EDITOR
Josh Funk
OPINION
EDITOR
Mark Baldridge
EDITORIAL
BOARD
Lindsay Young
Jessica Fargen
Samuel McKewon
Cliff Hicks
Kimberly Sweet
Our
VIEW
blame
Hazing case sets
dangerous precedent
Almost six years ago to the day, a
UNL student was hazed. He was
forced to drink an obscene amount of
whiskey and brandy.
Jeffrey Knoll was kidnapped and
handcuffed to a toilet. The Phi
Gamma Delta Fraternity pledge fell
out of a third-floor fraternity window
trying to escape.
It shouldn’t have happened.
But on Friday, our state’s highest
court ruled that he can sue the univer
sity for negligence, setting a bad
^ ^ precedent.
66 The
The university Nebraska
' Supreme
cannot be court
responsible for way for a
each night of 1^“
drinking that in the end
mqVp it q
could go wrong, lot harder
nor do we want and a rlo‘
more
it tO. expensive
for the uni
versity if it
doesn’t
keep a constant eye on students.
The university cannot be respon
sible for each night of drinking that
could go wrong, nor do we want it to.
It can’t be responsible for each
activity on campus that could have
the potential for stupid people to do/
stupid things.
On that night in 1993, Knoll suf
fered severe head injuries when he
fell from the window as he tried to
escape. It wasn’t his fault.
But the issue isn’t the horrendous
act of hazing that night, binge drink
ing or even the greek system.
- The issue is making the university
responsible for too much - for an
arena that is just too large.
Furthermore, making the univer
sity partially responsible for the
actions of all of its students and their
organizations takes away personal
responsibility from students.
Knoll and the National Phi
Gamma Delta Fraternity settled a
suit outside of court.
The blame should have stopped
there.
■ , . 3
Editorial Policy
Unsigned editorials are the opinions of
- the FaH 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 autoor.
The Board of Regents serves as pubfeher
of the Daily Nebraskan; policy is set tty
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
ttys hands of its student employees.
Letter Policy
The Daily Nebraskan welcomes brief
letters to the editor and guest columns,
edit or reject any material submitted;
Submitted material becomes property of
toe 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/pr group
affiliation, if any.
Submit material to: Daily Nebraskan, 20
Nebraska Union, 1400 R St. Lincoln,- ;
NE. 68588-0448. E-mail:
letters@.unl.edu.
Obermeyer’s
VIEW
/fJJJrT/r, coacN SolIchI^.
As TH/S IS '/OUR ZND OFBBHsiS
/ < couu? ftN£ you tsooo... ]
gut o\mbn thb univmtry's
\ OBU<rfiTK>NS To BO&See /
_ \ and mv&rr SUCH eveNTS, J
m, \ x think X’LL sue tuxm/
■fcOv INST£fit>a
m*1 _i_xmiwL&t .yz,.- ijnnqjii/zttgw
DN
LETTERS
Lower 48
J.J. Harder: Not all Canadians
want to be Americans (DN,
Wednesday).
As one of 20 or so Canadians
attending UNL, I would like to take it
upon myself to say that your column
contains several errors, misconcep
tions and even a few ignorant state
ments.
While I understand that it was
meant to be satirical, if you would
like to have a rea discussion about the
arguments you have presented, please
feel free to e-mail me, and we can ...
discuss it.
Joseph Hlady
graduate student
geography
Directions To-do
We at NU Directions feel
Thursday’s editorial offers a perfect
opportunity to start a dialogue about a
growing misperception by your edi
torial staff and many NU students
placing all alcohol policy into the
“prohibitionist” category.
Though we weren’t responsible
for the policy decision by sorority
presidents, we do know that it does
allow for alcohol to be served at any
and every pre-game function provid
ed that the sorority (or any other host
group) uses a third-party vendor.
Third-party vendors are a great
way to have your cake and eat it, too -
they allow alcohol to be present but
don’t leave the host group liable for
problems due to underage service or
acute intoxication.
We hope there can be room for
some middle ground when talking
about alcohol here at NU - and that
students don’t jump to the conclusion
that projects like NU Directions or
decisions like that made by the soror
•„ ity presidents are prohibitionist. They
aren’t designed to be.
Tom Workman
NU Directions
* : •• 5: . •. *_'% *y- *>..
Kneel before Obermeyer
As an avid reader of the DN, both
in print and online, the first place I go
is to Obermeyer’s View. /
I find his cartoons to be on the
mark 99 percent of the time. They
make us think about issues that are
sometimes too outrageous to view
any other way.
After all, the purpose of satire is
to examine life through different
eyes, and I find that Neal’s glasses are
crystal clear. Keep us laughing at the
absurdities, Neal!
Ron Baker
class of’73
Value of a Dollar
Human life has never been valu
able (DN, Thursday).
At the present 6 billion mark,
human life is as valueless as ever -
with the exception of maybe the
Roman Empire.
If people want to abort their mis
takes, more power to them. That’s one
less unwanted kid sticking a gun in
my face, asking for my wallet.
To understand how an animal may
be considered more valuable than a
human, one need only watch “Lassie”
while sitting a table away from loud
frat monkeys talking about the new
SUV Daddy bought them and which
sorority sister they’re going to inebri
ate and screw.
Oh yeah, I could make that deci
sion in a heartbeat. Lassie, stay...
Ah-ah-ah, not so fast Mr. Frat
Monkey.
Todd McCoy
senior
theater and advertising
Someone Sueks
I feel the decision to go ahead and
use student fees to support other
papers (DN, Oct. 26) would give the
Daily Nebraskan a much needed
wake-up call in its efforts in putting
out quality columns.
No one wants to open up a paper
and find sappy columns about Trevor
Johnson’s difficulties with his girl
friend.
Karen Brown’s “K.B.
Masterpiece” has taken the DN to a
whole new level (it ain’t up) and real
ly makes me question what the hell is
going on over there in the DN.
Columns like those written by
Jessica Flanagain and J.J. Harder are
issues that society needs to focus on.
Even though one may disagree with
their points of view, the controversy
these articles spark are the very rea
sons we need to keep talking about
them.
If the DN maintains its current
publication of such senseless materi
al, I will gladly vote for the addition
of other newspapers in the residence
halls.
Only then will the DN realize that
the. quality of its paper really does
suck.
Dominic Pechota
senior
English
Male Bonding
First of all, I would just like to say
that Josh Moenning’s column about
male wussification was the best col
umn the DN has published in a long
time. „
Believe it or not, wussification is
real, and it is most evident in the
recent violence we have seen in this
generation’s youth.
Back in a better day, if you had a
problem with another man that could
n’t easily be solved, you kicked his
ass or got yours kicked trying. That
was the end of the conflict, and both
men lived to see another day.
Today, you see young kids shoot
ing each other over things as petty as
bumping into each other in the hall.
Why, you ask? Because kids today
are scared to take an ass whoopin’.
They hide behind guns because
they have no respect for their fellow
men or themselves.
I can hear some of you now:
“How can physical confrontation
solve your interpersonal problems?”
Well, the reason that most men
keep the same set of friends for long
periods of time is because they know
how to express their anger frequently
and effectively. Sometimes this leads
to a brawl, but if the contestants are
friends, you will probably see them
sharing a drink 15 minutes later.
Chad Kamler
junior
electrical engineering
