Editorial
(Daily
Nebraskan
University of Nebraska-LJncoln
Amy Edwards, Editor, 472-1766
Lee Rood, Editorial Page Editor
Jane Hiit, Managing Editor
Brandon Loomis, Associate News Editor
Brian Svoboda, Columnist
Bob Nelson. Columnist
Jeff Petersen, Columnist
xvcieyutn wcw ancgcu mciuenis oi urugs, payments auu
other scandals out of proportion.
Osborne has based his defense on the fact that
Keteyian’s book is riddled with anonymous sources.
“If someone has something worthwhile to say, they’ll
usually say it,’’ Osborne said, “But no one can press
sources as to why they said something if no one knows
who they are.*’
Thp Daily Nebraskan agrees. The book’s use of anony
; mous sources is unnecessary and even may be dangerous
in some places. But what Osborne isn’t saying is that
l there are some people in the book who have very interest
£ ing things to say, and who include their names.
Kcteyian names souices who said they sold steroids to
players. He also names players who said they bought and
used steroids white on the team and some who sou their
family game passes for thousands of dollars each season,
gf In traditional fashion, Comhusker fans probably will
listen to complaints of anonymous sources and immedi
ately dismiss everything in the book, attributed or not 4
They will look only at the faults in Keteyian’s faulty
book, and ignore the message that is successfully pre
sented - that there are certain problems inherent in
colkge football usdf. ' ; j
Another allegation that Mis been leveled at Keteyian is
that he offered money to potential sources, namely farmer
quarterback Nate Mason. This char ge is serious. It deals
with a serious breech of ethics and deserves to be investi
gated It also is a nifty way of diverting attention from the
matters in the book itself.
Osborne said two other former players were contacted
by K-neyian for interviews. *
‘They all called me and said the line of questioning
was unusual,” Osborne said.
Why did they call him? To alert him that the heat was
on? Why did Osborne need to know what the line of ques
tioning was?
The book shows Osborne and his staff as a group
always trying desperately to cover up or minimize every
incident, regardless of how small. The attitude of fans -
that of disbelief of allegations against the team - probably
perpetuates this pattern. If something works, there's no
reason to abandon it
But what if the energy spent keeping Nebraska players
out of the papers instead was used to keep them out of
; f trouble? Surely the coaches make efforts to keep their
players in line. But more effort couldn’t hurt. More fre
quent drug tests with automatic suspensions for violators
u might help. “; **'■' \ . > ;
Osborne, admirably, is readily available to the press for
aproblem Buthynight
players know they 're going m show up in the news if they
be teu-likdy ;o screw up. Then journaJ
he desires. * • ’ ,
•* Brandon Loom is
for &e Daily Nebraskan
I
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no!
VACANT
HWE IT.
IT's MINE;
UNL stalls parking solutions
NU Regents haven’t learned anything from 1948 parking riot
"I’m mad as hell, and I’m not going
to take it anymore!’ ’
-- Peter Finch as anchorman
Howard Beale in Sidney Lumet’s
film “Network.”
Picture, if you will, the scene:
It’s a typical Friday morning
at the university as campus
police begin towing illegally parked
cars near 12th Street. A crowd of
students begins to gather, at first
heckling the tow trucks and eventu
ally forming a human chain across
the street to stop the trucks from
moving.
A truck drives through the chain,
scattering the uninjured students.
Shouting begins, and students sitting
in classes rush out onto the street to
see what’s going on. One history
professor dismisses his class early,
saying, “History is being made.”
The growing mob begins an attack
on the tow trucks, slashing tires and
ripping out engine cables. Police try
to disperse the students with tear gas
and night sticks, but to no avail.
Before long, a mob of 4,000 stu
dents is marching on the slate capitol,
chanting, “We want parking!” and
demanding to see the governor with a
list of grievances. The students leave
only after being assured by police
that the governor was considering
their demands.
The university issues a statement,
calling the protest ‘‘a source of em
barrassment to the University of
Nebraska... The university is aware
of the seriousness of the parking
problem and is working conscien
tiously for its solution.”
