Opinion
Nebraskan
Thursday, February 10,1994
Editorial Board
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Jeremy Fitzpatrick
Rainbow Rowell.
Adeana Left in. . . .
Todd Cooper.....
Jeff Zeleny
Sarah Duey.
Willi an Lauer....
. ... Editor.472-1766
Opinion Page Editor
Managing Editor
Sports Editor
Associate News Editor
Arts & Entertainment Editor
Senior Photographer
Unwise cuts
NCAA shouldn't trim quality programs
In an effort to cut expenses, the NCAA has taken a step that
will reduce quality in college athletics.
Proposal 158, passed at the NCAA convention in January,
will probably eliminate men’s gymnastics as a sanctioned NCAA
sport after next season. That means men’s gymnastics will no
longer have a national championship meet.
The proposal requires that a sport must have at least 40 univer
sities to remain sanctioned by the NCAA. Only 36 schools have
men’s programs.
Nebraska, which has won seven of the last 14 national champi
onships, will certainly be disadvantaged by the new policy. But so
will all of the college sports. Gymnastics is a quality sport that
should be recognized.
Francis Allen, the Nebraska men’s coach, said the passage of
Proposal 158 showed the problems with gender equity in athletics
and dwindling resources.
“It all goes back to gender equity,” Allen said. “Actually, it’s
not really even gender equity — it’s money.”
In tight financial times for colleges, the NCAA is right to trim
back unnecessary expenses in athletics. But eliminating men’s
gymnastics as a sanctioned sport is not a wise cost-cutting move.
There is room for cuts in athletics. But making them to smaller
sports of high quality is not the answer. The NCAA should look
harder next time instead of cutting good programs.
Promises, promises
Students should choose leaders carefully
A SUN elections arc coming up. The air is thick with “if
elected ...” promises and campaign goals.
Two parties have announced their candidacy: VISION,
headed by Andrew Loudon, and RESUME, headed by J.B. Howell.
Although the powers of the Association of Students of the
University of Nebraska are limited, it is students’ primary voice in
campus issues. ASUN influences policies that directly affect
students, and therefore it should reflect student opinion.
It’s important that students take part in the upcoming election.
Greater participation will let candidates know University of
Ncbraska-Lincoln students care about how they are represented.
After the election, they can expect voters to monitor the perfor
mance of those elected.
ASUN elections are March 9. Until then, both parties will have
the opportunity to outline their plans for the student body.
When hearing these plans, student voters must demand that
candidates be honest and specific.
VISION hopes to keep down student fees and increase
campuswide participation in committees. RESUME would like to
reform UNL’s alcohol policy and expand evening class scheduling.
Promises are easy to make, and any candidate will be tempted to
attack the most troubling issues. But simply promising to solve a
problem like parking or budget cuts isn’t enough to do so.
For students to take them seriously, candidates must offer
detailed and realistic plans.
The race should not be based on who has the best promises, but
on who can best serve UNL students.
l miuui \i I’m i< \
Staff editorial* represent the official policy of the Spring 1994 Daily Nebraakan. 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.
I I I I I It l'( >1 K \
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available. The Daily Nebraskan retains the right to edit or reject all material submitted. Readers
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Nebraskan, 34 Nebraska Union, 1400 R St., Lincoln, Neb. 68588-0448.
1.11 11 un in I ill Kdmou
‘Window problem’
I would like to comment on the
Jeffrey Knoll incident and the folly of
our times. I am sad that Knoll fell out
of the window and was injured. If it
were in my power, I'd enact legislation
that would give a $ 100 fine to anyone
who has a window without a screen or
removes a screen out of a window.
I see this as the most practical
solution to the problem of students
falling out of windows.
The current trend is to approach
the window problem from the most
distant angle by outlawing hazing.
Hazing is a natural human behavior.
Boot camp is the military form of
hazing. Manhood rites in primitive
societies are a form of hazing. Pros
pecting for a motorcycle club is a form
of hazing. Admitting in front of a
group that you are alcoholic is a form
of hazing. Confessing your sins before
an entire church is a form of hazing.
Hazing is good, clean fun if done
right. It brings fond memories and
sorts out people who do not belong in
a group. If we prohibit hazing, it does
not stop, but will go on unregulated
and may be too severe. I think we
should regulate hazing, setting limits
and requiring full disclosure of to
expect from each fraternity.
Even Joe Stalin couldn’t make
30,000 students quit drinking. We
students pay top dollar for the right to
live in the residence halls, and if you
were totalitarian enough todrive alco
hol from the halls and greek houses,
you would have no one willing to pay
to live there. If you were totalitarian
enough to stop drinking at tailgate
parties and ball games, you wouldn’t
be able to sell tickets to the games.
Jeffrey Knoll and the Phi Gamma
Delta Fraternity have suffered for the
screenless window problem. I see no
benefit to clamping down on 30,000
other students that drink and haze
responsibly in order to save the bother
of putting up a window screen.
