Students have important stories
Roughly 17 percent of UNL
students seeking an under
graduate degree are older than
24. They arc classified as “non-tradi
tional” students.
' The number of non-traditional stu
dents is increasing throughout the
nation, probably as a resuji^of the
economy. During the last decade,
thousands of people lost their jobs and
discovered no market for their skills.
Some have invested years in jobs that
top out atsubsistence incomes.
Hard work no longer pays off when
you don’t have a college degree.
Sometimes people become non
traditional sludents because life threw
them a curvcball. Vince was trying to
stay alive in the burning jungles of
Vietnam during his “traditional” stu
dent years. Afterward, he was busy
trying to cope with the brainwashing
that helped him survive Vietnam.
Non-traditional students generally i
speak up in class. Many of them come <
from situations where no one cared <
what they thought. We all paid alien- J
tion to what Vince thought of James ,
Baldwin’s drug-addicted brother in <
“Sonny’sBlues.”Whenwccouldonly j
speculate about theexpericnce, Vince .
would tell us what it was like to really <
need heroin. He would punctuate his
monologue with a grin minus a couple «
of teeth that he had sacrificed to the |
drug. Vince gave us something in j
20th Century Fiction class that tuition (
couldn’t buy. He shared his life expe- j
rience with us.
Many non-traditional students arc i
trying to change their life experience.
They wantsomething better for them- c
selves and their children. A numberof
these people work full time, go to
school, maintain homes and raise fami
lies. Their courage and tenacity sel
dom make the headlines, but they
leave an impression on their class- t
mates. t
— — 1
Many non-traditional
students are trying
to change their life
experience. They
want something
better for them
selves and their
children.
I was a classmate of Valerie’s for
icarty a year. She was a smiling,
:nergetic woman who seemed a little
■caUcrb rained. I’d known her for sev
eral months before she slowly re
pealed the trauma of her existence.
>hc was trying to end her marriage to
i violent, possessive alcoholic while
he was working to earn her teaching
:ertificatc.
During the months that we shared
;ludics, Valeric’s resolve to change
icr life grew stronger, and her hus
band reacted. He started taking the
:hildrcn from day care while she was
n class, and his drinking made Valeric
ear for their safety. She started bring
ng the children to class.
Near the end of our last semester as
lassmatcs, Valeric’s husband tried to
>ry her front door open with a crowbar
teforc he pitched a brick through her
iving room window. She feared for
icr life, but the police couldn’t help
icr. Valeric took her children and fled
he city, but not before she completed
hatclass. College was more to Valerie
’< ■■Mi. liftiatn* •
than a chance for a better life. It was
the risk of her life.
Most non-traditional students don’t
risk their life in order to change it.
They merely risk their security. They
give up jobs that they know how to do
in order to learn something that they
want to do. They sit in classrooms full
of people who are 10 and 20 years
younger than they are, hoping to make
up for lost time. They have fewer
decades to rise in their chosen profes
sion and less time to create a decent
retirement for themselves.
Non-traditional students frequently
experience a type of transition anxi
ety. Breaking into a profession takes
more than a degree. It requires an
attitude.
My friend Doug is an undiscov
ered computer genius who takes one
or two classes at a time. He works for
people who are blind to his abilities,
and they have him filling holes in
parking lots instead of developing
computer programs.
His education will include learn
ing to see himself as a professional
and not a laborer on a tar shovel. The
university doesn’toffer many courses
that teach people the power of visual
izing what they want to become.
Non-traditional students carry a
message for traditional students. It’s
OK if you don’t know what you want
from life when you’re 20 years old.
There are a lot of challenges in life,
and you can never be prepared for all
of them. Your dreams may change, or
life may delay them, but they arc not
gone. They arc waiting for you.
It’s never too late to create the type
of life you want for yourself. You
simply have to want it bad enough and
believe tfiat you can have it. Seven
teen percent of UNL students already
do.
McAdams is a sophomore news-editorial
major and a Daily Nebraskan columnist.
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Conservatism is wave of future
College Republicans lake over
Young Democrats!
Conservatives protest
Hillary Clinton!!
Conservative newspaper spreads
scurrilous lies!
Is this the end of civilization as we
know it?!
