we are stuck. Stuck here
in the high-tech, high-risk world with
our own low-tech species. Like it or not,
no mechanical system can ever be more
perfect than the sum of its very human
factors.
1987, The Boston Globe Newspaper
Company AVashington
Post Writers Group
Goodman is a Pulitzer prize-winning
columnist for the Boston Globe.
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