Opinion
Nebraskan
Editorial Board
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Chris Hopfensperger.■ .Editor, 472-1766
Dionne Searcey...Opinion Page Editor
KriS Karnopp.Managing Editor
Alan Phelps.Wire Editor
Wendy Navratil.....Writing Coach
Stacey McKenzie. .Senior Reporter
Jeremy Fitzpatrick..Columnist
No use
Parking problems will never be solved
For years, parking has topped the platform of candidates
for the Association of Students of the University of
Nebraska-Lincoln.
The NU Board of Regents have discussed and re-discussed
parking issues. ^
The UNL Residence Hall Association often frets about open
lots.
Already this fall, issues have ranged from arguments about
remote-lot parking to spaces available on football days.
Last spring students were upset about the monitoring of
metered spaces.
It’s fair to say every student for one reason or another has
been dissatisfied with
parking on campus.
The name Ray Coffey,
former member of the UNL
parking committee, used to
be a household dirty word.
Now Mike Cacak,
interim parking administra
tor, is working to figure out
a way to make students and
their cars happy.
Fact is, the parking
problems of the university
will never be solved.
Try as Andrew
Sigerson may, there is no
way to please everyone.
Sigerson, ASUN
president, and the rest of the
clan tonight struck down a
proposal to ban first-year
_ students from parking on
campus.
The plan would have
prevented freshmen from
buying parking permits.
Many large universities have installed such a ban.
Granted, the proposal would have freed up numerous
parking spaces behind the residence halls, but first-year stu
dents at UNL probably would have complained about the plan.
And the proposal would have done little to ease the congestion
of lots used by commuter students — who, by definition at
UNL, are not supposed to be freshmen.
RHA voted unanimously Monday to withhold support from
the ASUN resolution to ban freshman parking.
Sigerson has said a better solution would be to build a large,
off-campus lot where every student, faculty and staff member
could park.
But the plan doesn’t seem all too likely to come into effect
in a year plagued by a shortage of funds. The university is not
so anxiously awaiting budget cuts from the Legislature.
Sigerson, RHA and parking officials will keep dreaming.
UNL campus police will keep ticketing. Students will keep
circling the lots, hoping to find a spot to park their gas- guz
zling, environment-damaging vehicles.
In the meantime, the tickets will continue to stack up in the
back seats of students’ cars until graduation when they must
pay the fines before they drive away with a degree in hand.
There is no happy ending.
Suff editorials represent the official policy of the Fall 1992 Daily Nebraskan. Policy is set by
the Daily Nebraskan Editorial Board. Editorials do not necessarily reflect the views of the
university, its employees, the students or the NU Board of Regents. Editorial columns represent
the opinion of the author. The regents publish the Daily Nebraskan. They establish the UNL
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.its students.
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__SSSSl
■
Minority discontent no surprise
The University of Nebraska-Lin
coln Racial Climate Survey that
was conducted last spring
strongly indicates that minorities, es
pecially African-Americans, are not
pleased with UNL.
Really.
• The front page of a January issue
of the Daily Nebraskan showed a pic
ture of a former football player, Scou
---Baldwin, naked and
hog-tied as a result of a
mental outbreak. Sev
enty-five to 100 Afri
can-American students
met with Daily Nebras
kan representatives
(with media coverage)
and discussed the un
-ethical picture.
• During a rally protesting the
acquittal of four Los Angeles police
officers, African-American students
called out the names of many people
whom they thought perpetuated the
racial problems on campus.
• High-ranking UNL officials have
spoken at several Afrikan People’s
Union meetings in the past years and
listened to African-American con
cerns about racism and discrimina
tion at UNL.
And 40 percent of African-Ameri
cans are not satisfied with the univer
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Surprise. Surprise.
I can’t believe the university took
the lime to conduct such a confiden
tial survey when they knew of many,
many, many African-American stu
dents who wouldn’ t hesitate to tell the
university or anyone who would lis
ten to their stories.
Officials now say multicultural
education is needed at UNL. Why are
so many people a day late and a dollar
short?
When I first realized I was going to
UNL and saw the requirements for my
major, I was disgusted when I saw
Western Civilization.
