CO
W
EDITOR
Josh Funk
OPINION
EDITOR
Mark Baldridge
EDITORIAL
BOARD
Lindsay Young
Jessica Fargen
Samuel McKewon
Cliff Hicks
Our
VIEW
Less than
convenient
Bookstore must offer
better organization
As part of its renovations to the 14
year-old design of the University
Bookstore, the Follett Company
promised convenience, service and
ease of shopping.
We’re still waiting.
This fall’s changes to the bookstore
may be welcome and even overdue, but
they have yet to improve the store.
On any given day, students may
experience a 20-minute wait to pur
chase a small item.
If the store is at all crowded, register
lines extend toward the opposite regis
ter, breeding confusion, not conve
nience.
When these lines are full, the book
store entrance is blocked, forcing stu
dents to either run the register gamut or
wind their way through the less-than
convenient convenience store.
The NU Market is a prime example
of the problems inherent in the book
store.
Half of the people in line at the NU
Market register are there to buy note
books and pens from the supply area,
which only clogs the two poorly
manned registers there.
£>ut rinding your way back to a
proper register requires a global posi
tioning satellite system and only means
more lines.
When NU Market opened, it was
billed as the cure-all to late-night stu
dent woes, with hours that extended to
11 p.m. every day of the week.
Viann Schroeder, then acting man
ager of the University Bookstore, said
last spring that these late hours were
designed for students studying late and
those with night classes.
This year both the Market and the
bookstore have cut back on hours.
Last year’s normal bookstore clos
ing time of 6 p.m. has crept down to
5:30 p.m., and NU Market’s heralded
11 p.m. closing has dropped to 8 p.m.
Don’t even bother trying to shop on
Sundays. They’re not there at all then.
They cannot even stick to these
shortened hours.
On occasion this semester, we have
been at the NU Market well within their
posted hours only to find a locked door
and a clerk inside feigning innocence.
But if you are fortunate enough to
make it inside the store, it doesn’t get
much better.
The bookstore’s idea of a convenient
shopping center is warped at best.
Follett should work to live up to its con
tract with the university and strive to
meet the needs of the students it serves.
Editorial Policy
Unsigned editorials are the opinions of
the Fall 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
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The Daily Nebraskan retains the right to
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Submit material to: Daily Nebraskan, 20
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Obermeyer’s
VIEW
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DN
LETTERS
Flanagain
Perhaps Ms. Flanagain (DN,
Thursday) is making an annual event
out of bashing the women’s studies
department, as her column seems to
be a sad regurgitation of last year’s
puerile diatribe.
I won’t attack this columnist’s
personal character because I don’t
know her, nor do I care to. However, I
find it highly irresponsible of her to
“warn” us, the student body, about a
very valuable department on this
campus.
The fact is that lesbians are
women, so some of the material cov
ered in women’s studies will be les
bian-related. Other subcultures stud
ied include African Americans,
Chicanas, Native Americans, women
writers, women activists and the list
goes on.
But for some reason, Ms.
Flanagain chooses to focus on les
bians, and you have to wonder why. I
wouldn’t go so far as to say that she is
the spawn of the devil, but she clearly
has a rabid streak of hoTnophobia
flowing through her conservative
Christian veins.
And that’s what this is really
about. It isn’t about the women’s
studies curriculum, and it isn’t about
righteous feminists or maniacal les
bians secretly infiltrating the univer
sity to convert each and every woman
to the “other” side.
It’s about Ms. Flanagain’s narrow
minded attitudes, her discomfort and
condescension toward diversity and a
seemingly endless personal grudge
match with,the women’s studies
department.
She’s entitled to her opinions, but
is it really necessary to beat us over
the head with them? I suppose the
good news is that she’s a senior, and
next year, she won’t be here to “shed
light” ... err, darkness, on the
women’s studies program.
Roxane Gay
graduate student
English
Flanagain Again
Ms. Flanagain’s column reveals
far more about her own insecurities
PS. Wr
Back
than it does about the women’s stud
ies program.
This is particularly true in regard
to her indignation that her previous
column, and the rebuttals of students
and faculty in the program, appear on
the women’s studies Web page.
Why shouldn’t they be there?
The Web page material is more
than fair, and it gives Ms. Flanagain’s
words a second chance to be heard.
But since her words are held up
alongside those of others in the pro
gram, their factual inaccuracies, ludi
crous homophobic misinformation
and simpering self-pity don’t seem
quite so credible.
I’m quite bewildered about Ms.
Flanagain’s insistence that the pro
gram is all about “the study of les
bians.” What is the criteria for this
assertion?
One of the professors she criti
cizes demonstrated conclusively that
the books by lesbian writers in the
very course Ms. Flanagain took were
the undeniable minority, hardly justi
fication for the absurd claims Ms.
Flanagain makes.
But it seems that any contrary
opinion to those of Ms. Flanagain is
an automatic attack on her, and that
she is free to be as nasty as she
desires, since she’s right and every
body else is wrong.
She claims that women’s studies
faculty and students “hailed (her) as
the spawn of evil.”
Those are her words, not theirs.
If anything, while holding her
accountable for the misinformation
of her columns, the faculty and stu
dents demonstrated surprising con
sideration in their responses - a cour
tesy not reciprocated by Ms.
Flanagain.
I’m not in women’s studies, but
I’m a non-Christian, liberal, gay
Cherokee in English, so I guess I’d be
right up there with the rest of those
who are infecting the world with the
evil blights of equality, respect, social
conscience and responsibility.
A final piece of advice:
To paraphrase my favorite con
temporary philosopher, Dolly Parton,
I give you this, generously and with
love: Get off the cross, Jessica -
|; Send letters tkj: titoity Nebraskan, 34 Is
| NE 68538, or fax to (402) 472-1761, or
s' Letters must be signed and include a j
somebody needs the wood.
Daniel Justice
graduate student
English
And Again
To all lesbians:
What the hell are you thinking?
Has the thought ever crossed your
mind that if it were not for heterosexu
als (read: normal people) that you
would not be alive?
Procreation is not just a good idea,
it’s necessary for the survival of our
species.
Now don’t give me this crap about
how your condition comes from genet
ics ... how is this going to happen?
Did your two lesbian mothers pass
this gene on to you?
It should be evident to everyone
that homosexuality is completely ludi
crous.
Likewise, to do any in-depth study
of the subject is a waste of time. This is
why I would urge all members of the
women’s studies program to consider a
real major. I’d hate to see you end up
saying “would you like fries with
that?” for the rest of your life.
I thank Jessica Flanagain for her
insightful article, along with the Web
link to the joke of the day page. Oops,
I guess that was a link to the women’s
studies program.
Harold Williams
junior
engineering
And Yet Again
The vicious attacks by women’s
studies on Jessica Flanagain come as
no surprise to the College
Republicans, who last year had the
campus police sicked on us by the
director of women’s studies for posting
an announcement she didn’t approve
Of.
Clearly, no dissent will be tolerated
by UNL’s Stalinist Sisterhood.
Congratulations to Ms. Flanagain
for her courage in speaking out.
fi
Gerard Harbison
faculty advisor
College Republicans
____'
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