COIU
friday, april 27, 1 973
lincoln, nebraska vol. 96, no. 106
Bader recommends fees allocation board
by mary Voboril
The UNL student fees question, which since early
last semester has run the gamut of biting scrutiny by
such groups as the Legislature, four task forces,
ASUN, the Council on Student Life (CSL) and
student publications is approaching its final testing
ground.
Ken Bader, vice chancellor for student affairs, has
assimilated student fees data and made
recommendations in the form of a preliminary report.
Bader hopes a final report will be presented to UNL
Chancellor James Zumberge and the Board of
Regents in time for the regents' May meeting, he said.
The report says "every effort should be made to
sustain the mandatory student fee," now set at
$51.50 per full time student each semester.
In one of five "specific recommendations," Bader
proposes the establishment of an allocation board
"responsible for evaluating requests for student fee
money and actually distributing the funds." In
another recommendation, the vice chancellor says the
term "student fees" should be amended to the "UNL
program and facilities fee."
Contrary to recommendations of the student fees
administration task force, which said the allocations
board should be composed of six faculty members or
administrators and five students, Bader says board
members should include eight students, two faculty
and two staff members. ASUN, the Union Board,
the Publications Board, the University Health Center
and the Recreation Department each would appoint
one student for a one-year term on the board. Three
students-at-large also would be appointed by the CSL
student organizations subcommittee.
"The appointing body will retain the authority to
renew individual appointments for a maximum of one
additional year," the report says.
The vice chancellor for student affairs would
appoint the four non-students. He would select the
two staff appointments and would choose two
faculty members from a list of four submitted by the
UNL Faculty Senate Committee on Committees.
The report specifies that the allocations board
"will be accountable to the vice chancellor for
student affairs." Asked if this meant the vice
chancellor could then veto any action the board
might take, Bader said "anyone in my position would
be putting his neck pretty far out" if such an attempt
was made.
"I would be only the person accountable" for the
board's actions, Bader said. "It would be foolhardy to
think I would unilaterally veto an action by the
board-unless it was illegal. And if that was the case, I
would refer it back to the board for further
consideration."
Part of the report says "all recognized student
organizations and offices at UNL which utilize
student fees to finance their programs will, in the
spring of each year, present total budget requests to
the allocations board."
The report continues: "During the first year of its
operation, the allocations board, in order to recognize
the transition period, will not increase or decrease
any current fee users for continuing funds by more
than 25 per cent. In the second year, and in years to
follow, all budgets will be evaluated from a zero-base
point."
The third recommendation says the zero-based
budget "would not apply to fees earmarked for bond
commitments and related reserve accounts. In effect,
this means no student organization would be
guaranteed funding-allocations would be
re-evaluated yearly on the basis of budget proposals.
It also said student fees used to finance "actual
student servies, staff salaries and maintenance of
facilities cannot be decided with a zero base pain.
Such costs must be assured continuing support in
order to fulfill their responsibilities."
Bader said "actual student services" in this case
refers to those dependent on a fixed cost, such as the
Daily Nebraskan.
Examples of groups not dependent on fixed costs
include the Union Program Council, whose programs
"would be subject to the board's scrutiny," Bader
said. But he said he purposely left the area of which
organizations should be funded from a zero based
budget partially vague so that the board can
determine the issue.
All is but a beginning
by Bart Becker
A woman entering the Nebraska
Union's west ramp entrance Thursday
glanced into a State of Nebraska
station wagon parked in the driveway
and broke into a hesitant smile of
recognition. From the back seat of the
cai a venerable face under a thick swirl
of silver hair returned the smile and
added a small wave of a hand.
A few minutes later John G.
Ncihardt, Nebraska's poet laureate,
was helped out of the station wagon
and took a few steps to a desk chair
used as transportation to conserve his
92 year-old strength. Once in the chair
he was wheeled up the ramp, into the
Union elevator, and then to the
Centennial Room where he recited
from his writings for an hour to an
appreciative full house.
Neihardt was born Jan. 8, 1881. He
finished his first book, The Divine
Enchantment, when he was 16 and
published it when he was 19. In 1912,
at 31, he began writing hi$ major
work, A Cycle of the West, to which
he devoted 18 years. In 1921 he was
named poet laureate of Nebraska. He
was literary editor, of the St. Louis
Post Dispatch from 1926 to 1938 8nd
poet in residence and lecturer in
English at the University of Missouri
from 1949 to 1965.
Neihardt cautioned the audience to
listen carefully to his recitation
because of the weaving of words and
sound patterns "so they sing when
they say." He recited two spring
poems, prefacing them by saying, "If
there's anytime you should be able to
write poetry, it's spring."
He said he had written "Hark the
Music" for his daughter when she was
youngster in pre school.
"She came home one day and said
'The teacher wants me to recite a
poem and I don't know any good
ones,'" he remembered. "I guess she
thought I'd write a good one."
He also recited "April Theology"
which "expresses my feeling for the
cosmos and all living things.. .better
than I can now because it's a young
man's poem.
"I love to recite this," he said. "I
believe in a spirit world. I believe some
of it is true; it isn't all fantastic."
Neihardt explained that the lines "I
am part of my God as a raindrop is a
part of the sea" are based on a concept
of prayer "when every sense of
yourself is a part of the universe and,
like when the raindrop falls into the
ocean, it's not the raindrop which has
lost, but the ocean which has gained."
He then recited "Prayer for
Pain,"-written in a depression when I
thought I couldn't fight anymore." He
followed that by announcing he would
recite "Death of Crazy Horse" which
met with applause from the audience.
"I take it you said yes," he smiled.
Neihardt, the author of 25 volumes
of poetry, fiction and philosophy, also
recited two short poems about death.
"I believe death will be a very
beautiful adventure," he said. "I wrote
these as a younger man and I speak of
death as that 'grisly thing.' But as I get
older I get kinder toward it."
Bader's fourth recommendation says decisions of
the allocation board may be directly appealed to
CSL, which thus would serve as the board's appellate
agency.
"Decisions from CSL may be appealed to the
administrative officers of the University," the report
said. Which administrative officers was not specified.
The final proposal states the allocation board will,
during the next academic year, "establish its full
program by September 1974." The first allocations
board members would be appointed Sept. 1-Oct. 1.
Students file claim
against Pedersen
Eleven UNLstudents brought a suit against Charles
Pedersen and Pedersen Apartments, Inc., at the end
of last week, according to John Stevens Berry, a
Lincoln attorney representing the students. The
students brought the suit on behalf of themselves and
"all other persons similarly situated."
UNL Ombudsman James Suter and the ASUN
Legal Rights Committee helped organize the students.
Suter said he first received complaints at the
beginning of the fall semester.
The suit charges that damage deposits were
"wrongfully withheld." It said in part "that upon
conclusion of the rental period, damage deposits were
requested returned. ..the apartments were not
damaged in any way. ..(the defendant) refused to
refund the damage deposit to the plaintiffs."
It went on to say that this situation has existed for
five years. A "full accounting" was asked for of all
damage deposit money received by the defendants
from the plaintiffs. In effect, the suit asks Pedersen
Apartments to bring their books to court.
Berry said that the defendants can employ a
number of stalling tactics, so he is not sure when the
case will be brought to court.
"It might not be until next fall," he said.
John Neihardt. .."I believe death will be a very beautiful
adventure."
