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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 31, 1989)
Editorial University of Netoraska-Uncoln Curt Wagner, Editor, 472-1766 Amy Edwards, Editorial Page Educe Jane Hirt, Managing Editor ' jx Rood, Associate News Educe Diana Johnson, Wire Page Editor Chuck Green, Copy Desk Chief Lisa Donovan, Columnist Photo IDs beneficial Arguments for photo IDs virtually endless After a year of planning, University of Nebraska-Lincota admirastraiors have come up with a plan to provide everv student with a photo ID If the plan follows on schedule, U NL students will be able to push aside that often-embarrassing driver’s license mugshot for another snapshot this fall Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs lames Griesen said be would like to see the new IDs in partial use this fall. So would the Daily Nebraskan. The photo IDs would cost a one-hme fee between $7-50 and $10 and would be used by students throughout their attendance at UNL, Griesen said. That’s not much, considering all the beneficial uses the IDs would nave. The photo IDs would take the place of several cards now issued by UNL departments and would be coded to show that each student was eligible for that use. Machines at each department would read the coding, allow* ing the student to do whatever the coding permits. The number of cards required for students would go from five or $i% different cards to one, according to administrators. Administrators currently are discussing a variety of uses for the IDs. The IDs will replace the current campus ID card, library card. University Bookstore card and residence hall food service card. As the new campus-wide ID, students would use the card in many areas: • to vote in student government elections to gain entrance to sporting events to gain entrance to the Campus Recreation Center to use the University Health Center With the card, residence had students would be able to pay for only the meals which they choose to eat, and any student could pay a fee to die Nebraska unions at the beginning of the year and draw on that payment by using their IDs to buy meals in the union. The ID system also could be used to gain access to campus buildings or residence halJs. This would increase security in both these areas by lowering the chance oflosing access keys. The arguments for the cards are virtually endless, and those against it few. One problem voiced is the cost. Griesen says the initial cost to install the systems would be about $255,OCO, with an annual operating cost of $85,000. Griesen has said the new IDs wouldn’t end up raising student fees, although the departments, some student-funded, that would accept the IDs, would have to pay for the equipment and 10 to 25 percent of Us upkeep costs. Griesen said those costs would be offset by the money each department would save by accepting the card. For example, the health center loses about $12,000 annually because former students present their old IDs to get treated at the center. Under the new system, when students no longer attend the university, the codes mi their cards will be canceled immedi ately. If that’s the case, the Daily Nebraskan supports the new system, except for its one minor flaw: Can administrators guarantee a flattering photo on every student’s ID? - Curt Wagner for ihe OaUy Ntbrasim Integration’s cheap, student says We can all look forward to a lot of action this summer. Thai’s right, the long hot summer of ’89 is about to commence. Most of us know that enrollment in college, attendance in high school, life expectancy and stan dards of living all have gone down for blacks. At the same time, violence, drug abuse and criminal convictions have gone up. Why? Integration is a scam! it’s a cheap, two-bit trick used to defuse the power of the civil rights movement and pacify the revolution aries. The movement was sold out. The Civil Rights Movement made progress? Who arc we kidding? To paraphrase Malcolm X, ‘for 400 years the while man has had a fool long knife in the back of the black man.” Then he wiggles it around and pulls it out maybe six inches, and you want to call that progress? And lately, we’ve even started slipping that same knife back in with our support of apartheid, which is a humiliation to every black in the United States, and with the occur rence of racist attacks on almost ev ery campus in America. At the University of Texas, black student Randy Bowman reported that two while men wearing Ronald Re agan masks terrorized him by dan gling him outside of his dorm room window in 1986. A cross was burned on the front lawn of a University of Alabama black sorority house in 1986. A flyer was circulated at the Uni versity of Michigan, declaring “Open Season” on blacks in 1987. I could cite more examples, but 1 don’t think it’s necessary. We cannot sit idly by, hoping and praying for a heaven hereafter for the oppressed, while the oppressor has his heaven here on earth. This time, the revolution will not be stayed. Joe Bowman junior cultural anthropology/pre-law rBULL SHORTS I W-t i. M .n,ry tod»y? TV co-.rci.lr W. device that deserves to have it's name in capital le4tt® / vouna I have a right to talk out on television? A TV babysat ®e around? I also worked at an ad agency right out of college <theJ^r** ^r Car commercials, that's what makes me angry. J machine commercials have to make their product behave like a tank or ski or rollercoaster? Then they state, in tiny little letters, not to try this Y °Vo*kswa gon has engineers arguing over who will change a tireaftert he car has run over rator-sharp razor thingys The question any educated person would ask is: Why is only the front tire flat? Oldsmobile has sons and daughters of famous people pushing their