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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 14, 1990)
P4Se Editorial Nelwa&kan .. ^ A JL U JL Wednesday, November 14,1990 (Daily Nebraskan Editorial Board Eric Pfanner, Editor, 472-1766 Victoria Ayotte, Managing Editor Darcic Wiegert, Associate News Editor Diane Bray ton, Associate News Editor Jana Pedersen, Wire Editor Emily Rosenbaum, Copy Desk Chief Lisa Donovan, Editorial Page Editor Keep searching Committee has wasted time and money Fifteen months and $200,000 later, one candidate for university president drops out and another’s administra tion is discovered to have been under censure. What exactly was the Presidential Search Committee doing all that time? Obviously, not searching very hard, because Tuesday Gene Budig, University of Kansas chancellor, withdrew his name from consideration. Budig said in a statement that he could not leave KU until “closure has been reached on a scries of significant matters which will impact KU’s long-term future.” And another candidate, Robert Dickcson, president of the University of Northern Colorado at Greeley, was found to have been under censure by the National American Association of University Professors for firing 47 faculty in 1982. The UNL and UNO presidents of the local AAUP issued a statement that said AAUP chapter presidents at the University I of Ncbraska-Lincoln and the University of Nebraska at Omaha were upset when they found that UNC, under Dickcson, was censured in 1984 by the national AAUP. Where have all the good candidates gone? Or maybe we should ask where the search committee was looking for all the good candidates? I In October, the candidate list was narrowed to seven and Duane Acklic, search committee co-chairman, said the Chi cago-based consulting firm Hcidrick and Struggles Inc. was rcchecking the references and looking at a secondary list of references. Don Blank, regent chairman and search committee co-chair man, said the candidates’ employment records also would be reviewed. “The committee lakes its mission very seriously. It’s not just a matter of ‘X’ number of candidates. We want to send forward a list of the most qualified candidates to the regents.” Budig and the search committee should have gotten their I signals straight a long time ago. And the committee also should have known about the censure against Dickeson a long lime ago. Let’s hope the university doesn’t suffer because the search committee failed to do its homework. — Dame W’icgcrl for the Daily Sebraskan If males could conceive, arguments wouldn’t occur I’m fortunate. I was educated to believe dial I have sexual choices and have been able to practice those choices. I learned about pregnancy, childbirth, birth control and abortion issues before I was ever to encounter these issues on the political and per sonal front of my own life. I am privileged to have been bom into a familyHhat valued education, thus, I cultivated a knowledge of the world and a desire to read at a young age. I am one of the lucky ones. I have not been oppressed as a member of my race because 1 was bom white. I’ve lived with white privilege in a racist culture. Roccnlly^atty men have written numerous lepefrio the Daily Nebras kan ptpfdwipjpihc “immorality” of abortion. I wt&kl like to ask them to try to step 6nt$dc their white, male, middle-class values and attempt to cmpathi/.c with people w ho arc dif ferent from themselves in regarding the issue of abortion. The ultra-con servative stance on abortion is ac , cording to the book “Women, Cul ture and Politics” by Angela Y. Davis, “yet another offensive against the welfare of black women and others who suffer from racism, sexism and economic exploitation.” I’m fortunate that because of my white, middle-class privilege, I’ve been able to make choices so as not to be faced with the decision of whether or not to have an abortion. Not all women receive the education that proffers them the ability to make such choices before they arc faced with such a serious decision as whether or not to have an abortion. There arc also countless victims of rape and incest who arc forced into dangerous abortive situations because of poverty and because of unwilling ness on the part of the government to respond to the needs of crime victims, especially poor women in this coun try. The real truth about the abortion debate is this: If men were able to conceive, abortion would not only be legal, it wouldn't be a political or moral issue. Perhaps our focus on reproductive freedom should be on male sexuality. If men continually cry out about the “immorality” of abortion, then perhaps we need to start penalizing men for the countless number of unwanted pregnancies. After all, women cannot impregnate them selves. Perhaps too, our focus should be on whether men should be allowed to remain unvascctomizcd after beget ting unplanned children. Judith Alexander senior English/music Dream mirrors controversy Reported plagiarism shouldn't diminish King's civil rights feats rwas shot lo death in the year 2(X)9 just outside my lavish Capitol Hill apartment. The year