Opinion
Monday, August 29, 1994 Page 4
Nebraskan
Editorial Board
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Jeff Zeleny.Editor. 472-1766
Kara Morrison. Opinion Page Editor
Angie Brunkow..Managing Editor
Jeffrey Robb.Associate News Editor
Rainbow Rowell.Columnist/Associate News Editor
Kiley Christian.Photography Director
Mike Lewis.Copy Desk Chief
James Mehsling..Cartoonist
Doirt close doors
Board should be accessible to many
A 40-membcr committee will be a new player in policy decisions at
the University of Ncbraska-Lincoln.
Michael Mulnix, executive director of University Relations, said the
committee met privately this summer and would be meeting three times
a year, acting as a type of advisory council to Chancellor Graham
Spanier.
So far, Mulnix said members of the committee, called the board of
visitors, have discussed new admissions standards, UNL’s image,
research, athletics and the university’s budget.
“What we’re really doing is closing the doors and getting some
really honest discussion,” Mulnix said. “To give specifics would be to
violate the trust of the group.”
Composed of members from across the state, the board of visitors
promises to be a good resource for future planning at UNL. Certainly, it
may help gain statewide support for the university’s programs and serve
as a diverse resource for opinions about improving higher education.
On his first day as UNL’s Chancellor, Spanier proposed a similar
“board of visitors” to assess and advise the university on its
multicultural progress.
Hopefully this will remain one of the board’s functions.
To do much good, however, the group must not remain primarily
behind closed doors.
Students, faculty and staff deserve to be familiar with those who
influence policy decisions at our university.
We look forward to hearing their assessment of and ideas for
strengthening UNL.
It’s too bad half the student population leaves town in the summer,
because the most interesting government action happens when they’re
gone.
The Champaign (III.) City Council raised the fine for possession of
alcohol for 19- and 20-year-olds from $95 to $250, $500 for those 18
and under.
But what will be done about the other players in the hide-and-seek
game between police and campus tipplers?
The actual server who delivers the drink to the minor now is facing
not a $145 fine, but $500. His or her employer, however, will not be
charged a dime.
The city certainly should make a good-faith effort to enforce the
state drinking laws. Yes, even in Champaign, it still is illegal for those
under 21 to drink.
However, that eftort should hit all players equally hard, and in scale
to the true nature of their infractions. As Student Legal Service lawyers
pointed out, the city only imposes a mandatory minimum fine of $155
for assault and battery. Wallet-wise, it’s cheaper to find a human
punching bag for entertainment than to do a tour of world beers.
And you can bet your last Killian’s that if the bars were fined $500
or even $1,000 for each underage patron served with a notice to appear
in court, they would find a way to stop the lawbreaking. Underage
drinking is big business in Champaign, and don’t think that the owners
on the liquor commission don’t watch out for their bottom line.
Finally, the $250,000 that the city might end up reaping from the
new fines should go directly to prevention of alcohol abuse and
enforcement of the liquor laws. If the city used the fines for some other
concerns, we might start thinking they are not so much committed to
curbing underage drinking as to making money off reluming students.
— The Daily mini
v University of Illinois, Champaign
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a
OME DoW/V.,..,
Morality, please
In reading the Daily Nebraskan
just twice this semester, I have been
told the following:
1) The crime bill has nothing to
do with idiotic social spending to
harbor would-be criminals on a
basketball court at midnight; it’s
just a few bull-headed conserva
tives hung 14) on a gun-control
issue.
2) Abortion is just a catchy buzz
word. Tens of millions of murdered
pre-bom children deserve less press
than two murdered abortionists.
3) Freedom of speech shouldn’t
really be free; we should adopt
Italy’s theories on the matter.
4) Only particular people with
certain educational backgrounds
should be allowed to vote.
5) When someone is suffering,
we should help him die or eliminate
him as if his life were no more
sacred than that of a horse with a
broken leg.
6) Planned Parenthood is
concerned that we aren’t having
enough safe, free sex: “We aren’t
going to tell you how to live your
lives,” but here’s a condom—go
be careful.
Though only personal opinions,
I offer some responses:
1) There’s a hcckuva lot more to
the crime bill than gun debates.
• Watch the news.
2) If two despicable murders
(and they were both truly despica
ble acts) can get this much cover
age, then why don’t the murders of
literally tens of millions of children
1
w «
Amy Schmidt/DN
get even half this press?
3) We don’t live in Italy.
4) Who decides who gets to
vote? Education and intelligence
have two entirely different mean
ings. 1 know of an entire “educated”
staff that hasn’t the “intelligence”
to know right from wrong.
5) Suffering is an awful conse
quence of humanity, but human life
is a glorious consequence of God.
Look at a crucifix and sec which
took precedence.
6) Planned Parenthood helps
erect abortion clinics, glorifies the
condom and destroys the ideals of
morality as instituted by God
Himself. Show me a person who
advocates this deplorable platform,
and I’ll show you a Godless liar.
Daily Nebraskan staff, please
give your readers at least a little
morality and basic values in your
paper instead of this liberal assault
on the small-town values so many
of your readers have.
Just because this university
won’t recognize God doesn’t mean
its students don’t.
Tony Fulton
, senior
mechanical engineering
‘American
lowlife’
To Jamie Karl (DN. Aug. 26,
1994): You arc what I consider
“American lowlife”—someone
whose mind is so incredibly closed
that they make such ignorant
generalizations.
Hopefully someday you will
wake up to what is really going on.
Pamela Scheinost
junior
environmental studies
Green waste
I’m glad to see that our campus
is now beautified with green space
—and of course the fence and
plastic flags and waste of tax
dollars that go along with green
space.
Way to go green people.
Matt Berggren
sophomore
physics
p 11 • j i
r 1
e
