Editorial _
I Net?raskan
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Curt Wagner, Editor, 472-1766
Mike Reilley, Editorial Page Editor
Diana Johnson, Managing Editor
Lee Rood, Associate News Editor
Bob Nelson, Wire Page Editor
Andy Pollock, Columnist
Micki Haller, Entertainment Editor
Solving quarrels
DN suggests solution for poll problem
Stop bickering.
There’s a simple solution to the quarrel about
where to put polls for the Association of Students of
the University of Nebraska elections.
If student leaders want to increase participation in elec
tions, they should locate the polls based on high-traffic
districts instead of just where people live.
This isn’t an issue of whether the polls belong in the
residence halls or greek houses. It’s an issue of where
they would be most effective.
I The Residence Hall Association has encouraged ASUN
to place polling sites in the residence halls. Polling sites
are currently located in the Nebraska Union, the Walter
Scott Engineering Building and East Campus.
RHA officials have said adding sites will encourage
voter participation in the residence halls. True.
But fraternity and so. ority members argue that if polls
are put in residence halts, they should be in the greek
houses too. Good point. Therefore, to be fair to everyone,
the polling sites should be located where all students have
access to diem.
That was the inspiration for the Daily Nebraskan s poll
location plan (see map above). This plan would break the
campus into five districts, each with a centrally located
polling site.
It also would break down the whining between the resi
dence hall officials and greek houses.
The DN’s plan would keep the three current polling
sites and add booths at Harper-Schramm-Smith residence
hall and at Cornerstone, 640 N. 16th St.
The five sites would be spread far enough across
campus to serve the entire UNL community.
The current plan makes it difficult for some students to
get to the polls. Many Harper-Schramm-Smith students
never come to the Nebraska Union and would have to
make a special trip there or to Walter Scott.
Under the DN’s plan, the Walter Scott site would serve
Abel-Sandoz residence halls and a few greek houses. The
Cornerstone site would cover several fraternities and so
rorities along 16th street, the Neihardt and Cather-Pound
residence hall complexes.
Off-campus students often spend time at the unions and
could vote there. The Nebraska Union also would serve
the fraternities and sororities on the south side of R Street
and Selleck Quadrangle.
Harper-Schramm-Smith’s voting site would cover the
traffic on the north side of campus, which includes two
fraternities and two sororities. East Campus would have a
booth all its own.
The plan also would make it as convenient as possible
for the apathetic (but quick-to-criticize) students who
claim they are not given an opportunity to participate in
student government. This will give them a chance to show
up or shut up. No strings attached.
As far as the student leaders go, they can do what they
want with the proposal. The DN just wants them to stop
quarreling and get something done through cooperation -
for once.
- Ytlkc Retiey
and Curt Wagn«r
for Ike Dad\ Nebraska*
I_
- •— •
reaper]]
Timing of suicide story called disappointing
We would like lo comment in
regard to the article concerning the
suicide in Harper Residence Hall
(Daily Nebraskan, Dec. 12).
It is our opinion that the DN used
poor judgment in printing that par
ticular article at this time. Dead
Week and Finals Week are the most
stressful times of the semester and
articles such as the one the DN
printed only instill thoughts of such
irrational behavior. It’s from articles
like these that cause the domino ef
fect in suicides to occur. We realize
that the DN has the right to print
relevant information and news, but
its poor timing in reporting this story
disappoints us.
Beth Kuchta
sophomore
psychology
Jean Svoboda
sophomore
psychology
Editor's note: The DIN also
printed an editorial jflttfce Dec. 13
issue about sevet|d rniversity of
Nebraska-Lincolr* tounseIing pro
grams for students with depres
sion.
Possible ASUN
voting districts
[iVGreek Housing ~k
I District 5 on East Campus!
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- John Bruct/Daily Nebraskan
Sennett gives annual awards
'There’s one born every minute’ prizes listed
Once again, we come to that col
orful ritual known as “Dead
Week’’--the infamous days of
glory before the coming doom. As
much as orientation and exams, Dead
Week has its time-honored traditions
at the University of Ncbraska-Lin
coln.
Among the most cherished are
professional violations of Dead
Week regulations and the long lines
at the No-Doz counter of the Univer
sity Bookstore. But no Dead Week
custom is more cherished (for me, at
least) than the semi-annual presenta
tion of the “There’s One Bom Every
Minute” Awards, brought to you
each semester through this column.
This award is reserved for those
who have gone out of their individual
ways to make our lives especially
tedious and devoid of any obvious
connection with rationality. These
people cause us to challenge the
claim that we are the highest life form
on earth, and yet we take them in.
We put them on our front pages
and build entire television talk shows
around them. We buy magazines that
feature them and talk about them in
bars. We even create cutesie awards
columns to make fun of them. It is not
they who are the suckers, so much as
we. They cry “Wolf,” and we come
running with our tongues hanging
out.
