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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 18, 1998)
EDITOR Erin Gibson OPINION EDITOR Cliff Hicks EDITORIAL BOARD Nancy Christensen Brad Davis Sam McKewon Jeff Randall Bret Schulte I— Our VIEW Something might give Success of program depends on football In his six years as Nebraska’s athletic director, Bill Byrne has raised the profitabil ity and equality of the Athletic Department a good deal. ne instituted a aonanon policy tor seats at Memorial Stadium that has brought more revenue into the department. Furthermore, Byrne has helped develop a top-notch women’s soccer program, giving more fund ing to other women’s sports, and he has added another new sport: women’s rifling. Now, Byrne is asking for more. He wants a new roof on Schulte Field House, a new arena for wrestling and gymnastics and a brand new field for baseball. There’s already plans to put HuskerVision boards in the Bob Devaney Sports Center. Byrne asks a lot of the NU Board of Regents and the state of Nebraska. He wants to continue to make Nebraska’s one of the premier athletic departments in the nation. That’s fine. But Byrne’s brashness and monetary requests bank on one calculated risk he has taken throughout his tenure: The Nebraska football team continues to be a dominant power in college football. The football team essentially bankrolls the rest of the Athletic Department. The program can’t just be good, it must be dominant. The difference between the two means millions. If the Comhuskers had made the Bowl Championship Series (which, at 8-3, they will not), NXJ would have stood to make $11 million. Compare that to the less than $ 1 million they would receive in the Holiday or Alamo Bowls. The NU Athletic Department, with all of its ambitious projects, needs to keep the football program at an elite level. For the first time in Byrne’s tenure, there’s the ques tion as to whether or not that can happen. At 8-3, the Huskers stand below what they have achieved in the past. That’s not to say Nebraska won’t win the national championship next year. But it does bring up a good question: What if Nebraska’s football team does decline? What happens to these requests? More importantly, what happens to the women’s programs that Byrne has developed? Byrne hasn’t made friends with every thing he’s done. Powerful boosters were upset Mien Byrne put in the donation policy. Not everyone is happy with the corporate image the Athletic Department seems to have. If the football program doesn’t live up to elite standards, something will probably give. Hopefully, it’s the new roof and video screen that go first. But it seems that gizmos might be more important. We hope this isn’t true. > Byrne has taken a calculated risk with the football program staying strong. Knowing Nebraska, it probably will stay strong. But if it doesn’t, the Athletic Department will suffer the consequences. Editorial Policy Unsigned editorials are the opinions of the Fall 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. Lenar 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 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. E-mail: letters@unlinfo.unl.edu. Mook’s VIEW P STREET PREQECMiENT DN LETTERS Only a beginning While your editorial (Moral minori ty: Improving recruiting means search for ideas, Tuesday) makes some sound points about minority recruiting, the university definitely has to provide more than lip service to the idea of increasing their minority enrollment. The university has to ensure that minori ties will be welcomed on campus and not subjected to harassment from the small-minded few who would like to live in a cocoon of people who look just like themselves. That will involve a major cultural change. The univer sity needs to start an out reach pro gram to attract minorities, like summer camps for students interested in science, English, computers and other subjects. Contacts between the - university and minority media outlets such as Black - . Enterprise, Ebony and Essence ( \ should be a continuous effort as well as contacts with minority-owned radio outlets. Contacts with groups such as the Urban League and the NAACP should be started to attract minority students who can succeed academically. Once some of these things are 0m done, then UNL will start to see an increase in its minority enrollment and see a much more rounded student graduate from me university. j Barry Williams parent of a UNL minority student Iraq perceptions The editorial on Monday (Time for action: America must take a stand against Iraq) was an atypical view that lacked intelligent insight into the con flict between the United States and Iraq. There is no doubt the people of Iraq are suffering because of die tyranny of Saddam Hussein. We have already tried to bomb ancf sanction him out of power and to no avail. Further aggression will end only in the same situation that we are in. x The sanctions against Iraq must be dropped. The hardships that it causes its citizens are too great and are not having the effect that United Nations wants. It will be the regained prosperity of the people of Iraq that will spark the revolu tion and the coup of Saddam Hussein. In its present situation, the leaders of Iraq can place blame on the United States for economical woes, and polar ize its citizens against “The Great Devil” from the West \ Wallace Kruce senior business marketing Fan fight Regarding Shannon Heffelfinger’s column (“KSU j fans know how / to win; its fans don’t”) on KSU fans being obnoxious in the Monday issue of the DN, which I read over the Internet, I would like to comment on some experiences I had with KSU fans a few years ago. From March 1993 to December 1996,1 had the unfortunate experi ence of living in Manhattan, Kan., while I served at Fort Riley with the U.S. Army. My wife (a 1989 NU grad) was on the faculty at KSU for the four years that we lived there. She noticed that she would be treated poorly by other faculty mem bers when NU would beat KSU dur ing those seasons. One staff member in particular would not speak to my wife the entire week following the NU-KSU game. She would also refuse to do any type of staff support for my wife (which was her job) unless confronted by administrators. My point is, it’s not just the stu dents who are rude and obnoxious at K-State, but faculty and staff as well. My wife tried to put up a Tom Osborne picture in her private office at KSU and was threatened by more than one faculty member that she’d better take that off the wall “or else!” I doubt very seriously Husker fans acted this poorly during our early years of success. Bob Mott Seoul, South Korea Fan fight to the finish I am a K-State student who was involved in the skit before the Nebraska game on Saturday. I am writing with regards to Shannon Heffelfinger’s col umn about K-state having no class (“KSU fans know how to win,” Monday). I will not go into A ^wv-- details of her entire C, C) column, but I would like to focus on , her comments J about the skit, pjpr She said: “ ... so ^ Kansas State decid i i .. ed to entertain (fans). Five drunk guys in red jerseys performed a skit with KSU’s Wildcat mascot. Imitating ) the Husker offense, they fell over trying to snap the ball and were eventually all tackled by ! the Wildcat. The crowd roared.” It is acceptable to dis teree with the intentions of the skit or to say we should not have done it, but get your facts straight Number one, we were not drunk. We acted like a real football team, huddling and running a play. Number two, we were hit by Willie and did not fall over running the play. Number three, there were six of us out there, not five. The first comment irritates me the most If you do not want to be criticized, do not call people drunk when they were not If you want us to show you respect give us some respect for beating y6u fair and square. I have always had a great deal of respect for your football pro gram and much of it was lost on Saturday. The skit was in good humor and is done to every opponent. When writing columns, get your facts straight I Brian Hill KSU student | Melanie Falk/DN
