Wednesday, February 4, 1937
Page 4
Daily Nebraskan
Jeff Korbelik, Editor, 472-1766
James Holers, Editorial Page Editor
Lise Olsen, Associate News Editor
Mike Reilley, Night News Editor
Jean Rezae, Copy Desk Chief
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Budget Itope for NU
Nit-pickers must be avoided
Gov. Kay Orr's first budget
proposal is certainly a big
step in the right direction.
Of course, whether the unica
meral takes heed to her admoni
tion to "just say no" to special
interest nit-picking remains to
be seen.
Orr began her "State of the
State" address by noting the dire
need for stability in the budget
ing process. Her sentiments are
right on target. Few other events
have so sapped the morale of the
university community than the
repeated special sessions of the
Legislature in recent years. Each
of these sessions seemed to be
frantic financial slashing orgies
with the cuts having little rhyme
or reason except to make up for
the projected deficits.
Many parts of the NU system
will experience gain if Orr's pro
posals are implemented.
In line with her campaign
pledge to better integrate the
university into Nebraska's drive
for economic development, she
proposed $1,150,000 over the next
two years for "university research
and technical assistance." This
is the beginning of a plan to pro
vide for research opportunities
which will fuel entrepreneurial
fires in Nebraska. We hope Orr
understands that such a pro
posal takes time and consistent,
stable support to reap benefits
the long haul.
Additionally, Orr's budget pro
posals would allow the NU sys
GrLSA's perspective
Recent events have led to misinfor
mation and a general lack of under
standing about gays and lesbians in the
UNL community. We are writing to
clear up the facts.
First, the Gay Lesbian Student Asso
ciation does not support the survey on
lesbiangay programming. Individuals
may support the survey, but GLSA does
not. Second, the gaylesbian commun
ity prefers the use of the words lesbian
or gay, not homosexual. Homosexual is
Guest Opinion
a psychiatric term that was c.ce used
to label us as sick, deviant and less
than people. Homosexual is used to
describe sexual behavior, whereas gay
or lesbian describes a culture, a sexual
orientation or a state of being. Third,
the headlines and stories run by the
Daily Nebraskan are sleek, sensational
and distorted. The Committee for Fees
Allocation did not gun down the gay
grant.
It is imperative to point out some
clear realities surrounding the UPC
LesbianGay Programming Committee:
O GLSA and the UPC LesbianGay
Programming Committee are not syn
onymous. O Student leaders are making deci
sions for gays, lesbians and fellow stu
dents without learning about our cul
ture. O AIDS is not a gay disease. AIDS
is a disease that all people can acquire
if not protected. This has been an
assumption at every meeting concern
ing the programming committee.
O The survey on ASUN's ballot is
tem to increase salaries of the
staff upwards of 3 percent. While
any increase in salaries at all is
to be appreciated at this point,
we hope Orr's commitment to
financial stability will see rela
tively constant, incremental in
creases in NU pay over the com
ing years. After all, the pay sched
ule here still lags behind those
of the ostensibly comparable
"peer institutions."
On the cost side of Orr's pro
posals, students likely will have
to pay more tuition in the years
to come. Responding to Orr's
speech, NU President Ronald
Roskens indicated he will prob
ably recommend tuition increases
of 3 percent for undergraduates,
5 percent for graduate students
and 7 percent for students in
professional schools. This year's
paper has consistently maintained
that tuition increases are justi
fied and necessary given the
financial straights of the school.
If the state cannot (or will not)
provide for the needs of the
institution, students must pro
vide for themselves.
A tuition increase along with
selective program cuts and Orr's
progressive (but modest) budget
proposals may finally allow for
NU to turn the corner on recent
financial woes. While the years
of financial darkness the school
has just gone through may not be
completely dispelled, with Orr's
proposals at least there's a glim
mer of a new dawn coming.
mmimtes
illogical, since the programming deci
sions will be made before the election.
The survey asks, "Are you a homosex
ual?" According to a local Lincoln
study, gays and lesbians prefer to
answer to "Are you gay or lesbian?"
rather than the aforementioned.
O The numbers of gays and lesbi
ans are 10 percent nationwide, but this
campus is still debating over numbers.
Who cares about numbers, when it is
widely recognized throughout America
on other more "developed, sophisti
cated and more astute" campuses that
gay and lesbian concerns are a pro
gramming item that will benefit the
entire university by adding diversity.
The letter in Monday's DN stated
that the university doesn't need to fund
gay and lesbian concerns. There are
several benefits to funding lesbian and
gay programming:
O Facts about minorities are an
important feature of any campus, not
censorship as many would like.
O Tolerance of diversity is an im
portant quality that all human beings
should exhibit (studies show that a
person who is homophobic is generally
also racist and sexist).
O The programming serves a void
for gays, lesbians, bisexuals and
straights who share a common interest
in these concerns.
Rodney Allen Bell II
president
UNL GLSA
Editor's note: According to The
Associated Press Stylebook, a
widely used newspaper hand
book, the word "gay" may be
used as an adjective meaning
homosexual, but not as a noun.
Ideinttity
When the pond is this small, it's OK if
dentity crisis is a frightening thing.
