Opinion
Easy target —
No union may mean lower pay hikes
UNL faculty members have reason to be “feeling nervous,”
as Academic Senate President George Tuck said Sunday.
They did not bargain collectively for higher salaries
| this year, as other NU campuses did. That puts their salary in
j creases in jeopardy now that the next biennial budget is nearing
its final stages.
The Nebraska Legislature’s Appropriations Committee last
week recommended $10.6 million for University of Nebraska
salary increases. If approved, the allocation would provide only
a 4 percent across-the-board salary raise for all campuses.
But the NU Board of Regents already has approved a 6.5
percent salary hike for the University of Nebraska at Omaha
and an 8.7 percent increase for the future University of Ne
braska at Kearney, which will join the system July 1. Because
those increases were reached through unionized collective
bargaining, they legally cannot be reduced.
That means the regents will have to cut something to come
up with the money that exceeds the 4 percent the Legislature is
proposing to dole out.
An easy target could be salary raises at NU s other two
branches — the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and the
University of Nebraska Medical Center — because the desired
increases are not legally required. In April, UNL’s Academic
Senate asked for a 10 percent salary increase, far above the,
amount the Appropriations Committee has recommended.
UNL’s faculty resisted unionizing in the past because there
was no need for it. UNL traditionally has received slightly
higher salary increases than other NU branches.
Now it faces significantly lower increases simply because it
doesn’t have a union.
Unionizing, because it can be political, should be by choice,
not by necessity. In 1976, the UNL faculty voted down a
proposal to have a collective bargaining unit. Although Tuck
said the senate now is not advocating a union, it looks like the
Legislature has left little room for choice.
The key die to be cast lies with the regents, who ultimately
will decide what to cut to create room for salary increases. Any
decision the regents make is bound to leave somebody upset.
If they decide campuses will have to come up with the extra
increases on their own, programs and staff positions could be
cut.
If they decide to prune the increases on one branch to allow
for mandated increases on another, collective bargaining will
be a necessity at all campuses in the future.
And that will leave UNL faculty members with no choice
but to unionize to get the salary raises they want in the future.
—J.p.
-LETTERSTSe editor
Reader asks question:
Are we free?
Paring away the layers upon layers
of deliberately distracting side issues
— laborious definitions and weigh
ings of “the beginning of life,” reli
gion, birth control, rape, parental
consent and “underpopulation”—we
at last find, center-of-onion, the basic
question:
Are we free citizens here, or are
we the property of the state?
Which are you, and which do you
want to be? Think about it.
Fran Thompson
junior
sociology
Group supports women,
not necessarily abortion
As an adamant pro-choice sup
porter. I was disappointed to see David
Dalton (DN, May 3, “Abortion alter
natives available”) take pot shots at
the pro-choice movement in a col
umn supposedly dealing with abor
tion “outside the arena” of pro-choice
vs. pro-life. He seems to be implying
(with statements like “I’m not very
optimistic their attitudes are so pure.’O
that pro-choice supporters would prefer
to eliminate giv ing birth as a woman ’s
option.
This is utter garbage. The pro
choice movement is pro-choice, sup
porting a womah’s right to determine
the outcome of her pregnancy. The
pro-choice movement is filled with
people also fighting for better access
to pre-natal care for all women, as
well as for the right to seek an abor
tion. All of us would welcome abor
tion falling into disuse due to belter
birth control, the elimination of rape
and incest and society’s improved
support of pregnant women, both
monetarily and emotionally.
It is absurd to think Planned Par
enthood should channel money to Mary
Agee, who is affiliated with the pro
life movement. Planned Parenthood
works hard to prevent unplanned
pregnancy through education and
reduced-rate birth control products. It
also provides counseling, which in
cludes informing and supporting
women in all of their options, includ
ing adoption and parenthood. The “true
colors” of the pro-choice movement
are obvious, a pro-woman stance that
accepts the idea that women are ma
ture and intelligent enough to make
their own choices about their bodies.
•*+ .
Kimberly Anderson
junior
history/Russian
/_I
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1 XT's OVER I
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CAN GO HOME I
NOVI.
Cartoonist’s note: This cartoon was first published one year ago. It pretty well sums up another
year of criticism and cynicism involved in a job on the editorial page -- not that I would trade it in
for anything . ‘Nuff said.
ERIC PFANNER
DN, world back to normal
About 2 1/2 years ago, at the
same time tfiat John Sununu
moved to Washington, I started
working at the Daily Nebraskan. Since
August, until Friday, I was editor of
the paper.
Like Sununu, I am from New
Hampshire. Like Sununu, I have
decided that financial scandal fol
lows me like a portly While House
chief of staff shushing through the
slalom at Vail.
