r Editorial_ SSSff.
State would suffer
Students shouldn’t face surcharge again
Once again, engineering students face a possible $9
per credit hour tuition surcharge.
Last year’s surcharge was supported by Andy
Pollock,former president of the Association of Students of
the University erf Nebraska-Linconin, on the condition
that it wouldn’t happen again.
Well, now it may happen again - and it shouldn’t. To
stop the surcharge, the Nebraska Legislature must appro
priate $525,000 to the college over die next two years.
The NU Board erf Regents requested that money, plus
$1.2 million for lab equipment in other departments in
their two-year budget
But Gov. Kay Orr did not include any funding for the
J equipment in her 1989-91 NU budget recommendation.
According to John Rochman, state budget director, the
governor feels she has funded the university’s top priori
ties.
Obviously, there s some discrepancy nere.
The engineering college needs the money to replace
and update lab equipment in undergraduate programs.
Without the new equipment, the college won’t meet
accreditation requirements set by the Accreditation Board
for Engineering and Technology during its 1987 visit to
the engineering college.
Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs Robert Fyrgason
said that if the Legislature does not approve the funding,
other options will have to be considered.
Those options include the surcharge, transferring funds
from other university department budgets or taking money
from a temporary instruction budget, which is used to
provide extra sessions of courses in high demand, he said.
But Stan Liberty, dean of the engineering college, said
he would never recommend the surcharge as an option.
So where will the money come from?
The extra sessions of classes in the engineering college
are needed for students to Fill their reauirements, and
transferring funds from other college budgets would mean
someone loses a piece of the pie.
And if the engineering students do have to fork out the
money for lab equipment, what happens when the chemis
try department needs new beakers?
Furgason has already said that if the engineering sur
charge is continued for the engineering students, the ad
ministration may consider surcharges for other depart
merits with similar lab equipment funding problems.
This is one snowball effect students do not need.
Students really can’t afford tuition surcharges every year,
let alone tuition. And if they can’t afford the tuition, they
may end up going somewhere else for their degree,
possibly out of state.
That means fewer students who bring in money to the
state of Nebraska every year.
The engineering college has a national reputation show
J ing it can research for big businesses. Every year, large
] corporations contract with the engineering college re
search centers to produce new designs and technology,
with the understanding that the college will produce.
Without the needed equipment, that production and those
contracts would be lost
Again, money and prestige would leave Nebraska.
Less money for the state of Nebraska? Maybe that will
5 make the Legislature stand up and take notice. And maybe
then they’ll realize that the engineering college is an
important part of one of the biggest money-makers in the
I state ~ the university.
Without putting money into the students’ education,
they can’t expect to get anything out of it
The Legislature’s Appropriations Committee must
include money for the engineering college equipment in
the NU budget - before the University of Nebraska
Lincoln's engineering programs suffer, students go else
where for their education and big businesses grant re
- search incentives to other universities.
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"^511
Death justifiable, not enjoyable
Sennett says capital punishment necessary in some cases
When Ted Bundy died in the
Florida electric chair a
couple weeks ago, part of
me died with him. I hope part of you
died with him, too.
Don’t get me wrong. I am not a
rabid, march-on-Washington, anti
capital punishment advocate. In fact,
I favor the practice . . . under re
stricted circumstances ... for the
moment ... I think. I will at least
affirm this hypothetical: If capital
punishment is ever justified, it was
justified in the case of Ted Bundy.
I have never come to peace with
my position on capital punishment;
and so that position has wavered quite
a bit over the years. As the product of
a traditional Southern family, I was
raised believing that anyone who
murdered, committed treason, or
slandered the name of George Wal
lace was worthy of death. It would be
a failure of respect for what they had
rightfully earned not to administer
the lethal blow.
But as a senior in high school I
debated in favor of Furman vs. Geor
gia and against capital punishment.
The facts I studied were impressive. I
convinced myself, and began a thrcc
or four-year slint in the anti camp.
Somewhere in college I was per
suaded back to my original position,
though tempered somewhat, only to
be lured back to the anti's in Semi
nary.
And, to borrow a phrase from
Linda Ellerby, so it goes. I am cur
rently in favor of some forms of capi
tal punishment for some crimes in
some circumstances. Sorry, that’s
about as definite as I get.
Tony Campolo is a professor of
sociology at Eastern College in Phila
delphia and a noted Christian lecturer
and teacher. On the matter of punish
ment in any form, he has said that it
must always come with regret be
cause the necessity of punishment is a
sign that love has failed.
According to Christian theology,
the greatest motivator for proper
human behavior is love ~ real love, as
expressed in genuine concern, self
sacrifice, and a willingness to make
another’s needs the lop priority in
your life. We as creatures in God’s
image were made to desire and re
spond positively to that kind of love.
Whenever we must resort to punish
ment, it is proof that love has failed,
selfishness has triumphed and all of
us have become a little less human.
-J-1
And that is why a part of me died
with Ted Bundy. Once again, F was
reminded that the purposes and goals
for which we were made and toward
which we should be striving have
again been lost in the horrid tyranny
of necessity. There is still a part of
me, and I hope there always will be,
that hopes against hope that our pri
mary objectives will experience re
surgence.
I still have dreams about lions
lying down with lambs, about milk
and honey flowing through Palestine,
about a world with a shortage of
spears and an overabundance of
plowshcars.
But, they tell me, we must live in
the real world. The real world is a
world of Ted Bundys. It’s a world of
child molesters, of secret nerve gas
factories, of readily available AK
47’s. You can’t love a man spraying
high-caliber bullets across a Califor
nia school yard.
Well, maybe they’re right. Maybe
I do have to live in the real world. But
I don’t have to like it. When 1 was a
kid I couldn’t wait to grow up. Now
that I am grown up, I don’t think it’s
all u was cracked up lo be.
They tell me about deterrence.
Well, I’m not sure that works. They
tell me about retribution, and that
makes a little more sense. They tell
me about protection of the innocents,
and I perk up my cars. Maybe there is
something there.
I may weep for Bundy, but I weep
for his victims more. And if it lakes
death to keep Bundy from his heinous
actions, if killing him makes even
one potential sex slayer think twice
before acting, then maybe it is worth
it. As I said above, if capital punish
ment is ever justified, here is a case in
which it is. So maybe we did have to
kill him. But we didn't have lo like it.
And many of us did. We watched
him fry and we enjoyed it. Universit)
of Ncbraska-Lincoln students have
already begun circulating Ted Bundy
jokes. People in Florida danced in the
streets at the announcement of his
death. Jacksonville radio stations
debated as to whether citizens should
reduce their electricity consumption
to give Bundy a greater jolt, or in
crease it lo make him stew slowly.
Somewhere along the line, capital
punishment stopped being a neces
sary evil and became a form of enter
tainment.
Genesis 9:6 institutes capital pun
ishment for the crime of murder. But
the decision was one I am sure God
did not enjoy. In an effort to instill us
with the sanctity of human life, we
are told that the only proper repay
ment for life is life. But the ideal is
life -- the ideal is a world without
death at all. Death of any kind is death
that is to be greeted with sorrow.
Death, like punishment, is always a
sign that love has failed.
Capital punishment may be justi
fied. Capital punishment with glee
never is.
Sennett Is a graduate student In philoso
phy and a Dally Nebraskan editorial colum*
nlait.
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