Tuesday, March, 3, 1937
Pago 4
Daily Ncbraskan
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N-n D.iily
University ol Nebraska-Lincoln
.(Si.
SMU deserved the worst
Southern Methodist Univer
sity simply must be wri
thing not in ecstasy but
in agony, after the school's foot
ball program brought shame upon
the school, the athletic depart
ment, even its community, when
found guilty of violating several
National Collegiate Athletic As
socation rules. Only, the penal
ties administered were not strict
enough.
SMU football will be non
existent next year. The following
year the team can play seven
conference games, but none at
home. The team is ineligible for
bowl games and television privi
leges and was slapped with sev
eral more penalties.
The losers include the school's
athletic teams. Many of these
programs exist because of the
revenue brought in by the foot
ball program. Sound familiar?
Football is as popular in Texas
as it is in Nebraska. SMU had a
program that drew fans and
money.
Also finding their way into the
loss column are the teams SMU
would have played, including the
Big Eight's Oklahoma. The Soon
ers were scheduled to play SMU
next year and the year after. The
NSSA money better
I'NL's membership in the Nebraska
State Student Association has gener
ated considerable debate this semes
ter. To the uninformed, NSSA doesn't
seem to be a bad thing. Perhaps it can
even do us some good. Let's examine
I'NL's needs and how NSSA can meet
them.
We can identity three interests I'NL
has at the unicameral this semester:
student-regent vote, the recreation
center and our budget. What has NSSA
done, and what can NSSA do, to advice :
I'NL's interests? After repeated 1)'ad-'
gering, NSSA's general assembly took a
favorable position on the student-regent
vote. But the legislation was Killed in
committee, 5-1-2, and it appears NSSA's
help did us no good. Further, NSSA's
constitution prohibits it from address
ing campus issues such as the rec cen
ter or our budget. It is clear, then, that
of our interests at the unicameral,
NSSA does us little, if any, good.
How can UNL best represent itself?
Another lobbyist for NSSA or for
Math editorial just missed comic genius
Your editorial "Math hysteria" (DN,
Feb. 23) was well-named it was truly
hysterical. Of the many jokes, I had two
favorites. First, the line about "a ple
thora of technocrats hanging about the
boardrooms of America" was most
amusing. The phrase almost makes
sense if you want to compare the
number of technocrats to the number
of journalists there. And comparing
technocrats with the financial, man
agerial and legal types who actually
overwhelm the boardrooms would have
been totally without comedic value.
The second line I really loved was
the one about the Chinese economy.
You know, where you said that if
mathematical education was really
important to an economy, then the
recent superiority of Chinese students
JHT KurlM-lik, Mi tor, 472-1 TOO
Jiinu's Hors, Editorial I'atje Editor
List' Olson, Associate News Editor
Mike Uoilloy, Siulit Men s Editor
.loan Kmc, Co) Desk Chief
not
NCAA move will force the Soon
ers into playing one less game or
adding another at a moment's
notice.
Finally, non-football weekends
can't do much for the Dallas
economy.
But the real loser is the uni
versity. School officials and
administrators should not have
let the violations occur. Most
dealt with the school's booster
program, including player pay
ments. On paper, NCAA sanc
tions look severe. In fact, the
NCAA's decision is too lenient.
Stricter enforcement is needed.
Disbanding the SMU program for
more than one year would have
been a step in that direction. Too
many times athletics are put too
high on a pedestal.
Penalties more severe may
have shown the rest of the coun
try that the NCAA means busi
ness. Until then, the other ath
letic programs, not all, watch
SMU lick its wounds and coTv"
tinue to play the "game."
One final note: It was interest
ing how the college recruiters
flooded the SMU campus the day
after the decision was handed
down. Talk about being put on
the market.
spent elsewhere
I'NL wouldn't be effective. The univer
sity has several lobbyists, who do a
good job of providing and explaining
information. The university, however,
has no grass-roots appeal. The more
t han $20,000 that UNL spends on NSSA
could be better spent on newsletters
mailed to the parents of every student
at UNL, explaining our situation and
urging them to write their state sena
tors. We also could use the funds to
send ASUN officials around the state to
talk to clubs and business leaders.
Students speaking to citizens will be
much more effective than one employee
of NSSA in Lincoln.
As can be seen, the money UNL
spends on NSSA can be better utilized
elsewhere. With this in mind, the
answer to the question of UNL's mem
bership in NSSA becomes clear.
Doug Weems Tim Geisert
ASUN senator ASUN second-vice
Rob Mellion president
Committee for Fee Allocation
chairman -.
in that area already should have over
come the innate inefficiencies of their
economic and political systems. I mean,
if math education can't overcome a few
periodic purges and rapidly industrial
ize the biggest agrarian economy in the
world, what good is it?
You just missed making it a true
cl issic. As you claimed that you wer
en't trying to prove that math isn't
important, I was sure that you were
about to use the line that some of your
best friends know some mathematics.
But keep working on it, and I'm sure
that you'll find a promising career in
editorial humor ahead of you.
Leo G. Chouinard II
associate professor
mathematics and statistics
J. I Jt i ff j I iSsss H 3
tjgs NX I
u SENATOR KNepy IS CR)SHeO... He UKS $mCTre FlftST
TO ANN0UNC6 THAT WON'T RvjN "
6Met;iiirM of tike CmdiE
Prophylactics migrate from wallets to purses in AIDS '80s
ne of the remarkable twists in
the plot of "The Return of the
Condom" is that it's making the
biggest hit among women. A covering
that can only be worn by men is being
discussed by, marketed to and even
bought by the opposite sex.
