——— __ ,« Jan* Pedersen, Editor, 472-1766
m ^ LI ally Eric Pfrnner. Editorial PageEdUor
Page Or\iri 10H Nebraskan gggSCT
4 W WW ■ ■ ■ M W X WL Editorial Board Brian Shellito, Cartoonist
Univaralty of Nabraaka-LIncoin Jeremy Fitzpatrick, Senior Reporter
IJNL gridlock
Process not producing better results
Political scientists estimate that the Soviet Union and the
United States have the two largest bureaucracies in the
world.
If so, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln must be in third
place.
Last month, the Executive Graduate Council questioned uni
versity officials’ right to make proposed budget cuts to gradu
ate programs without the council’s approval. The proposed cuts
would slash graduate programs such as those in the speech
communications and classics departments.
The recommendations came after several months of budget
cutting deliberations.
A letter from NU general counsel Richard Wood to the Aca
demic Planning Committee this week said procedures for
deletion or consolidation of graduate programs must abide by
the executive committee’s rules.
“Everyone should be alerted to the fact that at such a point
that a graduate program is triggered for elimination or consoli
dation, this process must be triggered,” said Bill Splinter,
interim vice chancellor for research and dean of graduate
studies.
The executive council has its own oureaucrauc piuccuuic. ^
member said Wednesday that its deliberations could take three
to four months. ,
Apparently, compliance with the council’s rules won t delay
the bulk of the budget-cutting process. The main body charged
with examining the proposed cuts — the Budget Reduction
Review Committee — can still go ahead with its deliberations,
with a target of presenting its recommendations to the Aca
demic Planning Committee by late November.
The buck, or the budget, does not stop there, however. Next,
the recommendations go to UNL Chancellor-to-be Graham
Spanier and, finally, to the NU Board of Regents.
Now that the bureaucracy has been set in motion, any (
revisions cause further delay and confusion. The latest develop
ments shed more light on a process that appears to have been
. bungled from the start.
\ TY\e hudgei-cuUmg, mistakes are easy to see. \JNC has not
had to go through a similar budget trauma for some time.
Cuts should not be made in a hasty, authoritarian manner.
One of the advantages of a cumbersome system is that every
one gets to put a word in. When people’s jobs are at stake,
expedience should not come at the expense of fairness.
But a slow, committee-laden system still must follow proper
guidelines. Unfortunately, the lack of expedience in this case
doesn’t seem to have resulted in greater fairness or efficiency.
— E.F.P.
What others think
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~ ~ J ---
Well, well. It seems that some of
the campuses within the University
of Nebraska system have been suffer
ing delusions of grandeur.
Perhaps the Daily Nebraskan would
like to compare notes on regents
meetings and the divvying up of the
budget pic this summer and see which
of the equal campuses came out bel
ter — it certainly wasn’t UNO or
UNK.
As for the crack about UNO being
the Mavs, what is so great about being
a Comhusker?
o -
Nothing. In fact, last year when
the mighty (?) Comhuskers were los
ing against Oklahoma (again) they
embarrassed the entire state by hav
ing some idiot husk a cob of com on
national television.
It is not the matter of a dash or an
“at” UNO’s student senate is making
a fuss about. It is actually being treated
like the equal part of the system we
are told we are.
— Gateway
University of Nebraska at Omaha
-LETTER POLICY
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-EDITORIAL POLICY
Signed staff editorials represent
the official policy of the Fall 1991
Daily Nebraskan. Policy is set by the
Daily Nebraskan Editorial Board. Its
members are: Jana Pedersen, editor;
Eric Pfanner, editorial page editor;
Diane Brayton, managing editor;
Walter Gholson, columnist; Paul
Domeier, copy desk chief; Brian
Shellito, cartoonist; Jeremy Fitzpa
trick, senior reporter.
Editorial columns represent the
opinion of the author.
The Daily Nebraskan’s publishers
are the regents, who established the
UNL Publications Board to super
vise the daily production of the pa
per.
According to policy set by the re
gents, responsibility for the editorial
content of the newspaper lies solely
in the hands of its students.
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PAUL DOMEIER # ,
Stands need general admission
Today, University of Nebraska
Lincoln officials are trying to
control overcrowding and al
:ohol consumption at football games
in the east stands of Memorial Sta
dium.
Tomorrow, world peace.
I’ll give them better odds with
world peace.
