Daily Nebraskan
Wednesday, February 18, 1987
Hon o Tl
Page 4
Nebraskan
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
More fees unwise
Should we pay that much?
The Board of Regents' appro
val of construction and
financing plans for the
$16.6 million campus recreation
and indoor practice center may
have angered about 60 percent of
the UNL population, especially
alter they found out they would
be paying an extra $35 a year in
student fees for something some
may never use.
James Griesen, vice chancellor
for student affairs, said Saturday
at the regents' meeting that
about 40 percent of UNL students
participated in intramural sports
last year. He also said the project
has been given new life because
of the student's willingness to
tax themselves. That's quite an
assumption.
He may be right, though. ASUN
ballot polls revealed that a major
ity of students would be willing
to pay extra student fees to
finance the facility. The Daily
Nebraskan guesses that students
didn't realize the cost would be
as much as $35. The DN recom
mends that students shouldn't
Surgical options
Tuition increase could solve woes
As noted in yesterday's Daily
Nebraskan editorial, Regent
Dr. Robert Koefoot's reac
tion is the type of overreaction
that does not advance a rea
soned approach to the financial
woes affecting the NU system.
Chancellor Massengale has so
far manifested a much more
mature approach by looking at
long-range goals and capabili
ties. He should be allowed to
continue the process. So far, his
proposals reflect a sober and
delicate balancing of programs,
finances and long-term interests
of the university.
The first rule of propriety in
decision making is that if a given
result can be attained by an
extreme measure or by a less
extreme measure, the less ex
treme measure should be adopted
over the extreme measure. While
Koefoot's proposals may be well
intentioned, to the extent that
his stated goal of saving money
Woes for Wobegon
'A Prairie Home Companion' folds
Garrison Keillor, that well
known denizen of the Sat
urday night airwaves is lea
ving 'A Prairie Home Companion."
While it's sad sort of like an
old friend moving away his
leaving was ultimately inevitable.
"A Prairie Home Companion"
will end with Keillor's resigna
tion. The eclectic combination o
folk music, silly advertisements
for "Bertha's Kitty Boutique,"
and "Bob's Bank," and, of course,
Keillor's wonderful monologues,
will all be missed.
The show brews a powerful
elixir of American innocence past.
JcIT Korbdik, Editor, 47J-1766
James Rotors, Editorial Vagi' Editor
List Olscn, Managing Editor
Mike Keilley, Associate News Editor
Joan IJezac, Copy Desk Chief
have to help finance the recre
ation center.
We have no qualms with
funding the center through pri
vate donations of which the
universi y is seeking $3.5 million
($1.5 m llion has already been
raised). Nor does the DN have
any problems with the selling of
revenue bonds. The university
plans to raise $9.6 million by
placing a $5 surcharge per game
on football tickets. But student
fees are a no-no, especially when
some students don't even use
the facility.
Currently students pay $21 1.90
a year in fees. Adding $35 makes
the total $246.90. Griesen said
Big Eight students pay an average
of $225. There's no question
Nebraska will be above the
average. The question is: Will
students really want to pay that
extra $35?
Our bet is that they won't, and
if they did they would rather see
their money go toward academics
than recreation.
for other programs can be at
tained without "amputation" the
alternative to the radical surgery
should be adopted.
At least one less extreme
measure exists. The" College of
Law, College of Dentistry and the
NU Medical Center all are post
undergraduate professional
schools. That means that almost
everyone involved is pursuing
coursework that leads directly to
a career. There's no reason to
subsidize such students.
If these students were made
to bear the real cost of their
investment in themselves and
that's what it really is then
the schools could be saved and
costs contained. Professional
schools' tuition would be raised
to reflect the true cost of provid
ing the valuable training to stu
dents who will reap the benefits
of their investment over and over
again in the years to come.
Keillor's monologues are full of
places and people that we think
we know of ... or at least some
how feel we think we know of.
Nonetheless, it was inevitabb
that the show consume itself.
