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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (April 8, 1993)
Opinion a&s Nebraskan Editorial Board University of Nebraska-Lincoln ChrisHopfensperger.........2...Editor,472-1766 Jeremy Fitzpatrick.Opinion Page Editor Alan Phelps.T.:2.•. f... .Managing Editor Brian Shellito.. Cartoonist Susie Arth.Senior Reporter Kim Spurlock... Diversions Editor Sam Kepfield.. .Columnist ! -1 ' I ‘ Passing the buck ! Roundabout tax hike not fair to students The Legislature’s Appropriations Committee made a responsible decision Tuesday when it voted to cut in half the amount the University of Nebraska’s budget would be reduced next year. But then the legislators promptly turned around and made a decision that was politically expedient but hardly could be called responsible. The committee voted to recommend a 7.5 percent tuition increase over the next two years for NU. In other words, NU’s budget won’t be cut as much, but students will have to foot the bill. A tuition increase is really a lax hike for a nearly politically voiceless grbup: college students. Legislators will avoid making the tough choices by passing the responsibility to students who are least able to afford it. The University of Nebraska is a state institution, and it benefits the entire state, not only the students who attend its colleges. If there is a need for additional revenue, the Legislature should raise the money equally with a general lax increase. Raising taxes would be very unpopular. But our legislators are elected to do what is right, not what is popular. And it is not right to shift the burden for increasing costs at NU to students alone. Tuition increases arc unfortunate realities that all universities must face. But a 7.5 percent increase over two years — really a tax hike — is loo much. If the Legislature is going to raise taxes, it should do it equally. Left out Students deserve bigger say in selection University of Nebraska students may not interact on a regular basis with the president of the university, but that ■ is no reason for them to have less of a voice in selecting Martin Masscngalc’s replacement. As it stands, students will have almost no opponunily to contribute to the selection of the next university president, with only one student on ihc 12-mcmbcr selection committee. And that plan is being supported by the regents’ faulty reasoning. Regardless of the composition of the rest of the board, NU students deserve at least one more voice on the search committee. Former ASUN President Andrew Sigcrson proposed that at the regents’ meeting March 20, but he was ignored. Regent Nancy O’Brien said the process, as it was set up, had worked well in the past and allowed students a direct role in the selection of the university president. But the role is diluted to the point of ineffectiveness by the composition of the committee. Eventually the group will include 12 voting members — the student, one person nominated by the . University of Nebraska Foundation, one person selected from the faculty or staff of the university, three faculty members and six people from the general public. O’Brien argues that if the students arc granted another spot on the committee, all of the groups could make a case for greater representation. She also says another student member isn’t necessary because students don’t interact with the university president. If that is her justification, O’Brien should explain why half of the board — those members nominated by the regents — is made up of people from the general public who could have no interac tion with the university president at all. ___ affiliation, if any. Requests to withhold names will not be granted. Submit material to the Daily Nebraskan, 34 Nebraska Union, 1400 R St., Lincoln, Nek 68588-0448. — -tHfc ‘SECRET TO Tttfi ' nG K EE.NN U5WS KT --*~r - - ■ If- . Cancer survivors inspire hope During my spring break, I went to Richmond, Va.,tovisiloid friends and hangouts from my first part of graduate school. Rich mond has been in the news lately, in a bad way because of the number of guns sold there and the rising murder rate. While I was there, Gov. Douglas Wilder managed to pass a measure that would perm it a person to buy only one gun per month. I guess some of the people of Richmond shall be hap pier now. When I arrived in Richmond five years ago, I was warned not to walk in the alleys or go any place alone at night. While I was there, I listened to thisadvicc. My adviser got mugged in front of his own apartment two blocks from mine. A fellow student was sur rounded by teen-agers who needed $20 to go to the movies and look it from her. Another friend’s purse was stolen from her living room while she was asleep in the bedroom. She could have been killed. The rapes, the mur ders were endless in Richmond. I had forgotten a lot of this after living in Lincoln for two years. But it all came back when I was warned by a dear friend to be very careful even during the day, because the hard crime is basically drug related. So while I was