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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (March 10, 1999)
EDITOR Erin Gibson y OPINION EDITOR Cliff Hicks EDITORIAL BOARD Nancy Christensen Brad Davis Sam McKewon Jeff Randall Bret Schulte i Our VIEW Staying power ASUN party names should remain the same Today, when you vote in the ASUN runoff election, you should choose eitherVoice or Focus executive candidates. And last year, you should ha^e voted either Vision or Commit. In 1997, you should have chosen either Keg or Advance. And the year before, well, you should have voted either Action or Office. Go back to 1990, and Vision was a choice again. Is your head spinning? So is ours. Do you remember what any of the old parties stood for? We don’t. Not without looking up old news articles. Annually changing party names and plat forms create an uphill battle for ASUN candi dates working towards voter turnout. For each year, while ASUN hopefuls struggle to yank more students onto the voter wagon, they also struggle to redefine an entire election. Two new parties with two new platforms and two new names have to sell their two big new bags of goods to 24,000 students in about two months. For students not 100 percent ded icated to watching or winning the election, it’s just too much to absorb in too little time. Student awareness and interest would increase with party continuity, which isn’t pro vided for in the current election system. Therefore, Voice and Focus should make their platforms and names permanent. Then party leaders could build party affiliation for years, not months. You want less government and more accountability to students?‘Vote Focus every year - freshman to graduation. You want a greater commitment to diversity and more student support services? Vote Voice instead. I ASUN participants would have to decide early in their student government careers which style of government they supported. Of course, they could switch affiliations or start a new party whenever it struck their fancies. Meanwhile, student voters would learn fewer party names and platforms, which could evolve slowly like Democratic and Republican platforms do. Students could decide once which idea of government they supported, then each year, they would know by party affiliation generally which leaders shared their ideals. Because it’s easier to learn, the system would be an easier one to participate in. The new system would facilitate name recognition and party loyalty. The new system would increase knowledge of ASUN, and more stu dents would vote. Sure, one party might stay unusually strong for a period of time, but then the pen dulum would swing to the other party. Students’ determination of a party’s quality would determine its staying power, not the turning of the year. All around, the new system would help facilitate meaningful elections. And that’s not a bad Vision to Commit to. Oh, wait. That’s lastyear.... 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 pifoSsher of the' Daily Nebraskan; policy is set by the Daily Nebraskan Editorial Board. The UNL Publications Board, established by the regents, supervises die 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. _ i 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. 68588-0448. E-mail: letters@unlinfo.unl.edu. -ur .. — Lupo’s VIEW ^StmmUKKSSA DN LETTERS End it all For the love of God, let it go. I am so sick of reading letters in the opinion section of the DN concerning the “snowball incident” So what do I do to remedy it? Of course, I write one more. It seems as though there is not enough going oh at UNL anymore to have an opinion about. If there was, something as stupid as the aforemen tioned “incident” would not be dragged out for weeks on end. Some other fraternity needs to do something stupid so it can take the spot light off the “incident.” Preferably not Fiji or Chi Phi (they’ve had their fifteen minutes of fame), but some other greek affiliation. Take the bull by the horns and throw a raging party or do some thing discriminatory or racially insensi tive (it doesn’t take much). Be our savior from the monotony of the Due Tran incident that has plagued the pages of the DN, as well as the campus, I imag ine. I can’t possibly be the only one who is sick of all the useless banter. And the DN should be ashamed of itself. How many letters that are nearly identical can you print? I keep reading the same BS over and over. You make me wonder if I should try to get any work done or con tinue to read this publication. I guess some things never change. The Daily Nebraskan is just as effective in making the hours at work go by faster as it is making hours in class go by a little faster. Ryan Jennings Minneapolis 1997Alumna Not a greek government In response to Rebecca Kaiser ’s let ter on March 3,1 would like to say a few words in defense of both ASUN parties. First of all, Ms. Kaiser calls ASUN the “greek government” While this may have been true in die past last year Sara Russell and the Commit party worked to change this by actively recruiting a significant number of residence hall members as candidates. This year both parties made an effort to have a mix of greek, residence hall and off-campus candidates. Focus had a number of resi dence hall and off-campus candidates, while die Voice party was an impressive 63 percent non-greek. Additionally, three of the six executive candidates were non-greek. C Ms. Kaiser also voiced concern over campaigning that occurred in die greek houses but not at the residence halls. This is not the fault of the candidates, but the fault of the Residence Hall ^ Association’s (RHA) bylaws, which govern campaigning m the residence halls. According to RHA bylaws, candi dates may not campaign door-to-door, nor can they campaign in the main lob bies of residence halls or at hall govern ment meetings. This year, I was pleased to see both parties take advantage of booths outside cafeterias, one of the few places in residence halls where they can legally campaign. Finally, I would challenge Ms. Kaiser and others who share her con cerns to do something about them, rather than write inflammatory letters that merely give others an excuse to not get involved. Attend the parties’ Town Hall meetings next year. The candidates would love to hear your suggestions for campaigning in the residence halls. Attend the ASUN debate sponsored by RHA. Run in the upcoming RHA elec tions and work to change RHA bylaws concerning campaigning. I commend both parties this year for their effort to include students from all types of living units. Kristy Jacobberger junior biological systems engineering RHA election commissioner None of the above? I am appalled and insulted with what ASUN Electoral Commission President Ryan Fuchs said in Thursday’s Daily Nebraskan. Apparently, Mr. Fuchs wants to deny UNL students to have a choice other than the lesser-known of two annoy ances. Mr. Fuchs, I will vote for a write-in candidate, whether there is a spot on the ballot for them or not In this grand joke that they call “student government,” UNL students should at least be able to vote what they believe. I invite all other students to write in “none of the above” during Wednesday’s ASUN runoff. Josh Hesse junior electrical engineering Melanie Falk/DN