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Tunnel iinkina UNL buiidinas
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By Lynn Silhasck
The lifeline of UNL is a four-mile stretch of
tunnels underneath the university that
houses telephone and electrical cables and
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Tom Nycum, assistant physical plant
director, inspects UNL's underground
tunnel system.
steam pipes servicing buildings on both
campuses as well as the State Capitol.
That lifeline is in danger of being cut off in
some places.
Water damage and old age have caused
the ceilings and walls in some tunnel sections
to weaken, and UNL physical plant adminis
trators said last week they fear those sections
may collapse.
A Daily Nebraskan photographer and this
reporter descended into the tunnels Friday
with Tom Nycum, assistant physical plant
director, to view the conditions.
"Now I know where to go to keep warm
this winter," Nycum said, walking along the
main tunnel which runs south from the UNL
power plant. The steam pipes running
through the tunnels heat campus buildings,
but also heat the tunnels, sometimes up to
150 degrees, according to Nycum.
"A man can't work down here for eight
hours," he said. "He can work for half an
hour, but then he has to come up."
Portions of the tunnels don't have an
adequate ventilating system to reduce the
heat, Nycum said. Grates located on
sidewalks are part of the ventilating system,
he said.
. The S Street section has suffered water
damage, Nycum said, as excess' water from
lawn sprinklers on that side of the street
seeped through the concrete sidewalks and
weakened the tunnel's ceiling.
Weakened walls also were evidenced by
chunks of concrete which had crumbled from
the sides into piles on the tunnel floor. Some
of the wooden wall props places at intervals
along the tunnel had collapsed, no longer
able to support the sides. A three-foot
passageway ran between the steam pipes and
the other side of the tunnel.
, According to Harley Schrader, physical
plant director, the tunnel doesn't provide
enough room for maintenance workers and is
too narrow to escape from quickly if a steam
line should break.
The tunnel will be rebuilt this fall after a
contracter is hired, Nycum said. Construction
will involve tearing up the sidewalk on the
south side of S Street, closing parking spaces
for a half block on 16th Street and on S street,
he said. .
No work is scheduled to be done on the
Architecture Hall tunnel, according to
Nycum. The tunnel, nearly 60 years old, is
built of bricks in an arched shape. In the dim
'.light along the tunnel's narrow passageways,
canvas covering the steam pipe insulation
was torn in several places.
. Rusty wall reinforcements also could be
seen as bricks which had covered them had
crumbled, leaving cavities in the walls.
"We send men down to service things like
this," Nycum said, pointing to the valve. If
small maintenance work is kept up, the
dangers of a pipe break are lessened, he said.
See Tunnels, pg. 2
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monday, September 23, 1974
lincoin, nebraskavol. 98 no. 1 7
Pub Board to purchase new -typesetter
for Daily Nebraskan
UNL Publications Committee (Pub
Board) members unanimously voted
Friday to spend $18,000 on electronic
typesetting equipment for the Daily
Nebraskan, replacing a typesetter in
stalled last summer.
The nine-member board publishes the
Daily Nebraskan and comprises five
students, two UNL faculty members and
two professional journalists. Two stu
dent posts remain to be appointed.
The old typesetter, installed Aug. 13,
was too small and inefficient, according
to Kathy Policky, Daily Nebraskan
production manager. She said the
present machine is insufficient for the
Daily Nebraskan's needs.
The decision to buy a new typesetter
came after Pub Board chairman Kelley
Baker issued a report to the Regents
Sept. 5, expressing the hope that the
Daily Nebraskan could cut its student
fee request by 25 per cent for 1976-77,
compared to 1973-74. The Daily Neb
raskan received $47,847.50 in student
fees for 1973-74.
To cut it3 student fee request, ways to
increase efficiency in producing the
paper would have to be found, Jerri
Haussler said at the Sept. 14 meeting.
