Fashion victim
Student's choice of attire sparks unnecessary uniform debate
It just doesn’t pay to be a
Pittsburgh Steelers fan. Especially if
you want a decent education.
Eric Nutter, a 10-year-old fifth
grade student at Western Reserve
Middle School in Norwalk, Ohio,
wore a jersey of his favorite player,
Steeler quarterback Kordell Stewart,
on Cleveland Browns’ spirit day.
His fifth-grade teacher, Brent
Maillard, was not amused
(Pittsburgh is a fierce rival of
Cleveland). So as an attempt at
humor, he had Eric turn his desk
around in the back of the classroom
and keep it that way for the duration
of class.
Unable to see, Eric had to turn
around constantly just to know what
was going on in his class.
Eric changed into a Cleveland
Indians T-shirt during gym and left it
on for the rest of the day.
Yes, it sucks to be a 10-year-old
Pittsburgh Steelers fan who wants an
education. Not only do you get flak
from your Cleveland-loving class
mates, you get flak from your
teacher as well.
And little did Eric Nutter know,
but he sparked a little life into advo
cates of school uniforms.
These advocates have said this is
just one example of how school uni
forms would eliminate “dress” prob
lems in today’s schools.
Using a 10-year-old who did
absolutely nothing wrong as fodder
for a school uniforms policy is sad.
Eric Nutter was wearing a jersey
because he was a long-time Steelers
and Kordell Stewart fan. He wasn’t
wearing a mini-skirt, see-through
blouse, jeans so loose they fell
halfway down his buttocks or a
ripped tank top.
He was wearing a football jersey.
And he was wearing it because he
wanted to support his team. He prob
ably hasn’t learned about the First
Amendment right to free speech in
his classes yet, but by putting on the
Stewart jersey, he was exercising it.
To school uniform advocates, I
say this: First find some decent
morals, and next find a different
amendment to attack.
Eric and every other student in
this country should be allowed to
wear what he or she wants (within
decency limits). What people wear
partly makes them who they are. It
says something about what you like,
what you don’t like, and it says a
whole lot about your personality.
For many people, starchy shirts
and slacks will be the dress code
every day of their lives after they get
a permanent job. Let the kids enjoy
casual clothes while they can.
If Eric Nutter was wearing a
starchy white shirt on Cleveland
Browns’ spirit day, there wouldn’t
have been an incident.
But Nutter also wouldn’t have
had the opportunity to show that, no,
he doesn’t like the Browns.
Instead, he would have just wan
dered around the school in his white
shirt and dark pants, looking like
every other overdressed bee in the
Cleveland hive.
Beyond the school uniform argu
ment, Eric’s punishment also seems
to have reinforced the idea that edu
cation still has a long way to go.
Eric’s teacher had to apologize
the next day to Eric, his parents and
school officials for acting like a 10
u
To school uniform advocates, I say this:
First find some decent morals, and next find
a different amendment to attack.
year-old with a power trip.
Mr. Maillard was supposed to be
teaching lessons; instead, he got to
learn one.
Simply put: Never let fat-headed
pride over a 0-2 football team get in
the way of what you’re supposed to
be doing - teaching.
Many teachers let personal dis
tractions and biases get in the way of
their teaching.
Back in high school, I had an
algebra teacher who seemed to be
more interested in football trivia than
teaching us about equations. Not
only did he waste class time asking
us for answers to his trivia, but he
would go next door to a trigonome
try class and waste class time there.
Maybe there needs to be a chap
ter in an education textbook about
not letting personal feelings or dis
tractions get in the way of teaching.
And if there already is one, maybe
some teachers need to re-read it.
Thankfully, this story has a happy
ending.
Kordell Stewart, the quarterback
whose jersey Eric was wearing when
he was punished, gave Eric a call
after hearing about the incident.
“He asked me how good I was
doing in school and told me if I have
any more problems with his jersey
that he’ll come down and help me,”
Eric said.
Thankfully, something good
came out of the incident.
It just goes to show - everyone
should be allowed to speak out with
their clothing.
Because when people start telling
you what to wear and not wear, it
won’t be long before you’re sitting in
a desk turned against other freedoms
as well.
Kasey Kerber is a senior news-editorial major and a Daily Nebraskan columnist
Building a career
Engineering major provides challenges, unusual situations for women
Being a woman engineer is fun.
You get to contemplate eternal
questions like:
Why is there a sign that says “This
Restroom is For Women Only” in a
women’s restroom on the second floor
of WSEC (Walter Scott Engineering
Cave) and...
With a 10-1 male-to-female ratio,
why do I not have a date for Friday
night?
I don’t know why that particular
restroom is such a hunk magnet; as to
the second question, ever since I hit
the big double-two a couple of weeks
ago, I’ve decided to stop worrying
about the matter, since most people in
my classes are now way younger than
yours truly.
There are plenty of other things
that make the engineering world
attractive to women.
People rarely care how you dress,
especially if you’re a programmer, so
there’s no need to invest in an expen
sive wardrobe.
Be aware, though, that sloppiness,
desire to disassemble things and peri
odically running around yelling,
“Eureka!” are all part of the image,
and people may not thank you for try
ing to dispel it.
Also, most engineers I know have
no interest in golf, so you won’t need
to invest in expensive lessons in this
rather boring game in order to net
work.
The networking function is cov
ered by the large number of “profes
sional organizations.” Since all of
their names are abbreviated, some use
a different sequence of the same let
ters (like ASME and SAME), and a
lot of them aren’t really very differ
ent. You should just boldly “point and
join.” Who says there’s no adventure
in this wonderful field?
