Nebraskan
University ot Nebraska-Lincoln
Mike Reilley, Editor, 472-1766
Jeanne Bourne, Editorial Page Editoi
Jen Deselms, Managing Editor
Mike Hooper, Associate Neuis Editor
Scott Harrah, Night News Editor
Joan Rezac, Copy Desk Chief
1 Linda Hartmann, Wire Editor
Faculty tenure trouble
Bylaw change allows firings, defeats purpose
The University of Ne
braska Board of Re -
I gents will consider a
bylaw change in January that
would allow the university to
fire tenured professors if it were
in a financial crisis.
If this bylaw is passed, it will
contradict everything the uni
versity has been trying to ac
complish as far as helping the
NU faculty. For the last several
months, student leaders and
administrators have recognized
that University of Ncbraska
Lincoln faculty salaries are the
lowest in the Big Eight.
They’ve been trying to find a
solution for months.
Faculty should be the last
place tiic university should be
cutting in a financial crisis. The
bylaw gives the university an
“out” or an excuse when money
gets a little tight.
The proposal will allow the
regents, with advice from the
NU president, to declare a fi
nancial emergency. According
•* L_ _
to a Lincoln Journal article,
UNL has a similar policy, but
there’s no statewide policy.
The proposal also defeats the
purpose of tenure. Facuhy
members work hard to earn the
right to tenure. Although the
faculty members are guaranteed
due-process hearings if firings
prove necessary, the process
itself still isn’t fair to them.
Just look at the recent prob
lems with Ohio State football
coach Earle Bruce, who was
fired by the university’s board
of directors. Bruce wasn’t fired
because of financial restraints at
Ohio State, but the move met
stiff criticism from athletic
department officials, fans and
opposing coaches.
Bruce has since filed a law
suit against the university, argu
ing breach of contract. Unless
NU is careful, it could wind up
in a situation just as touchy as
the one Ohio State is in with
Bruce.
-—_J
Iowa caucuses spoil the fun
Other states deserve notoriety of picking presidential candidates
The 1988 presidential rac<
starts and ends in Iowa fo
many contenders. Because
Iowa’s are the first caucuses in th<
nation, candidates jockey for positior
in the Hawkeye state to gain momen
turn for the rest of the primary electior
season.
If a candidate fails to do well ir
Iowa, his or her chances for a rebound
are between slim and none. The public
and media will never seriously con
sider his or her candidacy after the
Feb. 8 caucuses.
By Nebraska’s primary in May, the
field of candidates will have been
whittled away and much of the excite
ment will be gone.
In fact, Nebraskans will have seen
more of the candidates before the
Iowa caucuses than they will before
the Nebraska primary. The candidates
have been crossing the Missouri River
into Omaha to raise campaign money
and gain Omaha media exposure that
will help them in southwestern Iowa.
In a way, many Nebraskans arc
jealous because Iowa gets all this at
tention. Some lowans are on a first
name basis with candidates, one of
whom will be the next president.
I he candidates arc working nearly
every county in Iowa and speaking to
any civic group or high school that
will listen. One of my fraternity broth
ers lives in Atlantic, a small town in
southwestern Iowa, and has seen four
candidates in person.
The question raised by many critics
is whether the Iowa caucuses arc re
ally a good place to start a presidential
campaign. There are certainly plenty
of merits.
Iowa probably will be won by the
; candidate with the best “grassroots”
r campaign. Such people-oriented
; campaigns seem to be more legitimate
: than campaigns based on 30-second
i commercials.
Iowa is also a good place to develop
i public opinion. Midwesterners tend
to be more concerned with issues and
less swayed by flashy orators.
However, there seem to be just as
many disadvantages as there are ad
vantages.
M
Joel
Carlson
fill:
By allowing the Iowa caucuses to
have so much importance, a presiden
tial campaign can be won or lost in just
one state. Thus campaigns begin ear
lier and earlier with every election.
Since campaigns are longer, cam
paign staffs need people committed
for the long haul. Such commitments
of time and effort require people who
believe strongly in a cause. Thus, the
campaigns involve people with much
more extreme views than are held by
the general public.
For example, Richard Gephardt
and Paul Simon have abandoned ear
lier pro-life positions in order to at
tract liberal Democrats who arc more
likely to get involved than moderate
Democrats. Likewise, hard-line con
servative Pal Robertson seems to have
amassed more workers than Bob
Dole, who is perceived to be mojre
moderate.
