Eric Pfanner, Editor, 472-1766
13 d 11V Nel son, Editorial Page Editor
"j^ T _ J _ Victoria Ayotle. Managing Editor
|\! apfe C JLT La Tj Jana Pedersen, Associate News Editor
X ^1 V< KSA. * *■ Emily Rosenbaum, Associate News Editor
University of Nebraska-Lincoln Diane Brayton, Copy Desk Chief
Brian Shellilo, Art Director
I Barriers to women
Regents must address inequality
Y f the NU regents are still unaware of the unequal treatment
that women faculty members deal with at the University of
Nebraska-Lincoln, they will have no excuses after today.
Disparities between male and female faculty salaries, hiring
rates and other gender-related issues will be discussed during a
special Board of Regents forum at Varner Hall.
The regents surely will be told the findings of the Chanccl
j lor’s Commission on the Status of Women, which documented
the barriers that women continue to face at UNL.
Only 16 percent of UNL faculty members are women, and
just two UNL colleges arc hiring women at a rate proportional
to the available pool. On the average, the salaries of women
faculty members are $6(X) lower than those of their male
counterparts, the commission reported.
I nose hndings arc not news; the commission released me
statistics last summer. But until now, the regents have failed to
\ take concrete action to change these inequities.
Political science Professor Susan Welch, the chairperson of
: the chancellor’s commission, is leaving UNL because of the
! lack of advancement for women.
UNL could lose more valuable instructors like Welch if
steps aren’t taken to keep them here.
The Women’s Caucus of the UNL Faculty sent a letter to the
l regents Thursday, asking them to carry out the chancellor’s
j commission’s suggestions. The recommendations included
| hiring more women administrators, implementing family leave
1 and day-care policies and paying equal salaries.
The board should take the suggestions to heart. The prob
j lems women continue to face at UNL will not disappear
| magically, without concerted action by the university’s govern
ing body.
The regents need to make a commitment to recruit more
women faculty members. But the board also needs to put forth
guidelines so that those women aren’t made to feel inferior to
| male professors.
The chancellor’s commission showed that UNL lags behind
| other universities in its treatment of women. It’s time to change
that.
— J.N.
- LETTERS tt,?e EDITOR
Emotions are found in military
Congratulations, Matthew Lamb!
I’m giving you the award for stupid
est letter to the editor ever (and in
world where Andrew Meyer exists,
that’s no small feat). I was appalled,
then amazed at the complete and utter
lack of any rational thought exhibited
in your letter (DN, April 18). If I
understand you correctly, you should
be barred from military service be
causeyou would sacrifice the lives of
your fellow soldiers if one of them
was female and you had fallen in love
with her. As you said, “that emotion
does not belong on the battlefield.” I
further understand you to be suggest
ing that only unmarried eunuchs be
allowed to serve, to eliminate the risk
of anyone ever falling in love and
causing themselves a conflict of inter
est.
I found these suggestions interest
ing in the light of extensive coverage
during the Persian Gulf war of the
number of women and couples who
were involved. Obviously the mili
tary does not share your preference
for single people. I also recall an
article published in U.S. News and
World Report that mentioned the
amount of partying going on in the
gulf. It seems that single heterosexual
soldiers were unable to control their
heterosexual lust. But then again, as
you pointed out so eloquently, “... it
is stupid to say that (people) would
not be able to control their sexual
urges in the face of fellow soldiers
whom they find attractive.” I know
that personally, I feel a great deal of
fear that some day a heterosexual
male will be unable to control his
sexual urges if he finds me attractive.
It seems to be a common fear for
many women. But I guess we should
all just resign ourselves to being the
potential victims of someone’s un
controlled urges.
Margie Winn
senior
advertising
Rodeo far from loving, tender
To hear Dr. Pfeiffer (DN April 16)
describe a rodeo, we should be com
forted that the steers were bulldogged
with “loving care,” the calves roped
with “tenderness” and the bulls’ flank
ing straps cinched with “compassion.”
I sincerely hope none of us are ever
treated that humanely.
I have had people tell me they treat
their livestock “like family,” while
pushing them up the slaughterhouse
ramp. Others tell rne, while loading
their rifles next to their grizzly rug
and elephant tusk ashtray, that they
care more about wildlife than any
“college boy.” Some tell me of their
“reverence for life” as they don lab
coats and force crack addiction onto a
chimpanzee snatched from his mother
at a few weeks of age.
What have we become when we
rationalize living beings into things?
Is human sadism to blame? I doubt
sadism is the word, although indiffer
ence seems a likely candidate. I would
therefore condemn this, and therefore
the “sport” of rodeo just as strongly,
for as George Bernard Shaw remarked,
“The worst sin towards our fellow
creatures is not to hale them, but to be
indifferent to them. That’s the es
sence of inhumanity.”
Eric Moss
graduate student
electrical engineering
■ ■
■
V
*
DAVID DALTON
Water raises moral dilemma
I’m giving up water.
Sounds drastic, I know, but I’ve
come to realize that the years
I’ve spent as a water drinker (hydro
vore, in science talk) constitute the
most heinous ethical vacuum in my
entire life.
