Editorial
Nebraskan
University of Nebraska
Mike,Reilley, Editor, 472-1766
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
50 - cent pay cut
Good intentions wont pay students’ bills
Hard-working University
of Nebraska - Lincoln
students could find
themselves making less at their
part -time jobs if a Nebraska state
senator has his way.
A bill sponsored by Sen.
Howard Lamb of Anselmo
would decrease the minimum
wage for student workers from
$3.35 to $2.85 per hour. The bill
will go through hearings at the
Legislature today.
Supporters of LB 1096 argue
that the lower minimum wage
would create more job opportu
nities for students. Lamb reasons
that businesses are always look
ing for cheap help, and a lower
minimum wage for students
would give them an edge in the
job fight.
While his intentions may be
good, Lamb has introduced a bill
that, if passed, would leave stu
dents struggling to pay bills and
businesses scrambling in search
of employees to fill empty posi
tions.
The bill discriminates against
students. Why should a 20-year
old student make 50 cents an
hour less than a 20-ycar-old non
student? A lower minimum
1 wage would give students an
incentive to drop out of school
for a semester or two to save
| money.
Many UNL students have
part-time jobs to pay for tuition,
room and board, and numerous
other expenses. Juggling a work
schedule around classes and
study time isn’t easy. A lower
minimum wage would force
students to work rilore hours to
cover expenses, leaving less
time for classes and studying.
Try to imagine paying $500
per semester for tuition, $150
each month in rent, plus cover
ing utilities, food, gas and other
expenses on $2.85 an hour. Stu
dents are barely getting by on
$3.35.
It’s ironic that the state would
even consider lowering the mini
mum wage. Congress is consid
ering raising the national mini
mum wage from $3.35 to $4.65.
The timing for Lamb’s proposal
couldn’t be worse.
The bill also would put a
strain on university employers.
If the university went to lower
student wages While other serv
ices stayed at or above mini
mum, already vacant university
positions would never be filled.
Doug Zatechka, UNL hous
ing director, said his department
is already unable to fill all stu
dent positions at the current
minimum-wage level. He said
the department is usually about
20 or more students short, and a
lower minimum wage would
only make matters worse.
Lamb expects no opposition
from the bill. He reasons that
he’s really trying to help stu
dents, but it’s clear that the pro
posal would do more damage
than good.
CFA member defends committee’s actions
Asa member of ihc Committee for
Fees Allocation, 1 would like to clar
ify a few points made in an editorial
(Daily Nebraskan, Jan. 28) about the
change in CFA plans.
In the fall of 1987, just like past
CFAs, the committee adopted a time
line. It specified the dates each fee
user would present a service orienta
tion and a dale for them to present
their 1988-89 budget request. The
portion dealing with budget requests,
again, like pastCFAs,called upon the
committee to consider each fee user
budget individually. A somewhat
unrealistic approach to budgeting.
At the suggestion of one of our
advisers, James V. Griesen, vice
chancellor for student affairs, the
committee discussed a new alterna
tive. This proposal called for CFA to
hear each request while looking at
what we call “The Big Picture.” This
would be the case for Fund A (Daily
Nebraskan, University Programs
Council and the Association of Stu
dents of the University of Nebraska),
and then Fund B (campus recreation,
University Health Center and Ne
braska Union). It is a realistic ap
proach to budgeting. This plan fol
lows suit in the same way legislative
bodies go about budgeting. Further
more, this method allows CFA to get
a fair assessment of the situation.
What bothers me some is the im
plication made in the editorial that
this plan was tailor-made to accom
module UPC. This is false. Discus
sions on this new change have taken
place for roughly two months. It is just
pure coincidence that this was made
public at our business meeting prior to
the UPC presentation on Jan. 26. We
hope this change will benefit all fee
users. By no means is our aim to give
any fee user an edge over another.
Each and every one of them is treated
in the same manner.
Personally, 1 feel this is a long
overdue transition. It makes the CFA
prioritize budget increases and forces
fee .users to give us complete and
accurate justification for proposed
increases. Also, it is essential that fee
users comply with CFA policies and
submit budgets and support docu
mentation on lime for it to work.
