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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 27, 1996)
Qftn<qn Tuesday, February 27, 1996 Page 4 Daily Nebraskan Editorial Board •* University of Nebraska-Lincoln J. Christopher Haiti..Editor, 472-1766 DougKouma.*.Managing Editor Doug Peters.Opinion Page Editor Sarah Scalet... .Associate News Editor Matt Waite..Associate News Editor Michelle Garner.I.Wire Editor t Jennifer Mapes...Columnist Ftee at test Decision to trash term limits applauded I t The Daily Nebraskan would like to extend a heartfelt thank you to the Supreme Court of the great state of Nebraska. The highest court in our humble state has made a monumental decision by throwing out term limits. In a unanimous decision, the Supreme Court said Friday that term limits in Nebraska were invalid because the U.S. Supreme Court last year declared term limits unconstitutional for con gressional officeholders. The court also threw out term limits for state offices, saying the fed eral and state provisions were inseparable. For upholding our consti tution and abolishing the threat to democracy that term limits represented — thank you. Truthfully, it was the only decision the Supreme Court could make. The constitution already provides voters the opportunity to implement term limits through their votes. i 1 ne Daily in eoraskan also -----J would like to denounce Ne braska Attorney General Don Stenberg and term limits activists Ed Jaksha and Ally Milder, and rebuke the 350,000 Nebraskans who foolishly supported term limits in last November’s election. Stenberg threw a temper tantrum Friday in response to the tossing of term limits. “It’s time to clean house in die Supreme Court,” Stenberg said in a news release. “There are many reasons why term limits are now needed for the Nebraska Supreme Court.” Certainly, our attorney general should act with more maturity than he did in attacking those who made decisions he doesn’t like. Jaksha and Milder should be chastised for creating this mess in the first place. They are responsible for bringing to voters a quick-fix for a more serious problem. And to Nebraska voters. Term limits may be a solution to careerism among legislators. But term limits also promote ineffectiveness and shift power from the Legislature to legislative staff, lobbyists and the bureaucracy. California, which has had term limits in place since 1990, already is experiencing some of these problems with its legislative assembly. The problem is a lack of legislative maturity. Those who have experience and the knowledge of how things work always will have the most influence. An inexperienced Legislature will deliver inef fective leadership. As Alan Peterson, the Lincoln attorney who successfully chal lenged term limits, said: “Our view was that term limits don’t make sense.” Agreed. Editorial policy Staff editorials represent the official policy of the Spring 19% Daily Ne braskan. Policy is set by the Daily Nebraskan Editorial Board. Editorials do not necessarily reflect the views of die university, its employees, the stu dents or the NU Board of Regents. Editorial columns represent the opin ion of the author. The regents publish die Daily Nebraskan. They establish the UNL Publications Board to super vise the daily production of the paper. According to policy set by the regents, responsibility for die 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 aid space available. The Daily Nebraskan retains the right to edit or reject afl 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 die 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. "THE BRmi BILV IS For 'i'timuive STO SUCKERS. foJCHAUAV] m FRKftskr ? Students get squeezed The February 26, Daily Nebras kan reported that the Board of Regents increased residence hall, room and board rates by 5.2 percent for double rooms with 20 meals and 4.4 percent for double rooms with 14 meals. This increase is an outrage for all people living in the dorms this year. At the beginning of this year, situations like three people being shoved into a room that fits only 2 and students living in TV lounges with even fewer comforts of home were schoolwide. The rationale of the university was that this overcrowding would benefit all students because by filling all the rooms, room and board rates would go DOWN, not up. This increase will force students to live off campus because they cannot afford to live in the halls. Thus, rooms will be left unfilled and rates will continue to rise. For a university that prides itself in providing a low cost, quality education, it seems as of late that they will do anything to nickel and dime us to death. Wayne Bena freshman accounting Men threatened? I attended a meeting of the Union Board on Tuesday February 20. Open for discussion was a motion to change the women only status of the “Ladies” lounge in the union to a unisex/co-ed area. Apparently, one man complained that the current status of the lounge discriminated against him because he does not have the same kind of place to go. Was it not just two weeks ago that there was a motion to cut the budget of the Women’s Center? Are men on this campus suddenly feeling threatened that women are seeking respect long overdue? Does it bother men that we are working together, establishing places of support and speaking up, and that we have a safe private area where we can read, relax, feel safe and, among other things, breast-feed our children? During the course of the meeting this man said he would like to have a quiet place on campus to lie down and relax, like the women’s lounge. He wanted the women’s lounge to be opened to both women and men. : jr The director of the union admitted that if the lounge was co-ed, the room would be completely changed as the doors would be removed and the privacy factor would disappear. He said it would be stupid for a woman to enter a lounge area alone at night if it was a co-ed room because of the possible danger she would put herself in. The threat being men. A student member of the board, while not agreeing with some of our reasons for wanting it to remain women only, moved to knock the motion down. In his explanation he found it difficult to refer out loud to our “menstrual cycle,” which was a reason he gave for us needing extra privacy. The issue of breast-feeding was no problem for one man at the meeting. He said he would not mind if women did it in front of him. The board member said, however, that he would leave the area if he saw a woman breast-feeding her infant. When the issue of danger was raised, he addressed it by recogniz ing the need “to protect our women.” Women do not belong to anyone. We are not possesions. I am glad the lounge will remain as is. At least there, I will not have to be a witness to the subtle and blatant sexism that was evident at this meeting and throughout the campus. Tina M. Giambastiani freshman general studies Musical equality Throughout the semester Music Reviews appear periodically, and as a Music minor and lover of music, I quickly direct my attention to this section of the paper to see what new CDs my favorite artists are releas ing, but I have been disappointed every time I read the Music Review section because I have never heard of any of the artists being reviewed. I know that I am now in an environ ment where alternative and rock are king, but there is no excuse to hammer only one end of the musical spectrum down out throats. I’m not suggesting that one particular style of music is better than another. I’m just saying that all types of music should be more equally recognized. Maybe instead of having four reviews all on a certain type of music, have each review concentrate on a different style of music. By doing this, the majority of people would not get upset because they would still hear about their music. But the minority of people who want to know about their favorite music would be satisfied as well. It has been said that music is the one universal communicator. With all the recent attempts by society to no longer be culturally or racially biased, should the attempt to not be musically biased also be considered? Doug Helvering freshman advertising Help the homeless I would like to commend Bob Ray on the incredible snobbery he displayed in his “Move It” column (Feb. 23). Just where are these people supposed to go? The Union is a huge, heated, partially state funded building, whose space is wasted most of the time. Why shouldn’t we share it with the less fortunate? Because some of them have alcohol problems? I hate to break it to you, but alcoholism is something of a hobby on this campus. The homeless aren’t the only ones puking in campus bathrooms. And yes, it’s true that some of them may be mentally disturbed, but how stable can your mind be when your life isn’t? Don’t be selfish and petty. Homeless people are people, too. They need our help, not our hatred and con tempt. Lesa Hoffman freshman psychology