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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 16, 2001)
Page 4 Daily Nebraskan Tuesday, January 16,2001 /M/iNebraskan Since 1901 | Editor Sarah Baker Opinion Page Editor Jake Glazeski Managing Editor Bradley Davis By the students Student vote on regent's board not a logical idea A recent Legislature proposal to allow the students to have a voice on the NU Board of Regents might sound like the type of idea that puts more equality in the system of decision making. But look again, and uncovered is an idea that won’t work - not logistically and possibly not philosophically. The new idea, offered by Sen. Adrian Smith, provides, on theory, that one of four University of Nebraska elected student presidents - UNL, UNK, UNO and UNMC - will be appointed by the governor to actually have a voice on the Board of Regents, which plays a large role in determining the direction of university policy. The resolution is shaky at best. While the theory says that one of four student body pres idents would be selected, it doesn’t actually say so in the resolution. Thus, a governor could appoint almost anyone he or she might think is best for the position - regardless of whether or not they represent any students. For example, since the theo ry is that the vote will rotate from student body president to Our ultimate vote is made, quite simply, by choosing to attend the university or a different campus president choosing not the next year, what would hap pen if a certain radical candi date wins the student election, and th^n the governor is forced to chojbse between that presi dent or a high achiever of some sort? Just who might be cho sen? This is worth thinking about. Beyond that, there should be question as to whether any student whatsoever should have a voice that makes policy - for the four university system. How does a representative of UNK speak for UNO? Very carefully? Do the four campuses confer, then come up with a community decision? What’s the procedure here? Our ultimate vote is made, quite simply, by choosing to attend the university or choosing not to attend the university. We vote, essential ly, with our pocketbooks. And it’s up to us to make the most of our education, regardless if one has a vote in the NU Board of Regents or if to attend the university. We vote, essentially, with our pocketbooks. And itis up to us to make the most of our education... they don’t. We balk at considering that one student, who may have won a strange and poorly attended election the year before, would be speaking for any of us. Certainly, if such a poli cy were ever to be in place, the student body president, if that were the person chosen, would need more scrutiny and would need to take on real issues instead of simply taking on the same line of getting together to make a world better. The office could further be politicized as well. On issues such as fetal tissue research, it's questionable whether a student could ade quately campaign on such an issue. It’s almost an insult to have a student making decisions over their teachers. Maybe a professor would be the more perti nent consideration. Professors are the people who know the most about the university sys tem, more than the elected regents now and certainly more than any student. Regardless of who fills that position, the cur rent proposal falls short in more ways than one. Editorial Board Sarah Baker, Bradley Davis, Jake Glazeski, Matthew Hansen, Samuel McKewon, Kimberly Sweet Letters Policy The Daly Nebraskan welcomes briefs, letters to the editor and guest columns, but does not guar antee their pUrication. The Daly Nebraskan retains the right to edit or reject any material submitted. Submitted material becomes property of the Daily Nebraskan and cannot be returned. Anonymous submissions w* not be published. Thoee who submit letters must identify themselves by name, year in school, major ancVor group affiliation, if arty. Subm# material to: Daly Nebraskan, 20 Nebraska Union, 1400 R St Lincoln, NE 68588-044& E maftMtersOuninfo.unl.edu. Editorial Policy Unsigned editortals are the opinions of the Fait 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 column is solely the opinion of its author, a cvtoon is solely the opinion of Ns artist The Board of Regents acts as pubisher of the Daily Nebraskan; poli cy is set by Daly Nebraskan EdKorial Board. The UNL Publications Bored, established by the regents, supervises the production of the paper. According to policy set by the regents, responsi jbity tor the edftortal content of the newspaper Kes solely in the