You’d think so, with all the squawk
ing going on in the formerly lone
outlet for information, the Daily Ne
braskan edition of Pravda. The vitriol,
hatred and condescension heaped on
conservatism betrays the fear and ig
norance of that noble political tradi
tion.
So what exactly is going cm? For
tunately, you have me, a thoughtful
conservative and the only voice of
tradition, reason, logic, defending
truth, justice and the American way to
explain it.
l he flap over the College Repub
licans’ guerrilla-style takeover of the
Young Democrats was not some evil
Watergate, Bill Avery’s comments
notwithstanding. Then again, what is
he supposed to say — “It happened
because I’m an incompetent fool and
a worthless advisor, and no one really
cares about the Young Democrats
anyway?” Of course not.
Ask yourselves what would have
happened if the YDs had sneaked into
a CR meeting and managed to remain
inconspicuous, despite tneir long hair,
beads and tie-dyed apparel, and done
the same thing? The Daily Nebraskan
edition of Pravda would editorialize
thusly: “It’s a valuable lesson not only
for the College Republicans, but for
all students, that organization and in
volvement arc important.”
The final word on this is that the
YDs have learned a lesson. Their next
meeting is this week, and you can bet
there will be more than six people
there. Maybe, if they arc careful,
they’ll be like the College Republi
cans and institute a secret handshake
and password.
All icd with, but not a whol ly owned
subsidiary of the College Republi
So what exactly is
going on?
Fortunately, you
have me, a thought
ful conservative and
the only voice of
tradition, reason,
logic, defending
truth, justice and the
American way to
explain it.
cans, is Students lor America. Orga
nized in January, SFA is perhaps the
best thing to happen to the campus in
a long lime. It also has the lefties on
campus squealing like stuck pigs.
Tliink back over yourcollcgc years.
Every time there’s a protest, what is
it? It’s a gay-lesbian “kiss-in,”a bunch
of angry feminists burning Barbie
dolls in a wok, or a group of American
Indians protesting Columbus Day, all
in the name of “raising awareness."
They’re fringe groups — out of the
mainstream — who make a lot of
noise and get plenty of attention.
It’s just fine for COLAGE or the
Afrikan People’s Union to protest and
vent their pain and frustration, but
when a group of clean-cut conserva
tives protest Hillary Clinton, we’re
told by the Daily Nebraskan edition of
Pravda to check our First Amendment
rights at the door. We ought to be
sensitive to the fact that she’s a role
model for women and a symbol of
' — f. •
progress in society. You’ve heard it
all before.
That is why SFA saw the crying
need for a conservative newspaper,
which finally hit the streets Monday.
It’s the result of much hard work by
the SFA staff and presents provoca
tive commentary on campus and na
tional issues. You’ll cither Jove it or
hate it.
How did they do it? By going out
and soliciting advertising and support
from interested parties who want to
break the choke-hold on information
that the Daily Nebraskan edition of
Pravda enjoys. The Nebraska Ideal
isn’t a socialized newspaper, subsi
dized by the university and using the
handout as a cover for incompetence.
It’s free enterprise and free speech in
action.
its a nccaca anuaotc to uic u any
Nebraskan edition of Pravda, which is
very good at telling you what you
“should” do — abusing that innocu
ous six-letter word to death. It is the
height of folly and arrogance for it to
presume to have a monopoly on truth,
dictating from on high what all good,
enlightened, sensitive, caring and
compassionate little robots “should”
feel. Not think, mind you. Feel.
The effete corps of impudent snobs
who run the College of Journalism
and the Daily Nebraskan edition of
Pravda are understandably upset over
this exercise of the First Amendment.
The Ideal is part of a new wave of
rising conservatism that dares chal
lenge the intellectual bankruptcy of
the prevailing liberal touchy-feely
fascism in the media and academia.
Rather than a “lost generation,” we
are the future. The threadbare social
ist doctrines of liberalism, having
failed in Europe and Asia, will soon
be nothing more than an historical
oddity on the ash heap of American
history.
Kcpfldd ts a graduate student in history,
an alumnus of the UNL College of Caw and a
Dally Nebraskan columnist.
r’4
^fj
ril 26 - May
fPOSEiipOBt
^ 13th & Q