Editorial
| Nebraskan
| University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Curt Wagner, Editor, 472-1766
Mike Rcillcy, Editorial Page Editor
Diana Johnson, Managing Editor
Lee Rood, Associate News Editor
Bob Nelson, Wire Page Editor
Andy Pollock, Sower Editor & Columnist
Craig Heckman, Columnist
Problems unsolved
| Women's center needs to find its place
An open forum Monday night to establish the role of
the Women’s Resource Center at the University of
Nebraska-Lincoln brought few results.
An eight-member review team, chosen by Vice Chan
cellor for Student Affairs James Griesen, listened to
several hours of testimony from students, faculty and
staff, alumni and community members.
But nothing was settled — and it needs to be. Soon.
One of the complaints raised by debaters was that few
people on campus know that the Women’s Resource
Center exists.
This wasn’t always the case.
Four or five years ago, the Women’s Resource Center
was a prominent group on campus. Not positive, just
prominent. Many women involved in the group tore up
I Playboy magazines in the name of feminism.
But that wasn’t a very nice thing to do, and it stigma
tized the center as a lesbian hangout.
Nanci Hamilton, a UNL student and WRC volunteer,
| said Monday that the center should promote itself to a
larger degree “to let people know that feminism is for
| everyone, not just for radical lesbians.”
Hamilton is right. Men can be feminists too, and the
! Women’s Resource Center plays a valuable role on
f campus by promoting the accomplishments of women.
Students should be allowed to play an active role in
deciding how to promote the center.
; Bridget Franks, a former WRC volunteer, said at the
forum that when students raised concerns, they often were
I ignored.
But the Women’s Resource Center is designed to
educate the UNL community, so input from that commu
nity should be important in establishing the role of the
center.
Peg Johnson, director of special projects in Griesen’s
office, said the current WRC coordinator, Katherine
Araujo, was asked not to attend the debate, so that discus
sion would be uninhibited.
A Daily Nebraskan reporter also was asked to leave the
debates. The reporter left, but later returned.
Johnson should check Nebraska’s open meeting policy.
An open forum is supposed to be open to the public and
the press.
That’s what promotes discussion.
After all, if no one knows about the problems, how can
they offer suggestions to solve them?
— Amy Edwards
for the Daily Nebraskan
Reader doubts Kerrey’s support of farmers
It surprises me to hear some tarm
leaders and farmers praising former
Gov. Bob Kerrey for his policies
expounded during his U.S. senatorial
debate with Dave Karnes last week at
the Nebraska State Fair.
Kerrey’s support for Initiative 300
was tenuous and weak. Kerrey ap
pointed Attorney General Robert
Spire, the arch enemy of Initiative
300. He has used the laws in every
conceivable way to allow big busi
ness to win over the farmer.
If you farmers really think Kerrey
is going to lake care of you if he is
elected to the U.S. Senate, just look at
who elected him governor. It was big
business in the state. These are the
very people who are undermining
Initiative 300.
One farmer told me that45 percent
ot hts tarm income came irom gov
ernment subsidy. When this happens,
you can better believe that it took
about the same percentage for admin
istrative cost for the federal govern
ment to oversee giving these subsi
dies. We need less government in
farming.
I for one want to sec the farmer
make his fair share, but I don’t care to
pay my tax dollars for administrative
costs to the federal government This
is a no-win proposition for farmers
and non-farmers because it increases
lax liability for all.
Again, I remind farmers that Ker
rey appointed Spire, who is using
every means possible to sabotage
Initiative 300 which I too, voted for.
Robert Schiebinger
Lincoln
edilofijftt
Signed staff editorials represent
the official policy of the fall 1988
Daily Nebraskan. Policy is set by the
Daily Nebraskan Editorial Board.
Editorials do not necessarily re
;; t< , "H ‘ .>♦ *i. uU
licet the views of the university, its
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.
. : i. >' :’UtttUtviHitiilHlH
I BULL SHORTS I
This is the first of what I hope to be a series of
features where I speak my beef. . . , _ T
"Let those who riae decide." That was a sticker I saw
on a motorcycle helmet. I could care less if you idiots
who ride cycles without helmets want to commit suicide.
I, however, don't want to be financially and emotion
ally bankrupt because I made a terrible mistake and nit
you with my car and you were killed because you were
not wearing a helmet as opposed to wearing a helmet and
just getting banged up pretty bad. I have seen my share
of cycle accidents ana you will get banged up.
