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EDITOR
Doug Kouma
OPINION
EDITOR
Anthony Nguyen
EDITORIAL
BOARD
Paula Lavigne
Joshua Gillin
Jessica Kennedy
Jeff Randall
Erin Gibson
Our
VIEW
Shout Out
Don't waste chance
to make a difference
Take $6.88 out of your wallet or purse.
Throw it away. Bum it. Rip it up. Feed it to a
squirrel. Eat it yourself.
In any case, toss it out.
You might as well do it now — before
you decide to ignore the Association of Stu
dents of the University of Nebraska elections
today.
The $6.88 is how much each student pays
in annual student fees to support ASUN.
And every year you do not vote in the
ASUN elections, a group of students—who
are voted in by less than 10 percent of the
student body — spends $180,000 worth of
your money.
Do you know where? Do you care?
You should.
If you have to pay for an outside modem
connection, you should.
If you’re worried about what will hap
pen to money the university reaps in from a
beverage alliance that may leave you drink
ing Surge every day, you should.
If you don’t have time to lobby the Leg
islature, but want someone to represent stu
dents’ interests, you should.
If you’re worried about losing that last,
precious parking space, you should.
If you think someone should remind the
administration that students attend this uni
versity, you should. ^
The problem is you haven’t. Voter turn
out keeps sliding lower and lower, and ASUN
keeps getting further and further away from
students.
Low voter turnout isn’t an anomaly for
the University of Nebraska-Lincoln because
it’s a problem in national elections too. While
in the grand scheme of things, the ASUN
presidency is a stick man compared to the
statue of the U.S presidency, the closer poli
tics get to us, the more of an impact — and
result—we’re going to see.
If you don’t vote, don’t complain. Here’s
your best chance to make your voice heard.
Instead of wasting the $6.88 (that’s two
lunches or a medium pizza), spend the 60 sec
onds it takes to scribble a few dots on a sheet.
Instead of letting ASUN senators slide
into office by a handful of students, let them
know UNL is watching.
Force them to realize that the students
who voted them in expect them to carry
through. Then, instead of wasting your money,
you’ll be getting a bargain.
Editorial Policy
Unsigned editorials are the opinions of the
Spring 1997 Daily Nebraskan. They do not
necessarily reflect die views of the Univer
sity of Nebraska-Lincoln, its employees, its
student body or the University of Nebraska
Board of Regents. A column is Solely die
opinion of its author: The Board of Regents
serves as publisher of the Daily Nebraskan;
policy is set by the Daily Nebraskan Edito
rial Board. The UNL Publications Board,
established by the regents, supervises the
production of the paper. According to policy
set by the regents, responsibility for the edi
torial content of the newspaper lies solely
in the hands of its student employees.
Letter Policy
The Daily Nebraskan welcomes brief let
ters to the editor and guest columns, but
does not guarantee theirpublication. The
Daily Nebraskan retains the right to edit
or reject any material submined. Sub
mined material becomes the property of
the Daily Nebraskan and cannot be re
turned. Anonymous submissions will not
be published. Those who submit letters
must identify themselves by name, year
in school, major and/or group affilia
tion, if any. Submit material to: Daily
Nebraskan, 34 Nebraska Union, 1400 R
St. Lincoln, Neb. 68588-0448. E-mail:
letters@unlinfo.unl.edu.
Mehs ling’s
VIEW
Blowing Smoke
This is in response to Kasey
Kerber’s article “En fuego” (DN,
Monday) on the perils of selling
cigarettes on campus. I’m very
interested in knowing what his
viewpoint on drinking is. I’d
imagine this “pure as the driven
snow” young man could write
another lengthy column about the
evils of alcohol consumption.
Assuming he opposes alcohol
drinking by minors (which is
consistent with his “holier than
thou” columns) why, then does he
write for a paper that publishes
articles on beer and hangovers and
has bar ads (Wet T-shirt Night at the
Foxy Lady)?
