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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (March 1, 1988)
Plf Frlitm-ial NdSaskan 4 J_| Vi JL iUiiCtl Tuesday, March 1,1988 Nebraskan University of Nebraska-Lincoln Mike Reilley, Editor, 472 1766 Diana Johnson, Editorial Page E.dilor Jen Deselms, Managing Editor Curt Wagner, Associate News Editor Chris Anderson, Associate News Editor Joan Rezac, Copy Desk Chief Joel Carlson, Columnist "" . 7"" $1,500 too much But state senators deserve a raise Nebraska state senators will have to either com promise with the state’s voters or remove legislative sal ary limits from the state Constitution if they hope to in crease their wages. Legislators gave fim-round approval Friday to two constitu tional amendments that would increase their pay. One amend ment, LR7CA, would increase senators’ salaries from the cur rent $400 a month to $1,500 a month. The amendment, which will require voter approval, was originally introduced as a $l,000-a-month raise but was amended to $1,500 during Friday’s discussion. A proposal to quadruple sena tors’ salaries won’t go over well with Nebraska voters. Senators should stick with the increase to $ 1,000 a month instead of bank ing on tight-fisted voters to give them $1,500. A second proposed amend ment. LR258CA, would be the best route for the senators to take. The resolution, sponsored by Sen. Bill Barrett of Lexing ton, would remove the amount of senators’ salaries from the Constitution. It also would cre ate a citizens’ commission ap pointed by the governor that would suggest salary changes every four years. This proposal would give the constituency a voice in the senators’salary but wouldn’t prevent senators from receiving a reasonable salary. The $400 a month the sena tors currently cam isn't enough. If passed, the salary increase would be the first for the Legis lature in 20 years. Four hundred dollars a month is barely enough for a college student to survive on, let alone a state senator. During discussion .Friday, Sen. Ernie Chambers of Omaha put legislative salaries in the best perspective. He said that during his 18 years as a senator, he has earned only $86,000. He added that private firms have offered him jobs that pay that much in a year. Another senator, Tim Hall of Omaha, said he is considering leaving the Legislature if sala ries aren’t increased. “It’s very difficult for me to serve in this body with three kids and a mortgage and a wife who likes me home for dinner,” Hall said. Under the current pay struc ture, the Legislature risks losing good senators because they can no longer afford to serve their state. It also discourages middlc and lower-class people from running for public office. At a time when University of Nebraska-Lincoln faculty sala ries have stolen most of the spot light, voters need to remember what their senators arc doing for them — and how much they get for it. Reader: Apathy problem must be solvec lorry Dondlingcr’s letter (Daily Nebraskan, Feb. 24) is noteworthy in its implications. She ignores the fact that apathy exists among independ ent students primarily because of the Association of Students of the Uni versity of Nebraska. Think about it. If you saw an or ganization that advocates blanket tuition increases and surcharges, consistently rejects qualified inde pendent students in the appointments process, and then has the audacity to call you “apathetic,” would you want to become involved? Her assertion that all residence hall students who arc experienced leaders have been and will be active in ASUN is untrue. What constitutes “experienced” leadership in the real world docs nol necessarily meet the criteria set by a Greek-dominated appointments board. Residence hall students who apply for positions sadly Icam this. The idea that additional informa tion and support to the halls will compensate for Greek dominance is similarly absurd. Apathy can only be solved when student government seeks to more closely identify itself with the inter ests of all students. Brian Svoboda junior political science Reader says ‘Action X’ title is ‘immature’ This is in response lo Dave Reiter (Letters, Feb. 17). I have watched many letters come and go in the past few weeks about condom week, safe sex,Cathcr Resi dence Hall’s efforts and putting con dom machines in bathrooms. I have quietly agreed and disagreed with opinions on the various issues. However, I feel Reiter s letter comes from someone who is choos ing to run and hide from the situation and subject at hand. First of all, anyone who has to call sex “Action X” is a bit immature. If you can’t talk about it right, don’t talk at all. Second, I think it’s a major mis take to infer that some University of Ncbraska-Lincoln students can’t survive without sex by saying it is physically, psychologically and so cially impossible for them. I don’t think it’s any person’s right to judge the rest of the campus on sexual issues or