University of Nebraska Kearney - Blue and Gold Yearbook (Kearney, NE)

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At Last the new SINCE 1968, MANY THINGS HA VE CHANGED: THE YOUTH’S MUSIC, SEXUAL ATTITUDES AND PEOPLE’S VIEWS TOWARD THEM- SELVES. BLUE GOLD RETURNS TO THAT YEAR VIEWED AS ROMANTIC TO FIND HOW OUR PERSPECTIVES TOD A Y COMPARE TO THOSE OE 1968. The 1960’s will likely be remembered as a decade of great change and un- rest. The year 1968 was the highlighted year during that restless decade which seemed to pinpoint exactly where America stood. That year marked the end of America’s illusion of being a world power in control of itself and on the rise. It also represents the beginning of the realization that the United States was losing the war in Vietnam, a war that many said we should not have been fighting in the first place. Thus, 1968 not only became a year of great political protest, but it as also a year of social and moral change. The civil rights movement was stronger than ever; young men burned their draft tickets to protest the Vietnam War; the youth of America re- belled against authority with many creating their own lifestyle, an approach to life that did not include moral codes or ethics. The youth became the “voice’1 of America as they listened to their acid rock, experimented with various drugs, and included casual sex in their way of life. The year 1968, a time of restlessness, turmoil and change may seem so far away from us now - yet it is not. It is a part of us, a part of our American history and we cannot forget it. We cannot forget all those who lost their lives in the Vietnam War; we cannot forget all those, including a great number of musicians, who died of drug overdoses; we cannot forget the open decline of morality which was creat- ed by the sexual revolution. The important question today we must ask ourselves 20 years later in 1988 is: “Have we learned anything since 1968?” The news stories, the headlines, and the faces of AIDS victims or those who have died of their addiction to cocaine don’t indicate that we have learned our lesson. Yet, according to August 1987 Glamour survey of 1,200 college stu- dents across the nation, “Students today are surprisingly more traditional.” The survey also said, “About half of all college students say the threat of AIDS has caused them to change their sexual habits.” Is AIDS the only catalyst for change? Is AIDS the rea- son why the youth of the 80s see sex in a different light than the generation before them did? Not entirely. The August, 1987, issue of Cosmo- politan printed an article titled “Whatever Happened to Great Sex (and the single girl)?” which discusses the subject of the sexual attitudes of the 80s in comparison to those of the 60s. The article quotes Stephen Josephson, assistant clinical professor of psychiatry at Cornell Medical Cen- ter in New York, “For the single women I know, both personally and in my practice, sex has become more mundane and infrequent. Partly this is attributable to anxiety about sexually transmitted diseases, but it’s also due to changing values. Increasingly, women want sex exclusively in the context of a fully committed and emotional rela- tionship.” Evidence from the article shows that single women and their lifestyles have changed in the last decade, but it is also evident that the same holds true for most bachelors too. Even the “meeting” place of a potential mate has changed. The health clubs of the 80s seem to have taken the place of the erotic singles bars of the 60s. There still are, of course, those who ignore all risks, especially health risks, and participate frequently in casual sex, but the number of those who do so seems to be growing smaller. In a September, 1987, issue of Glamour an article titled “Sex, Aids, and Pillow Talk” reported that something good did come out of all the terrible news about AIDS. “People are at least beginning to think about their sexual behavior and are trying to talk to their partners about it. People hold AIDS responsible for the death of hard- won sexual freedoms; as with any death, the grieving takes time and always includes some denial. Coming to grips with AIDS is, for many, a process; it begins by thinking Morality 6

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Making the Grade KSC MEN AND WOMEN ENGAGE IN A BATTLE OF THE SEXES OVER GRADE POINT AVERAGES. WOMEN APPEAR TO BE WINNING THE TUG-OF-WAR SO FAR. It’s the same old story. The battle of the sexes - who is the better? Boys are stronger; girls are smar- ter. Right? Isn't that the way it is? Well? Maybe ... On KSC s campus the gals out num- ber the guys. During the spring semester 1987. the total enrollment of KSC was 57 percent female — good news for the guys! The total grade point average during the 1987 spring se- mester was 2.974. The total male GPA was 2.767 and the total fe- male GPA was 3.128. Well» okay, there’s not much to brag about there. There were a mere 14 per- cent of the girls who had to look else- where, go without or share. But, here s something to ponder. The total grade point average for all those enrolled at KSC for the same se- mester was 2.974. The total male GPA was 2.767. The total female GPA was 3.128. Come on guys! The girls showed you up! What is it, guys? Is it that you were so busy being fought over by the girls you hardly had time to study, while the girls had time off occa- sionally? Not to worry. If 2.0 “C” is aver- age, all average GPAs were well above. The total undergraduate GPA was 2.803 while graduate students main- tained a higher GPA which to- talled 3.607. The trend is higher GPAs with a high- er class standing. For the spring se- mester 1987 fresh- men totalled an average GPA of 2.530; sopho- mores were slightly higher with 2.741; juniors again climbed with 2.878; and seniors held a 3.059 average GPA. Survival is possible as confirmed by those who received degrees during the 1986-87 yeaj. Out of the 1,196 degrees re- ceived, yes, the majority were received by women with 45 percent baccalaure- ate, 12 percent master’s and 1 percent specialist as opposed to the men’s 33 per- Conn’d. Male Female Combined 2.974 2.767 3.128 Undergraduate 2.803 2.624 2.952 Graduate 3.607 3.511 3.653 Xv». XvX X X X X XvVXX Xy X; ‘ v Ny i All freshmen (male female) 2.530 | All sophomores (male female) 2.741 1 All juniors (male female) 2.878 1 x- All seniors (male female) 3.059 1 cent baccalaureate, 7 percent master’s and 2 percent specialist. W'hat does all this mean? ... Maybe boys are stronger. Mehete Sizer BE36