Also, entry barriers are high. A
candidate will have trouble doing well
by jumping in at this time. By now
candidates have large, well-financed
campaign organizations. Some
Democrats have wanted New York
Gov. Mario Cuomo to jump in since
Gary Hart and Joe Biden dropped out
but many concede that his entry would
come too late to be successful.
Furthermore, campaigning in Iowa
is becoming a science. The longer
Iowa is used as the first testing ground,
the easier it is to win the state. A
campaign can draw from past experi
ence and an established organization.
Another disadvantage is that Iowa
is not exactly a model state for demo
graphics. Iowa is a rural state without
many major industries or many mi
norities. Only 1 percent of its popula
tion is black.
With so much riding on the Iowa
caucuses, there arc many problems.
But is there a better system?
One solution is to have the first
primaries in three or four slates and
rotate new stales into the lineup every
election. This system would take the
pressure off just one state and allow ?
new states the opportunity to have the \
first say in choosing the next presi- |
dent. 1
While the solution may be out of I
reach this election cycle, one thing is I
for sure. Feb. 8 will be make-or-break I
Jay for many candidates who have I
invested years and millions of dollars I
just to sit in the Oval Office. i
Carlson Is a third-year law student. V
Residence hall food service, book bag thieves attacked
Letters
Residents like halls,
but want better food
I would like to say a few things in
response to Ron W. Eis ’ letter of anger
to the people who have written re
cently about the poor food service in
the residence halls at the University of
Ncbraska-Lincoln.
When I moved into the residence
halls three years ago, the food was not
like it is today. As I stated in my letter
(Daily Nebraskan, Nov. 11), the food
service has gotten progressively
worse as time has gone by. I feel that
I am not alone in my complaints. With
the exception of Eis, I have received
praise for my letter from people (in
cluding a current food worker and a
residence hall director).
I question why food service work
ers themselves have not bothered to
rebut in any other way. As a health
aide and health aide coordinator for
the Calhcr/Pound complex, it would
not be as simple as myself going down
to Seaton Hall and canceling my
contract, as Eis suggested.
Some of us have a few more com
mitments to living in the residence
halls than you seem to give us credit
for. I enjoy living in the residence
halls and plan to go on living here. I do
not enjoy catingcold, half-cooked and
skimpy food. My letter was written to
voice a concern and to help improve
the food services.
Jeffery R. Psota
junior
music
Food problem distorted
by chronic complaints
I
There are those who like tocontrib- '
ute to a problem and those who try to i
do something about it. Recent edito
rial letters (rom students only perpetu
ate the bad image of the food services,
and they don ’ t help sol ve the problem.
When you have a complaint, you need
to tell the manager immediately. If the
complaint is about the food, then you
need to show the manager or cooks so
they can correct it. We don’t know
about problems until they are brought
to our atiention.
7 he roach problem is being blown
totally out of proportion. Are we to
understand that the only roaches in
Lincoln are at Harper Hall? We find
that hard to believe. There are a few
roaches, and there are many reasons
why they arc there. One reason is that
the students leave food scattered all
over the dining room. Continuous
c lean ing doesn ’ t remove every crumb
they have left behind. The roach that
Nancy Bauman said was in her fries
was not in them when they were
served. Itcould have crawled in while
she was getting pop or a salad. The
fries are taken directly from the fryer
to the pass-through (between the
kitchen and the line) to the serving
line. The person serving would have
noticed if a roach was approaching the
food.
We lived in the dorms, and we
know that the food is really not that
bad. We did move off campus (not
because ol the food), and we miss the
variety of food that is offered there.
It s a shame that the only people who
are heard from arc those who com
plain and criticize. The special din
ners, ice-cream-sundae nights and the
good meals that people consistently
request arc never talked about. It
seems like it is the same people who
:ome through the line and complain
ibout the food every day. Some
people arc never satisfied because
heir expectations are too high. We
:annot individually tailor meals when
ve are feeding about 950 students per
neal. We simply don’t have the
budget to serve the kind of food that
some of these students are accus
tomed to. Home-cooked meals arc
served at home, not at a dinner for 950
people.
