EDITOR
Paula Lavigne
OPINION
EDITOR
Joshua Gillin
EDITORIAL
BOARD
Brad Davis
Erin Gibson
Shannon Heffelfinger
Chad Lorenz
Jeff Randall
I
Our
VIEW
Quit
whining!
Despite price increase,
tickets remain bargain
Student football fans at the University of
Nebraska-Lincoln are spoiled.
Since 1995, students who have attended
UNL have had the opportunity to take
advantage of the best bargain in the nation:
For $87.50, students could see one of the
most consistently successful football teams
in the nation go to battle six times during the
fall at Memorial Stadium.
For the low, low price of $ 14.50 a game,
students watched the Huskers as they
climbed to the top of the national ranks. They
got to see the magic of Tommie Frazier and
coaching legend Tom Osborne’s 200th career
win.
Two weeks ago, the NU Athletic
Department decided it’s time for students to
pay up. If UNL students want to see Husker
football, they will have to pay $107.50 for
six home games, an increase of $20.
Predictably, students are upset. Some
have vowed not to pay the extra money to
attend Nebraska football games. To those
students who have made that decision, we’ve
got news for you: too bad. It doesn’t matter.
“Obviously, we’re not just doing it for
spite,” John Anderson, NU ticket office
manager, told the Daily Nebraskan last
week. “If we had a pitiful football team it
wouldn’t make sense, but the demand is
there, so you can charge a little bit more.”
Anderson is right. The demand for stir
dent tickets far exceeds the current supply of
8,000 seats, and that will make this price
increase a success for the ticket office and
the Athletic Department.
And compared to several other top pro
grams in the country, the price is still com
petitive. At Oklahoma - a place where the
wins haven’t exactly come in abundance the
last few seasons - tickets are $125. At Penn
State, the athletic department charges stu
dents $90.
The athletic department said the prices
were raised to complete construction pro
jects in Memorial Stadium such as new
restrooms, concession stands and water
proofing. The money also will go toward
fixing the crumbling roof at the Bob
Devaney Sports Center and adding two var
sity sports - women’s bowling and a rifle
team. .
Students who support the Nebraska foot
ball team want to see continued success. An
important ingredient to that cause is money.
In order for the Athletic Department to stay
on the cutting edge, ticket prices had to
increase because there are few other ways to
add to the Athletic Department’s revenue.
Taking these factors into account, stu
dents cannot justify their complaints.
Because in the end, Nebraska student
football ticket prices for one of the most suc
cessful programs in the nation are still a bar
gain - even at $107.50.
I
Haney’s
VIEW
Hate offerings
Opinions are good even if no one listens
DANIEL MUNKSGAARD
is a sophomore English
and religious studies
major and a Daily
Nebraskan columnist
Hey, how about that Hibler guy?
Something about him is bound to
make you mad, whether it’s what he
did or how he’s being treated.
Hey, get a load of Clinton and the
mighty prosecutor Starr! Someone’s
been dirty, someone’s an ass; and
don’t we just love fighting about
which one’s which?
Aren’t you just horrified to open
the paper these days? All these terri
ble things, this sickening, repulsive
obsession the media has with every
thing un-newsworthy, unkind and
just downright unwholesome. It
makes you sick, doesn’t it? And
that’s why you read it, isn’t it?
Because admit it: You enjoy being
offended. Why else do you open up
to the opinion pages right after “The
Deep End?” To be more informed?
To see thought-provoking debate?
Feh. If you wanted your mind chal
lenged, you’d watch C-SPAN and
invite ridicule upon yourself. You
open to the opinion pages with two
possible responses on your mind:
“Amen!” or “To hell with you!”
And those are the kind of
responses most opinion writers struc
ture their pieces around. If you learn
something, if you read a piece that
actually changes your mind on an
issue, that writer was being sneaky,
and you’ll probably avoid them in the
future.
Because you don’t want your
mind changed, do you? Yes, I’m talk
ing to you. I don’t care if you call
yourself liberal, moderate, conserva
tive or apathetic: You know every
thing and are scared at the idea that
things could be different.
Hey, I’m no exception. Like /
want to go back to being a funda
mentalist Christian again. Like/
want to hear a rational argument for
the death penalty. It’s a queasy,
uncomfortable feeling to realize
something you held dear is wrong, or
at least misguided. You’ve got other
things to worry about in life without
having to restructure your moral sys
tem every time some schmuck with a
column or letter starts spouting off
about (fill in the blank).
But being offended, that’s another
matter entirely. Like I said, we enjoy
being offended. Why, I’m not sure.
Maybe it’s because we’ve been
taught that persecution is the ulti
mate sign of righteousness. Or per
haps we enjoy the rush of channeled
anger. We just don’t have the outlets
we used to, now that Soviet is a bunk
word and Saddam makes us more
tired than angry. God, don’t you
remember how much fun the Soviets
used to be? Or how about that Gulf
War? The action/suspense/thriller of
moral super-power vs. tyrannical
madman in regular daily install
ments; who could beat that?
It’s why. we’re so fascinated by
things like Nazis. Here we $ave a
group of people responsible for some
of the most despicable acts in record
ed history. Not only were they
aggressive, genocidal and bizarrely
hypocritical, but they were damned
good at it; really efficient. By all
accounts, we should feel sick hearing
about them, and quickly skip over
that period of history with the
reminder of “don’t do that,” and then
talk about Ike.
But instead, we’re obsessed with
Nazis. We’ve got more World War II
history buffs out there than any other
event. Our films depict oodles of
space Nazis, futuristic Nazis, neo
Nazis, historical Nazis - the whole
lot. And the sickening part is, we love
them. Because they offend us so
deeply to our core. We can hate them
so much, and it’s OK! Because
they’re Nazis!
Why do you think Rush -
Limbaugh calls women’s rights
activists “feminazis”? Why do you
think I sometimes call right-wingers
“fascists”? Why do you regularly
read opinion pieces by editorialists
with views so alien to your own that
they scare you? Because you can
hate them. You can be righteously
offended and secure in the knowl
edge that you can’t possibly be as
bad as they are.
And who knows: Maybe you’ll
get to be so offended that you can
write a letter to the editor. Then you
get to let the entire campus know
your name, year and major, as well as
an opinion they can associate you
with and be appropriately offended
by. This is, of course, no different
than the desires of columnists. If
anything, we’re even bigger gluttons
for punishment, since we can be
identified on sight.
So please, keep the hateful letters
flowing! Forget rational debate; the
more insults you throw, the more we
can ignore what you actually say and
just get around to hating you. Give us
more!
How about that Hibler guy, any
way?
*-j •' W.- »- r'J - ; l: i ‘ :
Editorial Policy
Unsigned editorials are the opinions of
the Spring 1998 Daily Nebraskan. They
do not necessarily reflect the views of the
University 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 Editorial 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 editorial
content of the newspaper lies solely in
the hands of its student employees.
*
Letter Policy
The Daily Nebraskan welcomes brief
letters to the editor and guest columns,
but does not guarantee their pubfication.
The Daily Nebraskan retains the right to
edit or reject any material submitted.
Submitted material becomes property of
the Daily Nebraskan and cannot be
returned. Anonymous submissions will
not be published. Those who submit
letters 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 St. Lincoln,
NE. 68588-0448. £-mail:
letters@unlinfo.unl.edu.
PS.
.Send letters to: Daily Nebraskan, 34 Nebraska Union, 1400 "R" St., Lincoln,
NE 68588, or fax to (402) 472-1761, or e-mail <letters@nnlinfb.unl.edu.
.Letters must be signed and include a phone number for verification
