Opinion
Out with the old,
in with the new
A-team is the most promising
party for needed change
We believe there is something fundamentally wrong with
ASUN. And so do a lot of other UNL students.
It doesn’t matter if ASUN is productive in reality. In repre
sentative government, perception doubles as reality. The per
ception of the student government on campus is pervasive and
obvious - ASUN is an insider organization of students look
ing to pad the resume.
For the time we’ve been in college, this apathy has
remained the same. The same parties emerge every year, offer
ing a slew of senators, a pinch of professionalism and a dash of
promise that this time, maybe the process will change.
It doesn’t. And it isn’t good enough anymore.
In some years, it wouldn’t matter. But the new century
brings a chance to break the chain of mistakes. The party is A
Team; its president, Joel Schafer. The party and president rep
resent the Daily Nebraskan’s shift in ideology. Typically,
we’ve championed the established parties. Now we ask the
student body for radical change, an election-day grassroots
movement for the underdog.
A-Team and Schafer were selected by a 5-2 vote, the dis
senting votes going to Impact and its president John Conley.
Our choice was between them. The other two parties,
Empower and Duff, stayed on the outside for various reasons.
Duff fits the mold of the reformist A-Team, except it has
goals that fly completely in the face of UNUs powers-that-be,
so much so that they are unattainable. A wet campus is not a
reality here. Better football seats? We’d all like them, but the
athletic department holds all the cards, student demands be
HamneH
Duff president Jason Kidd’s answer: Stand up to the pow
ers-that-be. We think this would be a long, fruitless stand.
Empower, on the other hand, is the establishment party we
speak of above. Its goals seem orientated toward strengthen
ing ASUN, not the campus as a whole. To be fair, the party
does have an action plan, which outlines how Empower will
achieve its goals. But these goals don’t go far enough.
Beyond that, presidential candidate Heath Mello says his
goals will be met whether or not he’s elected. Well, then we
don’t see the point in electing him. If the statement was used
as a political ploy, it failed.
Which leaves Conley and Schafer. We all like Conley and
Impact’s idea of bringing big-name talent to campus in lieu of
smaller events. And Conley would be an effective leader.
But Schafer represents a fundamental shift in thinking,
more so than Conley, and that’s what we’re championing here.
We think Schafer has an advantage with no senators on his
ticket; he can conduct business without concerning himself
with loyalties.
A-Team and Schafer have a chance of winning. And it’s
time, to let activism win over the usual order of business.
Editorial Board
Josh Funk (editor) • J.J. Harder • Cliff Hicks • Samuel
McKewon • Dane Stickney • Kimberly Sweet • Lindsay
Young
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three.
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Letters to the
EDITOR
Lack of Independence
As the current and former presi
dents of the Independent Student
Association, we were very surprised
to find that there was a proposed
amendment that would remove repre
sentation to ASUN for the Division of
Continuing Studies. The amendment
would give our seat to General
Studies if a student taking 12 or more
credit hours cannot be found to take
the seat. Currently, the cap is at three
credit hours.
The Division of Continuing
Studies is one of the few areas where
non-traditional students are not the
most apparent minority. Continuing
Studies students are generally older
students with jobs, families and a vast
amount of life and problem-solving
experience from which to draw.
Forcing us to provide a candidate
who is willing to take the seat and is
enrolled in 12 credit hours is nearly
insurmountable. To then give our
seats to General Studies is an affront
to our viability as leaders.
Apparently there is a feeling that
as older students, our views do not
count - or even worse, we are not
interested.
You should be ashamed, ASUN.
This proposal does nothing but show
that you are not interested in diversi
ty. You just want everyone to get
along and never bring any problems
that really need to be solved. That is a
poor expression of leadership at any
institution.
Jared Solomon, Dan Reiber
current and former presidents
Independent Students Association
Make a change
On February 26, French Prime
Minister Lionel Jospin visited B1R
ZEIT University (BZU), a Palestinian
university located a few miles north
of Jerusalem in the West Bank, to
give a speech.
Jospin had said previously that
France considers the militant resis
tance movements in Lebanon that
fight to get Israel out of south
Lebanon “terrorist” organizations
(Israel invaded south Lebanon late in
the ’70s and has occupied it since
then).
At BZU, Jospin didn’t apologize
for what he said.
He finished his speech, then
angry students clashed with him and
his guards. The prime minister was
injured, and his limousine was seri
ously damaged. A short time after
that, students protested against his
words in Palestinian territories and in
nearby countries.
Jospin was called back to France
by Jack Shirak, the head of the French
government, and France officially
rejected Jospin’s stance.
These results would have never
been achieved without the students of
BZU. These students are deeply
involved and concerned about vari
ous issues that touch them - even if
it’s not directly related to their cam
pus.
a.s a previous stuaent at tsz,u ana
member of its student council, I feel
that my life as a UNL student has
been a depressing experience so far.
Tuesday I was at the union and
attended the debate and was sick with
the number of students who attended
the debate.
When I started at UNL, I was
shocked by the few who voted for
ASUN elections - I still wonder why
students are so careless. But when I
was trying to act more caring and
attended the debate, I felt that, as an
international student, I probably was
not represented.
I think that before we talk about
improving the campus atmosphere,
students need to feel they belong
here. We need to act as one body to
make changes. If we really get
involved we will be able to make sig
nificant changes someday, just like
the students of BZU do every single
day.
Ahmed Midhat Ismail
computer science
junior
The game of life
UNL btuaents tor Lire has taken
an initiative to become more informed
on how the ASUN presidential candi
dates stand on fetal tissue research.
We sent a questionnaire to all the can
didates, but the response was not
exactly what we had hoped for. We
received few answers to the questions;
many were worried that our group
would attempt to harm their candida
cies with their responses.
There have been concerns that we
are encouraging single-issue voting
and that we are violating student code
by publishing the way that candidates
feel about the issues that ASUN has
chosen to confront. Well, students
have the right to be informed, and stu
dents should be able to choose what
issues they want to vote on. That is
what democracy is all about. I would
like to encourage all candidates to
openly communicate with students
about this and any other issue.
Because many of the candidates
were concerned with being misrepre
sented, we have put all of the respons
es we have received on a Web site:
KWw.geocities.com/studentsforlife_a
sun. We aren’t trying to misinform
anyone, but rather trying to get accu
rate information about candidates.
The responses are as we received
them in their full and unaltered state.
We are just trying to inform the cam
pus about these issues. We hope
ASUN will continue to support
informing students and gaining stu
dent opinion.
James R. Andrews
mechanical engineering
senior
UNL Students for Life member
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