This semester was especially rich
in its potential winners. As a result,
while there are more winners than
usual, there are even more who arc
deserving but not recognized.
One hundred lines only go so far,
and they must be reserved for the elite
fool-makers among us. So, without
further delay, here are the December
1988 winners.
The “Seat at the Back of the
Campaign” award goes to Demo
cratic presidential candidate Michael
Dukakis, who pledged last summer
that runner-up Jesse Jackson would
play a major part in his run for the
White House. Jackson was slightly
less visible on- the Democratic trail
than Dan Quaylc was on the Republi
can. And Dukakis wonders why
blacks stayed at home or voted Re
publican in near record numbers.
The “(i host boosters” award
goes to all the Boo Birds at UNL
home games this fall. On separate oc
casions these bastions of taste and de
corum razzed Nebraska Gov. Kay
Orr and our beloved Comhuskcr foot
ball team (when they left the field at
halftime of the Missouri game).
Best Supporting Actor in ttys calc
gory goes to those who chided the
Association of Students of the Uni
versity of Nebraska for doing the only
decent thing in apologizing to our
chief of state. Say what you will —
there is no such thing as the right to be
obnoxious.
Celebrity brat Christine Crawford
wins this year’s “Literarily
Ciuiided” award for publication of
her new book, “Survivor.” It is an
account of all the abuse she took from
literary critics in response to her first
book, “Mommie Dearest,” her
graphic and tasteless account of life
with Hollywood mom Joan
Crawford.
Well, if her latest effort is any
thing like the former, the critical tidal
wave may have only begun. I guess
next year we’ll gel “Child of Survi
vor. ’ ’
I
Outgoing Omaha Congressman
Hal Daub lakes home ihe “With
Friends Like You" award for his
single-handed decimation of Repub
lican Party strength in Nebraska.
Miffed by Orr’s refusal to appoint
him to the Senate scat vacated by the
late Ed Zorinsky, Daub committed a
political breach of etiquette of the
highest order by challenging Orr’s
appointee David Karnes in the Re
publican primary last spring.
As a result, Daub managed to split
the Republican Parly, pulling support
Irom Karnes and contributing to his
humiliating defeat at the hands of
Wunderkmd Bob Kerrey, while si
multaneously abandoning a sure-bet
re-election to the House of Represen
tatives and turning the state’s second
congressional seat over to the Demo
crat. I hear the Democratic Parly has
unofficially voted Daub its most
valuable player lor this year’s cam
paign.
f he 1988 “Pew-lit/er Pri/.e”
goes to the Daily Nebraskan editorial
stafl for twoof the greatest guffaws in
newspaper ranks. The morning alter
the elections, when George Bush was
elected to the most important politi
cal post in the world, the DN lead
story was about Kerrey trouncing
Karnes. Kerrey’s picture was splat
tered over the width of the front page
(you could almost hoar the echoing
strains of “Waltzing Matilda”)
while our new chief executive man
aged a small story on the bottom left
hand corner.
Then, the Monday after Ne
braska’s first victory over Oklahoma
in five years -- clearly the biggest
Nebraska sports story since Moc Iba
resigned -- the lead headline on the
sports page read, “Citrus Bowl
Awaits OU.” ‘Null said.
Nebraskans for the Right to Vote
takes home our “One Foot in the
(•rave” award for not know ing when
to die. The organization has an
nounced that it will continue inexis
tence to make sure that Nebraskans’
rights arc protected in the location of
a low-level nuclear waste dump in the
state. Look folks, you wanted us to
vote on the low-level nuclear dump.
We voted. You lost. Now pay your
bills, be quiet and leave us alone.
Finally, the “Watery (Jrave Dig
gers” award goes to those beloved
whalers of Point Barrow, Ala., who
worked so long and hard to save those
two whales from the arctic ice, then
resumed their livelihood of seeking
and destroying whales for profit. I
guess it’s no fun shooting lish in a
barrel.
It is intriguing, tnougn, tnui uiv
whales stood a better chance of get
ting out of the ice block alive than
they did of making it to the warmer
southern waters alive.
Once, I w as passed by a red pickup
truck with a gun rack and a silk screen
of flying geese on the back window.
My wife commented, “Isn’t it
strange how people who pul pictures
of animals on their trucks and clothes
usually spend a lot of their time kill
ing those animals? Love of nature
sure can make for strange bedlel
lows.”
Well, there you have it. The votes
are in and the “There’s One Born
(etc.)” Alumni Association has sev
eral new members. Of course there
are many who were deserving hut
simply didn’t make the cut. Well, like'
the Chicago Cubs and the Demo
cratic presidential hopefuls, there is
always next time.
And just think — I managed to
make it all the way through this with
out once mentioning Andrew Meyci
or the host of letter writers who in
sisted on sparring with him on the DN
editorial page. Some things aren t
even deserving of this dubious notice.
Sennett In a graduate student in philoso
phy and In a Daily Nebraskan editorial col
umnist.