products. The voice-over sings, ''this is not your father's Oldsmo bile.'' Why then does Elvis's daughter AND wife pop up on a commercial? Pricilla is not Elvis's daughter. And didn't Elvis buy Cadillacs? Lifestyle disease strikes UNL Columnist airs grievances about sidewalk traffic, urinals, TV he Iasi half of ihe 20th century will, no doubt, be remem bered as the age of the birth of counseling and therapy. As never before, Westerners have learned over the past few decades that much of what we do, say and think on a habitual level can kill us. We have conquered tuberculosis, small pox and various fevers. In their place we have created (or discovered) the lifestyle disease. Cardiovascular diseases, stress-related syndromes and sexually transmitted diseases arc such that we cannot conquer them simply by discovering the right drug and inoculating the universe. They require a shift in attitudes, in behav iors, in personal relationships. One thing we have learned is that anger repressed will return to haunt us. ii we ao not auow our ooaics 10ria themselves of the poison of hatred in a natural and healthy way, it will come out of our ears, or other less pleasant anatomical regions. Anger is to be expressed, though not enacted. It is OK ~ in fact it is necessary for good mental health - that we allow ourselves and others to know what upsets us and when. So, in the interest of mental health, and just because I’m an 1980s kind of S[uy, I will use my column to vent a cw of my many frustrations with life around me. It is customary for me to present a few of my pet peeves each semester. Though my preoccupation with the presidential election pre vented me from following through on last semester’s installment, 1 have not forgotten. In fact, I’ve been saving up. Who knows - you may get two this semester. Anyway, here’s what’s been rattling my cage lately. Sidewalk Traffic. 1 harped about this last semester, but it didn’t seem to do any good. A colleague of mine wrote last week about her daring adventures crossing the street at 14th and Vine. While I certainly sympa thize with her predicament, it is a much more sobering experience to be threatened by motorized vehicles on the sidewalks around campus. Who controls this stuff, anyway? I have gone to school all my life and am now within a ycar-and-a-half of achieving the ultimate graduate de gree - the Ph.D. I don’t want to get to my last semester, only to be run down by a UPS truck on the way to the Administration Building. There is a reason they closed the roads through campus, but most people who would have driven on them anyway don’t seem to have noticed that they aren’t there anymore. Please, somebody do something before a student gets seri ously injured. Enough is enough -- delivery people, campus mainte nance workers and administrative bigwigs can walk for a change. We do. Unflushed urinals. 1 apologize for the indelicate nature of this item, but one can only pul up with so much. It is as sure as death and taxes - any men's rest room on campus with more than one urinal will have at least one of them unflushed at any given time. I don’t know if there is sup posed to be something macho about this trend, but there can’t be anything intelligent about it. I timed it. It takes between 0.84 and 1.32 seconds to flush a urinal, so it can't be a matter of saving time. Please, guys, let’s think of the fel low coming in next. Looking at your excitement is not my idea of an aes thetic experience. Reality Tele\ision. I guess that’s what they call this stuff. I’m thinking about the shows like “A Current Affair,” ‘‘USA Today - The Televi sion Show,” and ‘‘The Reporters.” They tell you more than you ever wanted to know about your neighbors and friends. When 1 was in undergraduate schools, we had schlock television: ‘.‘Real People,” “That’s Incred ible,” and a dozen short-lived clones. That was bad enough, but relatively harmless. They told you about people who drove six-inch tricycles to work and caught bullets in their teeth. Now we hear about those who explore the depths of deviance while holding down public service jobs. There arc some things I am much happier not knowing. The Snowflake Syndrome. You know about it. The name is mine, but the frustration is universal. You suf fer it every time you buy a new tape recorder and have to memorize a whole new button order scheme. I have owned a dozen tape machines in my life, and no two of them have had the same button pattern. Hence, the title “Snowflake Syndrome.” But it’s not just tape recorders. Have you ever tried to find a hospital room? Knowing the number does you no good at all. While a minister in Indiana. I visited in no less than 10 different hospitals, and every one had a different system for numbering its rooms. This was good practice for me, though -- it helps me hunt down room numbers in Oldfather Hall. There are several other examples: automobile gear shifts, computer keyboards and restaurant menus, just to name a few. They are intent on keeping us guessing, and we spend much of our all-loo precious lime Figuring out how to do things that ought to be automatic. With all the things the government regulates that don’t need it, I would think they would pick up on a few of these much-needed irregularities. Well, that’s the current list of as sorted aggravations. Of course I have not come close to hitting all of them, but it will do for a start. I’m sure you have a gripe that deserves airing as much as mine do. Practice some homegrown therapy -- write itoutand send it to me, in care of the Daily Nebraskan office. If 1 get enough good ones, I’ll run them in a column ialer this semester. Until then, happy haranguing. Scnnett Is a graduate student In philoso phy and a Dally Nebraskan editorial colum nist.