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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 28, 1999)
EDITOR Erin Gibson OPINION EDITOR Cliff Hicks EDITORIAL BOARD Nancy Christensen Brad Davis Sam McKewon Jeff Randall Bret Schulte I—--— Our VIEW Taking the first step New ASUN seats would aid equality At last night’s ASUN meeting, debate was resurrected on whether to allow stu dents to vote on adding five new student government seats specifically for members of underrepresented groups. The senate seats, if approved by two thirds of student voters in the March ASUN election, would be open only to minority students, as defined by race, ethnicity, cul tural background or sexual orientation. Adding seats is part of a much-needed movement to ensure views that systemati cally have been pushed to the fringe are brought to the table and can influence uni versity policy. By adding the seats, ASUN would admit it hasn’t been representing all students and would begin to make amends. Adding seats isn t so-called reverse dis crimination, and it’s not .a quota system. It’s about fairness and creating a truly representative government. Of course, it’s not a total solution. The total solution is a societal overhaul resulting in total equality regardless of gen der, race, cultural background, religion or sexual orientation. Then minority students wouldn’t feel ostracized from the core of student and university government. Some say adding five “token” seats would just make it easier to avoid bringing about that total solution. Some say white senators would boast, “There, we have minority viewpoints. We’ve done our part,” and senators would stop actively pursuing more substantial and permanent change. Those advancing this argument are overlooking the simple fact that every big change has a first step, and adding five seats would form that important first step. Once a greater number of minority stu dents’ views are heard and considered as integral to the student government organi zation, those views will no longer be easily pushed to the fringe and ignored. Other naysayers claim deciding what groups can fill those seats would be too dif ficult and complicated, since those rules would be contained in the ASUN bylaws. No doubt it would be more complicated than the current system, because senators would have to evaluate overall representa tion of student groups each year and to decide annually which groups were under represented. An idea that requires a more complicat ed departure from the status quo is not nec essarily a poor one. It just means it would take more work to implement. Often, the most difficult tasks are the most worthwhile. If ASUN wants to legitimately claim it represents all students, it’s worthwhile for each senator to wholeheartedly support tak ing the proposal for five new senate seats to student voters in March. - --1 Editorial Policy Unsigned editorials are the opinions of the Spring 1999 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 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. 68583-0448. E-mail: letters@unlinfo.unl.edu. f Lupo’s VIEW MOV AMEC-icA C£.U£g> R.A.T £. TME Vi-SiT OP TM£- MOST HOLV MAM ik] f> I I L Pope1. COUicrARLE/P^T^-^^V |. AcTlc"4 SAV&^J mV ^ \ 4out/js/<3ET VOUR4> TOPAV!! ■■-■■- - — ■ ■ ---' -■ - ■ ■ ■' - . ,dft.-.y.y...,. ■-•-•■ DN LETTERS Cloistering student stars Non-honors students aren’t the only ones discriminated against by Neihardt’s housing policy. Consider honors students from out-of-state who can’t go home at every whim. Should they be kept from living in Neihardt just because they need a place to stay during holidays such as Labor Day and spring break?-If Neihardt wants to keep its elitism in check, it should really consider accommodating ALL honors stu dents, not just ones who are home grown. If the university really wants to recruit top studentss|fom outside Nebraska (as it claims), it may want to rethink some such housing mat ters. Bryan Cooley senior honors student computer science and math Basketball has a bad Nee The series on Nebraska basket ball in the DN has brought out some of the problems and trends with the men’s basketball program. Something needs to be done about these trends. The first is attendance. Bill Byrne needs to find some way of filling the arena. He needs to get stu dents back to the games. He says the lack of students takes away from the fun of the games, then he goes on to say that the students may lose their floor seats to people who will pay more for them. That would really suck the fun out of games. There are already too many old people sit- g ting on the floor. Students can’t stand | up because some grandma sitting behind them can’t see the game. An actual “student section” needs to be reserved on the floor. It would make the games fun again. Student tickets are a bargain, but it’s still too much t<v go see a mediocre team. Studen^ prices should be lowered or even// free to get the students to go. (ft A Here is tne Dig problem/ 1/ 1 Danny Nee has got to go. Fans are l( * getting tired of his consistently^ A mediocre teams. The Huskers are A lucky to win 20 games a year. Ifit^r weren’t for a weak non confer^r ence schedule, they would strug- a gle to reach .500. Fans dislike him for other reasons. The reason he doesn’t recruit in Nebraska is not"'"-t| because of a lack of talent. Nee says he wants to be part of the solu tion to attendance problems. He can do us all a favor by going elsewhere. I love going to the games, but they are boring. Bill Byrne needs to figure" 1 something out, or attendance is going to stay below 10,000 for a long time. T.J. Paulsen sophomore mechanical engineering Diversity of grooming It is pretty clear that law student Thayne Glenn, who refused to cut his hair in order to meet the County Attorney’s grooming standards, hopes to see the law college withdraw from the criminal clinic program. The criminal clinic is a terrific opportuni ty for law students to obtain real world experience. It is unfortunate that one student would seek to deny hundreds of students this opportunity for something as trivial as this, but what really annoys me is that a grow ing number of law professors appar ently agree. After all, the clinical programs are aboutreal-life experience, and what is more real than grooming stan dards? Thayne, a former member of the military, is certainly familiar with grooming standards. Did he really think he would never again encounter grooming standards after his dis charge? Professor Duncan is quoted as saying that “this violates university policy.” But what about the policies of the county attorney? How is it that the policies of an elected official are trumped by the policies of a universi ty7 What really amused me, though, was Professor Snowden’s comment that the issue is “whether (the univer sity) is going to stand behind real principles of diversity or not.” Ah, the sacred D-word! Well, that gives me an idea. I am currently participating in the law college’s civil clinic program. I handle real-life cases with real-life clients. You want diversity, Professor Snowden? If the law college with draws from the criminal clinic, I vow to give you your sacred diversity in spades. I have been told that I must wear a suit and be reasonably groomed whenever I appear before a court, because I represent the University of Nebraska College of Law. Well, to hell with that. How do you think I would look in sandals and boxers when I appear in Federal Bankruptcy Court? I’m sure the judge would be impressed with the law college’s commitment to diversi ty. And I’m also sure many students would thank you for sparing them costly dry-cleaning bills. And of course I’ll decide to grow a beard about three days prior to the hearing. Maybe I’ll even grow out and braid my underarm hair. Of course, it is possible that the court itself might have grooming standards that require me to wear cer tain clothes and adhere to certain grooming standards. But if that is the case, then I am sure you will agree that the civil clinic should refuse to appear in matters before that court... right? After all, nothing trumps the sacred gods of diversity. m_nf^i_a • Mike Bielarski third-year law student MattHaney/DN
