Editorial
—^ *1 Curt Wagner, Editor, 472-1766
. Da ily ^ Mike Reilley, Editorial Page Editor
1^. T am j-Diana Johnson, Managing Editor
I I || /ISI.ee Rood, Associate Sews Editor
J- ^ fc/XMl-rXnlf 1 m. Boh Nelson, Wire Page Editor
University of Nebraska-Lincoln Craig Heckman, Columnist
l Andy Pollock, Columnist
UNL, ASUN take note
KSU sets pace infighting discrimination
B> ihe end of the year, Kansas State University can
become one of the first universities in the nation to
have an official policy condemning discrimination on
college campuses.
And the University of Nebraska-Lincoln needs to
follow suit.
The Kansas State Collegian reported Sept. 8 that
working drafts of the policy are being considered by
i members of the Faculty Senate, Classified Affairs Com
mittee and Student Senate.
According to the Collegian, Kansas State Provost
James Coffman said the document is an anti-racial harass
ment policy.
“The intent (of formulating the policy) is to raise
i>v»rvhivtv'c 1j»v*»1 nf r'Ancrinucivct ” Pr'iffman <aifl “Wfi
just felt like it was a step that had to be taken at this
time.”
It’s a step that the Associa *on of Students of the Uni
versity of Nebraska should ‘.ike, too.
With upcoming legislation concerning minority faculty
recruitment and retention, ASUN should take heed of the
Kansas State action and deliver the same type of docu
ment to UNL administrators.
Coffman said the policy has two purposes: “to increase
^ the number of ethnic minorities and to contribute to a
community atmosphere more attractive to minorities; and
1 to decrease attitudes of discrimination against minorities.”
Kansas State professor Charles Rankin, chairman of the
committee that formulated the policy, said the most
important thing about the policy is that it “has teeth” and
I provides a course of action if violated.
And that’s exactly what’s missing from the ASUN bill.
It skirts around the issue, refusing to clearly define the
I discrimination problem and arriving at an intelligent
solution.
But Rankin said Kansas State's policy helps the univer
sity in “coming to grips with things that have been ig
nored and overlooked in the past. The most crucial thing
about this is keeping it out in front.”
The Daily Nebraskan agrees. It is important to recog
nize the problem before you can work to solve it. That’s
something ASUN and UNL administrators must under
stand.
Alcoholics can’t seek help until they have admitted
% their problems to themselves.
The next round’s not on us.
— Curt Wiper
for the Daily Nebraskan
Dyrda’s response blasted
Annette Dyrda s response (Daily
Nebraskan, Sept. 1) to Jim Ander
son’s letter (DN, Aug. 29) about
Contra aid provided a typical ex
ample of the sort of arguments used
by supporters of Contra aid.
The gist of these arguments is that
not only arc the Sandinistas a wrong
and uncxcusable government, but
that by being communist and sup
ported by the Soviet Union, they pose
a threat to national security by provid
ing a starting point for communist
infiltration and invasion.
There are no black and whites in
world politics — the Sandinistas arc
no angels. Keep in mind that neither
are the Contras, who from all reports
appear to be much less noble than
these “freedom fighters’’ we keep
hearing about. Human rights viola
tions of any kind in any severity are
m * a • m
unacceptable.
You can rationalize, justify, argue
and support all you want, but the fact
remains that Nicaragua isn’t the
United Slates, part of the United
States, or under its jurisdiction. All
the arguments for Contra aid fall apart
and become moot when we rcaJizc
that.
Not only is it arrogant of us to
assume that a form of government
that works here is going to work in a
small, still-developing country with a
vastly different culture, but it’s also
immoral and dangerous when we
extend that train of thought so far as to
believe that we have the right to cor
rect “errors” in other countries.
Kirk Johnson
sophomore
English
-
Signed staff editorials represent the
official policy of the fall 1988 Daily Ne
braskan Policy is set by the Daily Ne
braskan Editorial Board. Its members are
Curt Wagner, editor; Mike Reilley, edito
rial page editor; Diana Johnson, manag
ing editor; Ixe Rood, associate news
•ditor; Andy Pollock, columnist; Bob
Nelson, wire page editor; and Craig
Heckman, columnist.
Editorial columns represent the opin
ion of the author.
The Daily Nebraskan’s publishers are
the regents, who established the UNL
Publications Board to supervise the daily
production of the paper.
