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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 12, 1994)
Opinion Monday, September 12, 1994 Page 4 Nebraskan Editorial Board University of Nebraska-Lincoln JeffZeleny. ...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 Janies Mehsling... .... .C artoonist Good compromise Solution in sight for UPC power battle The simple art of compromise appears to have been successful in solving the power struggle between ASUN and the University Program Council. On Friday, members of UPC and the Association of Students of the University of Nebraska met for more than three hours. Together, they worked out an agreement that would make UPC more accountable for its funding without changing the council’s diverse schedule of programming. The compromise came after ASUN voted during dead week last semester to give itself the power to select UPC executive board members and directors. ASUN cited greater accountability for student fee monies as the reason for the takeover. UPC leaders defied the takeover attempt, promising to enlist the help of the Nebraska Civil Liberties Union if ASUN’s takeover took place. Under the new agreement, three ASUN members and tnrcc UPC members will choose the UPC executive council. Event directors, who plan programming for the council, will be chosen by outgoing UPC members. Both sides appear to win with the compromise. Although both sides agree on the compromise, it still must be approved by the entire UPC and the full ASUN senate. The Daily Nebraskan urges both bodies to approve this com promise and put the power struggle to rest. Good Investment AmeriCorps program to benefit society Today marks the nationwide kickoff of AmeriCorps, President Clinton’s national service program that offers students scholar ships in exchange for community service. The program will offer a new alternative to students who otherwise would be unable to afford the ever-increasing cost of higher education. Communities will benefit twofold from the investment. Students ultimately will become better citizens by being introduced to a life of community service and being guaranteed a college education. And students will help solve societal problems such as youth violence and environmental concerns. AmeriCorps also will provide students with leadership oppor tunities and skills and a sense of responsibility to their communi ties. It also will provide an additional option to those who see military service as the only way to fund a college education or to those who simply decide they cannot afford to attend college. The result will be a new humanitarian army, which is expected to include 20,000 people by the end of this year. After years of quick-fix solutions to increasingly complex societal problems, AmeriCorps is a long-term investment in society that has great potential. Best of all, it invests in one of the nation’s greatest resources: tomorrow’s students. Such investments need to continue. Staff editorials represent the official policy of the Fall 1994 Daily Nebraskan. Policy is set by the Daily Nebraskan Editorial Hoard 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 UNI. Publications rioard 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. 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 retains 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 run as a guest opinion, letters and guest opinions sent to the newspaper become the property ofthc Daily 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 grunted Submit material to the Daily Nebraskan, 14 Nebraska Union, 1400 R St., Lincoln, Neb 68588-0448 CSA VJEtcmeR.... STtUL- Ctt\VX_Y Bad clothes sign of prosperity There arc many ways to measure the economic prosperity of a society: gross national product, manufactur ing, growth, exports and so on. But an entirely new measure has been developed by Dr. I.M. Kookic. the renowned expert on lots of stuff. At a recent meeting of the Economics Club of Milwaukee Avenue, Dr. Kookic discussed his finding. “I was idly flipping though a catalog for a clothing company,” he said. “It was called J. Crew, which my wife told me was a fashionable kind of outfit. “I came to a page where they showed biuejeans, the traditional denim pants. The pants came in three basic styles. “First, there was a spanking new pair of biuejeans, wrinkle-free and neatly pressed. They cost $34. “Next, there was a pair that was already faded and old-looking. These cost $38. “And finally, there was a pair that was faded and old-looking, and it alsc had a hole in the knee, kind of a frayed slash. And these cost $44. “Then I flipped to another page, where they sold flannel and denim shirts. And the most expensive ones were faded and had frayed collars. “1 am not the kind of person who is on the cutting edge of fashion, so I found it surprising that a pair of old. beat-up pants with a hole in the knee would cost more than a pair of fine new ones. “Or that the kind of shirt that an honest working man used to wear would cost so much because it looked frayed and worn out. “So I did some research on this, and I discovered that this is not something new in the strange world of fashion. “I am told that it started with very young people of the upper-middle class, which is not surprising, because they are known to be dimwiltcd and for taking great pride in their said mental condition. “It seems that some of their screeching cultural icons who arc on I am not the kind of person who is on the cutting edge of fashion, so I found it surprising that a pair of old, heat-up pants with a hole in the knee would cost more than a fxiir of fine new ones. I.__ MTV wear clothes with holes that make them look like bums and poor urchins, and this became very popular among young people. It is fortunate for the rest of society that none of the stars of MTV wear diapers with doo doo or we would have a real sanita tion crisis on our hands. “My research also showed that in most prosperous suburban communi ties, the wearing of neat, new-looking clothes is considered, to use a French phrase, decclassy. That means it docs not have class. “The goal is to look like a hard working person or a homeless person but without having to actually do any hard work or sleep on a grate. “So now we have the sous and daughters of doctors, lawyers and business tycoons who look like they have just finished a hard day of putting up steel girders, when the truth is that they have just carefully dressed for an evening at the Hard Rock Cafe. "I have documented evidence of a genuine old bag lady taking pity on a rumpled wretch she saw on the street and olTering to share her meager possessions, only to discover that he was a graduate student in the school of business at Northwestern Universi ty. Sly lad that he was, he accepted her olTcr of help, took a set of her long underwear and was the fashion hit at his fraternity’s next shindig. “This is known as making a fashion statement. What this fashion statement says is: ‘Hey, look at me. I’m 25 years old, and I am still playing show and tell.’ “All through the prosperous communities of America, old clothing is in great demand. Not underwear, of course, because the well-born arc finicky in that regard. But their outerwear must look tattered and tom. Many young people rush from resale shop to resale shop, hoping to find the ideal knccholc or broken zipper fly. “But at the same lime, in genuine working-class communities, the demand remains for new garments. To ofTer a parent a trouser with a hole in the knee is to iasult and seek a punch in the chops. “So we have a strange coming together. The young and prosperous of our society want to look poor and hard-working, while the working class wants to look prosperous. This explains why so many people of modest means try to dress like professional golfers. “And so I have developed my Theory of Reverse Prosperity. It holds that a society is in great shape when, its most prosperous young people can afford to spend extra money to look like they are downtrodden and pretend that they have calluses on their hands instead of their backsides. “In many parts of the world, a new shirt or pair of stockings is a luxury item out of reach to most. “Here well-fed people compete to see who can look the most hungry. “This is proof positive that we arc a great society. Or maybe feeblemind ed.” (C) 1994 tribune Media Service* lac. P.S. Write Back The 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 briof letter to the editor, sign it, (don’t forget your student I.D. 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 cars