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WEDNESDAY, MAY 12, 1971
LINCOLN, NEBRASKA
VOL 94 NO. 115
1
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Interest is steadily mounting over
who will be the new President of the
Lincoln Campuses and Outstate
Activities. This is the first of a
three-part series on the search.
by GARY SEACREST
Staff Writer
One of the few persons on campus
trying to remain disinterested in the
search for a new campus president is
Joseph Soshnik.
The reason Soshnik would rather
not play a part in the choice is because
he is the outgoing president-the only
man to hold the position since its
creation almost three years ago.
"I will probably not recommend
anyone for the job since any
recommendation could be a disservice
to the person," said the 51 -year-old
Soshnik, who also holds the rank of
professor of business administration.
Throughout his last days in office
this summer, Soshnik will
undoubtedly stay on the sidelines. But
both students and faculty are rapidly
taking ?n interest in the search for a
successor to Soshnik, who announced
his resignation in March to become a
vice-president for an Omaha
investment banking firm.
"IT IS ALMOST necessary that the
new person have previous academic
experience," said Soshnik in talking
about his successor. He added that the
work of the 16-member search
committee "depends a lot on what the
committee perceives as the needs of
the institution."
What role will the new president
play in heading a state university with
an enrollment of over 20,000
students?
"The president has to use influence,
not power," he said. "There is a great
deal of mediation that the president is
asked to provide.
"He is in the middle between the
outside community and the
University. He has to become
bi-lingual in that he has to translate
the needs of the University to the
outside community and the needs of
the outside community to the
University."
Because of the intense involvement
of the President's Office with the
affairs of students, it is that office that
often feels the brunt of their problems
and protests.
SOSHNIK NOTED that during his
tenure, he has tried to maintain
channels of communication between
the Administration, faculty and
students. He remarked that the
involvement of these different groups
is necessary in developing new campus
programs.
"While we have a significant
distance to go," he said, "I think we
have improved our ability to
communicate with one another.
The Omaha native said that he has "a
sense of satisfaction and some
accomplishment" in the creation of
the Council on Student Life, which is
charged with making policies
concerning all aspects of student life
outside the classroom.
During his tenure Soshnik has also
been actively involved in improving
the academic side of the University.
"The Teaching Council was brought
into being during my term as president
after a lot of study," Soshnik said. "It
has served as a clearinghouse and
stimulator for improving teaching and
education."
He also expressed great pride in the
creation of the Academic Planning
Committee, which was started in
January, 1970. "Before the
committee's creation we were planning
our physical facilities better than our
academic programs," he remarked.
PROGRESS WAS also made during
Soshnik's tenure in recruiting black
students and providing for their special
needs and interests once they arrived
on campus.
"'Although many view our progress
in this area as slow, we have made
some progress," the President said. He
added that the special programs
originally designed for blacks have
now brought the plight of Indians and
Mexican-American students to the
attention of the University.
During Soshnik's two and a half
years as president the University has
seen the rise of student activism. There
have been demonstrations protesting
the conditions of blacks on campus,
the war and Board of Regents
personnel decisions.
Turn to page 6
Women's Rights Committee
finds 'sexual caste system'
The University's "sexual caste
system" has relegated a
disproportionately small percentage of
women among faculty and students,
but has allowed them a virtual
monopoly on low paid clerical
positions on the Lincoln campuses,
according to a Women's Rights
Committee.
In a spring report accepted by the
Faculty Senate Tuesday, the Human
Rights Committee sub-committee,
said: "The University has not
consciously discriminated against
women through any policy or policies
of nonemployment of women."
THE PATTERNS of employment,
promotion and wages surrounding
women employees do, however, the
report states, constitute sexually
discriminatory practices which deny
equal opportunity for employment,
promotion and raises.
The sub-committee, created in the
spring of 1970, based its findings on
established patterns from preliminary
surveys. Other statistical data has not
been confirmed by the computer and
will be included in a complete report
next fall.