From his moral high ground, he
lectures us to take a stand, giving
the damaging statistics (forgetting to
mention the ugly clutter of cigarette
butts on campus), and he elaborates
on the reasons we should not sell
legal cigarettes to legal-aged adults
(the majority of students are old
__L A_1_.*_AA_\
viivsugii ias u^cuvuv/is;.
Mr. Kerber, could you please give
me the stats on how many classes
are missed because of hangovers,
how many clothes are stained from
vomit, how many people are hurt in
bar fights, how many students have
unprotected drunken sex, how many
cars are damaged from alcohol
related accidents and how many
people are injured and killed from
alcohol abuse and then justify
yourself contributing columns to a
paper partly supported by such
sales?
Do you put a price on the value
of a student’s health? Or are you
willing to support an industry that
supplies products of known and
documented harmful effects? Which
way do you lean — toward the
personal benefit of a DN column, or
toward the drunken stupor your
employer might be helping to
create?
Enlighten me on why it’s wrong
for a university to monetarily gain
from the sale of a legal item to
students of legahage, but it’s OK for
the same university’s campus paper
to benefit from the advertising of
alcohol and beer specials, when an
overwneimingiy larger numoer oi
students aren’t old enough to legally
partake. ~
Kasey Kerber, take a stance. If
you believe alcohol drinking is bad,
and encouraging minors to go to
bars is as bad as selling a pack of
smokes to a 20-year old, stop writing
for the DN or get them to stop
DN
LETTERS
«
Matt Haney/DN
printing these ads and articles —
otherwise you’re taking a step back.
By the way, I’ve been known to
over-drink and over-smoke, and I
don’t condemn or necessarily
support others who do the same; my
parents own and operate a liquor
store — selling their wares (includ
ing Camels) to the legal-aged
persons who patronize them. I don’t
care if cigarettes are sold on campus
— they’re more expensive at the
union than at my local gas station
— I also don’t have a huge problem
with the liquor ads in the campus
paper. If the union and DN can
positively benefit from these things,
the choice to participate in using
them should be entrusted to these
adults we call students.
My problem is that I absolutely
don’t appreciate being lectured to by
young men and women who preach
from their writers’ pedestals about
certain “evils,” overlooking other
similar issues for their own self
gain.
Joan Brion
senior
math
Prevent Tragedy
The tragic irony of two articles
published in the DN two weeks ago
is startling. The first appeared on
Feb. 27 titled, “Speaker shares date
rape story, seeks prevention.”
Katie Koestner spoke to students
at the university to share her story of
an acquaintance rape. She suffered
while in college. Her purpose was to
inform students about the methods
of protection and prevention they
can employ. Ms. Koestner is a
nationally known speaker. Her story
has come to the attention of HBO,
which is producing a docudrama
about it. And yet the majority of this
very brief article was buried on Page
6.
Sadly, the following day, Feb. 28,
five whole sentences appeared on
Page 8 of the DN recounting the
sexual assault of a student in a
residence hall. A university police
sergeant provided the information,
including the fact that the victim
knew her assailant. One of Ms.
Koestner’s points was that 84
percent of rapes are committed by an
acquaintance. Why am I not
surprised by this fact?
This crime is very real on
campus. And a great deal of action
must be taken to prevent it. I am
appalled by the lack of importance
this paper has given both of these
significant events. I believe that the
DN should be leading this campus
in raising the students’ awareness
about date rape by giving these
stories the importance they deserve.
Lisa Rieck
freshman
veterinary science
More Effective
In response to Matt Will’s reply
on smoking:
1) I don’t care if you smoke or if
you enjoy it, as long as it doesn’t
bother me. That is why smoking is
no longer permitted inside most
buildings.
2) Should the university sell
cyanide capsules? I mean, it’s the
ultimate in stress relief, so why not?
No?? Cigarettes directly cause death
too, so why should they sell them to
students? As for sugar and caffeine,
they don’t bother anyone else and
they don’t cause death so no one
cares about that.
3) I understand that part of your
reason for writing is to persuade
your audience of the inaneness of
Kasey Kerber’s column. Perhaps if
you had taken a subtler, professional
approach it might have been mgre
effective than threatening to “get...
on your (his) ass.”
Zach Niemann
junior
music performance
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