? Editorial JSESsl
Daily
Nebraskan
Editorial Board
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Amy Hdwards, Editor, 472-1766
Lee Rood, Editorial Page Editor
Jane Hirt, Managing Editor
Brandon Loomis, Associate News Editor
Brian Svoboda, Columnist
Bob Nelson, Columnist
Jerry Guenther, Senior Reporter
Reconsider vote
Building’s historic value needs examining
The NU Board of Regents jumped the gun when it voted
to acquire and demolish the Woodruff Building, 10th
and Q streets.
The regents voted unanimously Nov. 10 to acquire the
building and convert it into a 45-stall parking lot.
ASUN President Bryan Hill says he plans to ask the
I regents to reconsider their vote at their December meeting.
Hill says information on the condition and historical value
i of the building was not distributed at the November meeting
until after the regents already had started voting.
“By the time we got it, there wasn’t any chance to read
it,” he said after the meeting. “It wasn’t utilized by the
board.”
Had the regents read the information prepared for them by
the UNL College of Architecture, they probably would not
* have been so quick to vote to destroy the Woodruff Building.
Hill says that according to that information, the building
| probably meets criteria for placement on the National Reg
ister of Historic Places.
Vice Chancellor for Business and Finance John Goebel
says the timely distribution of the school’s information
I could not be helped. Goebel insists that he received the
3 information regarding the building Nov. 3 — too late, he
says, to send the materials to all regents for study before the
| meeting. He chose instead to compile a summary statement
of the review and distribute it at the meeting.
But the summary statement was included in the tardy
information naokot
In a summary letter included in the packet, James Potter,
chairman of the architecture department, wrote that “it is
1 probably worth the time, effort and resources to have a
consultant do an in-depth, cost-benefit analysis of the build
| ing to determine relative trade-offs of historic preservation
| vs. new construction.”
Hill says UNL professors spent a lot of time on their
I evaluations, and the regents “owe it to them to take a look
at what they have to say.”
But Regent Kermit Hansen of Elkhorn disregarded Hill’s
prudent call to reconsider, and instead called Hill a “juve
nile” at the November meeting for protesting the time that
the information packet was distributed.
Hill is right, not juvenile.
The university may need parking, but before the regents
start letting loose with the wrecking ball, they should pay
careful consideration to what they plan to destroy.
Hansen insists the regents devoted four months of delib
eration and analysis to the Woodruff issue.
But the regents were the ones who recruited the UNL
I College of Architecture to review the feasibility of refur
I bishing the building way back in September. Now that the
results are in, they should respect the recommendations from
professionals who know what they are talking about and
! further investigate historic preservation vs. new construc
tion.
** Lee Rood
for the Daily Nebraskan
UHC takes parental attitude
The headline of your recent art icle
on the vaccination program of the
University Health Center (DN, Nov.
16) is in error. A request is not backed
by a threat. The action taken by the
UHC is a command, not a request.
The question then becomes: Why
does an organization mantained to
serve the students and supported by
student fees feel that it can dictate to
you? The answer is simple, because it
can. The state Surgeon General has
empowered the UHC to suspend stu
dents and to freeze records if they
cannot prove that they have been
immunized or had a doctor-diag
nosed case of the measles.
Why then does the UHC still insist
upon immunization long after the
threat of a measles outbreak is over?
Because they have issued an edict
and woe be on you wjio fail to com
ply.
If this epidemic is such a threat to
the public health, why ara staff and
faculty members exempted from the
forced immunization? I believe it is
because the Health Center views
them as adults who can determine
their own course of action, while
students are children who have to be
told what is good for them, and forced
to comply.
The university got out of the par
enting of students in the late 60s,
conferring upon them responsibility
for their own actions. This attitude
apparently has not spread to the
Health Center. I do not know if this
attitude is an example of misguided
concern or simply mcdica' arro
gance. I do know it is wrong.
The Health Center should slick to
dispensing medical care and advice
and not coercion and threats. They
should respect the students enough to
allow them to make their own deci
sions as to what care is needed. We
arc, after all, adults.
Timothy R. Shepherd
> graduate student
chemistry
• i <
Families and holidays don’t mix
Feuds rekindle during Thanksgiving dinner at grandma’s house
On Thanksgiving Day I find
myself thrown into a holiday
time warp that doesn’t end
until after Christmas.
My trip to the past starts when
grandma opens the door and greets
me.
“Chrissy, Chrissy, Chrissy,” she
exclaims, while pinching my cheeks
to see how well I’ve eaten in the past
year.
Chrissy is four feet tail, has
straight dark hair that covers her
behind and she never answers back.
I am at least five feet tall and use
too much gel and hairspray to control
my S40 perm. I almost got fired from
a job once for smarting off.
But grandma doesn’t know dial. In
her mind, I’m still that 9-ycar-old
who got excited about doing dishes or
watching her grandparents play cards
all night.
Now that I’m 24, these pre-con
ceived notions my grandma has of me
can make for a boring vacation.
But sometimes they let me play
cards.
inc lamiiy-noiiaay lime warp
doesn’t just affect me.
Each member of this four-genera
tion clan has every other member
frozen in lime somewhere.
Once the entire extended family
sits down to eat, things can get real
confusing.
The time warp kicks in soon after
the guys start talking “business” and
the women begin to express their
opposing views.
The annual “business” talk usu
ally has something to do with Pete
Somebody and why he went bankrupt
this year.
My grandpa will say it’s because
Mr. Somebody strayed away from
what he did best. My uncles will say
Somebody should have invested
more in that new-fangled something.
