Page E ft | {-Avi :;?i 1 Nebraskan
4 - % % / H * Monday, March 28,1988
I Nebraskan
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Mike Rcilley, Editor, 472-1766
Diana Johnson, E-dilorial Page Editor
Jen Desclms, Managing Editor
Curt Wagner, Associate News Editor
Chris Anderson, Associate News Editor
Joan Rczac, Copy Desk Chief
Joel Carlson, Columnist
Pay lor players
Chambers’ good intentions miss mark
State Sen. Ernie Cham
bers of Omaha has mis
sed the mark with his
bill to pay Nebraska football
players, but he has unearthed
some problems that college ath
letes face today.
Chambers’ bill, LB 1226,
would treat scholarship football
players at the University of
Nebraska-Lincoln as employees
of the university and allow them
to be paid for their efforts on the
field. An amendment was added
to the bill requiring four of the
other five Big Eight schools’
states to enact similar legislation
for tiie bill to take effect.
Chambers argues that football
players are being “exploited” be
cause they generate big bucks for
the university, while receiving
no compensation. But Chambers
needs to remember that these
players aren’t being forced to
play football. No one held a gun
to their heads and made them
sign that letter of intent to play
football at Nebraska. They’re
here because they want to be.
Granted, the university rakes
in thousands of dollars from TV
contracts, ticket sales and other
revenue generated from football.
That money finances UNL’s
“non-revenue” sports such as
volleyball, track and women’s
basketball. Football and men’s
basketball arc the only money
making sports at UNL..
If the football revenue were to
be reinvested in the football
program to pay players, the other
! sports would suffer. Programs
would eventually be cut, and
UNL would lose quality student
athletes to other universities.
Nebraska Athletic Director
Bob Devaney also brought up an
interesting point. If UNL were to
pay its players and other univer
sities didn’t, UNL would have
no one to play. Nebraska’s play
ers would be considered profes
sionals and would be ineligible
"for NCAA-sanctioned games.
And that’s something UNL
Chancellor Martin Masscngale
doesn’t want.
“If this bill revolves around
the professionalization of ama
teur athletes, our supporting it
would send out the wrong sig
nal,” Massengale said. “It would
give the appearance that we’re
emphasizing athletics more than
we should.”
And it’s not as if col lege foot- |
ball players are starving. They
already have two sources of in
come.
Although they can’t work
during the school year, they can
hold summer jobs. Scholarship
players also can qualify for up to
$1,4(X) a year in Pell Grants. The
NCAA raised the Pell Grant
amount for athletes from $9(X)to
$1,4(X) last January.
Over the years Chambers has
had good intentions with his leg- I
islation concerning UNL athlet
ics. A few years ago he pushed a
bill to guarantee scholarships to
athletes who were injured.
And Chambers is again look- .
ing out for the interests of col- |
lege athletes with his “pay the
players” bill. Unfortunately, the
proposal, if passed, would sack \
UNL and its athletic department
for a big loss.
Reader: Bible does not demean women
i nave never attended a brown bag
Lunch at the University of Nebraska*
Lincoln, and if Professor Elaine
Kruse is a typical example of the kind
of speakers at these events, I plan not
to attend one in the future. A March 18
Daily Nebraskan story shows Kruse s
anti-Bible predisposition toward in
vestigating the role of women.
Kruse gave many examples of
“religious” perversions and also said
that the Bible demeans women. 1
can’t deny that some lunatics in the
past, and no doubt today, have missed
the entire message of the Bible and
have created their own methodology
and hokey rituals for “worshipping”
God. But to attribute these perver
sions to God or His Word is going
much too far.
The bizarre actions Kruse dis
cussed arc not based on the Bible, but
rather on cull-like devotion to
pseudo-Christian themes. If Kruse
tries to equate the Bible and human
philosophy of religion, she will find
that the two are incompatible. To
choose human religious philosophy
over the Bible as the norm is a fallacy.
The Bible doesn’t say that women
are to be “pus suckers” or anything of
the kind. The Bible has many ex
ampies oi women wno louowea
God’s leading and contributed a great
deal to the real universal church —
the one that is composed of persons
who, regardless of what denomina
tion, are followers of the teachings of
Jesus and the apostles. Even in the
Old Testament, there are examples of
women who were leaders and hero
ines.
This is not to say that the Bible
doesn’t differentiate the role of
women and men. The one who made
man and woman is well aware of the
differences he made in the two and
has accordingly set up guidelines to
help us know how we can be most
useful to him. Those who refuse to
accept that there are at least some
differences between men and women
will find themselves, so to speak,
kicking against the goads.
We should be united against the
human conventions that have pre
vented women from living up to their
potential. But we shouldn’t be fight
ing against God, who has thankfully
made us different.
Gene Wiggins
senior
computer science
Editorials do not necessarily re
flect the views of the university, its
employees, the students or the NU
Board of Regents.
The Daily Nebraskan’s publishers
arc the regents, who established the
UNL Publications Board tosupcrvise
the daily production of the paper.