any other. I would hope that having respect for others’ values is more important And who is so bold to say that UNL students deserve to have the state spend tax money to install con dom machines in the residence halls? Well, I can’t answer who in particu lar, because I don’t know. But what I do know is that the United States’ government and many state govern ments are doing what they can right now to help stop AIDS. Having con doms around could also prevent an unwanted pregnancy. Reiter, I would seriously recon sider what you wrote about the rest of the population here. Mary Pat Dolata senior interior design UNL vs. Harvard: no contest? Difference is at the bottom of the student roster, not at the top Ihave been to the mountain top — and I’ve seen the educational promised land. Surprisingly, the University of Ne braska-Lincoln isn’t that far from the top as an institution of higher learn ing. For years I’ve heard students be rate their UNL education as second rate. They argue that if only UNL were a “big-name” school, then they would have a real education. To those who have said this, I’ve been on your side. I’ve lamented about the green ness of the grass on the other side of UNL. How well educated I’d be if only I were at Stanford, Princeton or Harvard. Recently I spent some time in Boston at the Harvard National Model United Nations. Having been there, I must admit the ivy has been ruffled just a bit. And the vines wrapped around UNL have been strengthened. I sat in on a political-science class at Harvard. As it turned out, it was the same course I had taken here. They even used the same book. Unlike Nebraska, the Harvard class had only eight students. UNL’s was three times that number. Every Harvard student was articulate, defending his or her position pretty well. The same could not be said of each individual in my UNL class. All members of this Ivy League class spoke. Not true back here in the Big Eight, where the verbally articulate numbers roughly equaled Harvard. Before walking into class, I fig ured the weight of the Harvard intel lect would be too much for my mere Nebraska legs to carry. But this didn’t happen. No awesome persua sive rhetoric or sharp wit was shown. Had any upper-echelon UNL class mates been there, they could have held their own. The Harvard professor actively led his class, prodding and prying for inconsistencies. His UNL counter part played a more passive role, fa cilitating sludcnt-to-studcni debate. Though treated to one class and markedly different leaching styles, I cannot say this very gixxl Harvard professor was head and shoulders above the competition as I had ex pected. In other words, the professor from UNL gets similar high marks in my grading book. After class, I spoke with the Har vard professor, who previously taught at the University of Washing ton He echoed those commonly held conceptions, or misconceptions, about Harvard students — exceed ingly bright, uncommonly sharp, outside the intellectual realm of us mere mortals at “inferior” institu tions. Or at least those were his views before coming to Harvard. After two years, the Angels had landed. The creme dc la creme at Harvard arc no brighter, he said, than those at, _— say, a Washington or Nebraska. “The best student I ever had — probably ever will have — was at Wash U,” he said. The big difference, he went on to say, lies not with those top students, but those at the bottom. A prestigious private institution like Harvard can afford a higher quality cut-off line than a state-supported school like Nebraska. Any cattle fed country kid can become a Comhusker. Hardly so for those harboring hopes for Harvard. While a big Ivy League school with a rich tradition like Harvard can afford to skim off the cream, Nebraska geLs a lot of milk. Thai’s inevitable at a state-run school established to provide its resi dents a quality education at an “af fordable” price — not a word in the Harvard vocabulary. The professor’s other main point: Most students are very active outside ihcclassroom. Among the students in his class are the Harvard heads of Young Democrats and Young Americans for Freedom. And yel these two didn’t strike me as young John F. Kennedys or Barry Goldwalers, any more than we think a young George Norris or Willa Cathcr could possibly be sitting next to us in our UNL classrooms. My Harvard-to-Nebraska saga could stop at the words of one profes sor, in one classroom, on one day at Harvard. But 1 saw the fruits of his message come to term. While participating in the Har vard National Model United Nations, 1 witnessed a student unite the world powers, including the United Stales and Soviet Union (practically un heard of in the real U.N.). This dele gate, leading Eastern kids around like a matador dragging a bull by the nose, was from UNL. Taking a break from the confer ence, I slipped out to see the John F. Kennedy Memorial Library. The slain president, one of our country’s most