According to policy set by the regents,
responsibility for the editorial content ol
the newspaper lies solely in the hands ol
its student editors.
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Allen not too far off mark
Greek life criticized as hypocritical, elitist
Many faithful Daily Nebras
kan readers have cringed at
the recent discovery of “The
Best of Bill Allen” being printed this
semester on the editorial page.
Many readers, namely freshmen,
don’t even know or care who Bill
Allen was.
Those are the lucky ones.
Bill was a columnist, an Arts and
Entertainment editor and resident
madman at the DN for several years.
He had a bad habit of making a lot of
people very angry. Others considered
Bill “very good humor.”
On campus. Bill was cither loved
or hated for his sarcastic, often one
sided beliefs about some of the Uni
versity of Nebraska’s oldest institu
tions: grcck system, Husker football
and alcohol. Bill didn’t have very
many friends at the Association of
Students of the University of Ne
braska and was never invited to a little
sister social event.
What many people didn’t under
stand about Bill w as that he thrived on
“pissing people off.” Letters to the
editor, nasty phone calls and dirty
looks in local bars only increased his
fun. The more he angered people, the
worse his columns became.
Most of the lime, Bill wrote for
fun. Unfortunately, the groups and
individuals he poked his fun at look
the topics very seriously.
I enjoyed reading what Bill wrote,
I’ll admit that. I didn’t always agree
with him, but I always got a good
laugh. But what I always wanted Bill
to do, along with other fans, was, for
once, to come out and give logical
reasons why something wasn’t right
instead of hinting at it.
Bill had mostof his fun with frater
nity and sorority members. He made
fun of how they dressed, how they
talked, their social functions and their
ideals. He wrote about everything
from them taking greek life too seri
ously to rumors about sorority
women.
But what he never pointed out, at
least in the columns I read, is some of
the most fundamental reasons why
the grcck system is pointless.
In my own defense, let me say that
I am talking about the system, not the
individuals in it. I have several grcck
friends, whom I respect very much.
But 1 would respect them more, if they
made an effort to change several
aspects of the system that arc clearly
wrong.
The idea of a fraternal organiza
tion is a nice concept. It would be nice
to think that students could have
homes full of friends, brotherhood
charity and learning.
But today, the greek system seems
to have other priorities.
The philosophy of brotherhood
has given way to a sense of elitism —
those up and coming young people
who arc special enough to be “the
chosen ones.”
Its clear to those outside the system
that everyone is not welcome in greek
houses.
The process of rush is a prime
example. Girls dress up in their finest
clothes, do their hair “just right,” and
hope to say the right things in order to
fit in. Men arc told by fraternity ac
tives that their house has the prettiest
women come to their parties, test files
to help them breeze through class and
a cool reputation.
But you won’t sec too many mi
norities in these houses. Blacks have
had to develop tneir own nouses m
order to belong to the grcck system. I
haven’t met any Asian or Native
American grccks, so to speak. And
the grcck houses arc not accessible to
people in wheelchairs.
During rush, some brothers and
sisters stress the importance of house
philanthropic activities. But those
activities arc once or twice a year and
looked upon by many people as an
other reason to gel drunk.
Grccks have parties like the rest of
us on campus. You can’t complain
that they get drunk a lot. But the
parties arc always behind closed
doors — opening them to some
strangers, shutting out others. Greeks
will have parties with other greeks
before they’d even think about
“dormies.” A football player at a I rat
party: rurgct u. rv pic.uy «
nice —? You bet.
Those stupid things arc what Bill
liked to dwell on. And that’s what
made grccks so mad. That’s what
made others so damned happy.
I don’t intend to be a grcck-bashcr,
ASUN-slammer or administration
hater this year. Bill did that well
enough on his own. Bull might cover
some of the same ground every once
in while, if 1 think students still need
to open their eyes.
Hopefully, the DN won’t have to
print loo many Allen reruns this year.
Receiving 20 letters once a column is
enough. Receiving the same amount
the second time around makes you
laugh.
1 won’t be mentioning Allen s
name anymore in my columns either.
Seeing it, may drive the few readers I
have away. Instead, with this column
I hope to help put his memory to rest.
He definitely had a way with words,
but I needn’t replace mine with his.
Rood Is a senior news-editorial major and
a DN associate news editor.
Editor s note: This strip will appear
Campus Notes three times a week on the editorial page.
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