Editorial Nebraska n University of Nebraska j Mike Reilley, Editor, 472-1766 I Diana Johnson, Editorial Page Editor Jen Deselms, Managing Editor Curt Wagner, Associate News Editor Scott Harrah, Night News Editor Joan Rezac, Copy Desk Chief Joel Carlson, Columnist CFA changes plan Process chance convenient for UPC The Committee for Fees Allocation took an un expected turn during Tuesday’s meeting by not ap proving the Daily Nebraskan’s annual budget request. Eric Peterson, a CFA mem ber, said the committee will dis cuss reconsidering the approval of the DN budget, which was submitted Jan. 19, in order to look at the whole budget of Fund A. That fund also includes the Association of Students of the University of Nebraska and University Program Council. Usually, the three budgets are considered and approved of separately. They have been since 1977. But Vice Chancellor of Stu dent Affairs James Griesen sug gests that all three budgets be looked at as a whole in order to discuss the possibility of shifting money between all three instead of approving the budgets for each. It’s rather convenient that a reconsideration of approval sud denly appears as UPC asks for a 30 percent increase over last year’s budget — a budget re quest that was 12 days beyond deadline. Meanwhile, ASUN requests a 5 percent increase and the DN rests at zero. If all three entities served the same purpose, their budgets should undoubtedly be consid ered at the same time. But each serves the campus community in a different way, so justification of their budget requests should be made separately and ap proved or denied separately. The student body should not have to suffer an inexorable in crease in student fees, but no or ganization should be forced to compete for money. Some might consider CFA’s budget approval as minute since it is only a preliminary to the sequence budgets must follow through ASUN, Griesen and finally Chancellor Martin Mas sengalc. But CFA sets the precc- | dent. Its decisions should not be | considered irrelevant to the final outcome. It’s just a suggestion, says Marlene Bcyke, director of de velopment for ASUN. The mo tion will be discussed at a CFA meeting next week. “We wanted to give CFA the idea that would give them oppor- ; tunity to begin looking at things down the road,” she said. Ap proving budgets individually could end up in a raise of student fees, or approval of one organization’s budget would mean a cut in another organization’s budget. Looking at the budgets as a whole is also an attempt to make CFA more efficient, Beyke said. It’s one of a number of readjust ments, including a new budget format, that have been consid ered this year. “Nothing is set in stone in this case,” she said. Explore both arguments In response to Gail Fleenor (Let ters, Jan. 22) and her opinion that athletes can’t complain about golden platters: I have been on both sides of the coin; I’ve been both a student athlete and a traditional student who works to pay for an education. I am currently employed and work 20 to 25 hours a week and go to school full time. 1 was formerly a member of the Nebraska women’s basketball learn for three years. Obviously, Fleenor can’t speak from experience when she assumes that the student-athlete has it cushier than the traditional student. From my experience, coming home from a three-hour practice as opposed to a six-hour work day is quite different. Fleenor thinks the student-athlete spends about 25 hours a week practic ing, but they spend much more lime than that. What about going to the training room to get treated for an injury or get taped before practice? What about all the class time athletes miss while on the road, and the time they spend preparing for games — films, chalk talks and one-on-one instruction with the coaches to pre pare each athlete for their role in each particular game. Working at a job 20 to 30 hours a week is by no means as hard as 25 hours of practice. I come home alter an eight-hour work day and can still study, but a three-hour basketball practice leaves you so tired that you’re ready to go to sleep. After practice, you usually don’t want to read 30 pages of American history or anything else. College athletics is a job, just like Fleenor has a job. They get their education paid for to make their team the best, just like employ ees work hard at their job to make their place of employment the best. In closing, 1 would like to add that I hope all the traditional students enjoyed their month-long Christmas vacation as opposed to the many stu dent-athletes who were only able to spend a few days with their families or no time at all. What about all the student-athletes who give up their spring break? All the student-athletes are sacrificing their time home with their families for their sport. This by no means is saying that Fleenor doesn’t work hard at her job, but by no means do student-athletes have everything handed to them on any kind of platter, whether it be silver or gold. Fleenor, next time you feel you need to speak as an authority on stu dent-athletes, I suggest you research your facts and not simply judge by stereotyped, TV-exploited ideas. Lisa LaGuardia senior secondary cducaiion/social sciences \id, I'M AMWif \| l ' J&fe / ftARp fusnc >f \ TAK6S o*' ToU&ri IT 0 06 To fJT A tJorcri • jrie HA^oue ? :>:• y.