In response to Michelle Ebadi
(Letters, Nov. 11), we ask why, if the
halls are our homes, do students set
tablcclothcs on fire, steal food, steal
silverware and leave a mess when they
leave. We should only hope that they
don’t act that way at home. With
regard to the vegetables, all vege
tables arc cooked. They might be cold
by the time that you get around to
eating them, but we have a microwave
to heat them back up. We run out of
chicken nuggets in the salad bar after
one night, not three. The rolIs we serve
are direct from the bakery, and if one
did have mold on it, it should be
brought to the attention of the man
ager. Students usually cat up the rolls
as soon as they are put out, so they arc
not around long enough to get moldy.
A majority of the pizza boxes in the
elevator lobbies arc from pizzas or
dered late at night, long after dinner
has been eaten.
We wish that the chronic com
plaincrs would take a job at the food
service so they could see the tremen
dous amount of work and preparation
that goes into each meal. The people
that work there do a lot of hard work
and they are doing their best. Our
advice to the people that eat with us:
Don’t complain about everything,
ion t be rude to us when we serve you,
and please pick up the mess you have
made before you leave.
Wade D. Goehring
Kim Caniglia
Teresa Workman
Amy Sanders
Harper student employees
Man cannot survive
on bread, plants only
The article by Bryan Peterson
(Guest Opinion, Nov. 17) is typical ol
someone who has little knowledge of
biology, the global food situation or
the current world economic situation.
If everyone in the world were to start
eating only plant material, the econo
mics of many nations across the world
would be severely hurt if not devas
tated, including that of the United
States. It is this preschool mentality
about feeling sorry for the animals that
contributes to the current “farm cri
sis.”
Animals cannot think any more
than a potato plant can think. Animals
respond by instinct to stimuli in their
en vironment. If the potato plant could
think, we must assume that it would
not want to be killed and consumed for
food. However, it cannot think; there
fore we consume it for food without
feeling sorry for it. Animals cannot
think cither, but we feel sorry for
them. Why ? I have no idea. Compar
ing the plight of animals to that of the
slaves was not a valid point. The
slaves could reason. They knew the
difference between freedom and en
slavement. Animals cannot think
therefore they don’t know freedom
Humans have ji»n as much right to
consume animals for food as they
would the potato.
One of the points made in
Peterson’s article was that “on a
global scale, humanity could benefit
tremendously from a gradual transi
tion to a vegetable diet.” This state
ment is totally ridiculous. If the entire
world were to switch to a vegetable
diet the population of the world
would quickly outgrow the food sup
ply. Only a smal I portion of the earth’s
surface is tillable land that can raise
plants for human consumption. Much
of the world’s surface is range land
that can only be used for the produc
tion of animals such as cattle, sheep
and goats. Over three-fourths of the
world is covered by water. To utilize
this effectively, we must harvest ani
mals from the water, such as fish,
crustaceans, etc. When humans con
sume plants for food, only a small
portion of the plant is actually used.
For example, we cat wheat, but not the
straw. This is a terrible waste of en
ergy. Only animals such as cattle can
utilize this plant residue. Animals
such as hogs can utilize human and
other animal wastes. We must realize
that if the rapidly growing human
population is to survive in the future,
we will have to utilize all available
land and energy resources. We cannot
resort to consuming only one type of
food source, or we will simply starve I
to death. Consuming only one type of
food source is a luxury that today’s
society simply cannot afford.
Animals are also an important I
source of nutrition. A balanced diet I
from each of the four food groups has I
been proven to be the most healthy I
diet. Animals arc the highest source of
digestible protein. They also have I
more of the essential amino acids |
required in our diets. They arc also I
very high in iron, calcium and the B- |
complex vitamins, to name just a few. r
People who cat a balanced diet that I
includes meat tend to have stronger I
bones, keep their teeth longer and are I
generally healthier than those who I
don’t have a balanced diet.
I have addressed only part of I
Peterson’s opinion. 1 feel vivisection I
is necessary in some cases, but for the I
most part, I have no opinion on the I
subject. I do not condone any cruel I
treatment of animals that would sub
ject them to pain for any length of I
time. However, wit\ * jday’s methods I
of slaughtering, the animals don’t feel I
a moment of pain. For the population I
of the world to survive, we will have to I
consume animals for food.
Brent Boettcher I
animal science ■