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thursday, january 30, 1975 lincoln, nebraska vol. 98 no. 73
SUN program to expand under education grant
By John Kalkowski
University of Mid-America (UMA), a regional
experiment in adult open learning, Monday received a
boost of $1.41 million from the National Institute of
Education (NIE), the educational research arm of the
U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare
(HEW).
The "university without walls" in Nebraska,
Kansas, Iowa and Missouri, will offer college credit
and noncredit courses to adults who are unwilling or
unable to use existing postsecondary opportunities.
An NIE official told The Omaha World Herald
Tuesday that the grant will help fund "a great
expansion of the State University of Nebraska (SUN)
program."
SUN offers courses to adults through a statewide
program using television, newspapers and the mail
service. The SUN program, started in Nebraska on a
pilot basis, now offers two courses, psychology and
beginning accounting.
The courses have been "well received" by the
institute and persons taking the courses, the NIE
official said.
According to Jack McBride, SUN executive
director, four new courses are to be added.
A computer science course and a consumer
experience course will start in March, McBride said.
Within five years, the number of courses offered by
SUN will be increased to 50, according to the NIE
official.
UMA, a nonprofit educational organization, is
governed by representatives of five Midwestern
universities Iowa State University, Kansas State
University, and the Universities of Kansas, Missouri
and Nebraska.
It is a regional outgrowth of the SUN project,
launched three and one-half years ago at the
University of Nebraska. It has been funded through
research and early development largely by federal
grants.
"The federal government has been funding this
project throughout its planning and development
stages," said NIE Project Officer Jerome Lord, "in
order to reach this crucial point, in which a unique
combination of midwestern institutions and people
can test a regional open learning system for adults
over the necessary number of years.
"We hope to find out whether such an open
learning system can be educationally and
economically viable and a useful alternative to the
traditional postsecondary system," Lord said.
The $1.41 million grant will permit Iowa, Kansas
and Missouri to complete planning for their state
open learning situations, allow UMA to develop new
courses and fund new research projects.
NU President D.B. Varner said the biggest share of
the money will go to SUN. With the new grant,
federal assistance to the SUN and UMA projects will
total more than $3.2 million, beginning with planning
grants from the U.S. Office of Education in 1971 .
Courses developed by SUN will be used outside of
Nebraska by four universities. SUN courses will be
contracted to the four universities to a regional
audience.
According to the NIE official, the potential
student audience in the four states is estimated at 10
million. However, Varner said the four-state program
could attract 15,000 students or more, creating a
major delivery operation for SUN.
Development of additional courses will be high
priority, according to McBride. Those course will be
designed to use a combination of media, which may
include television, newspapers, cassettes, printed
materials or any other educational or mass
communications material appropriate, he said.
"Such courses will also be made available
nationally for use by other postsecondary institutions
and agencies on a lease basis," McBride said. "They
will be distributed through the Great Plains National
Instructional Television Library in Lincoln to permit
the widest possible experimentation and utilization."
ASUN to
investigate
McDowell
speech
Josh McDowell came under attack at the ASUN Senate meeting
Wednesday night, as one student called his visit to UNL "a blatant
violation of University policy."-'
Joe Eisenberg said McDowell told how religion changed his life
in his appearances on the UNL campus Sunday and Monday. Such
testimony is a violation of the N.U. Board of Regents religion
policy, he said.
ASUN President Ron Clingenpeel said he will appoint a
committee to determine if a violation has occurred and what
action, if any, should be taken.
In other business, the ASUN Senate adopted two resolutions,
one calling for increased married student housing and the other
creating a task force to study the intercampus bus system.
The first resolution stated that UNL had 67 housing units for
married students, the lowest total in the Big 8. Totals given for
other schools ranged from 300 at Kansas to 1 ,300 at Iowa State.
The resolution recommended that the Board of Regents give
priority to construction of married student housing over any other
construction except classrooms. It also called for the Legislature to
appropriate money for such housing.
The second resolution said the task force should provide student
input to John Duve, UNL parking coordinator, concerning
solutions to problems he faces in running the intercampus bus
system.
Election procedures for the ASUN spring election were
presented, but the Senate was unable to vote on them because of
the lack of a quorum. However, the procedures were rejected in a
straw vote of members present.
Several senators objected to a provision which said each
prospective party must secure 2,500 student signatures before it
can be placed on the ballot.
Council to hold open hearing
The City Council will hold an open hearing
tonight concerning the Lincoln Police Dept.'s
policies on drunk driving arrests.
The hearing will begin at 7 p.m. in the City
Council Chambers at the County-City Bldg., 555
S. 10th St.
Council members have said testimony will be
restricted to three areas:
-Police procedures on drunk driving arrests
and the law setting the legal limit for
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drunkenness at .10 per cent blood alcohol
content..
-Public intoxication arrest procedures.
-Policies dealing with police patrol of taverns
and other businesses which hold liquor licenses.
The council decided to conduct the hearing
after complaints from Lincoln businessman
Roger Dickenson, who has been critical of police
procedures in a series of memos sent to city,
state and federal officials and to the news media.
Alumni
weekend
begins
today
Starting today, many older students may be seen roaming the
streets and classrooms of the UNL campuses. It's not because it is
taking longer than ever to get a degree from UNL; today marks the
start of Alumni Weekend College.
According to Jack Miller, executive vice president of the Alumni
Assoc., "the Alumni Weekend College is being revived for the first
time in a decade to give alumni the opportunity to examine, in a
relaxed, on-campus setting, the various aspects of the University
they attended and its educational role."
Today through Sunday the alumni will observe classroom
activities and attend special programs. The specific departments the
alumni will observe in class include animal science, chemistry, crop
physiology, journalism, life sciences and nontraditional education.
Social activities planned for the visitors include a reception and
dinner at the University Club tonight and participation in
Walpurgisnacht at the Nebraska Union on Friday. Saturday night
no activities are planned.
For alumni who want the total feeling of being on campus once
again, living space will be provided in Abel Hall. A fee will be
charged for the use of the residence hall. Those attending the
Alumni Weekend College who don't want to live on campus again,
even for a weekend, will have to make off-campus arrangements.
Food stamp limitation
may affect students
No estimate can be given on the number of UNL students who
will be affected by a Department of Agriculture directive limiting
students who may qualify for food stamps, according to Fay
Shalta, Lancaster County supervisor of food stamps.
There are about 50 college students in Lancaster County who
receive food stamps, most of whom are UNL students, he said.
The directive says that a student whose parents provide more
than half of the student's support will no longer be eligible for
food stamps if the student is claimed as an income tax deduction
by his or her parents.
"It's hard to determine the effect of this directive," Shalta said.
"It could affect one, a half dozen, of all of them. Or it may not
affect anyone.
"All we've heard is what we've learned from the newspapers and
the wire services," he said.
Under old regulations, a single student could receive food
stamps if his or her "adjusted" income was less than $194 a month,
he said.
Shalta said the adjusted income is basically the total
income-wages, money from parents, loans, scholarships and
grants-minus deductions for such things as tuition, medical bills
and any rent or utility expenses exceeding 30 per cent of the total
income.
"It (the directive) is going to be a pretty hard thing to
implement," he said. "They're going to have to come out with
some clear-cut guidelines."
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