According to policy set by the
regents, responsibility for the edito
rial content of the newspaper lies
solely in the hands of its student edi
tors.
- •
" THATA RlfeHT^TADA^^T'LL COLT W 15i To MAH. THAT ^
LETTER... MAW, would You Also LIKE IT DELIVERED?"
I__
What you see is what you get
Dressing for success is an uncomfortable societal institution
ou mignt nave seen u— tnai
stylish shampoo commer
cial being run on the air
waves lately. This attractive young
woman is talking to her handsome
boyfriend, trying to convince him to
use the shampoo. She says something
like; “You may never get a second
chance for a first impression.”
What she said is true. The first time
we see someone makes a big differ
ence as to how we perceive that per
son later. If a person has, God forbid,
dandruff, we may never again look at
him or her in the same light.
This also holds true for clothes and
hair styles. The trend of cosmetic
plastic surgery is now even being
advertised. I guess everybody wants
to be like Michael Jackson. Some
people just have to be in style; they
have to make a certain statement with
the image they create for themselves.
And then there arc the people who
create the fashions for the workplace.
A second edition of the best-selling
book “Dress for Success” has recently
hit the bookstores, telling people how
certain colors work best to give one
the proper image for the office. Ac
cording to the book, this will, in the
long run, help people be successful.
It’s dress for success, so to say.
An image is being created solely
for one’s success. People seem to be
more concerned about the facade of
their appearance than the perform
ance of their work.
But who am I to talk about style?
I’m the kind of guy who worships
Oscar Madison, that slob sports writer
on “The Odd Couple.” My roommate
can attest that I pattern my style after
Oscar. So can my mother.
I buy a lot of my clothes at used
clothing stores, and what I get isn’t
fashionable. Nor can 1 dress up with
them. All ties do is choke me. I don’t
want to meet my end with a piece of
cloth.
I like to follow the advice of Henry
David Thoreau, who in his book
“Walden” declared that clothes are
designed to keep a person warm and
nothing else.
But just looking around campus, I
see a great many people who are
influenced by present fashions. I
don trcaducniicman squarterly,so
I can’t name the fashions. However,
I can identify them.
Personally, I w ould be happy if on
just one day everybody from the top
levels of administration to the low li
est student would come to school and
work wearing w hat they were most
comfortable in.
Why not this Friday?
People who follow the current
styles are primarily looking for an
image, something a little bit different
than themselves — something that
shows they arc not totally happy with
themselves.
But image doesn’t necessarily
have to be an individualistic state
ment in the style of clothing. Any
thing can have an image. While
people will have some sort of image
no matter what kind of efforts they put
into it, too often their image is manu
factured.
The same is true of numerous uni
versities across the South that have
turned down the opportunity to have a
major motion picture shot on their
campuses. Newsweek On Campus
recently reported that the upcoming
movie “Everybody’s All-American*
was turned down at North Carolina,
Georgia, Mississippi and Alabama.
Finally, Louisiana State University
allowed film crews on its campus.
The film, which deals in part with
the racial tensions that pervaded the
South during the 1950s and 1960s,
was turned down by those universities
because they didn’t want to hurt the
image they had worked so long to
build and maintain.
“Everybody is real careful about
image these days. We’ve worked very
hard to overcome the effects of past
discrimination,” said Steve Frankel,
special assistant to the president of the
university oi ueorgia, according 10
the maga/inc.
I’m glad they’ve worked so hard to
fight their racial problems. But that
image they’ve worked so hard to
maintain is not what is important
What is important is what they ha\o
actually accomplished. Maybe there
is not as much racism as there onto
was. But wc can’t be sure of that
because the image says so. Images
can he misleading.
Maintaining that image so strin
gently may only foster further dis
crimination and racial tension. It is
almost as if they arc embarrassed
about any gains they might have made
since that time and do not want to
show the difference. It could he that
they don’t want people to see hou
racist they still are.
But no matter what their image
may be now, those schools cannot
erase the past by merely denying a
movie to be shot in their midsts. Film
ing “Everybody’s All-American”
isn’t going to make them appear racist
any more than they might deserve to
be by any of their actions.
If the pride Frankcl has for the
University of Georgia is so deserved,
then it should be willing to allow such
a production. There is nothing to he
feared any longer with such a stand.
People and institutions seem too
concerned about their images. A per
son doesn’t have to follow the latest
fashions from GQ or Vogue. The
same is true with something as large
as a university. Image, therefore,
should not be that important.
But try telling that to most people
today. Being successful, for many, is
crucial to a happy life. Subsequently,
they think they have to be able to
“dress for success.”
Success shouldn’t be measured by
the way one looks. Or the way an
institution appears. It is measured by
what is done underneath those looks.
When we don’t worry so much
about image, only then can we defeat
those things we so much like to say wc
disdain.
Fry is a graduate student in news-editorial
and is the editor of The Sower maga/Jne.
i IIC L/dliy HUUld^Kdll WCIIUIIIC5
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