Now, before you start writing let
ters, I want everyone to know that I
don’t have anything against water, as
such. But there is so great a tangle of
moral dilemma surrounding the stuff
that I have no choice but to give old
H20 the boot.
The reason is simple. Every adult
who’s gone through this nation’s public
school system has at one time or other
been forced to collect an eyedropper
full of pond water and examine it
under a microscope. And every adult
knows that in a drop of water arc any
number of little blurry living things.
Considering how many of these
animals you can find in just a single
drop, a glass of water must be an
absolute metropolis, microorganically
speaking. So when you drink it, that
means thousands of lives lost to the
horrors of either digestion or chlori
nation, depending on which part of
the world you live in.
It’s a well-known fact that if you
eat a hamburger, you’ve killed a cow.
But only part of a cow, really, be
cause lots of people can feed them
selves off the same animal. Not so
with our friend the amoeba. Ounce
per ounce and life per life, drinking a
glass of water is the far greater trag
edy.
Protozoa, lack, by nature’s design,
the benefit of big balef ul eyes. How
ever, it would be speciesist of me to
mete out life and death based on that
criterion alone. And whether your
later years are to be spent either chew
ing cud or floating around and ab
sorbing each other, it all seems equally
valuable to me.
So water and I are officially through.
A big step, yes, but that’s just the
beginning. You sec, I consider my
self a trendy guy. I dress impeccably.
1 can whistle any of the latest tunes on
the spot, even with my head immersed
in a vat of La Croix.
But despite this, 1 realize that on a
Really. how can
you say two con
flicting ideas have
equal merit while
still,believing in one
or the other? It
makes no sense
whatever,
lot of issues I’m behind the times. So
I’m on a quest to weed out my back
wardness.
For example, I’m also giving up
my friends. We all, I hope, know how
important it is to be sensitive to oth
ers’ feelings.
So what’s the problem, you’re
asking. A story to illustrate:
About a week and a half ago, some
friends and I drove up to Wayne State
to see Edie Brickcl and New Bohemi
ans. After the show, I wanted to hang
around and say “hi” when the band
walked out to its bus, but it was cold
out and I was essentially left with the
option of following my buddies back
to the dorms or be abandoned. So my
near brush with greatness wafted sadly
into the breeze, all because of my
friends’ insensitivity and my inabil
ity to do anything for myself.
Ya, big deal. But friends are al
ways pulling garbage like that, even
when they don’t mean to. The more
time you spend around anyone, the
more likely it is that they’ll hurt your
feelings in one way or another, and
most of the time there’s nothing any
body can do about it. I didn’t have any
right to ask them to freeze.
Ah, but this defies the first law of
sensitivity, which is: feel good. We
can work it out. Harmony, etc.
Though, as we’ve seen, the best
way to decrease harmony is to in
crease contact. And the best way to
increase contact is friendship. Hence,
ax the friends.
Not that they’ll mind. In truth, I’m
about a thousand times worse.
Then, I am giving up grammar.
Not because I’m no good at it; that’s
a different matter entirely. I’m giving
up grammar tor the reason that it is
nothing more than a power game for
people who aren’t clever enough to
sell things like the amazing Abdom
inizer over the television and must
settle for venting their frustrations on
college students. You all know the
type.
We realize, of course, that lan
guage is metaphor, and it never means
the same tiling for two people. There
fore, everyone has to find their own
idiom — their own linguistic “space.”
Grammar and syntax, as given to us
by white European males, do nothing
but constrict thought and make us all
less ourselves.
Heck, I’d sure rather be myself,
but sadly, I’m forced in this situation
to conform to some rather rigid laws.
But I’ll bend them for just a second so
you can get a taste of the magic that
happens when you throw the rules out
the window: thE re””IGN in sPeln?
9fall)s hackneyed. Cumquats!
Need I say more?
Finally, I am giving up everything
I believe in. Bearing in mind the
urgency of developing a fine appre
ciation of diversity, the thought of
having any beliefs at all becomes
ridiculous.
Really, how can you say two con
flicting ideas have equal merit while
still believing in one or the other? It
makes no sense whatever.
So I’m not going to believe any
thing. There’s no truth. Nothing’s better
than anything else. The Beatles aren ’t
the greatest band in history. The sky
isn’t blue. There’s no such thing as a
parking problem. There’s no such thing
as parking. I’m not writing this col
umn. There’s no reason to do any
thing, because there isn’t anything!
At all!
There’s no ... no uh ... hm.
No reason to be trendy? I wonder.
Actually, I wouldn’t mind that at
all. I’m almost starting to feel a little
thirsty.
Dalton Is a junior secondary education
major and a Daily Nebraskan columnist.
-LETTER POLICY
The Daily Nebraskan welcomes
brief letters to the editor from all
readers. Letters will be selected for
publication on the basis of clarity,
originality, timeliness and space
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retains the right to edit letters.
Letters should be typewritten and
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Anonymous submissions will not
be published. Letters should include
the author’s name, address, phone
number, year in school and group af -
filiation, if any.
Submit material to the Daily Ne
braskan, 34 Nebraska Union, 1400 R
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