there for a week I held my purse lightly and looked over my shoulder every 10 steps. I walked away from cars and entrances. I tried to protect myself. I tried to keep myself alive. But sometimes we have no control over such things, regardless of our precautions. Sometimes it has noth ing to do with crime. While I was in Richmond, I was prepared to enjoy better weather from the winters here and to look at daffo dils and trees in bloom. But I was not prepared to find out that two of my friends have cancer. Both are women in their late 30s—one with leukemia, and the other with breast cancer and It is wonderful to _ see that a woman has stood up in this manner and told society that women can lead full lives even without a breast, a part of the woman’s body that has unfortunately been so exploited by society. with low chances for survival. I talked to the first, and she told me on the phone that she had it and had started her chemotherapy. 1 didn’t know what to say. I didn’t understand how she could be so cool and collected about it. Cancer, unfortunately, still equals death in many eases; therefore, it is a taboo subject to talk about. One way to fight this stigma is to talk about it— one can gain a great deal of strength from this. My mother had breast cancer four years ago and is a survivor who has gone through a lymph node operation, radiation treatment, a mastectomy and, as recently as a year ago, another biopsy that removed a benign tumor. One out of three women with breast cancer dies from it. These operations saved my mother’s life and gave us all hope to go on living. We were spared from looking at death in the eyes. Recently I came across an incred ibly courageous account in Ms. maga zine by Andree Connors from Cali fornia who had had a mastectomy. She had a photograph of herself with one breast and a tattooed rose instead of the other. When have you seen a one-breasted woman? If there isaont? in three chance of dying of cancer, imagine how many women have the surgical removal of one or both breasts, and do not have the other cosmeti cally implanted. It is wonderful to see that a woman has stood up in this manner and told society that women can lead full lives even without a breast, a part of the woman’s body that has unfortunately been so exploited by society. That is not what makes a woman a woman, but it is the inner beauty that counts. Audre Lorde, a feminist author and poet, has also had the courage to live one-breasted. I salute these women and all others who have had the cour age to face death, to survive a life threatening disease, lose a breast and accept their disfigurement. I’ll never forget my dad’s phone call the night before my mother’s mastectomy. The radiation treatment had completely removed the tumor and the doctors gave my mom the option of having the mastectomy or wailing to see what happened. She decided to go for it. Dad couldn’t believe it. He cried on the phone — his wife was going to lose her breast. But she lived through it, and that’s what mattered the most. Being her daughter, I have a pretty good chance of gelling it. So, how was my spring break? Well, I guess I learned a lot about life. Blfjana D. Obradovie to a graduate stu dent in creative wriUng-poetry and a Daily Nebraskan cutumnbt. ‘Silent majority’ I write this letter to speak for the silent majority. I pay to attend a state university that is subsidized by stale taxes. I’m in a democratic society that |follows what the majority desires. Apparently, these two facts were over looked by members of some commit tee when they eliminated vacation on Good Friday/Easter. They were prob ably trying to satisfy a distraught reli gious or atheist group that complained about their “forced” vacation. But this decision comes from a school that by and large is attended and funded by Christian citizens located in a Chris tian state. 1 wonder how the 70-80 percent Christian-studcni population tolerates having one of its religious rights taken away. I’m sure some of you’re saying to yourselves, “just another backward, closed-minded hayseed.” But I beg to differ with you. Since coming to an institution of higher learning. I’ve seen how skillful (and loudmouthed) manipulators can use propaganda,guilt and misconstrued bigotry as tools against the majority. They tell us we neied to be open-minded, understand ing and multicultural. But are vyc to forget our roots, and what makes us Midwestern Christians? Why can’t we respect our own culture, too? By being required to attend class on a very important holy day. I’m being discriminated against by the univer sity. I don’t want “special treatment;" I want to worship the way Ichoose and not to be penalized for it. In this “bastion or knowledge and under standing,’’ I’m probably seen as a Christian elitist, but in my area it’s called morals, values and tradition. It’s too bad that in a school where divine grace probably saved many innocent folks from Art McElroy’s submachine gun, were fuse to give the big man a day off to die for us. Russ Barger junior mechanized system management