before my death I won a Pulitzer Prize for a series I wrote on an AIDS victim who found a vaccine for the vi rus that claimed the lives of one fourth of the nation’s citizens. Upon publication of the piece, leg islation at the local and national lev els expanded AIDS victims’ rights, which had been severely restricted in the 21st century. About 22 years after my death, in the year 2031, a bunch of historians were hired to help compile informa tion for my biography — the one my son was working on. While doing some of their digging at my old alma mater, the University of Ncbraska-Lincoln, the historians found out that I had copied from my roommate the answers loa take-home lest for my art history silk screening course. Controversy shook the media; my name appeared in the headlines. I had plummeted from hero to villain. Society was disappointed. But at least I’m dead, so I don’t have to worry about the conscq uenccs of those actions. It’s too late. And more importantly, my parents have taken the eternal dirt nap as well, so they won't be disappointed or embar rassed. Sometimes when I’m silling in a Perkins late at night, I get caught up in my own daydreaming 1 can’t help it. Thanks to journalists, historians and all sorts of nosy writers, Amer ica’s dead heroes arc quickly losing their heroic status. Former President John F. Kennedy wasn’t spared. John Lennon wasn’t spared. And now, Marlin Lulher King Jr. The editor ol King’s papers ac knowledged Friday dial parts of King’s doctoral dissertation and other aca demic papers from his student years appeared to have been plagiarized. According to Clayhornc Carson. Lisa Donovan the historian who is heading the King Papers Project, analysis of ihc papers uncovered passages taken from other sources without attribution through out King’s writings as a theology student at Boston University. King is guilty under Webster’s strictest definition of plagiarism: “To lake (ideas, writings, etc.) from (another) and pass them off as one’s own.” The question here is whether King did it intentionally or by omission, or if it matters at all. Unfortunately, we can’t bring back from the dead one of the greatest leaders of the 1960s civil rights movement to ask him if he knowingly plagiari/cd. So maybe the whole thing should be put to rest. Before students and faculty mem bers pick up their pens to write a letter to the Daily Nebraskan for advocat ing plagiarism, read on. David Garrow, a professor of po litical science at the City University of New York and a member of the King Papers Project, said that the discovery could affect King’s public image. . . this serious an offense really I docs alter how we have to evaluate him, especially in the context of tell ing 10-year-olds who they should kxik up to,” Garrow told The New' York Times. It could affect King’s reputation, hut it shouldn’t. As a society we tend to put mere mortals like King on some sort of deity level. When they don’t prove themselves to be God like (i.c., they make mistakes) our I images come crashing down. It is truly hard to find a correlation between King’s alleged misdeeds as a theology student and his work as a champion of the civil rights and the Vietnam peace movements. It would be a shame to say that since he plagiarized some academic papers, it no longer matters that he played an instrumental role in suc cessfully boycotting segregated trans portation in Montgomery. Ala., dur ing the late 1950s. It would be'ridicu lous to say that his apparent plagia- I rism ec lipses the fact that he was I arrested several times as well as had j| his house bombed for conducting I campaigns against racism in die South I during the 1960s. A Maybe King forgot to add I exit-1 notes to a section of his writings. I We’ll assume that he did it on pur-R pose. R If King did purposely plagiarize,® then all of his work as a civil rights* leader doesn’t negate those actions. P However, if he did intentionally pla-R giari/c, that shouldn’t ruin his credi-R biliiy as a role model for America' R VOUlh or Americans in general. JJ The “if’ still remains, but itR shouldn’t. Donovan is a senior news-editorial mu M jor. the Daily Nebraskan editorial pane edi-Bj tor and a columnist. ftt tdiiorial columns represent the opinion of the author. The Daily Ne braskan's publishers are the regents, who established the UNL Publica 1 A A -- lions Board lo supervise the daily pro duction of the paper. According to policy set by the re gents, responsibility lor the cdiioria content of the neve spaper lies solely » the hands of its students. -_ The Daily Nebraskan welcomes brief letters to the 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 to 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 ol the Daily Nebr; *kan and cannot be returned. Letters should be typewrit ten. Anonymous submissions will nojjflj be considered for publication. Letter® should include the author’s name® year in school. major and group al I ihjll ation, i! any. Requests to withhoi ra names will not be granted. Submit material to the Daily Ns-’ J braskan, 34 Nebraska Union, 14(H) I^B St., Lincoln, Neb. 68588-0448 _