The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current, November 09, 1992, Page 4, Image 4

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    OHNDN
Nebraskan
Editorial Board
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Chris Hopfensperger. .f A . .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
Dorm dreaming
UNO should be realistic about housing
University of Nebraska at Omaha officials should have taken
a realistic look at building residence halls on campus when
the idea first surfaced.
UNO Chancellor Del Weber told an NU Board of Regents
committee meeting Friday that high-rise residence halls on the
Omaha campus would be virtually impossible because of the cost.
UNO considered buying properly for student housing near
campus or building residence halls on nearby Ak-Sar-Ben land,
but the only slightly tangible option was to build costly, high-rise
housing on the Omaha campus.
“I’m tired of saying these arc things that we’re going to do and
then not doing it,” Weber said.
Weber must have known the university system was going
through one of its toughest economical times in history. Surely he
didn’t think UNO actually could afford something it didn’t really
„ need.
And even after the discussion Saturday, NU Regents Nancy
O’Brien of Waterloo and Charles Wilson of Lincoln said they
didn’t want officials to drop the idea of residence halls at UNO.
They obviously weren’t listening when Weber said he had given
up on the plan because there would never be enough money for it
to become a reality.
Officials must consider the rol^'and mission of each campus in
the university system before they waste time and money exploring
foolish ideas.
The mission of UNO in the university system is to function as
a commuter campus. If students want to live in residence halls,
they can come to UNL.
START treaty
Missile agreement needs to be reached
Despite START treaty agreements, a Ukrainian official said
last week that the republic would sell its strategic nuclear
missiles to the highest bidder instead of turning them over
to Russia, an Associated Press story said.
“We can sell these nuclear warheads to the highest bidder...
to nuclear slates, that means Russia first of all, or maybe another
state, depending on which pays most,” said Igor Yuknovsky,
Ukraine’s first vice prime minister.
That statement is vague enough to be frightening.
And tiic fact that Ukraine is considering selling its weapons to
a highest bidder should have the rest of the world watching
carefully.
Right now, only the United States, Britain, France, China and
four of the former Soviet republics — Russia, Ukraine,
Kazakhstan and Belarus — are known to have nuclear weapons.
Outside Russia, Ukraine — with 176 strategic missiles — has the
largest concentration of nuclear weapons among the former
Sqvict republics.
The START treaty, which Ukraine has not yet ratified, calls for
140 of those missiles to be transferred to Russia by the end of
1994. Ukraine has also already turned over all of its shorter-rangc
nuclear weapons.
But Yuknovsky said the missiles belonged to the Ukrainian
people and would not be given away for nothing.
Ukraine’s two-week-old government is upset about having
given away some of the republic’s missiles, Prime Minister
Leonid Kuchma said, because Russia was able to sell the nuclear
fuel to the United States.
“We removed tactical weapons from Ukraine and what did we
get in exchange?” Kuchma said.
That anger is justifiable, but it is not important enough to
threaten world security. Some agreement should be made between
the two republics before Ukraine decides to sell the missiles to
whoever will pay for them._
Staff editorials represent the official policy of the (-all 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 NL' Board of Regents. Editorial columns represent
the opinion of the author. The regents publish the Daily Nebraskan. They establish the UNL
Publications Board to supervise the daily production of the paper. According to policy set by
the regents, responsibility for the editorial content of the newspaper lies solely in the hands of
its students.
The Daily Nebraskan welcomes brief letters to the editor from all readers and interested others. -
Letters will be selected for publication on the basis of clarity, originality, timeliness and space
available. The Daily Nebraskan retains the right to edit or reject all material submitted. Readers
also are welcome to submit material as guest opinions. The editor decides whether material
should run as a guest opinion. Letters and guest opinions sent to the newspaper become the
property of the Daily Nebraskan and cannot be relumed. Anonymous submissions will not be
published. Letters should included the author's name, year in school, major and group
affiliation, if any. Requests to w ithhold names will not be granted. (Submit material to the Daily
Nebraskan, 34 Nebraska Union, 1400 R St., Lincoln, Neb. 68588-0448.
_ %
3
—I_I
‘The one in red’
I’m writing to remind you of the
Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Con
stitution — you know, the one about
cruel and unusual punishment. If you
order the police at the Nebraska vs.
Colorado game to “surround the goal
posts with clubs, and anyone who
comes near them gets clubbed,” then
I suppose I’ll just have to surround
you, the athletic department and the
UNL Police Department with law
suits stemming from police brutality
and constitutional violations.
If there is a disclaimer in state law
allowing for this kind of abuse in the
case of “goal post vandalism,” then I
must have human rights confused with
Nazi fascism. Of course I'll only file
these lawsuits il l actually get clubbed.
Getting away with such a heinous
crime without punishment certainly
entails the decency of not suing. I’ll
be the one in red.