1 believe I speak for the current
CFA when I say I do not want to see
student fees rise dramatically. With
the previous plan, this could have
been the case. The new plan allows us
to keep fees within a fair and decent
range by looking at the whole scene at
one time, as opposed to passing budg
ets and being forced to reconsider
them and make cuts.
The change is for the better and
will assist us in seeing to it that stu
dents get the best and most services
available within our power.
Keith A. Malo
member
CFA
| SFuroa tLDMCBCDaTO
Brian Shellito/Daily Nebraskan
Dump location still an issue
Signatures needed for petition to put waste site to state vote
People can justify just about
anything they want. Last
December, Gov. Kay On
said it would be OK to put a low-level
nuclear waste dump in the slate be
cause people take risks all the time. It
is risky just to cross the street, she
said. So it is OK to take the risk of
having a low-level nuclear waste
dump in the state.
So we all smiled and said: “Okey
dokey.”
Now the dump is ours. Nebraska
won a five-way beauty contest
against Kansas, Louisiana, Okla
homa and Arkansas. We don’t know'
w here it will be located yet, but some
tow n in the state will get the honors.
But the story is far from over.
Just recently, a petition was initi
ated by the Nebraskans for a Right to
Vote Committee to remove Nebraska
from the compact and give Nebras
kans a vote in deciding its location.
It won’t be an easy task if the
petition is to do any good. To begin
w'ith, more than 39,000 signatures
have to be gathered, and there may be
legal ramifications in an attempt by
the state to withdraw from the com
pact. Nebraska would also have to pay
a higher price to take care of its own
waste.
There are important questions to
be asked here, but none of them are
logistical, legal or financial.
One question which needs to be
asked is; What do we really want to
have located within the state’s bor
ders?
The dump would most likely ere
ate jobs and a financial boon lor that
particular community. This is impor
tant. Jobs are hard to come by these
days.
But what good docs a job do you
when you arc dead? No one can prove
for certain that such a dump would be
dangerous at all. No one can prove
that it will leak or that the radiation
from it will be hazardous.
But by the time this is proven, it
may be too late. Some scientists con
tend that there may be enough evi
dence to show just that possibility.
Many towns across the nation seem to
be suddenly popping up with both
toxic waste dumps and an overabun
dance of cancer cases. Low-level
radiation dumps can’t be much differ
ent.
I don’t know' about everyone else,
but those possibilities scare me.
According to Orr, we take risks
whenever we cross the street, so a
low-level nuclear waste dump is just
one more risk. There is nothing origi
nal about Orr’s analogy. Everybody
uses it when speaking of risks.
But the problem with the argu
ment is that the whole state docs not
cross the street at the same time. We
do it at our own discretion, wncncvcr
we want, and we arc each affected one
at a time by it. It is a totally different
kind of risk when the entire popula
tion may be affected.
Nevertheless, Nebraska is getting
dumped on. The state has received the
honor of storing the nuclear waste, not
only from this state, but from four
others too.
Not everyone likes the idea. That:s
apparently why the petition has been
circulating. More than likely, the
petition will fail because of those
problems 1 mentioned earlier, so we
may have to live with the dump. I’m
glad there arc those who are willing to
stand up against the odds to voice
their opinion. They don’t want to roll
over and play dead.
By not having the dump, the econ
omy would not be hurt any more than
it is now. That may be hard for the
unemployed of Nebraska to accept,
but there definitely is a lesser of two
evils in this case. There is much less
risk being without a job.
An issue such as this should be
determined by a vote of the people
because it has the potential to affect
the population.
We arc led to believe that there is
nothing to be done about the problem.
Whether or not the petition gets the
needed signatures, Orr should listen
to what the petitioners have to say.
Another time, Kay: Give the
people a vote.
Fry is a graduate student in journalism
and Daily Nebraskan Sower supplement edi
tor.
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Nebraskan. Policy is set by the Daily
Nebraskan Editorial Board. Its mem
bers are Mike Rcilley, editor; Diana
Johnson, editorial page editor; Joan
Rezac, copy desk editor; Jen De
selms, managing editor; Curt Wag
ner, associate news editor; Scott Har
rah, night news editor and Joel
Carlson, columnist
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