Mark McGoveran
sophomore
engineering
DN coverage
In the 5 1/2 years I have been a
student and staff member at the Uni
versity of Nebraska-Lincoln, I have
never written a negative letter about
the Daily Nebraskan. But I cannot
restrain myself from doing so today.
During the last several years, I have
seen DN front-page articles on impor
tant issues such as sun tanning, swim
ming in and soaping Broyhill Foun
tain, greek social rituals, toilet-pa
pered campus trees and kissing con
tests for Cancun vacations.
Monday evening Dr. Don Aitken,
president of the Solar Energy Society
and senior scientist for the Union of
Concerned Scientists, addressed a
crowd of 100 people. Included were
numerous professors, Nebraska Pub
lic Power District Board members,
state environmental organization lead
ers and others. Aitken is among the
world’s most prominent experts on
both the technical and policy aspects
of energy consumption, a $600 mil
lion industry in the United States alone.
The environment aside, Ncbras
ka’seconomyhasbillionsofdollarsat
stake with more than 70 percent of
energy dollars leaving the state. Crit
ical legislation in the Legislature aimed
at alleviating this and creating thou
sands of new jobs through energy
efficiency and renewables is pending.
It’s important for the state’s primary
highercducational institution’s news
paper to cover this event.
Several radio stations and newspa
pers covered it, but where was the DN?
Jeff Riggert
director
University of Nebraska Environ
mental Resource Center
Pacifists
Paula Lavigne’s column (DN, Feb.
7) was an example of politically cor
rect revisionist history. She states, “In
general, Indians were peace-seeking
pacifists.” What does she mean? Were
run-of-the-mill American immigrants
less peace-seeking? Enl ighten me, but
I have seldom heard of an Indian
group that did not practice warfare.
Hunting was a common activity for
males, and warfare blended with hunt
ing. Raiding was very common. Scat
tered, almost defenseless homesteads
were easy targets. How many unpro
voked attacks occurred along the
Mohawk Valley between 1750 and
1810? Or, closer to home, what hap
pened across southern Nebraska dur
ing the summer of 1864?
My Irish-immigrant anccstors feared
Lavigne’s“pacifists.” Movies aside, few
civilians were skilled at guerrilla war
fare. The U.S. army was too slow and
tactically clumsy to be effective at de
fense. The sheer numbers and persis
tence of the army eventually eliminated
the perceived, and sporadically very
real, threat on the frontier.
The average adult male American
Indian, though few in number, was
much more skillful tactically than some
unsuspecting potato farmer.
Apart from a few hundred fur trappers
in the 1880s, people almost universally
dreaded the Indian. The army feared them
to such an extent that troops in combat
were known to resort to suicide.
I’ve worked with Indians in the oil
fields of California, and I’ve served be
side Indians as an infantryman in the U.S.
Army. I’ve never avoided contact with
Indians, and I’ve never had a bad experi
ence. Indians are generally fine people.
Nevertheless, I don’t find it necessary to
falsify what conditions actually existed
on the frontier.
Robert J. Tobin
graduate student
geology
Big-city ghettos
In Todd Cooper’s column (DN, Feb.
3), he speaks of the big-city ghettos as if
he knew them personally, as ifhc knows
the turmoil that plays on individuals
from these areas. HasCoopereverlived
in a big-city ghetto? Has he ever visited
one? Just because an individual lives in
the ghetto docs not necessarily make the
ghetto live in them.
Cooper makes the mistake of as
suming that because T yrone Williams
may be from the inner city, he is a
product of inner-city crimes. He may
not even be from the ghetto. If Cooper
knew, he failed to mention it. Yet it
was so easy to use the problems ofbig
city ghettos to justify what Williams
may nave done, without asking what
prompted his anger. Gun problems
reach beyond big-city ghettos.
Forcxample, it was a small suburb of
Omaha that received national attention
in Newsweek last summer. The article
focused on problems occurring in pre
dominately white communities. MTV
featured gang members from an Oma
ha suburb discussing their infatuations
with firearms earlier this year.
As soon as a young man commits a
crime. Cooper’s mind immediately
races to find a solution. The first place
it stops is the big-city ghettos, as if
only ghettos breed criminals. Will
iams could have just been having a
bad day and that was just the way he
chose, with no connection to big-city
ghettos whatsoever, to vent his anger
and frustrations. What Williams did
may not have been the smartest thing
to have done, but Cooper isn’t here to
pass judgment on anyone else. The
sad part is, Cooper bases his case on
Williams being the product of the
ghetto without knowing if he is or not.
It’s always easier to look into some
one else’s backyard and talk about
how many weeds they have. But I
think Cooper needs to check the weeds
growing around himself. Problems
with guns and violence extend beyond
the big-city ghettos, but it is only the
problems in the big-city ghettos that
make it to the five, six and 10 o’clock
news. This gives individuals like Coo
per the notion that big-city ghettos are
dangerous. But surrounding commu
nities are just as violent.
Linda Kay Morgan
senior
broadcasting