Every game, thousands of rowdy
students leave their seats to pack around
the 50-yard line and booze it up, in
conveniencing less rowdy fans. The
Nebraska-Washington game Sept. 21
was the final straw. Something must
be done.
UNL officials say they will do
something. Starting Oct. 19, ticket
holders who have scats in the north,
south or west stands won’t be able to
get into the cast stands. Certain gales
in the east stands will have restricted
access. Extra security will be hired.
It’s admirable that those officials
arc moving to change the situation.
However, they arc moving in the wrong
direction.
The situation in the east stands has
deteriorated or advanced (lake your
pick) too far to get back to what it is
“supposed” to be. The fans causing
the problems enter the stadium by the
appropriate gate and veer toward the
center. They not only expect to do
this when they enter the stadium, they
expect to do this when they buy their
tickets.
Those fans won’t change. UNL
officials aren’t going to be able to get
everyone back into the seat specified
on the ticket.
I’m not concerned here with drink
ing. As long as UNL officially is a dry
campus, alcohol must be forbidden.
Most people would admit that fans
who get so smashed that they can’t
watch the game and are getting sick
might as well be removed.
But I don’t think those officials
really are talking about drinking, ei
ther. Drinking is only a serious con
cern in combination with overcrowd
ing. Notice that all of the actions
planned by UNL officials deal with
overcrowding.
Maybe those changes are the best
option for this year since the tickets
already have been sold, but for future
seasons, those officials would be better
off conceding. The decivilization of
the east stands should be controlled,
not stopped.
Most obviously, since the cast stands
are de facto general admission, those
tickets should be sold as general
admission.
Each week, a couple hundred non
students buy student tickets, then try
to sit in the seals named on the tickets.
When a non-student finds an entire
fraternity sitting in his seat, he gets
upset.
With general admission student
tickets, buyers would realize from the
start that they must fend for them
selves. It works for the bleacher scats
at Nebraska basketball games.
The gates still could have restricted
access to ensure only general admis
sion tickets. The entire east stands
could be made general admission.
The reserved tickets near the top should
be switched with the student sections
in the end zones, so that no one can
complain about spectators standing.
The east stands could become the
stand-up section, the north and south
stands joining the west stands as sit
down sections.
Marking the marching band sec
tion with metal railings instead of
ropes would keep the crowd out of the
band area. The general admission
section could be separated from the
rest by rails, too. After all, a zoo
needs cages.
This is a crucial time to commit to
these changes. The university is crack
ing down on the east stands just as
Nebraska shows glimpses of having a
real college football crowd.
UNL police chief Ken Caublc told
the Daily Nebraskan that the over
crowding problem became most ap
parent in the Washington game. The m
rowdiest crowd in years was at the 1
Washington game.
That’s not a coincidence. For once,
most of the audience wanted to cheer
loud and hard. The fans wanted to
watch two great teams battle it out.
They wanted to do this around the 50.
General admission seating would
encourage this. The fans in the middle
of the stands each game would be
those who got there earliest. They
would be devoted to the game, de
voted to cheering. With a central core
hyped for the game, perhaps the en
thusiasm could spread.
And some day, off in the distant
future, Memorial Stadium might have
an entirely rowdy crowd cheering for
the Comhuskers. Tom Osborne
wouldn’t have to ask for noisy fans.
This plea doesn’t stem from Go
Big Red partisanship as much as it
docs from a love of spectator sports
and that intangible “atmosphere.
There is something impressive
about a large crowd, be it 15,000 or
70,000 people, acting in unison to
cheer and support something.
Sporting events provide that. 11 a
home team running back breaks into
the open, everyone cheers simultane
ously. When he is hit with a crushing
tackle, everyone groans simultane
ously.
This crosses all boundaries. People
who hate each other in day-to-day hie
sprint across seats and over people to
high-five each other.
It’s as if, for a few brief hours, the
real world actually has people break
ing into the song and dance ot an
unrealistic Hollywood musical.
Soon people go to events for the
atmosphere more than the sport.
Nebraska volleyball has developed
that kind of aura.
Cauble said the overcrowding turns
the game into “more of a party atmos
phere than a sporting event.” That s
the point. There shouldn’t be any
difference.
Domeler is a senior news-editorial major
the Daily Nebraskan copy desk chief and .
columnist.
WM general admis
sion student tickets,
buyers would realize
(mm the slaa that
they must fend for
themselves, ll works
for the bleacher seats
at Nebraska basket
ball fames.