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monday, march 17, 1975
lincoln, nebraska vol. 93 no. 99
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executive candidates
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ASUN
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Candidates for ASUN president, clockwise from top left:
Vince Powers, Charles Rosvold, Jim Say, Del Gustafson,
Dave Ware, and IBM 360.
By Rex Seline
A new ASUN administration will be elected
Wednesday from among three parties, two
would-be parties and several independents.
The election has been marked by controversy
over new election requirements forcing parties to
obtain 500 registered students' signatures to run.
In cases brought before Student Court and
. appealed to the Council on Student Life, the
election rules were upheld.
The election will be the first to elect an ASUN
president to serve as a regent. The change has
forcea the electoral commission to attempt to
comply with state election laws.
The United Student Effort party (USE) is
reportedly only the second party in ASUN
history (since 1965) to survive two years.
Diversity, unity
USE presidential candidate Jim Say said the
party hopes to achieve diversity and unity among
its candidates."
.Say is a first semester senior from Norfolk
majoring in political science. He is chairman of
the ASUN Student Rights Committee.
"We don't want preselected issues," he said.
"Last year there was a lot of criticism that the
platforms were the same."
Say claimed USE will maintain credibility
"just because the party will become identified
with certain issues."
He believes student fees should not be
eliminated, but "students should have a little
more control over their allocation."
"There are ways to get around (restructuring)
the Fees Allocation Board (FAB)," he said. "We
need a more cohesive appointment system. We
can get students who would at least try to work
with other student organizations as one effective
group."
More student input
As a student regent, Say would "invite more
student input (than his successor Ron
Clingenpeel), rather than being a spokesman for
the regents."
Del Gustafson and his Sons of Liberty party
(SOL) call for the elimination of student fees
allocated to private organizations and programs.
Gustafson is a junior from Holdredge majoring
in political science.
According to Gustafson, the allocation of
about $5.50 by the FAB to organizations should
be left up to students to spend as they please.
"A student should be able to contribute
money to the causes he sees fit," Gustafson said.
"No government agency knows how he wants to
spend his money as well as he does."
"Some organizations that don't fill a need
might die," Gustafson said. "There are many
organizations that flourish on campus without
student fee support."
Criticized FAB
Gustafson has criticized the composition of
the FAB, which includes representatives from the
five organizations which receive the most student
fee money.
SOL and Gustafson also have called for the
end of the requirement of ASUN approval for
posters and constitutions, calling the practice
"tyrannical." They also support a restructuring
of intercampus bus system to have the state,
instead of parking fees, support the bus line.
Cut the Crap party (CTC) presidential
candidate Dave Ware and his group have
proposed a five point platform which
concentrates on fees and their uses.
CTC is calling for a study to revise fees
allocation "so students could get enough money
back to pay for what they use."
They also call for the use of fees to promote
cooperatives. The money would be used as
"seed-money" for the "coops" and could later be
paid back, under the CTC proposal.
' They also propose full refund of tuition,
during the first week of classes, to dissatisfied
students. They contend the proposal has worked
at other schools.
Bookstore, parking
Strengthening and restructuring the University
Bookstore as a cooperative and revising the
parking ticket system to bring it in line with city
procedures are also proposed by CTC.
Ware has called for a more active ASUN
Senate and executives.
"If ASUN doesn't want to run the risk of
getting a bloody nose trying to overreach
themselves in an effort to get something done,
then they will stay a polite version of the student
council," he said.
Ware is "roughly a junior" from Lincoln
majoring in speech communications. He is on the
Union Program Council.
The computer IBM 360 is the presidential
candidate of the would-be Pro-Apathy Party
(PAP).
Although campaign worker Bob Brehm said
the computer "could answer any question," no
interview was arranged.
Continued on p. 11
Exon: If Unicameral ups Nil budget, I'll veto'
By Ron Wylie
Gov. J. James Exon said last week he will veto any
University of Nebraska appropriation passed by the
Unicameral which exceeds his budget
recommendations.
Exon said he didn't want to haggle over suns with
the Legislature, ' "but, if they go over my
recommendations, HI be exercising a veto, because
we just don't have the money.
'it is a little ridiculous, and I emphasize
ridiculous," Exon said, "for the University of
Nebraska, with static or declining enrollments, to get
a 25 per cent increase in funds last year, and then
come back and ask for another 25 per cent this year."
He said he has increased the university budget each
year and this year's recommended increase of 11.5
per cent is the highest of any school in the Big 8
conference, with the exception of the University of
Kansas.
Not 'sacred cows"
"It's time for the universities to realize that they
are not sacred cows," Exon said. "They have to
measure up like anyone else."
The governor said his recommendation of $71.6
million, added to a projected $33.7 million in tuition
and another $22.8 million in federal grants, provided
more than $128 million for the university system.
"This is a reasonable budget by any reasonable
standards," he said, "and the university
administrators and the Board of Regents have not
been reasonable in their requests."
Exon said administrators could cut back unneeded
programs in many areas, but he declined to suggest
specific cuts.
"I'm not an administrator of the university," he
said, "and I don't want to meddle with their areas of
authority."
Building, building
The problem with university budgeting, Exon said,
is that "once you build something into their budget,
they automatically assume that they'll continue to
get that. They'll want all of that. They'll never talk
about doing away with a program that hasn't proved
feasible or workable. They just keep building and
building."
Modern universities are not being run that way
today, he said.
"Nebraska university officials and the Board of
Regents are like an ostrich with its head stuck in the
sand if they think the governor, the Legislature and
the people of Nebraska are always going to listen to
their moans and pleas," he said.
Reacting to a report which shows faculty members
at the university are the lowest paid in the Big 8
conference, Exon said," "If that's true, what kind of
job of administration have we done at the
university?"
NLTs budget has increased by $20 million in the
last two years, Exon said, while most state agencies
have been getting by with the same amount of money
they had the year before.
Exon said he understood the attempts by
university officials and regents to obtain money
beyond hi3 recommendations. They see it as part of
their job, he said.
"I guess that's part of the game they play.
Stop games
"But the games stop here," he said, "when I have
to make decisions about a balanced state budget. I
think most reasonable people will agree that an 1 1
per cent increase is something the university can live
with comfortably."
This year's budget recommendations for higher
education are proportionally greater in Nebraska than
most governors in other states are recommending for
their universities, Exon said.
"I had to go to the Legislature this time, like no
governor ever has before because, over my objections,
the State Board of Equalization reduced the income
tax at a time when it should not have been reduced,"
11C aaiu.
The limited income from tax revenues compled
with a rising unemployment rate create a time for
belt-tightening in the university structure, Exon said.
"I don't believe university administrators have the
proper compassion for the overall economic picture,"
Exon said. "The University of Nebraska has to realize
that the state has the resources to run a top-flight
university, but these resources are not unlimited."
Quoting from a Carnegie Institute study on higher
education, Exon said the peak number of seniors
graduating from Nebraska's high schools will be
reached in three years and that university structures
will have to be adjusted accordingly.
Less students
Today, Exon said, there are 36,000 16-year-olds in
the state's school system, while there are only 18,000
1 -year-old children in Nebraska.
Rather than wait until those 1-year-olds grow to
university age, Exon said, "we have to start
addressing ourselves to problems of tight money and
reduced enrollments right now."
Exon reemphasized his suggestion of a lump sum
university budget allocation to be given to the Board
of Regents to distribute in accordance with regents'
and administrators' priorities.
"Let them disperse the $71.6 million the way they
want," Exon said. "And if they want to use more of
it to raise teachers salaries, let them do that."
