Opinion
Parking still issue
Administration needs to find a solution
Has anyone noticed that despite the administration’s
promises, the parking situation at the University of
Ncbraska-Lincoln has not only not gotten any better,
but has become worse?
Despite the constant and redundant pleads by the student
body, parking at the university continues to be UNL’s biggest
problem year in and year out.
But is anybody parked in the administration’s reserved
parking spots listening?
it seems that every day, whether it be during the summer,
fall or spring semesters, the commuter lots are constantly
packed bumper-to-bumper, while the faculty and administra
tions lots have about as much open space as the area between
the administrators’ ears.
So what is the administration’s solution to the problem?
Send the UNL wanna-be cops after the students’ automobiles,
of course.
UNL’s parking police do a good job al patrolling the
university’s lots, loo good of a job. Because while their coun
terparts in the Lincoln Police Department are feverishly
protecting the local doughnut shops, the UNL parking police
arc ticketing like there’s no tomorrow.
And to say that our Tine parking police arc a little closed
minded would be the understatement of the year. Because
while the parking cops are all trying to set some kind of
monthly ticket record, they remain about as open-minded to
their fellow-students pleads as well as Adolf Hitler did on a
bad day.
Another problem with the parking situation is our tow-truck
friends from Lincoln Land. I always thought that a tow truck’s
purpose was to assist motorists who were having automotive
trouble, but the only assistance I’ve ever seen Lincoln Land
give is helping the parking cops fill their towing quotas.
Now here’s a real solution to our parking problem that will
probably win me an award with the NU Board of Regents.
Inc solution is a new innovation called — a panting garage.
If the administrators could take some of their desperately
pressed time out to drive downtown and look at the numerous
structures holding cars, maybe they could then get the idea to
allocate fees for one of the university’s more urgent problems.
Just think, instead of spending $5,000 on a search for a vice
chancellor for research who quits his post after two hours,
maybe the administrators could’ve put that amount of money
into a structure that will be here longer than 120 minutes.
Or maybe that temporary vice chancellor for research
would’ve stayed if he could’ve just found somewhere to park?
JRS
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European treaty needs resolve
Many Europeans arc starting to
ask what they get from
Maastricht in return for what
it obi iges them to give up. Two months
ago, the unanimous acceptance of the
Maastricht treaty seemed to be a fore
gone conclusion as the treaty mean
dered down the path of ratification.
Euro-optimists seemed to be riding
with the treaty into the fast lane when
the doubling Danish voters halted it in
its crest.
The Danish “No vote” on June 2
plunged the community into one of its
worst constitutional crises. The
Maastricht treaty committed member
countries into working closely in the
economic and political sphere. It urges
member countries to pledge their com
mitment to a foreign and security
policy, possibly leading to a joint
defense policy.
Underlined in the treaty is a com
mitment to achieve a monetary union
and a single currency by 1995, with
Britain having a reserved position of
the issue. The Irish “Yes vote” seem
ingly diluted the Danish vote and
restored the sagging morale that
gripped the community. Reports of
Maastricht demise might have been
exaggerated, but surely there has been
a change of mood.
This change of mood is loudly
characterized by a sense of uncase
among a sizable section of the Euro
pean population. The Econom ic Com -
munily is run mainly by 12 states
through the legislative branch of the
council of ministers, with the Euro
pean and national members of parlia
ment having minimum say as to the
direction towards which the commu
nity is being stirred.
The Danish vole helped to expose
the sneaking suspicion of Euro-skep
lies about the speed of change, the
lack of democratic controls, decision
making at the Euro-level and a dis
tressing feeling that the process needs
to be brought under greater control.
Some say the global economic reces
sion, which lias not spared Europe,
has fanned nationalism and spread the
ripples of Euro-doubters, thus leading
to a disquieting decline in the popu
larity of the Maastricht.
The Danish vote also seemed to be
a blow to the apparent success of
Danish diplomacy during its last six
months as leader of the community.
The vote was equally a rebuff to the to
Eurocrat, Jacques Delors, an enig
matic figure revered by Europe’s in
tcgrationisLs and reviled by anti-fed
eralists.
From his asccndcnce to the helm of
the community in 1985, he moved
forward with his vision rooted in the
ideal of a Euro-social market. His
recent re-appoinunent to a two-year
term as Economic Commissioner will
give him an urgency for a now cam
paign to reconcile some doubters of
the Maastricht.
The present crises of confidence
has stirred debate in Germany about
its unbending support for the treaty.
Sixty German professors in econom
ics recently issued a joint criticism of
the Maastricht for economic and mon
etary union. This provoked a counter
attack jointly initiated by the three big
German Banks—Deutsche, Drcsdner
and Commerzbank — against the 60
anti-Maastricht professors.
They are accused of harboring ideas
frozen in the 1970’s and failing to see
a single currency as a “natural exten
sion" of the European Monetary Sys
tem. They arc also seen as underesti
mating the danger that the commu
nily will break up if il does not forge
ahead now.
In France, the verdict of a sched
uled French poll is still being awaited.
An endorsement of Maastricht in
France is endangered by the associa
tion of President Mitterand’s belea
guered image with a “Yes vote”. The
Danish vole also seems to have resur
rected the voices of Euro-skeptic Tory
Back-Benchers, and surprisingly the
Labor party seems to be waning to
wards its anti-European past.
The whole EC club appears to be
consumed by anxieties of its own
future. To its east lies the problem of
casing the instability promised by
partly conceived, half-hearted capi
talism. Staring the EC in its face is the
resurrection in Yugo-failure of
Europe’s seemingly extinct tribal
warriors.
In the present Euro-mood, nobody
will agree with anybody until the
Maastricht treaty is ratified.
One thing that seems certain is that
the community is not looking forward
to writing the obituary of Maastricht.
Douglas Hurd, the British foreign sec
retary, thinks that the collapse of
Maastricht would arouse so much
uncertainty and ill will that progress
on the GATT, the single market and
EC enlargement would come to a halt.
As the strength of unease of the
Economic and Monetary Union
spreads, the threat looms of turning
the EC into a docile gathering of
stocktakers. This can be prevented if
the present diplomatic exercise by the
commissions President Delta's and the
community’s foreign ministers result
in a hopeful slilch-up.
Valentine Gana Aftih if a junior accounting
major and a Daily Nebraskan column lit.