The lure of true innocence is
that it is unreflective and un
spoiled. Keillor's sentiments rang
true because they expressed his
persona. Success can't do other
wise than consume such inno
cence. Keillor is acting prudently in
getting out while he's still fairly
fresh. Nonetheless, it's a sad day.
Jackson's words reveal vision
Speech inspires despite failure to follow the assigned topic
"Let us be more than a strong
people. Let us be a good people. "
With these words, which will likely
be his slogan for a 1988 presi
dential campaign, the Rev. Jesse
Jac kson closed a stirring if some
what controversial speech before
the Model United Nations and the Lin
coln public last Wednesday night. Both
the speech and the man were such as
have not been heard or seen in these
parts for some time.
There were problems. Jackson spoke
not at all to the occasion and even less
to the assigned topic. The words were
clearly those of a man on the presiden
tial campaign trail, and his eyes were
more on the 1988 Nebraska primary
than on the 1987 Model United Nations.
His immodest rehearsal of his accomp
lishments and constant reminder of his
close association to Dr. Martin Luther
King, Jr. wore quite thin over the hour
long speech. His unexpected appeal for
volunteers and funds smacked of the
cheapest opportunism and must have
violated some rule of protocol. The
public-address system was atrocious,
but even the wonders of bad electron
ics were not enough to stifle the style
and pure magic of one of our nations'
true rhetoricians.
Perhaps the worst problem of all
and one regarding which I have seen
nothing in print was that the two
mjor thrusts of Jackson's speech were
completely inconsistent. By the time
he was well into his verbal barrage
against the Reagan administration and
his transparently localized bemoaning
of the plight of the American farmer,
his opening words concerning a new
realization of America as just one part
of a global community were conve
niently forgotten.
No one bothered to ask how a politi
Letters
Senior gift should
aid current exhibits
As a graduating senior, I am glad to
finally have an opportunity to make a
statement about this institution of
higher education, through the senior
gift.
This is the first chance I have had to
offer input on the decision of the gift,
and I feel responsible to offer my rea
soning behind my choice and to offer
yet another alternative for the gift's
use.
First, I didn't choose the campus
recreation center option printed in the
pamphlet accompanying the ballot be
cause of my stand in opposition to the
university policy on construction. It
appears as though the university can
not deal with people (professors and
students), so it chooses to deal with
objects (buildings and parking lots).
The current state of affairs in the uni
versity is such that we can no longer
acquire or keep the instructors of qual
ity, due to poor salaries, yet the univer
sity and the state insist on spending
money on new parking-lot land, new
buildings or additions for existing col
leges when other colleges face finan
cial extinction (i.e. nursing and phar
macy), or new performing-arts centers
that the university will use only min
imally. The list goes on. 1 refuse to
support such heinous mismanagement
of funds.
I also did not choose the Sheldon Art
Gallery exhibit donation. This is a
worthwhile project, but I believe that it
takes second place in importance to
the recipient of my vote for the gift, the
Morrill Hall fund.
Morrill Hall is a fine and well-loved
state institution on our campus. It
appears, however, in the pamphlet,
that the gift would be used to create
(or to help create) a new exhibit on the
Plains Indians. I hereby propose that
the gift instead be used to maintain the
existing displays in the museum, in the
form of an air-conditioning system, for
cal program designed to raise the
standard of living for America's op
pressed (and thereby the overall aver
age of the American public) could pos
sibly coincide with a goal of making
America's consumption of the world's
resources reflect more accurately its
proportion of the world's population.
But politics is a marvelously amnesic
phenomenon.
James
Sennett
( A
But all we have said so far is that the
man is a politician. We knew that
before he came. Despite these prob
lems, I found myself stirred by the
speech, the man, and most of all
the vision. In fact, Jackson himself
has almost singlehandedly reintroduced
the word "vision" into the American
political arena. Like no American leader
since King, this man truly has a dream.
And it is a dream that I can buy into. It
is a dream most aptly captured in the
quotation opening this column.
A good people. What does that take?
It takes at least a political and social
platform that is built up from an ideo
logical foundation based on the idea of
personal, moral and social respoasiblility.
