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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 17, 1997)
-5 EDITOR Paula Lavigne OPINION EDITOR Matthew Waite EDITORIAL BOARD Erin Gibson Joshua Gillin Jeff RandaU Julie Sobczyk RyanSoderlin Unsigned editorials are the opinions of the HkR 1997 Daily Nebraskan. They do not necessarily reflect toe views of the University of Nebraska-Lincoin, its employees, its student body or toe ttwemity of Nebraska Board of Regents. Acolumn is solely toe opinion of its author. The Board of Regents serves as pubteher of toe Dally Nebraskan; policy is set by toe DalyNabraskan Editorial Board. The UNL Publications Board, established by the regents, supervises toe production : of the paper. According to poNcy>sel by toe regents, responsibility for the editorial content of the newspaper lies solely in the hands of its student employees. Our ’ '' vmw Education financing Fee increases raise question of necessity From the Daily Texan University of Texas at Austin AUSTIN, Texas (U-WIRE) - Harvard graduates, sometimes described as smug, often quip that there are two kinds of peo ple in the world: Harvard graduates and those who only wish they were. This arro gance has encouraged stereotypes of Harvard, but one aspect of Harvard that cannot be contested is its price. Last week, Neil Rudenstine, Harvard’s president, addressed this issue with a curi ous statement. r manual aiu uaseu un neeu is me most direct, effective, cost-effective and economically practicable way to reduce the net cost of college for many students,” he told the National Commission on the Cost of Higher Education. Harvard’s deans set tuition and fees, which is much more decentralized than other universities. During Rudenstine’s presidency, the rate of tuition increase has declined - of course, that means that costs are still rising. And it doesn’t change the fact that Harvard is one of the nation’s most expensive institutions. It hasn’t occurred to Rudenstine to address why students need the money in the first place: Higher education is too expensive. Administrators would rather offset the cost by encouraging govern ment largesse than adopting other solu tions, like lowering of fees and tuition. Sadly, this dependence on government funds is not confined to the Ivy League. Here at the university, it has become fashionable to blame legislative parsimony for tuition and fee increases. UT adminis trators, rather than cutting or rerouting existing funds, demand more state money - and they quarrel when legislators do not honor those demands. So long as adminis trators refuse to cut or curb existing spend ing, the price of higher education will con tinue to rise. As students struggle to get by with part-time jobs and administrators attempt to beckon the disadvantaged, the university must address its own costs. Fee increases stem from the obsession with “student services,” which began as amenities and are now perceived as entitle ments; the health center, student legal services and are now perceived as entitlements; the health center, student legal services and the recreation center serve as excellent examples. In its attempt to declare its independence from the community, the university offers everything from counseling to weights. As the cost of an education rises, should the university provide these services? Administrators must realize that the pur pose of die university is to provide an afford able education - not an engineered utopia. The Daily Nebraskan welcomes brief tetters to the editor and guest columns, but does not guarantee their publicaiion. The Daiy Nebraskan retains the right to edit or reject any material submitted. Submiltod material becomes property of the Daily Nebraskan and cannot be returned. Anonymous submissions will not be published. Those who submit lettem must identify themselves by name, year in school, major and/or group • affiliation, if any. _ , Submit material to: Daily Nebraskan, 34 Nebraska Union, 1400 R SI Lincoln, .. NE. 68588-0448. E-mail' letters@unlinfo.unl.edu. ■f- Cartoonist’s VHSW^" A*?wf DN LETTERS i i Come forward The Chancellor’s Commission on the Status of People of Color is dis turbed by the Academic Senate’s vote against observing Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday as a formal UNL holiday. Citing superficial reasons for rejecting the King holiday and a pro posal for focusing on King during classes, we have once again missed an opportunity to send a positive mes sage to our students and to the citi zens of Nebraska, and have sent instead a rather dismal message to the many people of color and others at UNL - of insensitivity and lack of commitment towards diversity by this university. We challenge all university administration, faculty and students to focus their attention to this unfortu nate event and to consider its implica tions. Adopting King’s birthday as a campus holiday would free all mem bers of the university to attend com memorations and presentations hon oring King and fostering his universal message of nonviolent social change. A King holiday at UNL, more over, would go a long way to signal a much needed genuine commitment by this institution to diversity and inclusion. We hope, as Mrs. King said, that all members of this intitu tion - students, administration, staff, and faculty, “come forward.” Patrick Nickoletti and Rodrigo Cantarero Co-chairmen of the Chancellor’s Committee on the Status of People of Color *... .... .. Well allow me to retort Although the MU-Nebraska game was a week ago, after reading the let ters from Nebraska fans in our stu dent paper, I felt I had to respond. There has been a lot of criticism from the Nebraska fans, and even from our own fans, about the way Mizzou fans acted after the game last weekend. Every letter I have seen talks about the courteousness of the Nebraska fans after their victory. However, I am forced to say I did not witness much of this in the wake of what was for us, a heart-wrenching loss. i am a memoer oi Marcnmg Mizzou and perhaps we received more than our fair share of taunting from the Husker fans because we are easy to pick out. We had one person with a cowbeH who shouted mindless criticisms of our team. Another fan taunted a friend of mine, eliciting a frightening reaction. We also had fans cut through the area in front of the band and under the conductors’ lad der. They pushed through without bothering to apologize. Finally, during our pre-game show, we play our school alma mater, “Old Missouri.” All students and alumni stand and remove their hats while we perform. It is a solemn moment and the stadium is usually extremely quiet, except for people singing. However, last week there were Nebraska fans yelling “Go Big Red” loudly enough forme to hear on the football field. That’s really tacky, guys. It may not be your school song or have any special meaning to you, but at least respect us and be quiet I don't think MU holds a monop oly. cm bad behavior during and after last week’s game. I do want to partic ularly congratulate the NU band. We have played host to several bands this season, and you were one of the best. The last one that came was both annoying and of poor quality. You guys didn’t bring cowbells and you knew more than one song. It was a much better experience than some of i our other games. n Jennie Coughlin University of Missouri^ Columbia1 Stayin’ alive n ( After reading the feature on rave£ in the Nov. 11 DN, and watching video clips of raves on television, I felt an odd, Twilight Zone-like unease steal over me. Am 1 me oniy laie- /us uinl alumnus to recognize the unholy ghost of disco rising from its well deserved grave? Am I the only one who recognizes that familiar thump, thump, thump?! j The light shows? The sexual posing and preening? Am i the only one who thought] that “Saturday Night Fever” was actu-^ ally a pretty depressing film because John Travolta’s character was a such sorry, dim bulb trying to shine in { grim and shallow circle of club hop?} ping and tacky sex? v The joke got pretty old in a hurr^ back then, and I suspect all of us who* ever went to “Uncle Sams” on Friday* nights will probably deny it, and will quickly change the subject. I turn 40 in a couple of weeks, and I sit and ponder what a wonderou§ thing cultural amnesia js, and remem7j ber what it was to be young withoufe the sense to be embarrassed. v it Paul Marxhausen T Engineering Electronics Shopi . a 1