EDITOR
Paula Lavigne
OPINION
EDITOR
Matthew Waite
EDITORIAL
BOARD
Erin Gibson
Joshua Gillin
Jeff Randall
Julie Sobczyk
Ryan Soderlin
I
Our
VIEW
Buyback
backlash
Professors ’disregard
costs students
We live in a world of deadlines.
Everyone has them.
Things have to get done. And they have to
get done at a certain time of the day, week,
month, semester. If we don’t, there are conse
quences.
Simple concepts, eh?
Ever handed in a paper late? Not fun, is it?
You get punished, usually in the form of a
lower grade. That affects your GPA and your
future. So you get the picture quite quickly - do
your work on time, or face the consequences.
But here at the University of Nebraska
Lincoln, it seems that broken deadlines only
affect students. Even if we aren’t breaking the
deadlines.
Every student knows all too well the pain
and suffering that is involved with buying
books. And every students knows all too well
the pain and suffering - and the insult - of sell
ing those books back for pennies on the dollar.
Guess what?
It isn’t bookstores’ fault.
Believe it or not, when you sell your book
back, the bookstores want to give you 60
cents on the dollar.
That’s right. For a $ 10 book, you’d get $6.
But it doesn’t take a math major to figure
out that’s not what you get.
There’s a reason for that. It’s called missed
deadlines. And you didn’t forget to hand
something in. Your professor did.
The bookstores survive on lists. They
need lists of the books professors are going to
use in their classes next semester, so they
know what they need to keep, and what they
can get rid of on wholesale.
If they have next semester’s list, and the
book you used this semester is on it, the book
stores buy it back at 60 percent, because they
know they are going to sell it again. You get
more money, they make a profit, and every
one is happy.
If they don’t, well, you get 10 to 30 per
cent, because that’s what the bookstore can
get when the wholesalers come around. Then,
when they get the lists late, they have to get
them back from the booksellers. No one
makes any money, and no one is happy.
As of todav. onlv two deoartments in the
entire university met the book list deadline of
Oct. 24.
Two. Not one, not three: two.
If two people in your class handed a paper
in on time, your professor would throw a fit.
As it is now, Dec. 4,1997,25 percent of all
the book lists are in.
Only one quarter of our faculty cares
enough to give students the difference
between 10 percent and 60 percent.
Buyback is rapidly approaching. We
would be shocked if 75 percent of this univer
sity got their act together and got the book
stores their book lists.
Guess we won’t be super-sizing our post
book selling meals.
-
M
EHIMmi rvHCv
Unsigned editorials are the opinions of
the Fall 1997 Daily Nebraskan. They do
not necessarily reflect the views of the
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- . • m •
Haney’s
VIEW
Justice denied
The execution of Robert Williams
on Tuesday was a miscarriage of jus
tice.
The fact that he was executed 18
years after his death sentence painful
ly shows the ineffectiveness of our
legal system. This bastard was on
death row since the time I was bom.
A husband who came home to
find his wife’s broken, violated,
bloody body has been denied justice
my entire life.
Justice delayed is justice denied.
The system is responsible for this
unnecessarily lengthy period of pain
for the victims and their families.
People are only realty put to death
long after everyone (except the vic
tims) has forgotten what they did. No
wonder people are protesting it.
The death penalty could be a good
r thing, if it were carried out as it
should be. For every crime, there
should be restitution. Not to society
or to the government, but to the vie
mu.
A car thief should replace his vic
tim’s car, and a thief of human life
should repay with his own. I think he
should have died once for every rape
and murdered woman. You can only
kill them once, though.
At least he didn’t die of natural
causes before they had the chance to
execute him.
Matt Callicoat
freshman
computer engineering
Missed the point, partner
In your Tuesday editorial on the
killing of Robert Williams by the
state of Nebraska, you write about the
behavior of death supporters at previ
ous executions: “Killing is never
pretty, but we made it downright
appalling.”
You miss the point, partner.
Killing by the government is always
i~ '' —
“downright appalling.” That the
tremendous power of the state can be
prostituted into the merciless act of
killing humans is amazing.
The secret of it is to turn the con
demned into animals, aliens, “the
others” in the eyes of the public.
That is the same trick that is used
by any government in order to goad
its people into supporting war. Turn
the enemy into nonhumans, and peo
ple will be glad to kill them.
Anyone who took the effort to get
to know Robert Williams in recent
years would easily recognize that the
man put to death on Tuesday through
the awesome power of the • • - J
state was indeed a human - -
a warm and caring man - ^
one who had committed
terrible crimes in the past, ^jl
but a real human nonethe
less.
Nebraska’s act of mur
der refuses to recognize
that and is just an act of
depravity.
Dr. T. T. Fitzgerald
Baltimore, Maryland
1971 alum of UNMC
Which coat?
Maybe I was still dizzy
from seeing Cornhusker
shots clank off the rim in
the second half against
Tulsa Monday night, or did
I really see a letter from a
Nebraska basketball coach
in the DN Monday morn
ing?
A coach who believes
that UNL can support a big
time sport other than foot
ball. A coach who promis
es fast-paced, in-your-face
basketball. A coach who
dares to suggest his team
can compete with the top
10 teams in the nation if
they have student support. A coach
that has won an NCAA tournament
game.
Wait a second, it was the women’s
basketball coach ... of the 12th
ranked team in the nation, which has
already played three top 25 teams this
year.
Maybe some other coach at UNL,
between big games this weekend
against North Carolina-Wilmington
and Cornell, can sit down, analyze,
and learn from this.
; BrandonVerzal
>v/,:a)ix jrl.-fuj /junior
. sti ozbo
P.S. Write 3ack
!$§
