The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current, February 20, 2001, Page 4, Image 4
\ H ZM/vNebraskan Since 1901 Editor Sarah Baker Opinion Page Editor Jake Glazeski Managing Editor Bradley Davis Cutting corners Athletic department woes may be just the beginning it s just a $zbu,uuu aencit, not a Dig aeai to the Nebraska athletic department, which has a budget closer to a multinational corporation than UNL’s political science department. And Athletic Director Bill Byrne and Co. are taking care of the shortfall, tightening belts a notch, trimming a little fat around the edges in what will be a successful attempt to erase the red ink. But the quarter-million dollar bounced check is emblematic of a problem that could easily spiral out of control if Eric Crouch’s spi rals (or, in a better example, his option pitch es) aren’t crisp enough to send the Cornhuskers to victory Saturday after Saturday. Simply put, the athletic department has continued to spend more and more money, banking on the fact that the football team will make larger and larger profits, filling the always growing athletic department coffers. This is fine. Unless the cash cow starts squirting sour milk. Then, the department is left with millions and millions of dollars invested in new state of-the-art facilities for other sports that can not possibly hope to recoup the money spent on them. It is left with state-of-the-art tech nology, which, if it is to stay fancy, must be continually maintained and improved. It is left with a football team that will still have a large budget (which it should), secondary sports like But theres basketball, volleyball and base no denying ball that are relatively healthy as the fact well, and little else. No swim that, at ming. No gymnastics. some point Which, depending on your sooner point of view, is either a travesty rathpr than or Just fine- We appreciate these later the smaller sports both for their . / . success and personality, and atnieuc both enjoy a cult following on department campus; will reach a But there’s no denying the crossroads. fact that, at some point sooner -rather than later, the athletic department will reach a cross roads. There’s little wiggle room on the revenue side - the football boosters have to be nearly tapped out, as Byrne has successfully spear headed drive after drive to get the state’s afflu ent to open their wallets. And it’s very likely that the football team will begin to make less cash at some point, as it's hard to duplicate the success of 1993-1999. In those seven years the team went 81-8, gar nered huge national attention (and licensing dollars) with three national championships and played in a major bowl game (with a large purse) six times. Top that, 21st Century Huskers. If Frank Solicit and NU don’t, the ambitious spending of the '90s will have to be curtailed, possibly dramatically. And since the athletic depart ment and the state are basically defined by football, it's doubtful that they would see any of these cuts. So it’s not much of a crossroads, after all. Faced with the decision, Byrne will bail on programs like swimming and gymnastics. This won’t be a good thing - it also won’t be a terrible thing. It’ll just be the way it is because the Nebraska athletic department has outspent itself. Editorial Board Sarah Baker, Jeff Bloom, Bradley Davis, Jake Glazeski, Matthew Hansen, Samuel McKewon, Kimberly Sweet Letters Policy The Daly Nobranksn welcomes brief letters to the editor and guest columns, but does not guarav tee their pubttcation. 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 wfl not be published. Those who submit letters must identify themselves by name, year h school, major anchor grtxp afflfation, if any. Submit material to; Daly Nebraskan, 20 Nebraska Otion, 1400 R St Lincoln, NE 68588-0448 E-mail: tettaraOdailyneb.com Editorial Policy Unsigned edttorials are the opinions of the Spring 2001 Daily Nebraskan. They do not necessarily reflect the views of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, its employees, its student body or the Universtty of Nebraska Board of Regents. A cokarm is solely the opinion of its author a cartoon is solely the opinion of its artist The Board of Regents acts as publisher of the Daily Nebraskan; pot cy is set by the Da»y Nebraskan Editorial Board. The UNL Publications Board, established by the regents, supervises the production of the paper. According to policy set by the regents, reaponsi bWy lor the edtarfal content of the newspaper Kee solely in the hands of its employees. ^ 1H£ POPULARITY OP ME RARAQKg CAtR\& oY£R fo THIS Y&R’S ASUN fl£6Wg£,. All * NealObermeyer/DN Winter wunder-land As I slip-slided my way to class