It takes a notion of interpersonal de
pendency that is not pragmatically
based that says more than, "Well,
here are all these problems. What's the
quickest way to solve them?" It takes a
commitment to the genuine needs of
other people that will not allow fiscal
convenience to outweight physical con
cern. It takes a liberalism unencum
which the museum has been lobbying
for some time. After the acquisition of
the air-conditioning system, the re
mainder of the money (if any), could be
used for new displays. I do feel, how
ever, that until the temperature-control
system is installed, adding any new
displays to the museum would be like
putting water into a leaky bucket; it
will all deteriorate in time and all the
displays will be lost. I will, however,
support any donation to Morrill Hall
wholeheartedly and above any other
donation to the university.
I vote for the 1987 senior class gift to
be donated to the Morrill Hall fund, but
I only wish that its use were more
wisely designated.
Eric Stehl
senior
theater arts and dance
Students resentful
of tuition increase
When we came to graduate school
here, we thought we had come for an
education. It seems, however, that our
purpose is to help pay for a new indoor
practice field for the football team.
Sure, the students also get a new
recreation center in the deal, but not
every one of us has the time or the
desire to use it.
Increasing the student fees $30 to
$35 a year is rather exorbitant. We
appear to be getting a real bargain in
comparison to the $120 a year the
faculty and other university employees
will have to pay to use the facility, but
at least they have a choice.
If we have to pay $30 to $35 a year
extra (as inevitably will happen) we
would much prefer that our money goes
toward the fund to install a climate
control system in Morrill Hall.
Stacia Spaulding
graduate student
and 28 others
bered by the heresies of special-interest
politics. It takes an understanding of
political structures as subservient to
people, not vice versa.
I am a sucker for a politician bearing
evidence of moral backbone. I voted for
Jimmy Carter twice. I know fool me
once, shame on you and all that jazz.
But in 1976 and 1980, America had a
choice between a political scheme that
was grounded in pragmatics and one
that was grounded in a sense of decency.
I determined to prefer a president who
would attempt to be good and fail over
one who would attempt to be strong
and succeed
In 1984, the choice had eroded.
There was no choice of good. There was
only the choice between a plan to be
strong that was working and a plan to
be strong that would fail miserably. So
I gritted my teeth, clenched my fists,
closed my eyes and voted for Reagan. If
we can't be good, we might as well be
strong.
But Jackson represents a return to
morality in politics. He represents a
spark of intelligent good will in the
darkness of domestic and international
paranoia that has engulfed our nation
in the last third of this century. His call
for mercy to temper justice (is just ice
without mercy justice?) struck a chord
with me one that will most likely
continue to vibrate throughout the
1988 presidential campaign. Sure, there
are points of his program with which I
disagree. But I can be extremely
tolerant of the specific views of a per
son when I believe that he is grounding
them in the right motives. I want this to
be a good nation, too. If this is where
Jackson is headed, I will go with him.
Sennett is a graduate student in philo
sophy and campus minister with College-Career
Christian Fellowship.
Contra controversy
comes to UNL
For the past several months Ameri
cans have been enraged by the illegal
arms deal between the United States
and Iran. Investigations have been
made and indeed wrong acts had been
made by several federal officials. But
little focus has been made on the real
issue: To whom have the funds been
diverted? The funds went to the Con
tras, of course. But who are the Contras
and why is the present administration
so intent on supporting their cause?
Few of us can legitimately answer this.
Most of us are too concerned with
which "MASH" rerun is on instead
of catching a glimpse of the news. In
any case, the Contras and Latin America
are serious issues and should be a con
cern for all people. War with the invol
vement of American soldiers is becom
ing increasingly possible. Let us not
forget Vietnam.
But now we have a chance to learn
about the Contras on our own campus.
Friday at noon in the Nebraska Union, a
film titled "Who Are The Contras?" will
be presented by Glen Silber, followed
by an open discussion. Let us not be
ignorant of what our country is doing in
Latin America
Patrick Sullivan
sophomore
pre-dentistry
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