A. i n irTM H In- WEDNESDAY. JULY 5, 1972 LINCOLN, NEBRASKAN N0.5 DDDQBDuQQD3 DOW HousewVes cfscuss food prices Food prices were attacked by urban housewives but defended by a rural housewife during a panel discussion at an agriculture communications seminar last week at the Nebraska Center for Continuing Education. Urban housewives Mrs. Harvey Stoltzman and Mrs. Lee Swetland of Lincoln said that at today's prices, food is not a good buy. "But you can get around the high prices with hard work, self-denial and sacrifice," Mrs. Stoltzman said, "even though those qualities are almost obsolete in society any more." She recommended strict budgeting, shopping with weekly menu plans in mind, avoiding the use of packaged or prepared meals and teaching children to eat what they're served as ways to save on grocery bills. Mrs. Swetland, the mother of eight children, said, "learning to cook from scratch" and having a vegetable garden for home canning were the best ways to save money on groceries. "And never take the kids shopping," she said. "You'll always end up buying things you don't need." But a rural housewife Mrs. John Klosterman of David City said food prices "aren't really too high." Blaming "scare headlines in the press" for current concern about food costs, Mrs. Klosterman said food prices have risen in proportion no more than prices of clothing or any other commodity. "We live on a farm; we know the farmer isn't getting rich," she said. "Neither is the local grocer. So we imagine an anonymous . middleman getting extremely wealthy. But what we really have is a vast number of middlemen with no one getting rich." Mrs. Klosterman said consumers have demanded more from the food producers and grocers than from any other industry. Convenience foods, attractive packaging, pollution regulations, and higher transportation and labor costs all have added to the cost of products, she said. Panelist John Story, representing grocery store chain Supermarkets Insterstate, Inc., Omaha, said the retailing industry has failed to communicate to consumers the reasons for the costs of products. "We provide food to the consumer at less each year in terms of the per cent of total income," he said. Story said the law of supply and demand was still the best price control. The agricultural communications seminar was sponsored by the Nebraska Committee on Public Relations in Agriculture. """"' "' ii..i1.i.un.iiii,.ii..a,l.ii...iill..u.i.i niujiiMU;..! , i. jiiuib- -r . i .1 1 11 11 , ,, 'J o -i '''!,!'-;-r! T." lmmmmmm'T I'"' I 'I imili"K In J 'Blue starts Frank Kepyc plays Artie and Susan Baer plays his mistress Bunny in the Howell Theater production 'The House of Blue Leaves." The Mouse of Blue Leaves." named best new American play of the 1 971 season by the New York Drama Critics Circle, is the second summer repertory Iheuter production which starts Friday at Howell Theater. Written by John Guare, the comedy is the story of Artie, a frustrated zookeeper who aspires to be a songwriter. Artie is played by Frank Kepyc. Marlyn Dessey plays Artie's insane wife who refuses to leave their Queens apartment because her fingernails are all different lengths. Kennie, their son, is played by John Crumrine. The paranoid Rennie is desperately trying to become famous, so he plans to blow up the Pope, who visits New York on the day the play takes place. Artie's mistress Bunny, played by Susan Baer, has considerable faith in the Pope's powers and also believes Artie is destined for Hollywood fame. New York Times drama critic Clive Barnes called the play "mad, funny, at times very funny, and sprawling." "I Iaughted a great deal, and I recommend the play." Barnes wrote, "Yet I suspect that beneath the idiot laughter and the cruel jokes we are intended to feel compassion for the world's lost." Playwright Guare explains the play's cruelty: "I like to write about characters who are not self-aware. The main source of the cruelty is that these characters Leaves' Friday mean what they are saying at the moment they speak, but are unaware of the connective tissue between moments. I try to make the audience aware of that connective tissue." The Howell production will be presented at 8:30 p.m. July 7, 8, 1 1, 12, 15, 17, 20, 21, 25, 26,28, 31, Aug. 7, 12, 18, 23; 29 and 31. Tickets are available for $2.50 at Howell Theater, 12th and R Streets, from 1-9 p.m. Monday through Saturday. Season tickets for "The House of Blue Leaves" and the other two summer productions "Guys and Dolls" and "Arms and the Man," are available for $6.00. There are no reserved seats. Dr. William R. Morgan, professor of speech and dramatic arts, directs "The House of Blue Leaves." This Week THURSDAY, JULY 6 t-ast day to pay fees for early registration for