Some would call this fantasy.
Some would say it’s probably Chan
cellor Martin Massengale’s worst
nightmare. But truth is indeed
stranger than fiction, for it really
happened.
On May 8, 1948, the headline in
the Daily Nebraskan read “Students
Protest ‘ No Parking,’ Police Use Tear
Gas Bombs.”
And now, more than 40 years
later, the university is still “working
conscientiously,” so to speak, for a
solution to the parking problem. Or at
least they say so.
But to the average student, it
seems they’re not doing quite
enough.
Ask most students if they think the
parking situation on campus is better
or worse than it was last year, and
they’ll tell you it’s gotten worse.
None of them will have any figures or
statistics to prove it, but they can feel
it.
They feel it when they drive down
16th Street for 20 minutes, waiting
for a two-hour parallel parking space
to open. They feel it while driving
through a commuter lot at 10:30 a.m.,
looking for a space and finding noth
ing but cars. They feel it when they
get their third parking ticket of the
week, placed under their wiper blade
by what must be the most efficient
parking enforcement patrols in the
world.
The university by now sees the
parking problem as an immutable
fact of life, like long lines at the
Office of Scholarships and Financial
Aid, a losing basketball team or an
ugly mascot
Of course campus leaders try to
look concerned. Members of the
Parking Advisory Board appointed
by the Association of Students of the
University of Nebraska will assure
you, that “Yes, progress is being
made.”
And if one looks at it in a certain
way, one would almost think that
they’re right. The last year has seen
added student parking lots on the
outer fringes of campus. And in a new
twist, the university has begun to sell
permits for “preferred lots,” where
students willing to cough up $ 150 can
be guaranteed a parking space.
But the parking problem remains.
For the average student, the small
steps taken by the university admini
stration and the Parking Advisory
Board are all show and no go.
For starters, the added spaces
simply haven’t been enough The
new student lots have been followed
by increases in enrollment and in the
number of students buying permits.
And the university’s new innova
tive solution, the guaranteed parking
spaces, is no solution at all. It solves
the problem for some students -
those who are rich enough to pay the
$ 150 per year, that is. But for students
who can barely afford the rising costs
of college -- the ones who have
trouble getting loans and grants, or
paying for books — the guaranteed
spaces make absolutely no difference
at all.
The bottom line is that the univer
sity could solve the parking problem
if it really wanted to. Period.
Article XIII of the Nebraska
Constitution gives the NU Board of
Regents the power to issue revenue
bonds for “buildings or other facili
ties for parking."
The university has used its bond
power to create facilities seen as
necessary for the campus, such as the
residence halls, the student unions
and the health center. And they’ve
used the bond power for less neces
sary things as well.
Recent years have seen the use of
bond financing for the UNL Book
store addition, the new Recreation
Center and the Lied Center. One cer
tainly could argue that addign park
ing spaces on campus would have
served the students much better than
remodeline the bookstore.
So the issue here is one of prion
ties. Does the university want a cam
pus where all students who want a
convenient, accessible parking space
can have one? Or would it rather have
a campus where every student gets a
parking ticket instead? The answer
seems to be pretty clear.
The question is not whether or not
we have the wallet to solve the park
ing problem. It’s whether or not we
have the will.
ASUN and the Parking Advisory
Committee should stop helping the
university administration maintain
the fiction that it is doing everything
it can. Because it’s not.
And nothing the administration is
doing now will convince the average
student otherwise. Students still are
spending 20 minutes at a time look
ing for a parking space on the streets
and in commuter lots. Parking tickets
still are being laid on student wind
shields like clockwork. And for poo*
students, the new guaranteed parking
spaces might as well be on Mars to
all the good they do. . ^
Maybe it’ll take a mob of 4.UW
students attacking tow trucks an
chanting “We want parking! togc
something done. But then again, tna
didn’t seem to work the last lime.
Svoboda it a senior political ^'tence
Russian major and a Daily Nebraskan
rial columnist