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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 19, 1987)
Thursday, February 19, 1987 Pago 4 Dally Nebraskan Jeff Korbelik, Editor, 472-1766 James Rogers, Editorial Page Editor Lise Olsen, Assotriate News Editor Mike Keilley, Night News Editor Jean Kezac, Copy Desk Chief N University of Nebraska-Lincoln f AM9 Y Qnnps wm quotes Sudden death for regent vote The student-regent vote died again. Let's hope the issue has nine lives. The only problem is it may be approach ing that ninth and final life. And that's disappointing. ,. The vote shouldn't have died such a sudden death, but ob viously Nebraska legislators feel differently. The Legislature's Ed ucation Committee voted 5-1 to kill LR23, a bill that would have given the student regents from UNL, UNO and UNMC a rotating vote on the Board of Regents. Dan Hofmeister, ASUN's first vice president, said student lead ers are considering taking the. issua directly to the voters thvi' - 'i the initiative and referc -process.. It's a good idea ... ;u following through. O The Student Alumni Asso ciation should be congratulated for a career guide they put to gether to distribute to students free. The 10-page guide includes information on interviewing, re sumes, graduate-school test dates and the Career Planning and Placement Center. The guide should be a valuable asset to any student. O The Daily Nebraskan noted that about 100 students, some encouraged to attend by ASUN, were at the regents' meeting Saturday. Apparently Regent Ker mit Hansen of Elkhorn was im pressed by the number of stu dents concerned with the latest budget cuts and the recreational center. libera! education vital Universities should transmit culture ast week the UNL Faculty I Seriate .'sponsored a panel discission on liberal edu cation. Many cogent observations were made by the participants, yet a comment by James McShane, English- professor, seemed . par ticularly insightful. ! ,.' McShane said "Students come to us saying, 'I want skills for my . career,' when they really mean, 'I want skills for my first job.' And it doesn't occur to them that those skills become obsolete when they get their first promotion." By way of addition, given the sig nificant number of times the average student will change ca reers during his professional life, developing skills limited only to the first job after graduation is doubly short-sighted. McShane's comment under scores the irony of students' com mon belief that unless classes are "relevant", to their pecuniary futureythey have nothing to gain Editorial Policy Unsigned editorials represent official policy of the fall 198& Daily Nebraskan. Policy t, 5et 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. But he said he wondered where the students were the last five years when the university absorbed about $12 million in academic cuts. We wondered the same thing. The DN also would like to recognize ASUN's effort to garner student support, but it shouldn't have to encourage stu dents to attend the meetings. Students should have enough initiative to attend. After all, some of their programs could be affected by cuts. O The showing of "Amerika" has captured campus, state and national attention. The DN is curious about the role the press serves in the new society. Have "lorial pages been eliminated .1 newspapers and have news papers turned into tools of pro paganda? The remaining episodes may give us an indication. O Correction: In the editor ial, "Quips and quotes" Feb. 5, the DN wrote that the Commit tee for Fees Allocation and the University Program Council had reached a favorable compromise in allowing $406 for a safe-sex seminar. CFA had voted 6-3 against granting $882 to the GayLes bian Programming Committee but reinstated nearly half for the seminar. Actually, a compromise had not been reached and UPC appealed CFA's decision. UPC City lost the appeal and half the $882 went to UPC-City's talks and topics committee and the other half to the Special Events committee. from them. Needless to say, these students always define "rele vance" narrowly, v The thought that there exists a broad fund of cultural knowl edge and thinking skills that contributes to all of life (includ ing vocational aspirations) is anathema to many students. The rebirth of interest in rede fining the core of an NU under graduate program to include a strong commitment to the lib eral arts is a positive develop ment. A core liberal-arts curricu lum has essentially defined the university over the centuries for very good reasons: It is this pro gram of study that primarily promotes cultural communication and the critical appreciation of this fund of knowledge. The movement toward strengthening liberal education as a common :NU undergraduate experience should be encouraged by admin- . istrators, professors and students. Editorials do not necessarily re flect the views of the university, its employees, the students or the NU Board of Regents. 