on my trusty bike, 100 people fell on their butts from the ice, and that's not counting car wreckage. As I heard folks bitch left and right about the snow for the last time this long winter, 1 ^mu 1-1 something snapped inside Karen of me. I would be the first BfOWn person to not bitch about the snow. Eureka! I've found happiness. Now, I plan to spread happiness like the vene real disease it was founded upon. My first plan is to inform (or shall I say remind) people that it's winter, it's February, and we live in Nebraska. I feel for you and your sore butt, but in order to achieve happiness, one must first accept these icy streets for what they are - icy streets. Oh, how North Dakota holds it sides when it laughs at our weakness. Winter is my favorite season, but for some rea son, I feel concretely alone in this acceptance. It is ingrained in our heads that winter is a stain upon humanity. Specifically, Nebraskan humanity. Albeit the stain is ostensibly clear and perfect at first, it miraculously transforms into murky win ter crud in the space of a couple of hours - at which point we rue the day that the Lord hath made. Let me embark upon that notion for a moment The Lord hath made the day. The Lord hath made the day snowy. Therefore, the Lord shall be yelled at. Somehow the anger is directed at snow removers - not God - and certainly not themselves. As people clutch their heads at the snowy sight and ask “Why, why, why?” I humbly reply, “It’s win ter, duh.” Now I’m no eavesdropper (the pay is terrible), but I have stumbled upon a plethora of conversa tions about snow removal. Folks, snow removal is not some untouchable entity that is an automatic human right; it is a com plex amalgam of people, snow shovels, tractor plows and sand/salt. When I hear phrases like, “That sidewalk is so icy. Somebody doesn’t know how to do their job,” or “I had a cow because that snow plow would not get out of my way, and I arrived to work 1.006 min utes late,” I cry. The worst insult to snow removers has got to be, “What do they pay those people for?” If you haven’t figured it out by now, not only do I love winter, but I work for it. I remove snow on East Campus, and for those of you who think everything is done easily in an hour with tractors, come talk to me. As for the pay ... getting to work with Jeff, Jerome, Mark, Renee, Floyd and, of course, my main man Rich (to name a few) is pay enough. Heck, I’m going to tell the ’ fersity tomorrow that I’ll rk for free. I just went crazy. ^ I’m back. Let’s do an exercise. Instead of blaming snow workers for NOT doing their job, why not blame God for making it snow? I’ll let you sit on that one awhile as I sit around not doing my job but making snow angels and little snow people that will later be destroyed by God's own sunlight. Oh, it’s a vicious cycle. To put it lightly, snow removers are people much like Soylent Green is people! We don’t want to be slandered every day when God spreads his poo all over the land. We are viciously snapped out of sleep at 3 or 4 a.m. - depending on the dump God takes - only to zombie-drive to work. Some of us are students with other jobs; I never get to bed before 1:30 a.m. (doing homework, of course), so my day is thrown askew. Sometimes I bitch of no sleep, but for the most part, I have this job because I love the snow and the people I work with, plain and simple. Sure, I’ve lost a few fingers to hypothermia, but UNL is always there to compensate with a free breakfast at Selleck Hall... that is, if I don’t have class during the time we go to eat If I lose a finger and miss breakfast, then I get a free ride in Interim Chancellor Harvey Perlman's car. Wooh! Slow down! No one s perfect (except for Parker Posie), so even I have complaints: handicap ramps and bike racks. There may not be a lot of us bikers in the winter, but even one is enough to deserve a spot Same, of course, goes for disabled personnel. However, many times we shovel when it’s still snowing. If we start at 4 or 5 a.m. to clear the walks, it oftentimes starts snowing again at 7 a.m. We go back to the same walk we just did and shovel again. Check the handicap ramp. Go back to the bus shel ter and clean what the snow plow left. Go to the emergency light and clear out two feet of snow (like anyone in an emergency wouldn’t jump over a pile of snow to hit the button). I can see them now, standing by the emergency light: "No, no. I guess I’m going to get mugged, somebody didn’t do their job.” If that logic were a boat, it would sink. Now it’s time for class and it's still snowing. Well, I guess if people didn’t want to risk falling every step of the way from their home, they should just skip class. That logic boat