EDITOR
Paula Lavigne
OPINION
EDITOR
Jessica Kennedy
EDITORIAL
BOARD
Erin Gibson
Joshua Gillin
Antone Oseka
Julie Sobczyk
Ryan Soderlin
Editorial Policy
Unsigned editorials are the opinions of the
Spring 1997 Daily Nebraskaa They do not
necessarily reflect the 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 the
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.
Our
VIEW
Fare well
As the year ends,
goodbye, good luck
With one deep, collective breath, stu
dents across campus are rolling up their
sleeves, putting their noses to the grindstone
and digging in.
Welcome to finals week 1997.
A week of hats and sweats and circles
under your eyes.
A week of the final truths.
A week you sometimes wish would just
go away.
u s a time or recKonmg anu uiscovery
and pulling it out in the end.
Lots of coffee, Mountain Dew and late
night pizza.
Outside of our apartments and rooms, the
campus landscape slowly alters, morphing
to fit the changing demands of summer.
Campus population begins to dwindle as
each finals day drags by. One by one, friends
part, words of future reunions echoing be
hind them as they race full speed toward their
summer destinations.
Parking Services always seems to lighten
up a bit as school-year residents begin load
ing up their cars and heading for home.
On Friday, the finals will be over and
parts of campus will start to shut down. The
residence halls start getting things in order
for students and summer camps full of hope
ful athletes, journalists and fliture leaders.
That evening there are little bursts of
activity around campus. A few friends com
ing together to say goodbye — to the stress
of classes, the frenzy of finals and a semes
ter of camaraderie.
oy aaiuruay, n s ume ior me ummaie
goodbyes when graduates don cap and
gowns. As they walk across campus to
Devaney, they walk as students. As they
leave, they walk as alumni.
The Daily Nebraskan wishes the gradu
ating seniors the best of luck. It’s been four
(or five) interesting years, full of highs and
lows. Wherever you go, remember, Nebraska
is always your home away from home.
To our peers departing for the summer:
have a good break. Work hard, play hard and
we’ll see you in the fall.
To everyone who will be with us over
the summer: stay cool. Good luck with
classes, work and relaxing — we’ll see you
around.
Letter Policy
The Daily Nebraskan welcomes brief let
ters to the editor and guest columns, but
does not guarantee their publication. The
Daily Nebraskan retains the right to edit
or reject any material submitted. Sub
mitted 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.
Haney s
VIEW
Doug
KOUMA
Closing a chapter
UNL needs more patience, cooperation
Call it one of the few perks of this
job: I’m giving myself the last word
this year.
For the past nine months, rarely
has a day passed that I didn’t spend
some amount of time discussing a
story, photo, graphic or what-have
you with a concerned reader.
And rarely has a day passed when
I haven’t felt some frustration
because of that.
Don’t get me wrong. Feedback to
what we do here—any feedback—
is appreciated. I mean that in all
sincerity.
Nine out of 10 times, though, that
feedback has been negative, and
readers’ allegations have left me
nothing short of dumbfounded.
But I’ve listened. I haven’t always
agreed, and I haven’t always liked
what I’ve heard, but I’ve listened.
lhat seems to be a rare occur
rence these days.
No one listens anymore. No one
reads anymore. Everyone has their
own viewpoint, their own cause, and
whoever is not for them is against
them.
As I write this, someone has come
into the office with a letter to the
editor, and then rudely walked out
upon being told there MIGHT not be
space in this, our final issue of the
year, for her letter.
I’ve received complaints this year
that we’re biased. I’ve been told
we’re unfair. I’ve been accused of
being sensationalistic.
It’s not the complaints themselves
that frustrate me. It’s that they’re
often unfounded, and they share no
common thread.
Case in point: Early this semester,
I received two complaints within an
hour of each other. The first was
from a fairly outspoken professor on
women’s issues on campus who told
me the Daily Nebraskan, and one
reporter in particular, were anti
feminist and anti-woman. The man
who made the second complaint told
me the DN had a “radical feminist
agenda” and that one columnist in
particular was a “radical feminist.”
Both readers are certainly entitled
to their opinions, but it surprises me
how willing they were to level those
allegations without making sure they
had a leg to stand on.
The professor, for instance, said
the reporter was sloppy and couldn’t
get her facts straight. But when I
went back and looked at the particu
lar stories she brought to my atten
tion, I found they were actually
written by two different reporters
who happen to share the same first
name. And upon doing some further
fact-checking, I found it was actually
the professor who didn’t have her
facts straight — not the reporter. The
professor was wrong, but she didn’t
let that stop her from getting mad.
When I questioned the man who
came to talk to me later that after
noon, he admitted that he had not
read a single other piece of that
columnist’s writing. That didn’t stop
him from classifying her and the
entire paper in that way. Even after I
—knowing the writer’s true political
leanings—told the man he was off
base, he would not be deterred.
That was all in just one afternoon.
The sad thing is that it wasn’t all
that out of the ordinary.
On other afternoons, we’re too
conservative, or we’re too liberal.
We don’t cover enough diversity
related issues, or we cater to minori
ties. We’re unfair to the greek
system, or we’re too friendly to it.
We don’t do enough for residence
hall students, or we do too much. We
fault A SUN where we shouldn’t, or
we give it credit where none is
deserved.
In short, we’re for everything,
we’re against everything, and no
matter what we do, someone is going
to get upset. That’s the key.
In reality, the problem doesn’t lie
with the Daily Nebraskan. As the
• most visible outlet for news and
opinion on campus, we probably take
the brunt of the criticism. But this
attitude — “whoever is not for me is
against me” — seems to have taken
hold everywhere at the University of
Nebraska-Lincoln.
This undercurrent of tension at
UNL has been brewing for some
time, and it’s started coming to a
head this year. Perhaps summer can’t
come soon enough.
That’s sad.
We should consider ourselves
lucky to be in a place with such a
wealth of ideas, such a variety of
viewpoints. We should appreciate
that we’re able to express those
opinions on campus—whatever
they may be—through the DN and
other means.
We don’t need to agree, but we
should never let UNL turn into a
place where we don’t listen to each
other and don’t respect each other.
We need not embrace our opponents,
but we must not turn a deaf ear (or a
loud mouth) to their ideas. For to
fully understand your opponent’s
argument is to fully understand your
own.
As I finish this column, the young
woman who came in earlier with a
letter to the editor and left upset, has
returned—this time with a shorter
letter, a sincere smile and a “thank
you.”
A little more of that could sure go
a long way on this campus.
Kouma is z graduating news
editorial major and was the 1996
97 Daily Nebraskan editor. We
think he did a good job.