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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (March 13, 1989)
Editorial I Nefwaskan , —. Curt Wagner, Editor, 472-1766 Amy Hd wards, Editorial Page Editor Jane Hirt, Managing Editor Lee Rood, Associate News Editor Diana Johnson, Wire Page Editor Chuck Green, Copy Desk Chief Lisa Donovan, Columnist — Visitation important Regents should represent NU students The NU Board of Regents passed a resolution Satur day which recommitted the board to improved communication with students, but only after some board members showed they do not understand the full 1 scope of their responsibilities. The resolution, which the board passed 7-2, was intro duced by outgoing UNL student regent Jeff Petersen. With its action, the board has pledged to meet with stu dents at least once a year at the students’ invitation. These annual meetings will ensure that regents are re sponsive to students’ concerns on all three NU campuses. Two regents, Margaret Robinson of Norfolk and John Payne of Kearney, voted against Petersen’s resolution be cause they said it inferred they were not doing their jobs properly. Although that was not Petersen s intent in arartmg the resolution, maybe Payne’s and Robinson’s comments against it show they are feeling a little guilty about the quality of the job they are doing. * Maybe hearing the truth hurts. Invitations to meet with regents, or press releases her alding a regent on campus for constituent meetings have n’t been flooding the Daily Nebraskan offices or student mailboxes in recent memory. Payne said he “kind of resents’’ the resolution because it “intimates that we’ve never met with a student or shared their concerns.’’ “Why don’t we eliminate the student affairs offices on II all the campuses and just move in and run the place,’’ Payne said. That is a childish comment coming from an elected official pledged to serve the student bodies at the Univer sity of Nebraska. The resolution was not asking for such drastic measures, it simply gives an extra push to both students and regents to get together and find out what issues regents need to address. Robinson said theTesolution “alludes that we’re not doing a good job.” Until a couple of years ago, Robinson said, she was always invited to meet with student leaders. Students used to come to regents meetings and present their concerns, she said 1 his aoesn t occur now, she said. That is a bad situation, and students should take their obligation as citizens more seriously. But regents, as elected officials, should offer them selves to the students. They should not have to wait to be ? invited, but should do the inviting themselves. Regents should invite students to meet with them, just as student groups should invite regents. To this idea, some regents will say they live far away and have their own careers to keep them busy. But they “- should have considered the time spent on those other interests before they ran for office. An elected offical is obligated to meet with those citizens he or she serves. An elected official should understand that task before running for office, and should work tirelessly to make sure it happens after being elected. If this doesn’t happen, elected officials do i.ot know what their constituents want or need. They are not able to do the best job they could. Although regenu are elected by both students and non students, their primary function is to represent the stu dents from their districts - a fact that tne regents need to seriously consider. Again, regents primarily serve the students from their districts, not for personal political goals or the wants and needs of the non-student ' ik' - Curt Warner for th«. Daily Nebraskan 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 fleet the views of the university, it employees, the students or the Nl Board of Regents. Alternative radio music needed Lincoln 's radion stations should consider changing their tunes Fact: Lincoln is a college town. Fact: College students gener ally like music other than that spilling forth from bedrooms of jun ior high school kids. Music from early U2, The Alarm, R.E.M., The Cure and at least a dozen other groups comes to mind. Fact: Lincoln has no college-ori ented music radio stations. Turn the radio on any time, and most people can guess what they’ll hear just by what station they’re tuned to. Turn it to KFRX (the “New 102.7,” no less) and you’ll be treated to 20 or 30 songs played over and over and over and over. Madonna, Bon Jovi, Guns ‘N’ Roses, Paula Abdul, Tiffany ... Arrrgh!! But, of course, those songs only come between the endless blocks of commercials. A quick flip of the dial to KFMQ will fill your ears with an excess of 25-year-old hits. Jimmy Hendrix, The Doors, The Beatles; classic stuff, but most people can just dust off their older brothers’ and sisters’ albums if they get the urge to relive the 1960s. And the other songs on that station, featuring flutes and harpsichords, have never turned me on anyway. KFMQ docs sprinkle current mu sic in with the older songs, but not enough. A recent addition to the Lincoln radio market is a station KKNB, known as B-104. The station is new but the format isn’t. It’s just another Debbie Gibson, Tiffany-spewing spot on the dial. Yaww-w-w-nn! KLDZ plays even older music, and the Omaha stations offer little refuge. Z-92 is similar to KFMQ -- a lot of older stuff - and every other Omaha station lean read ily think of is a KFR\ twin. There’s nothing wrong with Top 40 music, 1960s hits or oldies, if that’s your taste. But for a lot of college students, it’s not. Lincoln needs a radio station that plays alternative music all the lime. KZUM, Lincoln’s public station, plays a lot of progressive music, but usually during one-hour slots which arc often followed by anything from talk shows to country jamborees. Travel to other college towns, like Iowa City, Iowa, Madison, Wis., Lexington, Ky., and Austin, Texas, and you’ll find stations that play nothing but “college music.” If anyone in Lincoln with enough money and enough common sense ever charters a station like that, the possibilities for success are endless. Think about it. The University of Ncbraska-Lincoln has approximately 26,000 students. Wesleyan Univer sity and Union College add a few thousand more, and then there are countless high school and junior high school students throughout Lincoln. If even half of those students listen to progressive, alternative, “college” music, they’d listen to such a station almost religiously. It would be safe to guess that if half the college and high school stu dents in Lincoln listened to a single station, that station would have the Lincoln radio advertising market cornered. Profits would be maxi mized and the station’s owner would be happy — and rich. Unfortunately, like a lot of other thinking in Lincoln, things that “work” aren’t going to change. It sometimes seems that while other communities progress and movt ahead with new, improved ideas about morals, government and soci ety in general, Lincoln is caught in a lime warp. The radio market here is no different. Whoever takes the initiative to change that, however, will profit in more ways than one. If only I had a few hundred thou sand dollars lying around ... Green is a senior news-editorial and criminal justice major and is a Daily Nebras kan editorial and sports columnist, sports writer and copy desk chief. letter The Daily Nebraskan welcomes brief lcllcrs lo ihc editor from all readers and interested others. Letters will be selected for publi cation on the basis of clarity, original ity, timeliness and space available. The Daily Nebraskan retains the right lo edit all material submitted. Readers also arc welcome to sub mil material as guest opinions. Whether material should run as a let ter or guest opinion, or not to run, is left to the editor's discretion. Letters and guest opinions sent to the newspaper become the property of the Daily Nebraskan and cannot be relumed. Anonymous submissions will not be considered for publication .’Letters should include the author’s name, year in school, major and group affili ation, if any. Requests to withhold names will not be granted. Submit material to the Daily Ne braskan, 34 Nebraska Union, 1400 R Sl, Lincoln, Neb. 68588-0448. Campus Notes by Brian Shellito /Tv \ . ( U« OH, I DON'T ^VTHINK 1 NEE D 9 I TO Mx VME*E. | VOU*t GOINC. 3/axm> _ J
