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.
