EDITOR
Erin Gibson
OPINION
EDITOR
Cliff Hicks
EDITORIAL
BOARD
Nancy Christensen
Brad Davis
Sam McKewon
Jeff Randall
Bret Schulte
I—
Our
VIEW
union
Restricting homeless
is pure discrimination
The Nebraska Union is taking its beau
tification process a step too far.
On Tuesday, Union Board members
wi$l vote on a restrictive policy aimed at
curbing the population of transients in the
Nebraska Union.
It is no coincidence that this decision
comes on the eve of the completion of the
union expansion. Obviously, the Union
Board feels that the homeless have no
place in a new multimillion-dollar facili
ty.
Unfortunately, the student union, old
or new, remains a public building - free to
all to enter, shop or even loiter. The fact
that the building serves as the epicenter of
a university makes this bald-faced dis
crimination even more appalling.
Nebraska Unions Director Daryl
Swanson says he wants to create a safer
environment //
for students **
by expelling This policy is a
are not pOOfly dlSgUlSed
“bUnding Qct Qf
Although discrimination
the food
court and agaiHSt Cl
less, their already suffer as
presence^ societal pariahs.”
lounge and, ———
most impor
uinuy, ine new expansion wouia oe elimi
nated. According to Swanson, their elimi
nation would change the “perception” of
safety in the union, thus admitting no real
threat even exists.
“Perception” is an ignorant word, one
university-trained students are supposed
to reject. The homeless pose no threat;
they affront only die senses.
Many would say the same about the
legions of bloated, ruddy alumni who
descend on the union on football game
days, who certainly don’t “blend in” to our
normal student body.
Will they be removed from the TV
lounge? Will they be escorted from the
building by UNL community officers?
Probably not.
This policy is a poorly disguised act of
discrimination against a segment of peo
ple who already suffer as societal pariahs.
Now, at a university - a concept found
ed on centuries of enlightenment and edu
cation - they will be carefully removed
from our sight, so we can continue our
studying in a “safe environment.”
What are we learning?
Editorial Ptlci
Unsigned editorials are the opinions of
the Spring 1998 Daily Nebraskan. They
do not necessarily reflect the views of the
University of Nebraska-Lincotn, its
employees, its student body or the
Unwersity of Nebraska Board of Regents.
A column is solely the opinion of its author.
TheBoard of Regents serves as.publisher
teOa^&ebntt^Ecfito^Bo^! tL
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 publication.
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
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affiliation, if any.
Submit material to: Daily Nebraskan, 34
Nebraska Union, 1400 R St Lincoln,
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letters@unlirrio.unl.edu.
Mook’s
VIEW
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DN
LETTERS
Moeser sets record straight
I am responding to your editorial
in the Thursday edition of the DN
entitled “Rank and File: UNL fails to
impress the people who count.” This
editorial seriously misrepresents my
position on the issue of die U.S.
News rankings, and I want to set the
record straight
- i “Administrators, especially
_ Chancellor James Moeser, rarely
failed to mention UNL’s higher rank
ings during speeches or interviews.
But now we’re told administrators
aren’t worried by the rankings drop -
that we should note the positive
changes and expect these fluctua
tions.” So far, so good.
However, you go on to state that
we are saying, “These ratings don’t
really matter. No one pays attention
to them, and they’re unscientific
anyway.” Stop right there. I never
said that, nor did anyone else, to my
knowledge, in the administration.
So what are we saying? Of
course, we are concerned. We are
disappointed. Rightly or wrongly,
people ao pay attention
to these ratings - espe- v
cially prospective stu- Vs.
dents and parents outside 1 '
the state of Nebraska. 1
We do see encouraging \
signs in the data-our over- I
all rating is only one-tenth 1
of a point below the average 1
for tier two institutions; the I
bandwidth of ACT scores 1
improved from 20-26 last
year to 21-27 this year.
Although this is encourag
ing, it is still below the /
average of tier two M
schools. However, I am
confident that with our new I ■
admission standards, we K
will continue to improve in
this category. Likewise, the C
number of new students in R
the top 10 percent of their iL
high school graduating y\
classes increased from 21 //j
percent last year to 25 / M
percent this year. In this j fwj
category as well, we ' / iff
need to continue to '
move up to reach
the average of tier
two.
In my opinion, our
most serious deficien
cies are our freshman
to-sophomore reten
tion rate (currently
only 75 percent), and
the six-year graduation rate, which
has hovered around 49 percent for
the last several years, but which fell
to 45 percent last year. As I stated in
my State of the University Address,
these are unacceptable. I have set a
goal of increasing within four years
die retention to at least 80 percent
and the six-year graduate rate to 60
percent.
The other major problem that
surfaced in the recent survey was in
, class size. We dropped several points
both in the percentage of our classes
with fewer than 20 students, and we
increased the percentage of those
with more than 50. We have just
appointed 67 new tenure-leading,
full-time faculty, many as a result of
the reallocation of resources to acad
emic priorities. This infusion of
new faculty members will /
have a very positive
impact on class
size in many departments.
In summary, we are not glossing
or spinning the issue of reputation. It
is very important to us. We must all -
students included - be a part of the
solution. Ultimately, the academic
reputation of the University of
Nebraska depends on the reputation
of our students - the quality of the
inputs (admissions) and outputs
(graduation). One sign that I shall
look for is accurate reporting by the
Daily Nebraskan.
Chancellor James Moeser
