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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (March 17, 1995)
rM m S# Daily Nebraskan EdRorial Board University of Nebraska-Lincoln JeffZeleny..Editor, 472-1766 Jeff Robb: . ...... Managing Editor Matt Woody ./. .Opinion Page Editor DeDra Janssen..... Associate News Editor Rainbow Rowell. .Arts & Entertainment Editor James Mehsling .....Cartoonist Chris Main....Senior Reporter Spanler’s roar ✓ Aggressive leadership will be asset to PSU It’s finally official. Chancellor Graham Spanier is leaving his post at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln to become president of Pennsylvania State University. * No more rumors. No more speculation. In his three years as chan cellor, Spanierhas helped move UNL forward. He has encouraged diver sity at UNL and has raised its academic standards and na tional reputation. Under Spanier’s leader ship, UNL was designated as a Carnegie I Research University. He has improved relations with the National Science Founda tion, revised UNL s general education curriculum and recruited and maintained high-caliber fac ulty and staff. Spanier also has improved campus aesthetics and research pro ductivity and has expanded UNL’s distance-education programs. He helped attract high-ability students to UNL by designating more money for scholarships. Spanier also supported projects like NRoll and the Nebraska Union expansion and implemented pro grams like the dual career program for faculty and staff. But along with the good came the bad. At times, Spanier has been criticized for putting his liberal social agenda ahead of academics. He angered many for issuing pink triangle stickers to faculty and staff, who were to use the stickers to notify homosexual students that they could talk to them without reservation. Some criticized Spanier for removing Stan Liberty from his post as dean of the College of Engineering and Technology. However, Spanier should be credited for his intense lobbying efforts against "the creation of a separate college. Three years after Spanier came to UNL, the chilly climate re mains in the College of Business Administration. And UNL still lags behind its peer universities in hiring female professors. For the most part, Penn State University is getting a strong leader. Advancing from a 24,000-student campus to 69,000 students will be no easy task, but Spanier is up to the challenge. Spanier’s departure will leave a laige void behind in Nebraska. But at the same time, it presents a new opportunity for UNL. UNL has the chance to find a leader who can continue what Spanier has begun and succeed where Spanier could not. Spanier’s leadership has shown us the difference an aggressive chancellor can make. And to replace him, UNL should bring home an even louder lion. Editorial policy Staff editorials represent the official policy of the Spring 1995. Daily Nebraskan. Policy is set by the Daily Nebraskan Editorial Board. Editori alsdonotnecessarilyieflectthe views of the university, its employees, the students ortheNUBoardofRegents. Editorial columns representthe opin ion of the author. The regents publish the Daily Nebraskan. T^ty establish the UNL Publications Board to su pervise the daily production of the paper. According topolicy set by the regents, responsibility for foe edito rial content of foe newspaper lies solely in the hands of its students. Latter policy The Daily Nebraskan welcomes brief letters to the editor from all readers and interested others. Letters will be selected forpubtication on the basis of clarity, originality, timeliness and space available. The Daily Nebraskan retains the righttoedit orrejectall material submitted. Readers also are welcome to submit ma terial as guest opinions. The editor decides whether material should run as a guest opinion. Letters and guest opinions sent to die newspaper become the property of the Daily Nebraskan and cannot be returned. Anonymous submissions will not be pub lished. Letters should included die author’s name, year in school, major and group affiliation, if any. Requests to withhold names will not be granted. SubnhtmateTial to the Duly Nebraskan, 34 Nebraska Union, 1400 R SL, Lincoln, Neb. 68588-0448. i S~X T' • Good 'ol mmw \ 0... (P, "TOE IS V, » J SO asCE USE /> ", 1 Si NEHt&WL. il ‘Dealers’ create dependency > People I know who have been addicted to drugs tell stories that are remarkably similar to our decades old addiction to government. At first, they feel a rush of excitement —a high—-but soon they lose control and must have the drugs to give their life meaning. Ultimately, they become completely dependent. For many, attempts to end drug dependency produce physical and emotional pain. But not trying to break the habit downs the addict to an existence that falls far short of a life’s potential. This is the course of modem government. Liberal politicians have become “dealers” in dependency. They have captured the souls of countless numbers with programs and policies that have hooked us as effectively as if the drug were heroin or cocaine. These dealers in government addiction dispense their drugs in the form of checks drawn on the account of American taxpay ers. And they convey a message that government is the only salvation to those they have persuaded are incapable of making it on their own. By the time most people awaken to their dilemma, it is too late. They are hooked. As the Republican congressional majority seeks to rein in the out-of control spending and growth of government—in many cases not cutting its size, just reducing the rate of increases—the howls from the special interests and lobbyists resemble a drug user going cold turkey. But these people are concerned about one thing: their own loss of power. The reaction to proposals concerning the school lunch program is typical. The Republican i_ Cal Thomas plan would spend more than current levels, but would slightly reduce a planned increase. The Clinton administration’s spending proposal reduces the increase even more than the Republican proposal, so why are the Republicans taking the heat? Because Democrats are so effective at propagandizing the issue of starving children. Other efforts to reduce govern ment dependency and its associated costs will bring even louder screams because benefit programs now make up half of the $1.5 trillion federal budget and are its fastest-growing component. Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan and other experts have complained that the current system of calculating cost-of-living in creases in many benefit programs overstates the inflation rate by up to 1.5 percentage points. Recalculating that rate would save an extra $64 billion for the government over five years, about one-third of it coming from lower cost-of-living adjustments for Social Security recipients. That amounts to an adjustment of only 10 cents a day, according to Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.). “I don’t know many people who in the name of fairness will take the 10 cents,” says Gregg. Other proposals include limiting Medicaid growth by providing block grants to the states, saving an estimated $115 billion over five years. Such grants to the states for welfare benefits, along with a change in Supplemental Security Income—which provides aid to the i blind, the elderly and disabled poor —would tighten eligibility and deny benefits to drug addicts, alcoholics and others (yes, many now get government checks). Estimated savings, $89 billion over five years. Republicans have underestimated the intensity of the opposition. For every empty school-lunch tray die liberals produce in their bogus claim about starving children, Republicans should produce a drug addict or an alcoholic on the dole. And Republi cans should continually hammer away at what the big-government “dealers” have created: a culture of dependency, loss of initiative and self-reliance, a breakup of families who used to hold each other accountable while they held themselves together as a unit and a bureaucracy we can no longer afford. i Republicans have had to play defense for years as a congressional minority—they must not continue in that role now that they have the ball. They must do a better job promoting their ideas, behaving like the majority and putting liberals on the defensive. They must show Americans that true compassion is freeing people from their unhealthy dependency. How about the slogan: “Just say ‘No’ to big government.” ©1995 Los Angeles Times Syndicate PI e _ . _ Ul r If f T '•; .:• •