hands of its employees. Daily Nebraskan Friday, January 12.2001 PageS Strong evidence for black holes found Large, insatiable, soulless entities consume all around them... Neaubomeyer/DN Rollerskates and hot boys You’re, like, never too old to be a kid. Why, I still suck my finger (the thumb is for babies), and I still have my mom kiss my toes to ward off night mares. Aim, aunougn my girlfriend frowns upon these acts, threatening to leave me ’cause I'm “stuck in the anal Karen Brown phase” of Freud’s legacy, describe me how you will, I will accept no other title than immature. Last week, in lieu of going to the bar, getting hammered and puking on campus, I chose to party in old style for my birthday. So, as I donned my Strawberry Shortcake nightgown, I let the party begin. I invited all 48 of my closest girlfriends and told them to bring their Caboodles full of make-up for the all-nighter. To start out the night, we went to the pre pubescent TestosteroneZone, I mean SkateZone and partied like it was 1988. We all immediately fell for the boys in the Stone Cold Steve Austin shirts. For my birthday treat, I requested Cindy Lauper’s “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun.” The DJ's jaw dropped as he tried to remember who she was, and, after he couldn’t find my childhood idol on any compact disc (I had an eight-track on hand), he played Elton John as a substitute. Though not quite as radical as Cindy, I had to give kudos to the guy for pleasing the “older” crowd. The orders I gave to my girls at the SkateZone were to giggle and check out boys. However, since all the boys were all 12 and under, I had to re-eval uate my mission. After seconds of struggling with morality and what-not, I decided to ask this boy out. After all, Woody Allen is my hero. I didn’t know his name, but someone called him Jeremy so I called him mine. I couldn’t ask him out because, it’s like, you don’t ask boys out yourself - duh - but Seth could do it for me. While I was in line at the snack bar waiting for Jeremy’s response and my nachos, I honestly found a mysterious note lying on the ground. This note was the final puzzle piece to fill my retro-birthday fun. I was officially back in the grade now. The note was to Jeremy from Maggie. The back-stabbing bitch! I confided in this little girl I met at the water fountain about my love for Jeremy. Now she so cal lously wrote him a note, not caring one wink about my thoughts. The note read: “Hey! Guess what! I get to have a party on Sunday, and you can come if you want I’m not sure yet, but I will call you latef after I talk with Mary about it. The PPL who R invited are you, Brenda, Makenzie, Camey, Aubrey and maybe Beth. Don’t tell anyone about it ’cause not everyone is invited don’t even tell the PPL who R invited, OK? 626 Bye.” What the heckfire does 626 mean? Some code for “I’m easy,” no doubt. I guess I'm not down with the lingo, but I can beat her up - I’m bigger. It’s like, Jeremy would never date her anyway; I’m much more dope than she’ll ever be. « It's true, I don’t even know who Jeremy is, but he’s got to be the equivalent to Joey McIntyre from the New Kids on the Block. He's so cute, and I don’t care if people think he’s a homosexual (Jeremy, not Joey). Needless to say, Seth came back with a rejec tion from Jeremy. I cried a lot and tore up his pic ture, which I stole after I beat up Maggie, and decided to move on with my life. It hurts so much when you get burned, but I knew there was a pur pose for his hostility. Fabio was waiting for me any way. The rest of the evening I asked out 10 more boys (all rejections) and decided to call it a night. Besides, Olivia was bored, repeatedly stating, “This place would really liven up with a bar.” Despite my initial heartbreak, the night was totally boss, and I knew it was time to go home and freeze bras with the girls. You could say I’m kind of a brat, so it was only appropriate to prank call people on my Pink Party Phone. After that became tiresome when the guy on the other end threatened to give me an Indian bum if he ever caught me, it was time to take milk shots while playing Girl Talk. k \ as mv oar-iree Dirtn day continued well into the wee hours of the morn and we all set strict guide lines on what the exact differ ences ^ between first, second n and third base were, it was A time to curl up and tell ghost ^ stories. I told this scary story about a college student who forgets to have fun because she’s getting two degrees and har no money to pay bills. Everyone freaked and screamed so loud, but when they calmed down, none of us forgot that we can still do the