My mom and aunt will tell my
grandpa and uncles that they’re all
wrong about why Mr. Somebody’s
business failed and then begin to offer
an opinion of their own ...
But grandma always interrupts.
“Patti, don’t talk to your father
that way!” grandma says.
“Morn, I was just explaining that.
“It doesn’t matter, he’s your fa
ther,” grandma replies.
So grandma pulls rank, and values
of the past flood the dinner table
while my mom looks away furious,
probably like she did when she was
16.
As I got older, I realized that the
family chain of command, according
to my grandparents, goes not only
from the oldest to youngest, but also
places men ahead of women.
Thai’s a lough piece of reality to
swallow, but it always comes up over
Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners.
At this disturbing holiday junc
ture, the attention at the table usually
turns to the almost-adulls. Family
members over 18, attending college
or newly married qualify as almosl
adults. The leap to true adulthood is
made after one has a child or lands
that first $40,000-a-year job.
I rrray be stuck with the almost
adult label for a while.
But it’s not such a lough role to
Play. . „„ ,
“How’s school going? asks my
uncle.
“Not bad. I got a scholarship this
year and I’ll be graduating next
year,” 1 reply.
“Keep up the good work,” he
says.
“But Chrissy,” grandma inter
jects, “don’t you have a job?”
“Oh, yes grandma,” I reply. “1
work three part-time jobs.”
“Good,” she says.
Every phone conversation with
my grandma during the last four years
of college has begun with the same
question.
“Don’t you have a job?”
It’s not that grandma thinks I’m
lazy or that she doesn’t believe in a
college education. She just wants to
know that I have a place to live,
—I
enough food lo cal and friends I go
oul wilh once a week. If I say I have
a job, then she assumes lhal the
money I make provides those other
things.
Of course, not every almost-adull
at the table is going lo have a job or be
going to college. Sometimes one of
my cousins is busy trying to find him
or herself.
I always feel sorry for them during
the holidays.
“So-o-o-o, John,” says my oldest
uncle while he looks down his nose
and around the hunk of steak he’s
chewing at my 18-ycar-old cousin.
“Heard you been camping for a
while.”
“Yes sir,” John replies. “I did
finish climbing Mount McKinley last
month.”
“Hmmm,” my uncle half says,
half munches.4 4 Who paid for that trip
to Alaska?”
“Well, I bought my equipment
when I had that part-time job in high
school. But I had to hitchhike to
Alaska,” John says.
“Damn lucky something didn’t
happen to you,” says my uncle, pull
ing the fork oul of his mouth for
emphasis.
“Well, you know,” mv great-aunt
interjects, “he almost fell off that
mountain.”
My uncle looks over at John, his
eyes saying”! told you so,’’like he
didn’t know John almost fell off the
mountain until that very instant.
He knew. We all knew John al
most fell off the mountain. Grandma
had told each of us. She called one
night crying hysterically, I calmed
her down. She told me John had *
slipped a few hundred feet. I told her
it probably wasn’t even a clpsc call,
“Maybe not for John,” grandma
had said, “but the thought of him
falling down that mountain nearly
gave grandpa a heart attack,” she
said.
“He had to take a heart pill.”
I knew the mountain story would
persevere to the holidays. Any epi
sode that led to grandpa having to
take a heart pill would be brought up
later.
But 1 don’t think it was John slip
ping a hundred feet that gave grandpa
heart palpitations. It was the notion of
John trying to find himself some
where other than at a job that both
ered grandpa.
By now, John was blushing and
looking down at his plate. He wasn’t
the type to get angry. Grandma fig
ured John had gotten the message.
“Hush now,” she said to my
uncle. “1 think he feels bad enough.”
Later on, over dishes, my grandma
and all the other family matriarchs
would talk about John and all the
other “black sheep” that had
emerged that year. But John had
made it through the worst part. After
dinner all thc“almost-adults”would
migrate outside. We’d drive off in our
cars for a while.
It was the annual after-dinner
break from the family time warp.
We’d go to a park. Some of my
cousins would drink beer; others
wouldn’t because it had caused them
so much trouble in the past.
We’d all talk about the adults we’d
left back at grandma’s house.
“Man, I really get pissed ai Uncle
Greg. He’ll ask how you arc and tell
you you’re doing lousy al the same
lime.”
“Yeah, and grandma acts like
she’s rescuing you from him when
really she put Uncle Greg up to it.”
“Well, you know, grandma’s loo
old to change. She has always let
grandpa or Uncle Greg tell us that
she’s mad.”
“God, you’re starting to sound
like mom.”
“How old is grandma?”
“I don’t know. I quit counting
when she was 66. I just couldn’t
imagine her older than that.”
“Shc’s88.”
“Noway.”
“Yeah, 88 and she still sends me
S2 every week in the mail.”
“ You too? She’s been sending me
$2 since I was 8 years old.”
“I guess no one told grandma
about inflation.”
“I guess not.”
“She sends $5 on my birthday.”
“She never misses my birthday.”
“Mine, neither. I’ve moved eight
limes in the last three years and she
always finds me.”
“Hmmm.”
“Funny thing. I always hate these
dinners but when I get home I think
about grandma and grandpa.”
“It s like I miss them and want to
sec them, but only from a distance.”
Maybe we oughta go back to the
house now?”
“Yeah, maybe they’ll start play
ing cards soon.”
Carroll is a senior news-editorial major and
Dally Nebraskan columnist andlmpplemcnts
fditof.
v»