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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 24, 1993)
Daily Nebraskan TuMday. August 24,1 Nebraskan Editorial Board University of Nebraska-Lincoln Jeremy Fitzpatrick.. Kathy Steinauer.... Wendy Mott.... .. Todd Cooper. Chris Hopfensperger Kim Spurlock. Kiley Timperley.... ... Editor, 472-1766 Opinion Page Editor ,.. Managing Editor .Sports Editor _Copy Desk Chief .Sower Editor Senior Photographer 1 MTOKI \! Nest egg Creating position makes waste obvious In a budget crisis, there are some things the University of Nebraska cannot afford. Hiring a six-month assistant to outgoing President Martin Massengale and paying him $56,900 is one of them. Former University of Nebraska at Kearney Chancellor William Nester has been hired by NU administration as a special assistant to Massengale. Nester’s duties will included helping new UNK Chancellor Gladys Styles Johnston in her transition and assisting the other chancellor’s with special projects. The $56,900 Nester will be paid is equal to half the yearly salary he received as chancellor of UNK. Nester is undoubtedly qualified to serve as Massengale’s assistant. His ability to do the job is not in question. But the wisdom of hiring Nester as an assistant to a lame-duck president is. What is the point in spending $56,900 on an assistant to Massengale, who is leaving his post when his contract runs out in December? Nester’s job could have been filled by someone already on Massengale’s staff. If Massengale has not needed Nester’s help 14) to this point in his administration, he does not need him in his last six months. That kind of waste is what has made NU the target of budget cuts by the Nebraska Legislature during the state’s current fiscal crisis. Nester’s hiring will only add fuel to the charges that NU’s administration is wasteful. If legislators accuse NU of being wasteful in this case, the William Nester is qualified. It is no criticism of him personally to say that NU’s administration acted irresponsibly by hiring him. People who were affected by last year’s budget cuts deserve some explanation from NU’s administration on their decision to hire Nester. Hiring a $56,900 six-month assistant when people have their jobs threatened by the budget ax is inexcusable. Realistic rise Petty tuition increase shouldn't cause stir Students probably had everything but tuition hikes on their minds this summer while the NU Board of Regents were busy raising the rates for all who attend the University of Nebraska. Students at all campuses —UNL, UNK, UNO and the Univer sity of Nebraska Medical Center — will pay more in tuition this year. UNL resident students will pay 4.9 percent more, while nonresident students will pay 5.1 percent more. This means resident undergraduates will pay $64.50 per credit hour — $3 more each hour than what they paid last semester. And resident graduate students will pay $85.50 per hour — also only $3 more each hour than last semester’s rate. Because the average load for most undergraduates is 12 or 15 hours, this means residents pay only $36 to $45 more each semester. In a time of budget crunches and tightened purse strings, this increase seems in line with what should be expected. The tuition hike followed a recommendation by the Nebraska Legislature for UNL. That should ensure the regents were not out of line with what had been suggested. They made an attempt to keep within guidelines and tried to keep the financial burden on students to a minimum. Obviously no one wants to keep paying more and more for an education. And rates do keep rising on a regular basis. But in a time when a cut in the budget is very hard to come by, paying around $40 more for a semester of classes does not seem too far out of line. Staff editorial* represent the official policy of the Fall 1993 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 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. Nil l< \ 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 rstains 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 ran as a guest opinion. Letters and guest opinions sent to the newspaper become the property of the Dsiiy Nebraskan and cannot be returned. Anonymous submissions will not be published. Letters should included the author’s name, year in school, major and group affiliation, if any. Requests to withhold names will not be granted. Submit material to the Daily Nebraskan, 34 Nebraska Union, 1400 R St., Lincoln,v' * I’ul |< \ I HI I (>l<I \ \lMKCfc M \Uk I’. \l DUIIH,I Activism, evil feed each other Why is it that I can’t take activ ists seriously? Anyone even using the word activism m my presence seems hopelesslynaivc.lt doesn't seem quite grown up, if you see what I mean. Like I’m talking to a child. Part of my problem with activism — political, ecological or whatever — is that it makes too many assump tions that I just can’t imagine making for myself. Sure, I believe in evil — that the world isn’t right the way it is. Things could be better. But activism assumes that the ac tivist can tell people what’s wrong and what to do about it. That’s beyond my ability. 