Why are there not bike paths for the bicycle rides on
campus? All to often between classes when the sidewalks
are busy, that admitted minority of bicycle riders
create havoc with pedestrians.
I know Sen. David Karnes' statement that we nave too
many farmers was a slip of tne tongue, yet he may have
a point. Tfce -government must subsidize many of the
farmers and it can be argued that cor
porate farms can do it cheaper, so what
is the real issue? It's that farming
is a way of life. This may be
so, but then why hasn't the
government subsidized the
corner family market of the
family butcher or the black
smith?
If you have a beef
about what is happen
ing in the world, write
me here at the Daily
Nebraskan.
Stereotypes still exist at UNL
Racism in Nebraska loses nasty sting, while the pain lingers
□here has been a lot of talk re
cently about racism and dis
crimination on the University
of Nebraska-Lincoln campus. We tell
ourselves racism does not exist here,
not today anyway. After all, Martin
Luther King Jr. wiped ilaway with his
civil rights movement in the 1960s.
Racism docs exist, discrimination
shades our vision, and King’s dream
remains unfulfilled.
A page from the Aug. 26 USA
Today, devoted to a discussion of
King’s dream, hangs on a bulletin
board in the south part of the Ne
braska Union. It quotes Dorothy
Height, president of the National
Council of Negro Women.
“Dr. King’s dream is far from real
ized, but I think the inspiration that it
has instilled has awakened a new
determination for full participation in
the hearts of his people and all
people,” Height said.
Granted, racism has lost its nasty
sting, for the most part in Nebraska,
but pain lingers.
So what constitutes racism in con
temporary Nebraska and at UNL?
Jimmi Smith, director of Multi
cultural Affairs at UNL, helped clear
my understanding of the term.
“Racism today,” Smith said,
“occurs not so much out of spite, but
rather out of neglect.”
The problem arises not from our
hearts so much as from our heads,
which are driven by societal pres
sures.
“Our society,” Smith said, “has
taught people that we have to be
rewarded for everything we do.”
Most UNL employees and slu
ftuiiittftt'fttMftiwt
denis arc not concerned with how
minority students arc developing and
prosperinjg from their college experi
ence, Smith said. The homogeneous
environmental UNLdocs not tolerate
people coming into contact with
people who are different.
Smith said there are no rewards to
encourage majority (white) people to
make contacts with minorities. In
stead, a “What do I get out of it?”
attitude stifles the interaction.
What kinds of rewards is Smith
talking about?
Primarily economic, monetary
incentives, he said.
It is sickening, in my view, to think
that money is the force that drives us
so powerfully and singularly. I’ve
often asked myself whether money
has become our god. Smith’s com
ments reinforce my idea that it indeed
has.
Stevie Wilson, former chairperson
of the Black Special Events Commit
tee of the University Program Coun
cil, has been active in the Afrikan
People’s Union and iscurrcntly on the
AS UN appointments board. He
agreed with Smith in saying that
while racism does not exist so overtly
as it did 20 years ago, it is by no means
absent from society.
..! *. { *' ’• * • f•' if. Hi m i. ; v, •
Wilson, a broadcasting senior,
said majority students often stere
otype minority students. For instance,
in a recent letter to the editor of the
Daily Nebraskan, a sfudent wrote that
most black students arc athletes — a
fallacy.
“You have to win people over,"
Wilson said, “to overcome the stere
otype.”
Miguel Carranza, the director of
the Institute for Ethnic Studies and an
associate professor of sociology and
ethnic studies, said that in order to
help eliminate such stereotypes,
people — both the majority and mi
norities— must share views.
Carranza said he’s pleased with
steps vice chancellors James Gricscn
and Robert Furgason arc taking to
address minority issues. He added
that a coordinated and well thought
out plan with specific goals and ob
jectives needs to be implemented
across the university ...
Carranza said the entire university
must work to increase the presence of
minorities on campus by recruiting
students, faculty and staff.
“The first step to break down atti
tudes,” he said, "is to change the
environment. Interaction is the best
way to tear down barriers.”
Like Height, whom I quoted above
from the USA Today, Carranza.
Wilson and Smith believe that “full
participation in the hearts of his
people and all people” is necessary to
eradicate what remains of racism.
Enlightened.
It is the best word to describe the
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