In the 1940s and '50s, this condom
was part of the rite of passage of the
sexually anxious male. In the 1980s,
it's becoming part of the parapherna
lia of the sexually anxious female.
Thirty years ago, the condom made an
impression in the wallets of insecure
men. Today it's finding a place in the
purses of nervous women. Then, it was
used for birth control; now, for AIDS
control.
I saw my first ad directed at women
just a few months ago in Ms. magazine.
The message began with a woman say
ing the obvious: "I never thought I'd
buy a condom." She went on to des
cribe sex these days as "a risky busi
ness" and to end with the pitch, "So
why take your fears to bed?"
Since then, I have noted condoms in
pastel containers bearing names that
are less reminiscent of warriors and
more of women's pages, e.g. Lifestyles.
I have also seen the most dramatic
pitch to women, saying bluntly: "I'll do
a lot for love, but I'm not ready to die
for it."
According to loose industry esti
mates, 40 percent of condoms currently
are bought by women. Use some arm
chair calculations, factor in booming
sales in the gay community, and it
seems likely that, among heterosexu
als, more women are buying condoms
than men.
Does this matter to anyone but a
market researcher? With the possibil
ity of AIDS behind each new sexual
encounter, we care less who buys con
Political epiphany and a dialectic
in a downtown bar in the afternoon
J ast week I noticed an unusual
I . phenomenon. I saw a small, scruffy
J-Jdog running down Uth Street.
Cars were dodging the hairy shape, but
it kept yelping and running. It wasn't
alter anything; it was heading straight
down the street, an unlicensed dog in
the left lane.
Of course, it only took a second for
me to realize that this was the dying
ideal. "Unlicensed dog in the left lane"
is a rare breed lately. Whenever I real
ize these things, as a student, I make a
toast to science, sociology and the new
enlightenment. I went to a bar.
I walked in and the tables were
doms than that they get used. But I am
still struck by the ideathat, here again,
women are being urged to be "respon
sible," women are the ones who are
both self-protective and other-protective.
In the original version of "The Con
dom," men were more likely to be
charged with birth control. If boys car
ried that promise of sexual adulthood
in their wallet, at least adulthood was
associated with responsibility. Fathers
of teen-age boys, never long on intimate
sexual talk, did offer one perennial and
charming warning not to get some girl
"knocked up."
3
Ellen
l
vjuuuman
A
Later, in the confused course of what
we call the sexual revolution, women
took on the role of contraceptor. Many
were eager for this power. They thought
it was safer and even fairer since
"women are the ones who get preg
nant." But many also became uncomforta
ble in their new-fangled inequality.
Fathers stopped delivering even cur
sory warnings to their sons; mothers
gave them to their daughters. Men
found it easier to stop worrying about
pregnancy; women wondered if men
found it too easy to stop worrying about
them altogether.
At the turn of the '80s, as an amateur
sociologist, I once conducted a totally
unscientific study of the relationshios
of my women friends. We figured out
together that, on the whole, men who
empty. The bar stools had a handful of
sapiens gooped over them. There were
two men, a gentleman and a sleepy-
Lee
Basham
)
i
looking woman. Two men were crush
ing unpopped popcorn with their fin
gernails talking about, their new
hi
asked women whether they were using
birth control before they had sex were
more caring and better prospects for
the long run than those who didn't.
Wrhat then of this Ms.-directed pitch
for condoms? Why has safety become
more of an issue among women than
men? Only women can get pregnant,
but AIDS is an equal-opportunity dis
ease. Perhaps men are greater gamblers
or more afraid to appear afraid. Per
haps women simply talk more among
themselves, expressing their fears and
sharing advice.
Mostly, I suspect that this gap in the
behavior of men and women facing the
same sexual epidemic is the legacy of
the past generation of change. Women
have kept watch over the exigencies of
their sex lives. They have been the
caretakers, the calculators, of risks.
They have continued this role. In this
new day, so-called men's magazines
still portray sex as a sport, while
women's are full of messages about
health.
In the final analysis, though, con
doms are used by men. Even when
women are persuaded or frightened
into buying them, it's men who wear
condoms. The man who is reluctant to
protect himself and his partner is
probably not in an updated version
of my sociological study a good
prospect.
At this moment, when AIDS has
turned the sexual revolution upside
down, one of the tricks of social policy
is to get men to take the initiative
again. The much-heralded "Return of
the Condom" must also be a return to
mutual responsibility.
J 1987, The Boston Globe Newspaper
CompanyWashington Post Writers
Group
Goodman is a Pulitzer Prize-winning
columnist for the Boston Globe.
Detroit models, I believe.
"Admit they're junk, Joe ..."
". . . And if you buy one of those
foreign cars, someone's gonna drop a
hammer on you."
Keen analysis was needed. 1 stepped
up and sat down, "Look, guys, if you
say, 'I'll only buy your stuff, Sam,' Sam
can sell you anything he wants. So Sam
can either hand over a real machine or
Sam can disguise junk. Which is
cheaper, eh?"
The first man cut in, "So we say, 'Hey
Herman, hey Chung, the real thing
See BASHAM on 5