To illustrate the institutional sexual
discrimination, the committee,' headed
by English instructor, Linda Pratt,
cites that women comprise only 39
per cent of the total undergraduate
enrollment with the percentage
dropping to 32 per cent of the senior
and graduate school women. Only 1 1
per cent of the professional schools'
enrollments are women. Females total
5 1 per cent of the U.S. population.
WOMEN CAN claim only 13 per
cent of all faculty positions. Again,
according to the report, women
occupy the lower ranks with 41 per
cent of the female faculty at the
instructor level and only 10 per cent as
full professors.
The College of Arts and Sciences,
for example, employs only two female
full professors, according to the
report. It also states that of the five
women department heads, all are in
Women's Physical Education and the
College of Home Economics.
At the other end of the scale,
"virtually all clerical positions are
filled by women," the committee said.
"The low wages and lack of promotion
possibilities create low morale among
the women of the clerical staff," the
report states.
THE COMMITTEE noted that no
more than 20 per cent of the women
surveyed could see any future for
themselves at the University. This
combines with a 46 per cent to 48 per
cent turnover rate which, it adds,
"must seriously effect the efficiency
level within the University."
An Affirmative Action Program
introduced by Howard R. Neville,
vice-chancellor for business and
finance, and approved by the Regents,
provides the most hopeful sign to
increase equal opportunity for women,
the Women's Rights Committee said.
But it adds that "in the crucial area
of higher wages for clerical staff, no
relief is in sight."
The survey revealed that 47 per
cent of the staff work for under $2 an
hour and another 45 per cent for
under $2.50 and hour. Less than 2 per
cent of the respondents received an
annual wage of $6,000 or more.
The committee also reported that
discussions with Jack Snider, Marching
Band director, and Emanuel Wishnow,
School of Music director, have resulted
in opening the Marching Band to
women.
This reverses the long-standing
tradition of an all-male Marching Band
except for the baton twirler,
Nebraska's Sunshine Girl.
(See other Faculty Senate story on
page 2)
Compromise on horizon
for 'special interest' bill
by STEVE STRASSER
Staff Writer
Compromise on LB 93 9. a
controversial environmental protection
bill several NU students and teachers
have termed a tool of polluters,
appears to be in the offing after
Unicameral debate Tuesday.
As it now reads. LB 939 "puts the
fox in charge of the chicken coop,"
according to NU philosophy instructor
John Diehl. coordinator of an informal
environmental advisory group to
Lincoln Sen. Harold Simpson.
Diehl said that out of 16 members
on LB 939's proposed environmental
protection council, at least eight
would have a conflict of interest, since
they would represent manufacturing
and agricultural industries, electric
power generating industries, and other
"special" interests.
"We're not going to get realistic
standards when the men making them
are the ones doing the polluting,
Diehl said.
But the Legislature seems to be
moving toward a compromise whereby
the governor would have more control
of the environmental protection
council than LB 929 now calls for.
David City Sen. Loran Schmit, the
bill's chief sponsor, said a condition of
the compromise would be a
requirement in the law that no state
anti-pollution regulation could be any
more stringent than that imposed by
the federal government.
Under the compromise, he said, the
council would become advisory rather
than one with executive powers. The
governor would appoint the executive
director, subject to legislative
confirmation.
The compromise would bring LB
939 more into line with LB 879, killed
by the Legislature several days ago.
Turn to page 6
Great
Caesar's
ghost!
The Subcommittee on Student
Publications will hold interviews May
19 for the executive positions on next
fall's Daily Nebraskan.
Full-time students interested in
being editor, managing editor, news
editor or advertising manager should
fill-out an application and sign-up for
an interview time in the Daily
Nebraskan office in the basement of
the Nebraska Union.
The Subcommittee will also be
interviewing for a sophomore member
of that group. Students who are now
freshmen can also apply and sign-up
for an interview in the Daily
Nebraskan office.
Interviews for other Daily
Nebraskan positions will be announced
later.