1 find many of my own opinions downright ludicrous. And things I believed strongly five years ago I disbelieve just as strongly today. I can only assume that I’ll have different beliefs five years from now and that the differences will be funda mental ones. If I get tired of the sound of my own voice, of hearing my own tiresome opinions, how can I propose to know what’s good and what’s bad for every one else? For instance, I’d say prejudice is wrong — except I can think of so many reasons why one should hate and fear other people. Take Native Americans. Not only should the v have hated and feared the coming of the pilgrims, they should have scared them off or slaughtered them whenever they showed up. If they would have done this, may be Native Americans would have got ten a bad reputation and been left alone a little longer — maybe long enough to get horses from down south and guns to go with them. Spain was already wiping out whole races down there, but at least they brought stuff with them. We teach our children to fear strangers for the same reason: There are bad people out there. And they hate and fear those different from themselves. If I get tired of the sound of my own voice, of hearing my own tiresome opinions, how can I propose to know what’s good and what’s bad for everyone else? In that kind of world, one would be a fool not to feel the same. I’d say war or poverty or crime was bad, but I can think of too many ways that they are necessary—even appro priate adaptations to an imperfect world filled with evil. And doing away with one evil — handguns, for instance—just seems to open the door for worse kinds. Like the bumper sticker says: When hand guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have handguns. When everyone trusts one another, the untrustworthy rise to power. All supposed solutions to our hu man ills that involve doing away with cruelty and evil, or somehow making it impossible, seem fundamentally wrongheaded to me. Either one assumes the problem lies with the people in power — and tries to wrest power from that elite— or that it’s a problem of ignorance— in which case education is the answer. The difficulty is that, one way or another, people will still be in power —human beings with all the capacity for evil of their former oppressors. And people will decide what gets taught, and when and how and to whom. When I hear the rhetoric of activ ism I always finish it with “... and we’ll all live forever.” Because it seems to me that that’s the kind of promise held out by those who would try to save the world: No one will be oppressed; no one will go hui ~ no one will kill. - one will die" seems like a logical next step—and just as likely. Maybe I’m cynical, though it doesn’t feel that way to me. To me it feels like I’m overcome by empathy—that the empathy I feel for suffering is so great it paralyzes. When I think of all the lives that have come and gone already, and are coming into the world still, eclipsed by slavery, mind-numbing labor and crushing poverty—well, it makes me feel like the sun’s gone out. Like we’re living under the influ ence of some dark malevolent sun with no light in it. But that sun is older than the indus trial revolution, older than capital ism, older than the caste system ami the class struggle. It has shone in the dark hearts of men and women since time began and no act or wish of mine will put it out I’m skeptical of answers that can’t bear the weight of the problems they ’ re trying to solve; the world is much worse off than people think. I'm so skeptical, in fact, that I’m not so sure skepticbm is such a great idea, see? But I want toexamineall the claims of solidarity, all the rhetoric of peace and prosperity, all the underlying as sumptions that I can ferret out 01 the dark nooks where they lie pulsing like arteries full of bad blood. I want to take a long hard look at the propaganda ofboth—of any side. I don’t have any answers, all I have is difficult questions. But I want answers. I prefer an swers. I want to know what to do. I want to get it right. BaMridf* li a Motor Easlbk ■»<* * DiQjr Naknukaa —hmatot P.S. Write Back 1 he Daily Nebraskan wants to hear from you. If you want to voice your opinion' .about an article that appears in the newspaper, let us know. Just write a brief letter to the editor and sign it (don’t forget your student ID number) and mail it to the Daily Nebraskan, 34 Nebraska Union, 1400 ‘R’ Street, Lincoln, NE 68588-0448, or stop by the office in the basement of the Nebraska Union and visit with us. We’re all ears.