The Daily Nebraskan stands to lose
thousands of dollars this year. The
given reason is a,ppmbination of in
creased costs for printing larger news
papers and a decrease in advertising
revenue because of,the recession.
At least, that’s what budgetary types
tell me. They put their reports in
terms of “news holes,” “column
inches,” “advertising lineage" and
other journalese gibberish.
I know better. The Daily Nebras
kan is in the hole because of my own
actions, particularly my lucrative travel
expenditures as editor in chief.
The editor of the DN gets a num
ber of perks. One is a plush, executive
office in the basement of the Ne
braska Union.
Even better though, is the unlim
ited use of Daily Nebraskan One, the
student newspaper’s secure, paramili
tary jet, complete with leather and
walnut appointments, a bar and a crew
of 50.
When I went skiing in Colorado
over spring break, I charged the flight
to the DN editor’s slush fund.
The taxpayers were furious. Then
they found out that no tax money goes
to the Daily Nebraskan. Then the
students started yelling, until they
found out that .00000000084 cents a
semester of their student fees went to
the DN.
When I got back to the office after
another trip — this one to speak to a
convention of mackerel-canning cor
porations in the Bahamas, my own
staff was yelling at me.
“Mr. Pfanner, you have done it
again!” shouted the editorial page
editor, Bob Nelson.
“No, no. This wasn’t a private trip.
WhgH I went tQ.
the dmlisl last
geek. I used the
N’s unvote heli
copter to whisk me
quickly to 70th
Street and back for
tax cftccfcwp._7
couldn’t stay out of
the office long: tele
phone calls were
pourineinfastand
furious about the
Daily Half-Asskin.
1 spoke about those little things you
twist to open a can of sardine fillets.”
Then 1 noticed that Nelson was not
upset with me. He was still talking,
reading from a letter to the editor.
That letter, which attacked the
editorial board for its position on the
Association of Students of the Uni
versity of Nebraska minority com
mittees issue, was one of a number of
hostile ones the Daily Nebraskan
received this year. The paper once
again was a forum for controversial
issues, ranging from the ethics of
eating veal to the elitism of greek T
shirtS.
Some other people talked about a
war, but I was on my way to Palm
Springs when it started; I wasn’t able
to keep in touch with the DN while I
was gone because Daily Nebraskan
One lacks secure communications.
But when I got back, I looked over
what had been written about the war.
Sometimes the DN and readers
supported the troops, but not the war.
Other times, the war, but not the troops.
Then, it was both the war and the
troops. For a while, the paper op
posed both the war and the troops.
Once, the DN supported the troops
but not the generals. Other limes, the
DN supported the generals but not the
president. Once, the DN supported
the president but not the yellow rib
bons, while remaining neutral on the !
generals, the troops and the war.
1 think we kicked ass.
The University of Nebraska bor
rowed Daily Nebraskan One through
out the fall for furtive trips to mid
western cities that can’t be named as
part of the search for a new president.
The taxpayers were reimbursed for
the search when they got a new presi
dent from their own backyard at the
discount price of $152,000 a year.
The DN was reimbursed at the Big
Red rate. Part of the deal were two
tickets on the 50-yard line, which
came in really handy when the Com
huskers made it to the NCAA tourna
ment.
When I went to the dentist last
week, 1 used the DN’s private heli
copter to whisk me quickly to 70th
Street and back for my checkup. I
couldn’t stay out of the office long;
telephone calls were pouring in fast
and furious about the Daily Half
Asskin.
The DN’s annual (almost) joke
issue attracted the usual attention.
According to readers, the Daily Half
Asskin engaged in “sophomoric hi*
jinks,” gave the university “bad P.R.,
promoted “sexist” views and “dimin
ished the profession.”
Through it all, the DN continued
with undiminished news coverage,
although readers in the State Capitol
were unable to get their daily fix of
the campus “rag” for a few days.
Now things are bade in their right
ful places; the DN in the Capitol, a
president in Varner Hall, the athletic
program in controversy, the United
States—troops, generals, presidents,
yellow ribbons and all — seen trying
to get out of Iraq. And I am out ol the
DN editor’s office. Jana Pedersen takes
over as editor in chief. Happy college
newspapering.
Planner Isa senior news-editorial major,
Daily Nebraskan editorial page editor an
the DN’s outgoing editor in chief.
--EDITORIAL POLICY—
Initialed editorials represent offi
cial policy of the spring 1991 Daily
Nebraskan. Policy is set by the edito
rial board.
The Daily Nebraskan’s publishers
are the NU Board of Regents, who
established the University of Ne
braska-Lincoln Publications Board to
supervise daily production of the
paper. According lo the regents’ pol
icy, responsibility for the editorial
content lies solely in the hands of the
newspaper’s student editors.