is infallible. To sum this up with what fellow worker (and, incidentally, the toughest woman on earth) Emily LeVine says, “We’ll do our job the best we can, but if someone in high heels or boots falls, it’s their fault.” God and snow removers i | JakeGiUespie/DN C3 Give us your opinion Ietters@dailyneb.com Temptation now, now and forever I hit the wall last week, and I hit it hard. M y Valentine's Day was more pathet ic than usual. I ^W awoke Thursday - morning, nude TOfiy and in the fetal Bock position, clutch ing “my Valentine": a bottle of Johnnie Walken The week ended with me stranded on a country road in the bitter cold, many miles from home. Cars of old ladies drove by pointing and laughing at me. I was in the middle of the Heartland, supposedly home of die nicest people in this country, and not one person stopped to offer assistance. I felt like the biggest fool Man had created a way to travel long distances in a short amount of time, with just one responsibility on the part of the human, and I had failed at that simple task. I ran out of gas. What was the cause of this nightmare of a week? Looking back, I can only blame one thing: Instead of a new “Temptation Island” last week, Fax aired a Barbara Streisand concert What a dap in the face. For millions across the country, Wednesday night had turned into the high point of the week. At my house, watching “Temptation Island” has become a social event A group of friends come over to watch each titillating new episode. We looked on in disgust as Mandy cheated on Billy with Johnny. We hung on the edge of our seats to see how Billy, the most popular of the males, would respond when he saw videotape of the infidelity. For our generation, asking where someone was when they found out Ytossie and Taheed had a kid is like asking someone older where they were when man landed on the moon. Wednesday night is the thrilling con clusion of die couples' time on the island. I know, I know, there's actually two more episodes, but Fox added on the last episode when the series became a hit The new final episode is all of the couples watching parts of the show together after they’ve been off the island. For those of you who haven't watched an episode, I'll break it down for you. Four couples, all unmarried, are brought to a tropical island, put on sepa rate parts of the island and tested with sexy singles on various dates. Fox throws in numerous mind games to make it interesting to the home viewer. Why anyone would want to go on “Temptation Island” is beyond me. The couples say they wanted to use their time on die show as a test of their love. I can’t believe they were surprised when it turned into their own personal hell But that’s what makes it great TV Good news, fans, Fox is planning a sequel called “Temptation Mountain.” I hope Fox reads this because I’m going to tell them how they can make “Temptation Mountain" bigger than “Survivor,” the Holy Grail of television ratings. “Temptation Island” was good - good enough that I faithfully watched each episode. But there were no likeable couples. There wasn’t a couple that viewers were really hoping would stay together. If they can get just one couple that the country is rooting for and put them in peril every week (milking it for all it's worth along die wav), it will be huge. The bad news is that not everyone likes our favorite program. In fact, it’s made a lot of people mad. So mad, in fact, that there is a nation al effort to get it off the air for good. The Parents Television Council, a group of 650,000 members, is working vigorously to end our fun. A mass letter, titled “PTC Members’ Action Alert!” has been sent across the country encouraging recipi ents to “register our disgust with local Fox TV stations and their sponsors.” Their cause has gotten national media attention, and many corporations have dropped their sponsorship of the show. Of course, this kind of action is noth ing new. Conneticut Senator Joe Liebermann (you remember him, the VP candidate from the "liberal” party) is try ing to get the show “Jackass” taken off die air because some kid hurt himself trying to do one of the dangerous stunts. When I was a kid and I saw sexual, dangerous or violent things on televi sion, it didn’t have a significant impact on me. You know why? I was brought up by responsible parents. Instead of focusing all the attention on TV shows, why don’t these groups target parents and the impact their actions have on kids? I understand that we need a scape goat, but the prospect of "Temptation Island” being the end of the series is almost too much for me to bear. So please, contactyour local Fox affil iate and tell them to continue on with “Temptation Island.”