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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (April 27, 2000)
Opinion Don’t stop the presses College newspaper not public relations tool Protest is a healthy thing. Students at Peru State College are making their voices heard after the school newspaper’s adviser was forced out ear lier this month. The staff of the newspaper chose to black out its April 14 front page to protest what the students feel was the unjust dis missal of their adviser. But Peru State Times Editor in Chief Kathy Chase said the firing was just another example of the animosity between the administration and the newspaper this year. “(The administration) is so forward looking that they're stomping on the people here now,” Chase said of the ongoing efforts to improve the college. Last spring the Legislature ... it SeClllS debated closing the school but p decided against it. Now it seems reim peru administrators are trying to administrators prove their school worthy. But they don t seem willing to are trying to deal with a free and critical student j . press. prove their That is a mistake. school worth. A I’frous an? resP°nsib!e press helps guarantee everyone s freedoms. Chase said that throughout her year as editor, administra tors told her she should publish more positive stories about the college. In one case. Chase said administrators tried to censor an article. Matt Mauch, the Times’ adviser, taught writing and jour nalism classes as well as working with the student newspaper staff. Chase said Mauch was censored when he tried to criticize a new school policy on a faculty listserve this spring, and administrators had told Mauch he should be telling the news paper what to print*. The only explanation administrators offered after Mauch s contract was not extended was that he didn’t fit in at Peru. Mauch got the message and is looking for jobs elsewhere, but Peru students are worried about their administration's pri orities. “It’s not really about getting (Mauch’s) job back as much as it is about being really loud about what’s going on here,” Chase said. The student press never should be reduced to an extension of the university public relations office. Peru State already has a PR newspaper. If administrators want more positive news, they can publish it there. It is the student press’ responsibility to cover issues of importance and interest to students. It is not their job to make the school look good. Editorial Board Josh Funk (editor) • J.J. Harde • Cliff Hicks • Samuel McKewon • Dane Stickney • Kimberly Sweet • Lindsay Young 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 sub missions. Submitted material becomes property of the Daily Nebraskan and cannot be returned. Anonymous material 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, 20 Nebraska Union, 1400 R St., Lincoln, Neb. 68588-0448 or e-mail to: letters@unl.edu Editorial Policy Unsigned editorials are the opinions of the spring 2000 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 col umn is solely the opinion of its author. The Board of Regents acts 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 publication of the paper. According to policy set by the regents, responsi bility for the editorial content of the newspaper lies solely in the hands of its student employees. The Daily Nebraskan strives to print fair and accurate coverage; any corrections or clarifications will be printed on page three. Obermeyer’s VIEW /-' ,.. \ you! &ot bu'k mo FcRWiTW * / Z'"’ y PSC : EvSP > ' -t;P 5N r-ALL-iNG- 70 pt£C&Z " i ?///c£ k yoyyp / :A4r ££<5^s /V / \ PSPMomt! y ■ Letters to the EDITOR Nine is fine 1 feel the statement made in yes terday’s editorial that, “Attacking Title IX, at least in this respect, is sexist and wrong. Women's sports make an easier target,” is incorrect. By “attacking” Title IX, the wrestling community is not attack ing women’s sports at all. You are right when you suggest that Title IX is not the culprit, though. It's the way Title IX is being used. Title IX was meant to add women’s sports to college campuses, but instead it has been taking away sports for men. A majority of the wrestling community does not want to abolish Title IX. We simply want it to be rewritten to have it do what it was meant to do, add women’s sports. I have had a lot of females write me letters stating they are sorry for the number of male sports teams that have been thrown out because of Title IX. They agree that Title IX needs to be refined. The wrestling community is making one of the biggest advances for women’s sports by getting females involved in wrestling. Female wrestling is one of the fastest growing sports for women in our nation and in the world. I have heard that women’s wrestling will be added to the Olympics in 2004! So please rethink the statement made in the article. What you are doing is assuming that by attacking Title IX, we are attacking women’s sports. However, wrestling is a women’s sport too, so if that were the case, we’d be attacking our own sport. Mako Furukawa graduate student chemistry The feeding hand Whichever DN editor wrote that Nebraska football is the reason NU Wrestling Coach Tim Neumann had to cheat to win proved exactly how badly the DN needs quality writers. What kind of a moron blames the hand that feeds it for the problems of the weak. Face it: Without football, you can kiss Title IX, wrestling and all other sports goodbye. Football pays for it all! I am tired of hearing how there are eight scholarship I-Backs on the team. Big deal, we need that many in, case of injuries. You know why we don’t need eight scholarship heavy weight wrestlers? Because even if one gets hurt, nobody cares. The most attention wrestling has made in my five years here just occurred this month because their coach cheated. Matt Honke senior advertising “Evaluated accordingly” In response to Professor Starr’s comments on Dr. Reinhard’s letter, perhaps the fact that a professor of music chairing the ARRC committee determining wrongs committed with the scientific study and handling of human remains should also therefore in her own words “be evaluated accordingly.” Ben Wolfe graduate student department of geology and geophysics Reinhard’s right Karl Reinhard (DN, Monday) argues that the recommendation of the Academic Rights and Responsibilities Professional Conduct Committee to dismiss him was based on what he characterizes as a “witch hunt.” The response from Committee Chairwoman Pamela Starr (DN, Tuesday) does not address his specific complaints but main tains that the committee worked very hard and followed all applicable pro cedures. Professor Reinhard has provided the formal report of the Committee’s conclusions and recommendations to the Academic Freedom Coalition Of Nebraska (AFCON), a statewide coalition of organizations concerned with intellectual freedom in the schools, colleges and libraries of Nebraska. AFCON has prepared a detailed response and has sent it to everyone involved in the investiga tion. Consider just one example of AFCON’s many concerns. Responding to a charge that “Reinhard transmitted his unethical and immoral values to his students,” the committee apparently assumed that UNL policy permits formal action against faculty who, in the presence of students, express or model ideas or values that others deem unethical or immoral. Thus, by a vote of 3-2 (with one abstention), it found Reinhard guilty of this charge on the basis of testimony that "Reinhard’s actions might have been perceived as a negative model for professional conduct by his stu dents,” “he set a bad example” and that he “had frequently disparaged the work of some of his colleagues to graduate students.” Overall, AFCON concluded that “the entire investigation was tainted by damaging testimony, evidence and discussion relevant only to sev eral illegitimate and improperly investigated charges ... and showed a remarkable insensitivity to academic freedom, freedom of expression and First Amendment rights ... Whatever Professor Reinhard may be guilty of, if anything, UNL is clearly guilty of an abusive investigation into his beliefs, values, teaching and research that went far beyond any legitimate charge against him ” David Moshman professor of educational psychology AFCON policy coordinator Dwayne Ball associate professor of marketing president-elect, AFCON Salvage the shards I was deeply concerned by Pamela Starr’s statement that Karl Reinhard has an “incomplete knowl edge of the material considered” by the Academic Rights and Responsibilities Panel. ARRC pro cedures, as well as the fundamental principles of American law, require that Reinhard be given copies of all materials used in the case against him. If he had not been provided with all such materials, then the commit tee’s deliberations were even more flawed than it first appeared. If she wished to salvage whatever; shards of legitimacy remain attached to the ARRC report, she needed to immediately resolve this point. Gerard Harbison professor of biochemistry