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