admired, was a graduate ol Harvard. The library contained a room full of Kennedy quotes. Unlike my previous Harvard experience, the weight of this Harvardites’ words was staggering. Practical politics teaches us that politicians’ speeches aren't always written by those public officials who bestow them upon the world. It wasn’t until I returned home that 1 realized Kennedy’s spccchwritcr was Ted Sorenson — a graduate of UNL. As educational institutions go, UNL isn’t the Harvard of the Plains. Each year, the university must find belter ways to allocate shrinking funds. Each year, professors leave for greener monetary pastures at other schools. Years and money will he needed to reverse this trend. But one weekend taught me some thing that more than four years of college could not. The quality of one’s education doesn’t depend on the institution as much as n does on the individual. Coffey is a senior political science major and a Daily Nebraskan arts and entertain ment reporter. Imprecise use of word ‘Hispanic causes confusion, counselor says There is a growing contro versy and fuss over the cur rent use of the word His panic. There arc personal campaigns across the United Stales beginning to protest the use of the imprecise word Hispanic as the term used to describe all U.S. residents of Latin-American extraction. The reality is that no eth nic group fits the Hispanic label. Each individual within a culture has been affected by unique experi ences as well as by common cultural experiences. One of the central issues thatChicanos/Mexicans.Cubansand Puerto Ricans and others must con tend with is their perception of their own ethnic or cultural identification. Identification refers to a process by which an individual assumes a pat tern of behavior characteristic of other people in his or her' environ ment. Although identification clearly refers to the totality of self experience, the term cultural identi fication refers to that part of the self that includes those values, altitudes and standards that constitute cul tural-group membership. To be a Chicano/Mcxican is to reaffirm our pride in our R AZA. To be Hispanic is to compromise and to accommodate. The decade of the 1970s was sup posed to resolve the issue of what we would call ourselves. Unfortunately, wc as a people did not come up w ith a term that was satisfactory . Instead, Chicanos/Mcxicans, Cubans and Puerto Ricans have been caught up in the frcn/.yofpoliticsand psychologi cal warfare that paints a picture of a people on the move. Slogans such as “The 1980s will be the decade of the Hispanics” swept us into using the term Hispanic. Understanding the psychology of the C hicano/Mcxican American has not been easy. In the past, it seemed that many were ashamed to be Chica nos/Mcxicanos. They claimed to be Americans — they even denied hav ing any Mexican blood. But how could they explain their last name? Easily: They were Spanish; they were Americans of Spanish descent. In 1988, they arc now Spanish rather than Chicano/Mcxican American still for the same denial reasons. Every time wc use the word His panic, arc we not consciously or unconsciously denying our rightful ethnic identity? For our young Chicano/Mcxican children, it’s important that they have a good self-concept and iden tity. It’s important for positive self esteem that they tie their ethnic iden tity to their cultural background. America, long known as a “melting pot” of diverse racial and cultural groups, has forced the concept of assimilation upon many of its immi grants. Yet we have learned that wc can be good American citizens under the concept of acculturation. Many of us have made positive contributions to the United States, but not at the expense of denying our ethnicity. In spite of the confusion anil in the public mind of us as a single group. Chicanos/Mcxicans, Cubans and Puerto Ricans embrace cultures almost as rich and varied as America itself. If our names arc varied, so too are the ways we feel, see and think about our ethnic pride. Is it really hot air over nothing — over an insignificant word like His panic? To promote things Hispanic is not to understand history correctly. Has anyone bothered to find out w hat Hispanic means or represents? In the World Book Encyclopedia, the word Hispanic is defined as Spanish, meaning that when we hear people talk about Hispanic culture, they are referring to Spanish culture. Spanish culture historically in the Americas was one of conquest; it was imposed on our populations. In the dictionary, Hispanic is defined as an adjective referring to Spanish and Portuguese. I’m not quite sure that Cubans, Puerto Ricans and Chicano/Mcxi* cans are pioclaiming that through this Hispamcizing, they want to claim their European roots. Yet it s a fact that Mexicans, Cubans, Puerto Ricans, and people from Central America and the Caribbean arc lumped together for convenience. Dr. Marty Ramirez counselor Psychologist Counseling Center