Another great thing about engi
neers is that they don’t really care
what gender you are (or even what
planet you’re from), as long as you
can use words like “isentropic effi
ciency” and “multi-dimensional
pointer array” and “neural transduc
er.”
One of the previous three terms is
an invention of mine, aka technobab
ble. You get to figure out which one it
is.
Speaking of technobabble, you
will need to brush up on your “Star
Trek,” “Babylon 5” (you can skip the
awful sequel), “Sliders” and numer
ous other series and movies. Seeing
“The Matrix” and a few others (list
provided upon request) is an absolute
must.
Engineering terminology is what
won me over. In my statics class, I’ve
learned that the reason engineers
aren’t romantic is because “couples”
and their “moments” just don’t evoke
the same images to them as they do to
the rest of the world.
On the other hand, some of the
definitions provide startling insight.
For instance, a “couple” is defined as
“two forces of equal magnitude and
opposite direction that do not lie on
the same line of action.”
That’s sort of like getting a for
tune cookie that says, “Your date will
have a headache.”
Since there are so few women
engineers, there aren’t very many
stereotypes about them (this is proba
bly just wishful thinking).
Had I been a women’s studies
major, I would likely have been
labeled a “radical lesbian.” Since I’m
an engineer, I expect I’m a “man-hat
ing calculator.”
People certainly manage to look
taken aback when I tell them what my
major is. All things being equal, I’d
a
So I guess the moral of this story is:
Become an engineer! Just be sure you brush
up on Murphy s Law.
prefer to be a radical lesbian, but it
probably won’t pay nearly as well.
On one of those interminably long
and loud rides in the campus shuttle,
Gene, the shuttle driver, asked me
what my major was. Upon receiving
my answer, he made a remark like,
“With that earning potential, guys
better grab you fast.” (I cannot offer a
direct quote, since the noise of the
inefficient shuttle engine prevents
effective communication, but you can
always ask Gene. He’s a very friendly
guy, and he admits to reading my
columns.)
I think he was being optimistic,
but you never know.
I cannot figure out whether stan
dards are a good or evil part of engi
neering. This quote by Andrew S.
Tanenbaum (no idea who he is) sums
it up quite nicely: “The good thing
about standards is that there are so
many to choose from.”
I’m convinced that no self
respecting engineer retires (read:
dies) without having created a stan
dard, be it good, bad or pointless. So I
guess this brings us to the “con” part
of the column.
Well, you have to like math. At
least, you’ll have to take a lot of it,
even though most of the stuff you do
will be solved by computers.
On the other hand, if Spanish is
not your forte, there is no foreign lan
guage requirement. Of course, that’s
because you’ll have plenty of other
classes to worry about.
You will also have to use the (evil)
British units to contend with, which
even the Brits have wisely stopped
using.
Every time the 4th of July rolls
around, you will think, “I could have
been using SI units now.”
Just remember - this gives you a
competitive edge. All those
European-taught people can’t convert
Btu/lb to ft2/s2 in their sleep.
There is also the fact that engi
neers are either very stupid or very
devious about scheduling classes. You
will likely have to take several 7:30
a.m. or 8 a.m. classes.
I find that stupid because I don’t
really enjoy hearing someone talk
about fluid mechanics in my sleep
(my eyes are wide open, professor).
However, I’m convinced that there
is a more devious plot behind the
scheduling. There are several schools
of thought on this matter.
One theorizes that the reason they
have so many early classes is so we
don’t get cocky. I cannot be half as
clever as I usually am at such a ridicu
lous hour, especially if I woke up at 4
a.m. to write this column.
Another offers that this is done to
discourage students from having any
sort of sex life. Nothing puts a
damper on things more than unstop
pable yawning.
There is also the possibility that
this is really done to entertain the fac
ulty members, who enjoy all the cre
ative ways students pretend to be
awake.
One of my professors observed
that a lot of students staggered into a
7:30 a.m. class he used to teach
clutching a bottle of Mountain Dew,
although sometimes there was no
actual Mountain Dew, their empty
hands still wistfully shaped around an
imaginary bottle (yet another reason
why this will never be a Coke cam
pus, much to my dismay.)
One of the challenges for me is
that since I didn’t play with fire trucks
and never got to take cars apart, I
rarely have an idea of what I’m actu
ally solving.
It’s easy to talk about efficiency in
a power plant and how most of the
loss is in the boiler, but you do feel a
little stupid when you don’t know
what a boiler actually looks like and
have never taken one apart (that’s the
fun part! Really!).
Of course, it also took four burly
mechanical engineering students to
explain to me what a rivet is. I cer
tainly hope the situation will improve,
because otherwise mayhem will
ensue shortly after my graduation.
So I guess the moral of this story
is: Become an engineer! Just be sure
you brush up on Murphy’s Law.
And also: Never trust an engineer
anywhere near a mechanical device,
especially if you have any hopes of
ever having it work.
There is a reason why I don’t try
to fix things in my car, like the speak
ers that make me question my sanity
by randomly cutting in and out. It’s
because I can’t afford to get it fixed
by a professional after I screw it up.
On the other hand, if you’re inter
ested in attracting an engineer’s atten
tion, dangling an appliance in front of
him or mentioning your broken com
puter will get him salivating. Even my
unflappable self has been seduced by
gleaming machinery upon occasion.
To be fair though, this “being pub
lished” thing is going to my head.
Next thing you know, they’ll invite me
to be a regular columnist, or KRNU
will decide to let random people in
front of the mike.
When that day comes, I just might
get in line for my advising folder.
Until then, I better go study for my
C++ test.
Marina Gandelsman is a senior engineering major and a guest columnist