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 and talking about safety and evolves, fi- nally. into action ' We., here at KSC, may see AIDS as something that is only a threat in other states, states with a much higher popula- tion. Not so. In an August 31, 1987, issue of the Kearney Daily Hub, an article on AIDS stated: “A Nebraska Health De- partment draft report estimated that Nebraska could record 672 cases of AIDS by the end of 1991. 35 AIDS cases have been diagnosed in Nebraska -------------------------- since 1983 ' Gloria Tye, head registered nurse and direc- tor of the Stu- dent Health Ser- vices office at = KSC, indicated that Student Health Services has be- come actively involved in educating stu- dents, faculty and staff to the risk of AIDS HiTS HOME AIDS through the programs they have developed in the last two years. Some of the services that Student Health offers include: providing educa- tional sessions to residence hall direc- tors, residence assitants and peer health counselors; loaning educational videos out from the video library to instructors for use in the classroom and giving bro- chures and bookmarks to the library and bookstores. Student Health has also worked with other KSC departments, such as: physical education, home eco- nomics, school of nursing, residence life, counseling and many more by providing information or furnishing a speaker to help educate others about AIDS. “We’ve targeted on the freshman class this year with informational pack- ets on sexually transmitted diseases and AIDS,” Tye said. She also says that there has been a lot of interest in their programs but the demand is more from faculty and staff. She said that KSC isn't all that much dif- ferent from other colleges and universi- ties across the nation. “They’ve shown average concern as compared to others ' According to Tye, many young people don’t really have a great deal of concern about AIDS, or any other disease, be- About half of all college stu- dents say the threat of AIDS has caused them to change their sexu- al habits. ” —Glamour cause they have a hard time seeing them- selves becoming infected with a disease. We all, however, must face AIDS, no matter where we live or how old we are. This is what students must realize now, before it's too late. AIDS is here and it's not just going to go away if we ignore it - so face it! As far as age is concerned, the AIDS victims are almost all young. The report in the August 10, 1987, issue of Newsweek, included a photo display of 302 men, worn- --------------------- en, and children, all who died of AIDS in the pre- vious 12 months. “They are only a small frac- tion of the 4,000 known so far to have died during that time the article read. But taken to- gether, they form a mosaic portrait of the face of AIDS in America. It is a young face, for the most part; the people pic- tured ranged from an infant of one year to a widow of 87. The mean age was 36, and their common lot was the loss of their best years.” Newsweek goes on to say: “The census of the dead stands at 22,548 now, by the govern- ment’s conservative count. As many as a million and a half more Ameri- THE FACE OF AMDS iS YOVXG cans are thought to be infected with the AIDS virus. No preventative medicine except prudence is any- where in sight, and neither is a cure. The toll, accordingly, has nowhere to go but up; how high remains a matter of educated guesswork, but one re- sponsible estimate is that the body count will have reached 179,000 by 1991. Since the AIDS epidemic has hit America, one fact is certainly clear now in 1988: we certainly have come a long way since the sexual revolution was launched in the 60s. “The mass shedding of erotic inhib- itions that began in the mid 1960s was the product of several important histori- cal coincidences: The Pill became com- mercially available; large numbers of sin- gle, self-supporting women poured into THE POWER OF CHOICE MS COSTEY the nation’s cities; the baby-boom gener- ation hit its libido-crazed adolescence, according to the August Cosmopolitan, “High on their youth, rebellion, rock mu- sic and pot, the boomers undressed in re- cord numbers to the slogan 'Make Love, Not War Looking back now, one can’t help but wonder if it ail was really worth it Sure, it increased openness, but how much did we lose because of the sexual revolution? We now have AIDS, and ac- cording to Cosmopolitan (August, 1987), a need for making love in a fully commit- ted and loving relationship seems to have been “missing since the sexual revolu- tion when sex became “just sex. These two factors are key reasons why our sexu- al attitudes must and are starting to change. “So many Cosmopolitan readers wrote negatively about the sexual revo- lution, expressing longings for vanished intimacy and the now elusive joys of ro- mance and commitment, that we began Sexual Attitudes UEN MM EM 1 ULkril In tfmiofendo you imiftact N MT 2m 25% 20% 12% Usstfanonuimorth 20% 30% 21% 17% OnceortMtoMinorth 28% 12% 22% 13% Uott U»n Mot i north 2 % 33% ; 36% I 51% mmmwmM Y« 28% 32% 40% | 33% tStel It about right 80% 72% B3% | 55% H ft mores ! 17% 22% 33% 43% rtf nee in 3% -i e% 4% 1 2% 43% Y« I 43% to sense there might be a sexual counter- revolution underway in America, the article read. Have we learned anything since 1968? Let’s hope so, and let's also hope that those who haven’t, learn fast. The sad part about AIDS is that the power of choice, which encompasses making the wrong one, could cost you your life. For many it is already too late. Vyj 7