Haussler, the Daily Nebraskan business
manager, said the board could afford to
buy a new typesetter because the paper
profitted $16,040,63 in 1973-74.
In the two-hour session Friday, board
members agreed to replace the present
compugraphic brand typesetter with
IBM equipment.
Policky said the present typesetter
will be sold on the open market.
Board member John Edgecomb,
editor of the Geneva Signal said the Pub
Board could sell the present typesetter
for about $6,000. The new equipment
would cost about $12,000 after the
present system is sold.
Baker said the new typesetter will be
installed before the start of the spring
semester. The present equipment will
probably be used until the end of this
semester.
Library lending code revised
A revised library lending code doesn't
discriminate against undergraduates,
although faculty members are still
exempt from paying fines.
The revised lending code became
effective at the beginning of this
semester, according to Mary Doak,
circulation services librarian.
Library lending regulations are no
longer categorized for undergraduates,
graduates and faculty, according to the
new code, Doak said. Most books may
now be checked cut for four weeks
regardless of university status.
She said a study sponsored by A SUN
indicated that changes which would
equalize lending procedures would
improve library service, Doak said.
Undergraduates were complaining
that the two-week loan period was not
sufficient, Jan Goering, assistant cir
culation services librarian, added.
Equalization of loan periods, reduc
tion in the number of different loan
periods and uniformity among the
branches are the objectives of the
revised code, according to Doak.
Most loan periods were lengthened
for undergraduates by the revised code,
he said.
However, periodicals from the period
ical room, which includes the current
and most popular issues, may no longer
be checked out, Doak said. Provisions of
the old code allowed these to circulate
for two hours or overnight.
The new regulations make no distinc
tion between graduates and undergrad
uates for loaning procedures or penal
ties. According to the old regulations,
graduates could check out most books
for two months and no overdue fines
were charged on them.
Faculty members are not fined for
overdue books, except those on reserve,
according to the new code.
Copies of the revised code are
available at all UNL library branches.
lis to lobby f or
increased state funds
A decision to lobby for state legislation
increasing the amount of matching state funds for
a federal student grant program received full
support from student government officials of three
Nebraska state colleges and NU system schools at
a meeting in Kearney Saturday.
ASUN President Ron Clingenpeel proposed
collective government action to increase the
amount of state money used as matching funds for
the State Student Incentive Grant (SSIG) Program.
The program was funded by the Education Acts of
1972.
Information he had received from financial
administrators, however, had indicated that if
state funds were not Increased next year, SSIQ
money would be cut off for the next school year,
Clingenpeel said.
Clingenpeel said he didn't know the total
amount of money allocated to Nebraska through
the program. The amount of increase to be lobbied
for was not set at the meeting, but was termed a
"cost of living increase" to meet rising
educational costs.
In the Daily Nebraskan, Sept. 19, Clingenpeel
was reported as saying the state had not matched .
federal funds received under the 1974-75 school
year under 2 program Identified as SSIG bv Jack
Ritchie, UNL scholarships and f inanciaf aids
administrator.
At. the meeting, however, Clingenpeel said the
federal money had been matched with state
money. ;,.;' ;:. ...
Clf.iffenpeel said he did not know the views state
senators held on the issue of state education aid.
But ha commented that he favored lobbying for
the increase by proposing legislation similar to LB
427, a bill which died in committee in the 1974
legislative session.
The bill, introduced by the Interim Committee
on the Coordination of Higher Education, would
have created a Nebraska Commission on Post
secondary Student Aid3, a central office to
administer a financial assistance program to
students attending state-supported colleges and
universities. Under the bill, the commission also
would have participated in federal student
financial aid programs.
The state "got a bad taste in its mouth" from a
state financial assistance program offered to
students several years ago, Clingenpeel said. The
program, however, was a loan program with no
method cf payment and was financed out of the
state's teacher retirement fund, Clingenpeel said.
Senators were upset at the high delinquency rate
Vamong students m repaying the loans, ha said.
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