second summer session. FRIDAY, JULY 7 Final date for oral examinations for advanced degrees. "The House of Blue Leaves," 8:30 p.m., Howell Theater. SATURDAY, JULY 8 Classes in session to make up for July 3 'vacation. "The House of Blue Leaves," 8:30 p.m., Howell Theater. Technical school teachers take refresher courses Longer college stay costly By Barry Rogers NU School of Journalism A chance for technical school teachers to get caught up on innovations in their field is being offered by University of Nebraska-Lincoln Teachers College during first summer session. Fifteen teacher-students are participating in two courses, each worth six hours credit, that deal with new skills needed in teaching construction and mechanic businesses. The refresher courses are a combined seminar-workshop program, in which the teachers hear lectures on new methods and then participate in -laboratories practicing those new methods. The all-day classes meet at Nebraska Technical College in Milford. Alan Seagren, Teachers College associate dean, said course instructor Max Hansen has called the programs a "positive thing." The construction course includes new teaching information as well as workshop experience in small building construction. site planning, working with concrete and masonry and information on building codes. The mechanics course also deals with new methods as well as offering laboratory experience on internal cumliusition engines, hydraulics, use of engine power and new engine-testing equipment, - What's inside? 90 Lincoln children wait for volunteer pals page 3 ETV schedule, KRNU programming, places to visit page 3 Picture story of the oldest campus resident page 4 By Janis Baker NU School of Journalism Many University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) students spend more than four years to earn their degrees -and in the process spend more of the taxpayers' money. A UNL student earning his bachelor's degree in four years at today's price of tuition and board and room discovers his piece of parchment cost him $5,900 using the current rates of $535 a year for tuition and $940 a year for living in a dormitory. But it it takes him longer, he may find the cost of one additional year more expensive than the previous four years. The $ 1 ,475 for the extra year's 'tuition and board and room is slight compared to the salary he is losing by not graduating a year earlier. The salary of a University graduate varies greatly depending on job, employer and geographic location, but according to Frank Hallgrcn, UNL placement director, the average starting salary for a UNL graduate with either a bachelor of arts or bachelor of science degree from the College of Arts and Sciences os $6,966 for men and $5,412 for women. A Nebraska taxpayer who has to put his son or daughter through this extra year of school is paying an average state income tax of $93.12 a year according to the 1969 income tax rate, said Gary G. Chunka, Nebraska assistant tax commissioner. This taxpayer is paying more for one additional year of college than he pays in 22 years of paying state income tax "This doesn't take into consideration the average salary of $6,100 the student is losing by having to go an extra year to complete the requirements for a bachelor's degree. I he cost of running the AS UN execs plan fall activities University's Lincoln campuses for the 1971-72 year was $44.7 million. Taxpayers paid $27.2 million and students paid $10.2 million of this total. The remainder of the money came from federal funds, endowments and sales from University activities, according to Ray Coffey, UNL cost analyst. In 1961, the total spent by the state on all institutions of higher education was $25.5 million while this year for UNL alone, they spent $25.2 million, Coffey said. Although no figures are kept on how long it takes most students to earn a bachelor's degree at UNL, a survey of the 3,848 freshmen entering in the fall of 1966 showed that 21.2 per cent were still enrolled at UNL for either four and a half or five years. The 21.2 per cent does not show how many students were enrolled at another school for a year or two and then (Continued on page 2.) Bruce Beecher, ASUN president. "Just because student government has not been as good as it could be doesn't mean it can't be better," said Bruce Beecher, president of Associated Students of the University of Nebraska (ASUN). "I suppose one of the reasons we ran for office is that we thought we could do a better job." Beecher and Michele Gagne, ASUN second vice president, are spending the summer making plans and doing background research for fall activities and proposals. 