P TAT Cl F11 O' O C I" Associated Press
X ^ Ww »J JL-X J. CL W L? Edited by Brando ' i^oomis
Langford: student immaturity is ‘fact of life’
State Sen. Lorraine Langford says
she was right in contending that stu
dents aren’t mature enough to vote as
members of college governing boards
— but she didn’t
mean to hurt
their feelings
when she said so.
“1 did say it
and I do believe
it’s so,”
Langford said
Wednesday. ‘‘I
feel that we
should have a
student on the
board, but they Sen. Langford
should not have a vote.”
Lawmakers gave first-round ap
proval Tuesday to a proposed consti
tutional amendment that would allow
voters to decide in November if higher
education should be coord mated by a
Board of Regents of Higher Educa
tion and the seven public colleges and
university campuses be governed by
five-member boards. One member of
each of those governing boards would
be a voting student.
During floor debate last week, the
senator from Kearney said supporter?
of voting rights for the students were
all about 25 years old.
“They haven’t raised children
They don’t realize that the 18- to 20
ycar-old probably makes the worsi
decisions in the world,’’ Langford
said last Thursday. “More youn$
people ruin their lives in those twe
years than any other lime in thcii
lives.”
She was immediately chastised b>
some senators, and later in ncwspapci
columns, including the Lincoln Jour
nal. An editorial in the Daily Nebras
kan began:
“OK, boys and girls, it’s time foi
‘Sen. Langford’s Neighborhood.’ Car
you say ‘Out of touch?’ 1 thought yoi
could.”
“I hurt their feelings,” Langforc
said after reading commentary on hci
remarks. “I didn’t mean to hurt thcii
feelings, but what I’m saying is true.
They probably don't even know that
“All they have to do is look arounc
at their friends and see some of the
messes their friends are in. And it’s
because they’re not emotionally
mature. It’s just a fact of life,” she
said.
Giving student board members a
vote won’t cause students to be any
. more interested and involved in the
higher education governing process
than they already arc, Langford said.
“I know full well how involved
; the kids arc. You can’t get them to
even vote for their own student sen
ates. You can’t get them to vote for
their own officers,” she said.
‘‘We have had some fine young
people on the boards,” Langford said,
“and their input is very important,
because after all, we want them to be
happy, we want them to have the kind
• of courses they want, we want to
i supply their needs while they’re in
i school. But we arc doing it with our
taxes.”
I The Daily Nebraskan editorial said
that many 18- to 20-year-olds, sup
■ porting themselves while working their
way through school, arc quite ca
pable of making adult decisions.
‘‘A lot of them work very hard for
their tuition,” Langford said. “I feel
they should have every opportunity.
When someone comes to me and says
‘Well, I’m in school, I work two jobs
lo support my family,’ I tell you they
have made a bad decision, probably
sometime between the age of 18 and
20.
“They should not be in school
trying to support a family and work
ing two jobs. If they want to do that
that’s fine, but they have made an
error in judgment, because loo many
of them in dial situation drop out ol
-4 4
My experience
conies from working
with young sorority
girls for years.
Sen. Langford
-* 9 ~
school, and that’s too bad,” Langford
said. “I have only their best interests
at heart. And the insult was not to any
one student. The insult — if it was an
insult - was the fact that they arc not
mature yet.”
Another reason student board
members shouldn’t vote, she said, is
because ihc governing boards would
then have six voting members.
“That’s not good composition for
any committee,” Langford said. “You
need an odd number for votes.”
“And more than that, I don’t back
off. I have three eh i Idren. Our kids arc
fine, they’re doing well,” she said.
“That’s not what my experience comes
from. My experience comes from
working with young sorority girls for
years.”
Langford was a member of a Kear
ney State College sorority governing
board. She declined to name the so
rority.
“The kinds of decisions they (young
people) make are not well thought
out. Young people arc inclined to
make spur-of-the-moment decisions
and think about them later. They don’t
like to hear that, but that’s what hap
pens.”
