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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 23, 1995)
-—________^____ ... ■ ■■■ — ' 1 ..■■■■■.,. ■■■■■■ ■ ' —■ ..— ■ .. Qpinon Wednesday, August 23, 1993 Page 4 Nebraskan Editorial Board University of Nebraska-Lincoln J. Christopher Haiti.Editor, 472-1766 Rainbow Rowell.Managing Editor Mark Baldridge.Opinion Page Editor DeDra Janssen.Associate News Editor Doug Kouma..Arts & Entertainment Editor JeffZeleny.Senior Reporter Matt Woody. Senior Reporter James Mehsling..Cartoonist Marching on Faulkner: the first, but not the last The nation was watching 20-year-old Shannon Faulkner last weekend. Faulkner, who won a 2 1/2-year legal battle to become the first female cadet at The Citadel, dropped out of the college Friday after less than a week, a week she spent mostly in the infirmary. Faulkner has said she quit because she was overcome by stress that she kept bottled inside dur ing her long legal battle. “It wasn’t stress from The Citadel or the cadets,” Faulkner told Newsday. “It was the stress from everywhere else and me.” The stress gave her stom ach problems, she told Newsday, denying reports that she had collapsed from the heat early last week. “I’ve never dealt with stress,” she told Newsday. “I just kept it bottled up. I never talked about it, what people were doing to me, what people were making me go through.” Many will use Faulkner’s resignation as a reason to keep women out of The Citadel, an example of why she should never nave oeen admitted. But even though Faulkner won entrance into the school, no court could give her what she deserved — the right to be treated as just another cadet. During her court battle, Faulkner received death threats, and her home was vandalized. She was constantly scrutinized by the press for such things as her weight and fitness. Before her decision to quit became official, someone already had packed her bags. And when news of her decision spread around the campus, other cadets cheered and honked their horns in celebra tion. Nobody knows the names of the five other cadets (all men) who collapsed from heat exhaustion the day Faulkner was said to have collapsed. Nobody knows the name of the cadet who left a physical fitness test on a stretcher last week or the names of two others who were hospitalized for heat illnesses, which are common at the col lege. And nobody knows the names of at least 19 other cadets who also dropped out the first week. Faulkner’s decision to quit means that she — after 2 1/2 years of stress — couldn’t make it at The Citadel. It does not mean that women cannot make it there. Her fight to break a 153-year male tradition should not have been made in vain. — - r.m haIImi tarconai policy t Staff editorials represent the official policy of the Fall 1995 Daily Nebras kan. Policy is set by the Daily Nebras kan 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. Accord ing to policy set by the regents, respon sibility for the editorial content of the newspaper lies solely in the hands of its students. - Letter policy 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 mate rial 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 of the Daily Nebraskan and cannot be re turned. Anonymous submissions will not be pub lished. Letters should include the author’s name, year in school, major and group affiliation, if any. Re quests to withhold names will not be granted. Submit material to: Daily Nebraskan, 34 Nebraska Union, 1400 R St. Lincoln, Neb. 68588-0448. I MiSffi, M 'linW ' DN story biased In the Aug. 17,1995 Daily Nebraskan appeared an article headlined “UNL officials question student success in tutoring classes.” This letter isjn response to the egregidus inaccuracies presented in the article and its editorial implica tions outside the boundaries of the designated editorial pages. I have two major complaints with the article in question: First, nearly every fact presented in the article is mistaken and could not have been obtained from a member of the Supplemental Instruction staff. Second, the article pits the defunct Academic Success Center against the budding SI Program. This illogical attack creates an unwanted hurdle for the young SI program as it tries to prove itself as a valuable student service. Also, who are the “UNL offi cials” mentioned in the headline? Dr. Ken Kiewra and Dr. Richard Boohar do not qualify, as their knowledge of the SI Program is limited at best and is based on their own experience with a different program that failed three years ago. The first sentence of the article claims that SI was “restarted to replace” the ASC. Throughout the article it was cast by the DN and Kiewra as a “weak replacement” for the center. SI has not claimed to and was not intended to replace the ASC. It is a completely different and separate entity with a vastly smaller budget. The DN states that I supervised the ASC’s version of Supplemental Instruction. This is just plain wrong. I supervised the existing SI Program only. Equally erroneous is the DN’s claim that Donald Gregory, Director of the Division of General Studies, will supervise the program this fall. That position has been ably filled by Debra Cumberland, a graduate student in the English department. Any fact checking by the DN would have picked up these mis takes. Quotes from me were obtained during an interview about the defunct ASC, then were positioned to appear as arguments against my own program. I fully support and endorse the^SI Ftqgram as well as any new Academic Success Center. The remainder of the inaccura cies seem to have come from Kiewra himself. Although I never once discussed facts, figures, methods or procedures with him, Dr. Kiewra freely and wrongly reports on the SI program’s practices and effectiveness. I can only conclude that his “facts” are guesses. Tom Meyers Former ASC employee and former SI supervisor Herbie lives This letter is in retort to Rainbow Rowell’s column “Faithful Herbie gets the boot” (DN Aug. 21). While reading your column, Ms. Rowell, I remembered why I usuall) skip them. To some, your view on Herbie Husker was a nice bit of sympathy for a terminated Icon: “I admit, I hate Herbie as much as the next guy. I think he looks mean and stupider than stupid. I refuse to buy any NU gear that features that ugly little wretch.” Well, folks, you heard it here first. Herbie was stupider than stupid. Well, what a good observa tion. Funny, some would probably say the same thing about your columns. I always thought his “usual stupid-looking, snarling face” was that of pure determination that reflects the Comhusker winning attitude, in all sports. Why do you even care, Rainbow? You com plained last year about the noise levels on Football Saturdays until your carping caused the noise levels to be lowered so you could get some more sleep. I am sorry if the excitement of others detours your sleep, but Cornhusker football will never die, nor will the thrill. Rainbow, you don’t care so don’t even pretend to. Poor Rainbow. Poor, poor, poor Rainbow. -*• -»1 - . -v-r J Luke Finken Sophomore Elementary Education Women and war In her column (“Faulkner exemplifies victory” - DN Aug. 22) Venilla Ramalingam makes the same fundamental mistake all feminists/Faulkner supporters make: They simply refuse or are incapable of understanding the nature of war. Let me explain by relating a personal experience. After having been in the United States Marine Corps for approxi mately one year, I was diagnosed with diabetes. Later, for this reason, I was honorably discharged. Many people I knew would tell me how wrong it was for the Corps to discriminate against me. Whenever I heard this, my thoughts were, “They either have a fundamental misunder standing of my disease, or they do not understand what marines do.” While in almost any other facet of life, discrimination against me because of my disease would be inexcusable, when it comes to making war, I am no longer capable of living in wartime conditions without being a detriment to my self:i or my unit. Faulkner’s supporters also either do not understand war or are under some fanciful delusion that there are no biological differences between men and women. Differences that preclude most women from being effective on the battlefield. Ryan D. Grone Sophomore General studies . ■. Send your brief letters to: ...TO til © Daily Nebraskan, 34 Nebraska Union, 1400 R St., Lincoln, Neb. 68588, or Fax to (402) 472-1761, or E-Mail dn@unIinfo.unl.edu. Letters ^ IN CbrdSKSll must be signed and include a phone number for verification.