IFew traumas that a human being
can be asked to experience compare
to that inevitable period when one asks
just why he exists, just what purpose
she is serving, to just whom or what it
belongs. Yes, friendship and loyalty can
be taxed to the limit when asked to
test its mettle against the unyielding
depression and irrevocable gloom that
permeates the one who has awakened
in the wee hours, face to face with
those penetrating and unanswerable
questions, "Who am I? Where did I
come from? Why am I here? What will I
do when they cancel 'Facts of Life'?"
Identity crisis is even uglier when it
is not an individual but an institution
that faces the tribunal of self justifi
cation. As we speak, that once noble,
proud and monolithic structure, ASUN,
weathers the throes of just such a
crisis. Members are resigning left and
right, effectiveness and purpose are
being questioned by those within and
without, and that once stalwart symbol
of student life is now not even sure
what to call itself.
To an outsider, this barrage of attack,
inuendo, charge and countercharge,
and generally unseemly publicity that
has been the lot of our student leaders
comes as something of a surprise. It
follows on the heels of one of the most
lively semesters in recent memory of
ASUN. What with bossing around student
organizations, threatening public media
and dreaming up "hair of the dog"
remedies for campus alcohol problems,
those of us outside the hallowed halls
had gotten the impression that things
Letters
Rec center a progressive move
Student-fee increase reasonable
Many Nebraskans are asking why UNL needs a student
recreational center, especially in this time of a depressed
economy. Our state needs to begin taking progressive
action, and this is just one of the areas it is needed. UNL
currently ranks last in the Big Eight in the availability of
indoor recreational facilities per student. No state funding
is being used to build the facility, thus eliminating the
argument that UNL cannot afford it because of budget cuts.
Student fees will not be used to finance building the
center; this cost will be paid completely through private
donations. However, student fees will go towards the
upkeep and the use of the facilities. The increase in student
fees will be no more than $20 a semester or $1 per week of
the term.
As a university student, I support this progressive move
and feel that not only will it benefit current students, but
the rec center will also benefit future students at the
university.
Jill. L. Durbin
sophomore
secondary educationhistory
(crisis Mte
had never been better for the Association
of Students.
But apparently even our little campus
is not immune to the tawdriness and
scandal that is big-time politics. The
signs and testimonies of disillusionment,
disloyalty, disappointment and general
disarray that have spilled out of the
assembly must give one pause in sur
mising the role, effectiveness and even
necessity of the current structure of
student government.
James
Sennett
Oh, excuse me. I forgot. Perhaps the
most startling revelation coming out of
this whole affair to student and
student leader alike is that ASUN is
not, and apparently never has been, a
student government. ASUN members
apparently thought they were. They
even voted themselves a new name that
contained those forbidden words. And I
must admit that I was not aware that
their role was so innocuous as it now
appears it must be. The above-mentioned
activities and others like them just did
not strike me as the normal kinds of
activities of a "service organization."
The present woes of these student
leaders are multifaceted, and I am sure
their sources are likewise complex,
confused and generally convoluted. I
c
ASUKT
you're not a big fish
do not mean to make light of what is
obviously very serious business for
many people. But I do wish to propose
that perhaps it is not as doggone
serious as they want us to believe. After
all, just how stinkin' crucial is a facade
of student self-governance (self-service?)
on this campus anyway?
I have never been a fan of dispro
portionate student input into long
range school policies. In the first place,
a student's tenure is just not that long,
and the lion's share of time during it is
spent in the books (or should be).
There just is not the vested interest
and lifelong dependence upon decisions
made for students as there is for
faculty, staff and administration, not to
mention generations of future students.
A group of disgruntled students can
force a change in university policy that
affects them for a few short months,
then go on and leave others to cope
with the consequences of their rashness
for years to come.
So, ASUN, relax. In two or four or 10
years, you'll be out of here, and the last
thing on your mind will be how lackluster
or unscrupulous or whatever this system
of student leadership is. There is room
and need for a well-run organization to
oversee and govern student life on
campus, and we do need you on that
level. But it just is not a crisis of consti
tutional proportions to find out that
you're not as big a fish as you want to be
or even need to be.
Sennett is campus minister with College-Career
Christian Fellowship and a
graduate student in philosophy.
RHA statistics on food service
distort true cost to. students
I recognize that the Residence Hall Association is con
tinually striving to improve the quality and condition of life
in the UNL residence halls, and I commend them on their
efforts. However, it seems blatantly obvious to one that the
RHA committee investigating Vali-Dine meal plans has not
done adequate research on this subject. I have researched
this issue and have found information contradictory to the
RHA committee's finds.
According to the Feb. 2 DN editorial, "The old system
required students to pay for 20 meals whether they ate 20 or
not."
Douglas Rix, director of Residence Hall Food Service,
said "Students currently pay approximately 60 percent of
the total meals offered to them."
I have been greatly offended by the RHA's incompetence
in researching this subject. As a loyal reader of the DN, 1 am
disappointed in the DN's disservice to its patrons for print
ing mere speculation, not factual material.
. Rhonda Christensen
junior
mathematics