Colin Theis
senior
English and philosophy
. i
Tuition
I am concerned about the higher
tuition and fees paid by foreign stu
dents at the University of Nebraska
Lincoln. I think my country, Malay
sia, has to spend loo much money
since we have to pay three limes more
for tuition and fees than resident stu
dents. It is kind ol unlair when foreign
students have to pay SI67 per credit
hour and resident students just pay
S62 per credit hour.
I understand why the foreign stu
dent have to pay more than resident
students since we don’t pay any slate
taxes to support the school system,
but don’t you think the luiliop-is loo
high for foreign students to cover the
lost taxes?
However, I argue about the cost
since the money paid by my govern
ment is coming from my parents and
other Malaysians’ taxes. In addition,
almost half of the foreign students are
supported by their family, so that
means the high tuition and fees really
hurl them.
I know the students from other
stales, for the first six months, also
must pay the same amount that the
foreign students have to pay. What
bothers me is no matter how long we
arc living in the United States, we still
have to pay SI67 per credit hour. So
when is the chance for foreign stu
dents to pay the same amount dial the
resident students pay?
Asa foreign student, I really hope
that UN L can consider our frustration
with high tuition and Ices. The uni
versity should also think about the
benefits it can gel by reducing the
foreign students’ tuition and fees be
cause it could attract more students to
study here.
Wan Rosni Azicra Wan Abdul Aziz
accounting
junior
UPC
1 have always appreciated the qual
ity and diversity of the programs spon
sored by UNL’s University Program
Council. However, recently I have
attended UPC events that were rudely
interrupted when large numbers of
students got up and left in the middle
of the performance.
Upon inquiry , 1 learned that these
students, w ho clearly were not inter
ested in these events, were membersof
UPC who earned some sort of bonus
credit for attending and left as soon as
they had supposedly fulfilled this ob
ligation. While this system of encour
aging attendance may be well
intentioned, it is ironic that UPC mem
bers who should be promoting these
events arc instead ruining the perfor
mance for interested and appreciative
audience members.
Might I suggest to those UPC mem
bers who have exhibited such behav
ior that if you haven’t the maturity to
be respectful during these events,
please don’t ruin it for the rest of us:
Forego your resume-fillers and stay
home. Or, belter yet, if you can act
like an adult during the performance,
stay for the whole thing; you might
learn something.
JL_
Suxy Beemer
graduate leaching assistant
English
Racism
lean now honestly say without any
internal doubt that I am ashamed of
attending this university. I have been
here for nearly 4 1/2 years and this
feeling has been growing in me since
I first enrolled. Of all the universities
I have attended or visited, UNL has
the worst attitude toward minorities I
have ever seen.
Not only do we have an over
whelmingly while Anglo-Saxon stu
dent population that seems to practice
racism both overtly and covertly, we
have a racist, Hitler youth presiding
over our student body. Even the ad
ministration ol this proud university
has proved its discriminatory tactics
in its actions with the Candice Harms
probe.
The actions of this university and
its students should make any self
respecting while person fed quite ill
and ashamed. The homogeneous
population of UNL refuses to pass
amendments in the academic senate
protecting the rights of required
multicultural education classes. We
allow ourselves only to see within the
confines of the biased, but nonethe
less required history of so-called
“western civilization.”
It seems every other day there is a
letter in the Daily Nebraskan respond
ing negatively to some minority
journalist’s complaining about how
much things suck here. Well, surprise
y’all — things do suck here for mi
norities. If you’re tired of hearing
about this, why don’t you do some
thing about it?
It’s time for the people responsible
for these problems to come out of
their closed minds and into the real
world. Skin color is just that —color.
Not only that, these people arc sick of
being repressed, and we members of
your “race” arc sick of correcting
your ignorance.
Scott Taylor
senior
psychology, pre med
Slackers
Upon reading yourarticlc ("Slacker
phenomenon explains,” DN, Nov. 5),
I realized you, Mark Baldridge really
arc God. Your siatcmcnls arc fairly
accurate, but I have a bit more to add.
First let me tell you about my sister.
Her name is Kristi. She’s 26 and lives
in Minneapolis.
Four years ago, she dropped out of
Arizona Stale University and has lived
wherever she can find someone to live
with. She loured with the Gratclul
Dead fora while. Your description of
a slackct fits her.
I’m a freshman here at UNL, and
thanks to some excellent role models,
I am pursuing my desire to be-a psy
chologist. Any way, I’d like to say that
slackers arc all a detriment to society.
They arc so pitiful. They enjoy the
simple pleasures and gratifications in
life.
They’re living lives not according
to ours. Nor, do they live up to society’s
standards. For this reason, it is OK to
scapegoat them like the Romans did
to the Christians and persecute them
as the Nazis did the Jews. We should
stereotype them and organize “slacker
bashing” events.
Do you wear a wh ilc hood? B urned
any crosses lately? I am a humanist,
and I don’t subscribe to anything I
have just written. You are a fascist,
righteous bastard.
Mark Wolberg
freshman
psychology