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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 23, 1991)
Opinion Cans with trash Low-cost recycling hits residence halls Beginning this week, University of Nebraska-Lincoln residence hall students will be able to dump cans along with trash. Through a cooperative effort of the Office of Univer sity Housing and Ecology Now, receptacles for aluminum can recycling have been placed on every residence hall floor. Glen Schumann, assistant director of housing for main tenance operations, said operating costs must be kept minimal for the program to succeed. The project is starting on the right foot. Schumann said the housing department has spent about $10,000 so far, mostly for the purchase of receptacles, liners and lids. That is less than what other universities have spent to start similar programs, he said. Part of the credit tor the low cost snouia go to resi dence hall custodial employees, who initially will be responsible for can collection. Credit also should go to Ecology Now’s Jeff Riggert, who spent his summer working on the project. In the future, recycling in the residence halls also may include glass and paper. But for now, can collection is a good place to start. The residence hall project was prompted by the success of a can recycling program in the Nebraska Unions. If the residence hall program is as successful as its union counterpart, a comprehensive, campuswide recycling plan should be implemented. Ego trip Model environment project not scientific I t sounds both like a visit to a fun house and a trip to a torture chamber. * ' , Beginning Thursday, four women and four men will lock themselves for two years inside Biosphere II, a space-age model Earth the size of three football fields. Biosphere II is composed of seven different ecological systems, called biomes. The air tight glass house contains more than 3,800 species of plants and animals, combined with the work of more than 200 researchers. Financed by about $150 million in private funds through project developer Space Biospheres Ven tures, Biosphere II carries the aura of human scientific knowledge con Bnan Shellito/DN quenng the environment. In reality, the project has very little to do with science. Margret Augustine, president and chief executive officer of SBV, told The Associated Press, “We’re a business, number one. We are not a big-time science project.” That’s evident from Biosphere literature, quoted in Life magazine, which describes the project “as a struggle to survive, all pervasive and relentless, but for the transient forms that populate it, moments occur in which the whole process is seen, an identification with the life-force surges through the organism, delight dances our blood.” It sounds like those behind Biosphere II are trying to play creator. Meanwhile, the media — and the American public — are eating the project up. Here’s to hoping the eight “biospherians” will emerge in two years from a more prosperous journey than the ego g I their glass house appears to be built on. -—LETTER POLICY The Dailv KlstU.-l« » _ ■_■ _<_•••__ brief leucrs to the editor t readers and interested others. Letters will be selected tor publi cation on the basis of clarity, origi nalily, timeliness and space avail able. The Daily Nebraskan retain the right to edit all material submi ted. /uiunyiiiuu) Miumiaaiuiia wm in» be considered for publication. Lct . icrs should include the author’s , year in school, major and ' lion, if any. Requests to s will not be granted. ■ fcJSf - Daily NC 1400 R If CHRIS POTTER » v. ' ' ■ Beware of DN monopoly • • > • ' ' ' • -.v. ■ '. You probably are being duped. If you are reading the Daily Nebraskan uncritically, you are being duped. ; The way you perceive the Univer sity of Nebraska-Lincoln — its insti tutions, its controversies and aspira tions—depends largely on the people who create the newspaper in which this editorial column appears. They have a political agenda. I have apolitical agenda. Readers must realize that. This is not to say that diabolical Orwellian conspirators arc deliber ately feeding you a political ortho doxy that will, once implanted in your mind, make you a brainwashed drone. It is merely to say that in the process by which you came to read this piece of journalism, journalism was col ored by innumerable biases. Subjective journalism is not unique to the Daily Nebraskan. All newspa pers are created by human beings who have human opinions on the way the world should be. The goal of a purely objective news source is unat tainable, even when journalists strive for it. But that does not mean that jour nalists arc inherently unprofessional or lack integrity. It does mean that readers should be aware of the nature of a newspaper and the people who write it. This is particularly critical for a college newspaper, when readers may not have developed the art of critical reading and journalists have not yet perfected their own art. Many stu dents read more of the Daily Nebras kan than they do of their class assign ments. They can hardly help it DNs are strewn so liberally about campus that to avoid them would be Hercu lean. Because of its prevalence, the Daily Nebraskan becomes invisible. People stop thinking about it. They absorb its stories and headlines as by osmosis without thinking critically about them. Day after day after day. This gradual uncritical acceptance is natural. After all, the Daily Nebras kan is a newspaper. It has a bold Like all monopolies. the Daily Nebraskan readership monopoly is detrimental. We only see the news from one perspective. Uncovering a politi cal agenda in tar more difCicult when the reader is forced la rely, an one sauree qjthe news. nameplate. It has headlines. It has typeset stories. It has quotes. It looks like other newspapers. It looks very slick and authoritative. But behind this slick appearance lies the Daily Nebraskan’s substance. Simply because it has a pretty photo graph placed in an aesthetically pleas ing place next to the very profes sional looking story docs not mean that the newspaper reflects an unbi ased picture of what happens here and elsewhere. A former ASUN president and student regent once remarked, off the cuff, that the editor of the Daily Nebraskan is the most powerful stu dent on campus. Given the decisions the editor makes in determining the content of this newspaper, and by extension the “news,” he was almost certainly correct. It is no secret that the Daily Ne braskan has for many years been a very liberal newspaper on many is sues. It opposed the war with Iraq, it supported divestment (jrom South Africa. It initially favored the crea tion of a racial affairs committee and ( later the creation of a subcommittee within AS UN last year. As such, its analysis of the news is bound to be a very liberal one. A simple explanation for the lib eral stance of the Daily Nebraskan is elusive. A new editor is hired every year. Reporters and editors arc cer tainly not given a political litmus test before being hired. It may be that liberals are more inclined to enter a career in journalism. But it is no crime for a newspaper toespousea political agenda. As long - as readers recognize that agenda and read critically, agenda-driven news is healthy. It inspires debate. But the fact that the Daily Nebraskan is the only student newspaper with a large readership makes that difficult. Like all monopolies, the Daily Nebraskan readership monopoly is detrimental. We only sec the news from one perspective. Uncovering a political agenda is far more difficult when the reader is forced to rely on one source of the news. Some colleges and universities, such as Harvard University and the Uni versity of California at Berkeley, have at least two newspapers competing for student readership. Just as at U NL, they began with only one. But the natural evolution of the institution inspired students to break the news monopoly and establish new student newspapers. The time is overripe for this to happen at UNL. A number of fledg ling newspapers have sprung up, but have yet to command a readership comparable to that of the Daily Ne braskan. Establishing a second news paper here will be difficult. It w*ccs enormous effort and money. In the meantime, readers must beware. What they read in the Daily Nebraskan must be read critically. Potter is a senior math, physics, philoso phy and history m^Jor and a Daily Sebns Wan columnist -EDITORIAL 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 availability. The Daily Nebraskan retains the right to edit letters. Letters should be typewritten ant less than 500 words. Anonymous submissions will noi be published. Letters should include the author's name, address, phone I number, year in school and group af filiation, if any.