things that make us giggle, not vomit. Vision for a mediocre university When my ! frienl told me The Omaha Woild-Herald was doing an in depth series about our school titled “UNL: L,onironting Mediocrity,” I couldn’t have been more shocked. Sure, we were losing some seniors and Dominic Raiola, but didn’t they see the Alamo Bowl? We beat Northwestern 66- J' We have to be one of the best uni versities in the country. Besides, over break I checked my grades on the UNL Web site and there was a story with the headline, “UNL Recognized as Leader in Undergraduate Education "Well, who am I to believe? I decided to read the whole World Herald series before writing about it. Although I couldn't understand some erf the big words, I think I got the gist of it Basically, in the late 1800s and early 1900s, Nebraska was a great university. During Wo rid War I, our state legislature started an investigation to root out sus pected German sympathizers (Nebraskans being so intolerant it actual ly hurt the state -1 don’t believe it). Many top professors in the country at that time were German-educated, and the investi gation produced no evidence of wrong doing, but this hurt die national reputa tion of the university. In the '20s, an agricultural depression hit, and the brilliant legislature decided the university needed to be shut down because the state could not afford it We survived, but funds were severely cut During the Great Depression, many universities used FDR’s New Deal money to rebuild their campuses. But the parti san Republican Board of Regents would not accept the money from the Democratic administration (Nebraskans being so partisan that it actually hurt the state-I don’t believe it). After that it only got worse, and here we stand. You can check out the entire series at omaha.com, but I'll sum it up for you: We suck... bad. And we have sucked for awhile, just no one here knew it But their rating of suckiness is really only in comparison to all other universi ties similar to us - so don’t worry, we’re still better than Metro. One of our major problems has been that the best Nebraska students go somewhere else, and we can't recruit out-of -state folks worth a damn. Whenever a native Nebraskan stu dent meets another student who is not from here, we always ask, “Why did you come to Nebraska?" And we’re honestly curious. Especially if they are from a "cool” state like California or Colorado - basically any state except Wyoming, South Dakota or Iowa. We understand why they come here. Whenever a native Nebraskan stu dent meets another student at the uni versity, we ask why their first and second choices didn’t work out It’s always about money-those not from here were given an offer they couldn’t refuse, and those from here couldn’t afford anywhere else. I wanted to go to Arizona State or Kansas. I came here instead, and I’ve been pleasantly surprised. But I am in the journalism school, which the series points out as a highlight in the university system. I would like to take this opportunity to personally thank our dean, Will Norton. I would like to thank him on behalf of everyone in the j-school for showing us the importance of priorities. For instance, my major is broadcast ing, and I will take the most amount of hours in broadcasting classes. And although I’m getting a Bachelor's Degree in Journalism, I will only take 9 hours of Journalism classes. But thanks to senor Norton, I had to take 16 hours of Spanish classes. They say that’s necessary so students can try to achieve fluency. Miraculously, I passed all 16 hours, but I still don’t understand 90 percent of the Taco Bell menu. So I have to take 16 hours in a subject completely unrelated to my major, and college, andl won’t get a minor in it or ful fill it as a concentration. I was wondering if it really is mediocrity I have to confront from the administration or stupidity? But I’m not bitter! NU President L Dennis Smith (when you use your initial first, you sound more educated) believes a tuition raise is nec essary. That is a terrible idea because the price is the best part about this universi ty Everyone knows it ain’t the greatest, but that’s why we’re here. I can only afford third tier. There’s always going to be a school bringing up the rear, but at least we have a powerhouse athletic program! I don’t want to sit here and rip my school, so I’ll give some advice. Shut down UNO (University of No Opportunity) and UNK (not even worthy of an insulting acronym), and make UNL a bigger mediocre university. It would mean more tuition money, and isn’t one big confrontation with mediocrity better than three?