'This is one place that ASUN has fallen short in the past," Beecher said. "Proposals that have been suggested have just been ideas. The administration and the Regents won't react positively if the background work isn't thorough." Beecher is employed by ASUN at $2.25 per hour for a maximum of 25 hours weekly or $675 for the summer. Miss Gagne is paid $2.00 per hour up to a maximum of $600 for the summer. ASUN first vice president Sam Brower is employed for the summer as a New Student Orientation Program host and is not working for ASUN. During the fall and spring semesters, the ASUN president is paid the equivalent of dormitory room and board while the other two executive officers receive two-thirds of that amount. In planning ASUN projects and activities, Beecher and Miss Gagne said they hope to appeal to interests of the majority of students. "ASUN has been moving farther away from students and what they want and has been catering too much to vocal special interest groups," Beecher said. "Most students don't know about or care about ASUN, so we plan to visit living units and various student groups along with ASUN senators to find our what students would like to do to change the University and make them aware of how to go about making those changes." ASUN goals for the year include legalized sale of beer on campus, - coordination of efforts amont student organizations and opening a student cooperative general store. "The cooperative system has been done on several campuses rather successfully," Beecher said. "Students purchase a picture identification card for discounts at places like a record store, gas station and liquor store that we already have lined up. Then with the money from the sale of the cards, ASUN will open a general store with snacks and various sundries for sale." AS-UN '.internal structure and finances also will receive attention. "ASUN in the past has been financially very unaccountable," Beecher said. "But we now have an internal accounting and purchase order system that helped straighten out the books," Miss Ciagne said, "so they're decipherable . . . and always public." Last year's student fee budget for ASUN was $36,000, low among Big Fight schools, Beecher said. As a way to solicit student ideas, Beecher said he plans to establish a student cabinet composed of the presidents of the Residence Hall Assn., Union Program Council, Panhellenic and Interfraternity Council and the Daily Nebraskan editor. "I'll meet with them regularly to discuss student problems and concerns," he said. Admitting ASUN has "a bad image to many students," Beecher and Miss Gagne described several ASUN projects aimed at freshmen. "The first year is the toughest year at college," Miss Gagne said, "so we're trying to help freshmen get oriented." A lighthearted introduction to campus academics and extra-curricular activities is presented in an ASUN booklet for freshmen called "Breaking Into and Out of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln A Beginner's Primer." ' An updated handbook ot student organizations with descriptions of their activities also will be sent to freshmen. In addition, ASUN will sponsor the publication of the Freshman Record, a freshman yearbook designed "to help freshmen get to know each other and introduce them to the University," according to MissGAgne. Freshmen will send their pictures and brief summaries of information about themselves to Institutional Services, Inc., which will publish the book and sell it for $4 for paperback copies or $5 for hard bound, Miss Gagne explained. 'This will help student organizations, too," she said, "because it will he a way they can find out about students who might be interested in joining." Beecher and Miss Gagne also have been meeting with new students visiting campus for the summer orientation program. A desire to accomplish "constructive things for students" underlies all their efforts, the ASUN executive officers say, and that means attention to local concerns. "In the past five years or so, student government across the country shifted their interest to national issues," Beecher said. "But they found they can't be effective (here, so they returned to local interests." "Students are definitely willing to get involved in things close to them," Miss Gagne said. "Beer on campus ami probably a continuation of last year's visitation issue will be next year's major issues," Beecher predicted. The November presidential election and educational reform also will attract some interest, he said. The ASUN executives are planning projects now, hut what will become of them when the fall semester begins? "I'll admit all this sounds idealistic," Beecher said. "But if I weren't optimistic about what we can accomplish I'd be the wmm man for the job." i V y t Michele Gagne, ASUN second vice president. r (l r ,