“I’m certainly not against young
people,” she said. “This was taken
up with great fervor, by evidently
UNL students. I'm certainly not anti
student. In fact I do more for higher
education probably than anybody in
the Legislature, or at least as much.”
Gadhafi threatens revenge for fire
ROME - A fire caused exten
sive damage to a Libyan chemical
plant suspected of producing poi
son gas, and Libyan leader Col.
Moammar Gadhafi on Thursday
threatened to punish West Germany
if its agents set the blaze.
West Germany, whose compa
nies helped build the plani, denied
the accusation and filed a protest
with Libya over an angry demon
stration outside Bonn’s embassy in
the Libyan capital, Tripoli.
Gadhafi insisted that the heav
ily guarded plant in Rabta,60 miles
southwest of Tripoli, was designed
to produce only pharmaceuticals.
But he said Libya would pay mil
lions of dollars to any company
willing to build it achemical weap
ons facility.
“In such eventuality, 1 will sign
the contract myself unhesitatingly,”
Gadhafi was quoted as saying by
Libya’s official JANA news agency,
which was monitoried in Rome.
He said Libya would not hesi
tate to manufacture weapons of
"total devastation” if it had the
ability, but he said it would lake 20
years for Libya to develop such
weapons. Libya was accused of
using chemical weapons in its war
against Chad.
The plant, once described by
CIA Director William Webster as
the world’s largcslchcmica! weap
ons factory, caught fire Wednes
♦ day. There were conflicting reports
about damage and how the fire
started.
ABC News quoted unidentified
Libyan security sources as claim
ing the plant was burned to the
ground by U.S. and Israeli agents.
The United States and Israel de
nied involvement.
Mahmoud A/.zahi, press secre
tary at Libya’s U.N. mission in
New York, said there was specula
tion saboteurs infiltrated Libya from
neighboring Tunisia.
A previously unknown group of
Libyan dissidents, the Organiza
tion of the Patriotic Wing of the
Libyan Army, claimed responsi
bility for the blaze in a statement
sent to West Germany’s ARD tele
vision network.
A journalist for JANA, reached
by telephone from Cairo, said he
was unsure whether there were
casualties in the fire but said the
plant was badly damaged.
“You may consider it has been
burned down,” he said, speaking
on condition of anonymity.
White House press secretary
Marlin Fitzwatcr said damage was
extensive but the plant was sull
standing. “Common sense would
tell you it’s not functioning,” he
said. “We assume it’s not func
tioning.”
Fitzwater refused to speculate
on the cause of the blaze or to
disclose the source of his informa
tion.
Yitzhak Rabin, who resigned as
Israel’s defense minister Tuesday,
denied Israel was involved in the
fire and called the speculation
“nonsense.”
The JANA report quoted Gadhafi
as saying that the cause of the blaze
was under investigation. He said if
investigators prove West German
intelligence services were involved,
“the presence of Germany eCO
nomically will be eliminated and
the country involved in espionage
and subversion for imperialism and
Zionism will lose.”
fhmm
John 3nice/Dally Nebraskan
West Germany’s ambassador in
Tripoli was summoned to meet with
Libya’s Foreign Office, but no
threats were made during the meet
ing, according to a West German
government official in Bonn.
Gadhafi
West Germany’s Foreign Min
istry in Bonn summoned a Libyan
diplomat to protest a demonstra
tion by about 800 Libyan demon
strators who temporarily blockaded
access to the West German Em
bassy in Tripoli.
The United States has accused
Libya of using the plant to make
chemical weapons, including mus
tard and nerve gases. Last week,
the White House said the plant was
dangerous and should be shut down.
The White House refused to rule
out the possibility of military ac
tion to close it.
When Western reporters were
taken to die chemical plant in Janu
ary 1989, they found it guarded by
soldiers, tanks and surface-to-air
missiles. The journalists were not
allowed to inspect the plant.