\.:*:•:•:•; 111 Those paltry newspaper blues Columnist bored by reading news, but then there's the funnies . .. I have a confession to make. I never read the newspapers. That noise you just heard was my editor slamming down his paper and wheeling around to his computer to type up my termination notice. Before I lose my $52-a-month pocket change, I guess I’d better | elaborate. Actually, I do read the papers — especially the Daily Nebraskan. There is information about the uni versity and related issues in the DN that can’t be found anywhere else. I also enjoy occasional, entertaining walks through the Christian Science Monitor. I just don’t pore over the black-and-white-and-rcad-all-over pages like many people do. My wife can nurse a cup of hot tea and a 32 page tabloid for most of the morning. It lakes me about three m inutes to find | outcverythinglneedorwanttoknow irom me average morning delivery. There arc three major problems with newspapers, at least as far as my talents and preferences are con cerned. The first is that it is, after all, a printed medium and therefore must be read. This just demands too much of my attention. I am not so enthralled by the importance of current news items that they can command my total allegiance for more than a few min utes at a time. I get most of my news from TV and the radio—those lovely electronic sources that will tell me what is going on, instead of forcing me to dig it out myself. It’s not that 1 am lazy — I just have better things to do with my time. I can do lots of other things — like typing up this column — with the Today Show or National Public Radio going on in the back ground and learn all I need to learn about the state of the world today. There is just too much investment of time and energy in reading a paper. This leads to the second problem I have, which is my inability to concen trate on reading in the midst of dis tractions. As I said earlier, my wife is a big newspaper fan. But then again, my wife can do the crossword puzzle in pen in 15 minutes while watching television and carrying on an intelli gent conversation with our daughter. That’s what I get for marrying a woman with no faults — she daily reminds me of my cerebral inferiori ties. I cannot read and bite my nails at the same time. If I am to get anything at all out of what I am pursuing, I must have si lence and minimal movement. At the very most, I can tolerate low-level elevator music to drown out possibly distracting noises. The stereotypical picture of the teen-ager reading quan tum physics vyith Twisted Sister blast ing away at 120 dcc'bels was never a caricature of my bedroom. =======wKSmF So, if I am lo read the paper, I must devote all my mental wattage to that one endeavor, and I have never been able to justify that kind of expenditure of time and effort to the accumulation of information that will, for the most part, be obsolete before the week is out. Which brings me to my third point. What counts as news is so often momentary, fleeting and so down right transitory that it is hardly worth knowing at all. If I must acquire the information, I will not do so through the total commitment mentioned above. The impermanence is often so intense that the lag lime involved in writing, filing, printing and distribut ing the story even in daily periodical form is enough to render it obsolete. With a morning paper you get yesterday’s news first thing in the morning. With an evening paper, you get yesterday’s news late in the after noon. By the time either reaches me, I already know about the matter all I care to know. Of course, my electronic briefing sources seldom give the in-depth coverage to a story that the column inches format can provide, and this is a definite advantage of the latter. 1 read in detail newspaper coverage of the first manned moon Right, the assassinations of Bobby Kennedy and ; Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the resig nation of Richard Nixon, the release of the Iran hostages, the explosion of the Challenger and the signing of the INF treaty. But stories like these come along once in a do/en or so blue ^ moons. The mountains of trivia that intervene and pass as worthy of my f attention will not receive like treat ment. There is a notable exception to my ignoring newsprint. I never miss the comics page. Even there, however, my enjoyment is not undiluted. Some of the stuff that passes for funny or intriguing is a sad commentary on the intelligence of this country. 1 he Lin coln Star finally deleted the insuffera bly bad “Inside Out” (an inexcusable raroiuc rip-uny, uui uivj continuing “Heart of Juliet Jones and “Mary Worth,” two ol the lirsl inductees into the Worthless Drivel Hall of Fame. The one serial comic ( worth reading, “Spider Man,” was unexplainably yanked some time ago — just as Peter Parker and M.J. had finally lied the knot. While “Bloom County,” “B.C.” and “Calvin and Hobbes” rank among the best any where and “That’s Jake’’ warms the cockles of an old Southern boy s heart, that they arc forced to appear in the same rag-content acreage as the aforementioned idiocy is nothing short of indecent. Nevertheless, I will continue to write, and I hope that you will con tinue to read. But there are those who may insist that this and my other columns are the best examples to be found of what I am bemoaning. Maybe there is something incongru ous in a paper-hater writing a regular column. But then again, I never prom ised to be consistent or predictable only interesting and provocative. And what can be more provocative than a newspaper writer who hates to read the paper? Happy viewing. Sennett is a graduate student in philoso phy and campus minister with College * a reer Christian Fellowship. UauliiKflHl WEMMBBBi The Daily Nebraskan welcomes brief letters to the editor from all readers and interested others. Letters will be selected for publica tion on the basis of clarity, originality, timeliness and space available. The Daily Nebraskan retains the right to edit all material submitted. Readers are welcome to submit material as guest opinions. Whether material should run as a letter or guest opinion, or not run, is left to the editor’s discretion. the newspaper become property of the Daily Nebraskan and cannot be re turned. Anonymous submissions will not be considered for publication. Letters should include the author’s name, year in school, major and group all in- j ation, if any. Requests to withhold I names from publication will not be I granted. s