Western Civilization. Why the hell
was I taking acourse that was going to
say nothing about the contributions of
my people and would not benefit me
in the future?
Western Civilization is about black
people, but many students do not know
that.
Maybe if the professors who taught
these courses spoke about the contri
butions of other cultures besides the
European culture, or maybe if these
professors knew of the contributions
of other cultures that were a part of
Western civilization, or even maybe
if these professors knew who was
black and who was white in Western
civilization, minorities wouldn’t mind
taking such a course.
I
The Association of Students of the
University of Nebraska president
Andrew Sigerson said in his State of
the Campus address that UNL should
not require incoming students to take
multicultural courses. He said those
students would be upset in being forced
to take such a course.
Oh my! Are you telling me Afri
can-Americans and other minorities
aren’t being forced to listen to so
much stuff that they know is lies? And
I have yet to see any changes to get me
out of taking Western Civilization.
UNL needs more than just a
multicultural curriculum. Actually, if
professors incorporated the contribu
tions made by minorities into their
classes, a multicultural curriculum
would not be needed — it would
already be taken care of in the manner
that it should be.
Separate courses arc not going to
do any good if students in the sciences
can’t associate Dr. Charles Drew (a
black man who developed blood
plasma for transfusions) with health.
Separate courses are not going to
do any good if English students do not
know that Othello was a black man.
For that matter, separate courses
are not going to do any good if all
students don’t know that some contri
butions supposedly made by while
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by black men and women.
When people don’t see contribu
tions in this world made by other races
or cultures, they will look down on
those races and cultures.
And when minorities don’t know
of contributions made by people who
look like them, they will have no
respect for themselves or others.
Professors should not be rewarded
a thing for integrating information
about minorities into their lectures.
They should have been doing it a long
lime ago.
That is an insult to me, my people
and everyone else whose culture or
race Ifts contributed so much to a
nation that docsn ’ t even acknowledge
our presence.
If anything, professors should be
penalized for NOT integrating the
information. That way, they would
have to find the information them
selves, if they have no clue whatso
ever about contributions made by
minorities.
Back to the Racial Climate Sur
vey.
African-Americans don’t care
about this survey. The questions were
already answered years ago when
those students set fool on this campus.
Another question on the survey
finds that more than 40 percent of
African-American students think UNL
recruiting brochures do not honestly
describe the university.
One year I saw a brochure that
went to incoming students. The bro
chure had two or three black students
on the cover. Less than 2 percent of
UNL’s students are African-Ameri
cans!
The brochures tend to make mi
nority students think there are more
people who look like them on campus
then there really are.
More than 60 percent of minority
students said that if they could do it all
over again, they would choose a dif
ferent university.
Don’t be surprised after listening
to officials say they were going to
make a change and do something
about the race problem on campus
and ain’t nultin changed. Why bother
to stay at a university that doesn’t
appreciate or respect you or your cul
ture?
I’m in my third year here, and the
only changes I’ve seen are more is
sues being raised about the needed
diversity on campus and racial prob
lems that minorities face at UNL.
Nothing has changed. Many Afri
can-Americans and other minorities
don’t see anything happening any
umc nuuii.
Officials tell us it takes time. They
tell us to be patient. If Rosa Parks
were patient, we would probably still
be silling injfye back of the bus.
The tim^TOdosomething is now.
Not tomorrow. African-Americans
and other minorities wouldn’t be here
today if they waited for tomorrow to
come.
What extreme will it take to make
a change on this campus and other
campuses across the United Slates?
To sit back and watch the L.A.
riots, to see a picture of a naked, hog
tied black man (depicting slavery in
the minds of many black people) and
to listen to so much rhetoric going on
— it’s frustrating and upsetting for
black people, especially young black
adults.
We sit here and watch what’s go
ing on. We sit here and listen to what’s
going on. And we think about our
parents and our grandparents. We thi nk
about Malcolm X and Martin Luther
King Jr. We see their struggle. We
know of their struggle.
And we know that if we don’t do
something about it today, we will be
doomed tomorrow.
We think about the past and re
member it. We remember it so that we
can say to ourselves, “Never again.
Spurlock is a Junior news-editorial and
broadcasting major, a Dally Nebraskan night
news editor and a columnist