An Associated Press correspon
dent from Rome was refused entry
to Libya on Thursday on grounds
that Libyan officials did not have
authorization for him. Correspon
dents from the U.S. television net
works ABC and CBS also were
turned back.
Libya’s Radio Tripoli urged Arab
support for Libya in the face of “an
aggressive campaign of American
imperialism.”
“The American campaign
against the pharmaceutical factory
at Rabla is a conspiracy against
this important strategic achieve
ment, which should furnish medi
cine for the entire Arab nation and
break the foreign monopoly in this
area,” said the broadcast, moni
tored in Tunis.
Gorbachev elected president;
promises strengthened union
MOSCOW - Mikhail Gorbachev
assumed a powerful presidency Thurs
day despite surprisingly strong oppo
sition in the Soviet Congress, then
pledged to keep the country from
breaking up and to mend its economy
with market-oriented reforms.
As the first Western-style presi
dent in this country’s history, Gor
bachev strengthened his already for
midable powers and shilled them
further from the Communist Party
leadership to the government.
Gorbachev, mindful of the coun
try’s history of dictatorship and ter
ror, promised deputies he would use
his new powers to nurture the Soviet
Union’s “young and not fully devel
oped democracy.’’
Voting results announced Thurs
day at the Congress of People ’ s Depu
ties indicated a significant drop in
support for the Soviet leader since he
was chosen chairman of the Soviet
legislature in May. That position was
essentially a weak presidency.
Congress elected Gorbachev to a
five-year term by a vole of 1,329
495. He was the only candidate. His
total was 800 votes less than what he
received one year ago, and not much
more than the 1,123 he needed to win.
In a separate ballot, the Congress
chose Gorbachev’s former vice presi
dent, Anatoly Lukyanov, as its chair
man. The Congress chairman holds
many of the responsibilities of vice
president, including the right of suc
cession if the president cannot con
tinue in office.
One reform-minded deputy, Igor
Shamshev, said Gorbachev had lost
the support of extreme conservatives
and radical reformers, but held the
moderates.
Teimuraz Avaliani of the western
Siberian mining town of Kemerovo
accused him of leading the country to
the brink of collapse, and said, “I ask
you not to vole for Gorbachev under
i--——
any circumstances.”
Yevgeny Kogan, a representative
of Russians living in the Baltic repub
lic, accused Gorbachev of being soft
on separatists. Estonia is pressing for
independence.
Gorbachev will have wide powers
to propose legislation, negotiate trea
ties, veto bills, appoint the Council of
Ministers and void its decisions. He
will have power to declare war if the
country is attacked, and to impose
direct presidential rule in certain
conditions. This means he could
overrule a local government.
President Bush called Gorbachev
“a reasonable man” and said he was
not troubled that Gorbachev has had
his powers strengthened. ‘‘They’ve
come out of the totalitarianism of the
past. I don’t see it as a threat,” Bush
said in Washington.
Gorbachev closed the day by giv
ing a news conference, his first in the
Kremlin. Spokesmen said ho would
meet with the press more frequently
as president.
Some deputies from Lithuania,
Eston ia and other rcpublics boycotted
the Congress proceedings because they
consider their republics independent
rather than part of the Soviet Union.
Gorbachev said he would work to
keep the Soviet Union from breaking
apart and would be the president for
ail of the more than 100 nationalities
living in the country.
Gorbachev said he intended to work
to conclude a new agreement binding
the Soviet republics together in fed
eration.
Soviet law should allow for repub
lics to secede if they wish, Gorbachev
said, but he did not specify under
what conditions.
Gorbachev said he would work to
create a ‘‘viable market” economy,
governed not by bureaucrats but by
taxation, bank control of balance of
payments, and adjustable interest rates.
1 —'" ' 1 ■■■ ■ '■ 111
Netfraskan
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