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UUMJUAJ
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MONDAY, MARCH 15, 1971 LINCOLN. NEBRASKA VOL. 94 NO. 8f
Tearful,' but with resolution
Soshnik omits as President
by GARY SEACREST
by Sun Writer
After two years, four
months and 13 days of endless
work and pressure, Joseph
Soshnik called it quits
Saturday as the president of
the Lincoln campuses and
outstate activities.
Few students were present
Saturday at the Board of
Regents meeting to hear
Soshnik announce he was
leaving his $35,500 a year job
as President, sometime this
summer to become a
vice-president for an Omaha
investment banking firm. But
most likely, the Nebraska
Union conference room would
have been packed if students
would have known w hat was to
take place.
Saturday's drama began to
unfold in an unusual 8 a. m.
session called by Soshnik and
attended by over 100
administrators, faculty
members and students.
"I have an apology to
make, he told the group in
the auditorium of Love
Memorial Library. He stopped
once more to regain his
composure. 1 apologize
again.'
Tears began to appear in the
audience as Soshnik, choked
with emotioa, read his letter of
resignation.
Although the turnover rate
of college presidents in
America is- phenomenal,
Soshnik's resignation left the
University community stunned
and asking: Why?
"It. wasn't an impetuous
decision, Soshnik said of his
acceptance of a position with
Kirkpatrick, Pettis, Smith,
Polian, Inc., one of the state's
largest investment banking
firms. "I have felt for a good
while that there would come a
time when 1 would choose to
pursue private satisfactions and
forego the public satisfactions
of the campus presidency."
He called his resignation a
"personal decision based on
career choice that went back
many months. Given the same
ODDortunitv now offered by
the investment firm, "the odds
are overwhelming that the
decision would have been the
same a year ago or next year,"
he admitted.
He said he had desired a
career in investment banking
since his graduation from
Creighton University in 1941.
"That field still has very great
appeal at age SI and I have
concluded that the decision
must be made now so I can
make a contribution to the
organization I am joining," he
said.
Although Soshnik noted he
has felt for some time that his
"service as President should
not be continued for a long
period," he admitted the
decision to leave the University
was made with "the greatest
difficulty."
While talking to reporters,
Soshnik emphasized that
recent events such as last
spring's anti-war protests on
campus and the prospects of a
restricted budget were not
Turn to page 7
University may get increase
over Exon recommendations
University officials and students have
apparently cracked the ice, if only slightly,
in the drive to increase iiie Gov. J. J. txon s
University of Nebraska budget.
The Daily Nefcraskan learned Sunday
from legislative sources that a majority of
the Legislature's Appropriations Committee
now favors adding general fund monies to
Exon's original request for the University.
No one will speculate how much the
committee wfll recommend in added funds.
Estimates start at about $1 million and
generally fall short of the approximately $8
million addition requested by Chancellor D.
B. Vamer in the two budget hearings last
WsW RICHARD MARVEL . chairman of
the committee, has agreed to introduce the
governor's budget bill, protsaoiy sometime
this week. The Appropriations Committee
will suggest amendments to that bill.
Is as sttcinpt to co:ngro8usc on ihs
budget controversy. Vamer and the Board of
Regents have agreed with Exon's suggestion
that they meet privately with the governor
and legislative officials to resolve legitimate
differences" on the budget.
The Regents bad been scheduled to
consider Saturday a list of programs
University officials said may have to be cut
back or eliminated if the University is to
operate within Exon's budget
recommendations. But the Board, heeding
Valuer's advice, deferred any decision on
retrenchments until after a resolution on the
budget is reached.
THE CHANCELLOR said he was
"hopeful and somewhat optimistic" that the
rnvrr;ys rcqusrs! for SS mSSion mars than
Exon had recommended might receive
favorable action from the Appropriations
Committee.
The governor has called for a cut of S 1 7.5
million in the original NU request for $94.7
million in operating funds for the 1971-72
fiscal year.
Although disagreeing with Exons
conclusions, Vamer said he found the
governor's attitude on the University budget
situation "open and straightforward."
University officials had not intended that
the Ikt of possible cutbacks be made public,
Vamer said, adding that he concurs with the
giwemor's dismay that the list was released
to an Omaha newspaper.
BOARD REGENT PRESIDENT Robert
Raun of Minden asked if it was urgent that a
decision be made Saturday on plans for
summer school this year. Vamer replied a
decision could wait until the April Regents
meeting.
Reductions in the summer school
program was one of the items on the
University's list of possible cutbacks.
Exon, in a letter delivered to the
Appropriations Committee, said his
administration has provided the University
with detailed cost reduction proposals
that"cut what we consider administrative
and other fat."
He called some of the proposals on the
University's list of possible cutbacks as
"quite shocking." Among the items Exon
considered "shocking" were: "elimination of
high school senior orientation, cancellation
of an annual home economics conference on
the Lincoln campus, restricting the use of
the State Museum, restriction of summer
school programs, elimination of the Bureau
of Business Research and many others that
are supposedly under consideration,
including delays in opening the new
Engineering and ETV buildings."
THE EXON letter Friday praised Vamer's
offer to have a management study of the
University made by a consulting firm, an
idea Exon said he had proposed a month
ago. The governor said he and Vamer also
agree that a coordinating board for higher
education in Nebraska is "a must."
"We were impressed with the Chancellor's
continuing exemplary attitude, for which we
have con:p!:n:enied irons mc very
beginning of our budget discussions, of our
jointly keeping the lines of communication
open," the letter remarked,
Exon challenged the University to "come
forward and spell out why they cannot live
within our proposals."
Varnff last Thursday announced a
compromise which would place NU funding
at the mid-point of the Big Eight. However,
on Friday Exon said no "magical Big Eight
averages" should be considered "until, 2nd
only until, we have all convinced ourselves
that there is no further reasonable cost
cutting approaches that can be made. To
date we have not done this."
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