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. ( I I V N)d 1TM : CBS MM Miniseries about choices, thinness of spirit, not Soviet takeover If "Amerika" is about a Soviet take over of the United States, then George Orwell's book "1984" is about a totalitarian England, (with the emphasis on the "England" part). No, neither story depends on the accuracy of the counterfactual premises. Orwell did not intend to prophesy communist England, nor is the central (or even tertiary) theme of "Amerika" a pro phecy of Soviet domination. The counterfactuals in' both' cases are to be granted by the audience so that we have some way of identifying with the struggles of the characters. They're not intended to be descrip tions. I think the miniseries has two intriguing themes that are good causes for interest two themes completely unrelated to the geopolitical counter factual of a Soviet takeover of the Uni ted States. The first is the issue of being "in the world" but not "of the world." That is, . it presents the question of how one' participates in an imperfect culture. The choice presented in Amerika is between the posture of collaborator and that of a prophet. Prophetic stances are intellectually the easiest: The system is apostate, therefore I refuse to participate in it. The prophet in "Amerika" is obviously Devin Milford (Kris Kristofferson). All viewers understand the clear lines that Milford draws and are familiar with the "prophet against the world" theme in popular media. Kristofferson's charac ter is subsequently less interesting. A much more interesting figure is Peter Bradford (Robert Urien), the col laborator. His is the program's real struggle: He alone is powerfully torn Letter Cuts to graduate and Your editorial fDN Feh nHvnat. Your editorial (DN, Feb. 18) advocat ingtuts in "subsidies" to the law, den tal and medical colleges represents the same leaps of illogic that have seemed to plague the Daily Nebraskan this year. The implications of your policy statement to slash the budgets of these colleges because "almost everyone involved is pursuing coursework that leads directly to a career" would have a dire effect in many fields. If it is the DN's intention to cut cut all colleges and fields of study that give realisti cally practical job opportunities, then the following departments should brace themselves for the DN's guillotine: accounting, architecture, agriculture, chemistryphysics, computer science, NfcWS To COT f3u6T VjSSO MIUUOjJ. taken between rejecting the system (adopt ing Kristofferson's prophetic stance) or participating in the system in order to mitigate its effects. Bradford helps people live in a bad situation but there's the source of his dilemma. To the extent that Brad ford helps people to live, to that extent he also helps the system to endure. Bradford is caught in a moral gray area: he's certainly no quisling, but he refuses to take the easy prophetic route. The themes surrounding Bradford are why the story requires counterfac- Jim Rogers tual of a Soviet takeover. Americans don't have much experience with the choices facing Bradford. In the Ameri can experience, short-term and long term goals can be simultaneously pursued: "How do I help people in the long run?" is the question. If it is ans wered in typical American fashion, "I help people in the long run by helping them now." But Bradford cannot say that. Nor can Milford, but he doesn't need to think about the question much since his position is unquestionably right. Bradford recognizes his dilemma, and the story is involving to the viewer precisely because, given the political counterfactual, the audience can un derstand the tugs on Bradford from professional programs would be unwise Oil !S 1 nOOri tilt Y 1 o i nl I iV .i I J L. urifVl' engineering, nursing, pharmacy and teaching. By following the same illogic, yiujf uiuse programs mat provide no immediate practical economic benefit should receive state funding. Such programs would be: anthropology, black studies, biology, business (except accounting), criminal justice, econom ics, English, foreign languages, philo sophy, physical education, political science, psychology, social sciences and speech. Graduate and professional students ' already pay greater tuition than under graduates (except nursing students), and law students are forced to pay an additional library user's fee. We do not advocat e cutting funding for any of the programs mentioned; however, we feel (MM both directions: the pull of a simple symbolic protest with the risk of a quick arrest, detention and not helping anybody substantially, or real protest with the risk of losing one's soul through complicity. The second theme in the early shows (which seems in the process of being increasingly ignored) is the issue of the thinness of the American spirit. Unlike the Russian people, who through cen turies of oppression have developed a profound depth of character, Ameri cans are (rightfully) portrayed as lack ing a reserve of moral courage suffi cient to endure the captivity without de facto capitulation, a capitulation stemming from moral exhaustion. This point was made poignantly by Alexander Solzhenitsyn in his 1987 Harvard commencement address. The scene with Milford in the robust, joyous black church asking, "Where do they get it from?" intimates the prob lem and the solution. But whether this particularly incisive commentary will be built upon in subsequent episodes is unlikely. The message is one that most Americans find quite insulting. "Amerika" is not about geopolitical relations. That American leftists and others do not see this is testimony to their own bigotry and political reduc tionism. If the show is left to speak for itself, it may have something worth hearing. And the message is certainly not about the truism that the Soviet Union advances injustice. Rogers is an economics graduate, law student and Daily Nebraskan editorial page editor. that some areas could be cut without the serious consequences of your prop osal. The criminal and civil clinics and the Community Legal Education Pro gram sponsored by the law school pro vide valuable services to the economi cally disadvantaged throughout our community and state. While the DN editorial staff has a right to its opinion, we feel your prop osals to cut professional-school budgets would, if followed, prove destructive to the needs of this community, state and school, and to the student body. Greg D. Barton graduate student law - and 11 others