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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 8, 1975)
NUB oard of Regents f M it i ' t NU President D.B. Varner i .1 n aaiiu:ffiii monday, September 8, 1 975 volume 99 number 9 lincoln, nebraska B reels e n rs d ge ta kes o ve r ; said 'overwh Ginning choic " Adam Breckcnridge was named by NU President D.B. Varner Saturday as acting chancellor of UNL starting Oct. 1. : Varner called Breckenridge the over whelming choice of several university vice chancellors, deans and academic leaders. ' Breckenridge, currently vice chancel lor for Academic Affairs, will temporarily replace Chancellor James Zumberge, who submitted his resignation at the NU Beard of Regents meeting. Zumberge was confirmed Saturday by the Southern Methodist University board of trustees as president of that Texas school. Though Breckenridge was appointed vice chancellor only last month, Varner said the need for continuity in administra tion would best be served by moving him to the chancellor' post. , r Breckenridge accepted the position, but has told Varner that he would not be a candidate for permanent chancellor, nor would he serve if named chancellor. The regents authorized Varner to designate a search committee to decide nominees for the chancellorship. Varner said the 12-member search committee will comprise faculty members, students, administrators and public repre sentatives. Selection of the search com mittee will begin Tuesday, Varner said. Varner said he will ask the committee to present their nominations to the board by Dec. 1 so a new chancellor can be named by the start of the second semester. Ned Hedges, assistant vice chancellor for Academic Affairs, said the question of whether to name an acting Academic Affairs vice chancellor has not been discussed. Varner said he may ask Breckenridge to "wear both hats" until a new chancellor is named. The president called Zumberge's resigna tion a substantial loss and repeated what he said when the chancellor came to the uni versity nearly four years ago: "I knew we wouldn't keep him long." Some student dissatisfaction approverecor dbudget By Theresa Foreman The NU Board of Regents voted Satuii day to ask the Nebraska Legislature for 30.7 per cent more tax dollars for the uni versity than last year and approved a record $224,290,960 budget. The board unanimously adopted NU President D.B. Varner's budget request at its monthly meeting, at Regents-Hall, 3835 HoldregeSt. The 1976-77 budget calls for $100.6 million from the state's general fund. The university received $77 million state tax dollars this year. The regents will ask for the money in a lump-sum appropriation to be distributed by the regents. Varner said the additional $23.6 million was ' needed to meet demands caused mainly by inflation, agricultural research needs and lost federal financing. Salary increase Varner said that because of inflation, the university must ask for a 6 per cent salary increase for all its employes to main tain this year's actual pay levels. The 1976-77 budget plan also calls for an additional 6.32 per cent pay increase for UNL and UNO faculty members, giving faculty a proposed total raise of 12.32 per cent. Varner said this hike will bring NU's faculty salaries up to the average of those paid by four other Big 8 schools: Iowa State, Missouri, Colorado and Kansas State. The University of Nebraska Medical Center needs a slightly lower pay hike to bring salaries up to the average mark, Varner said. Calculating next year's expenses, budget makers added a six per cent inflation factor to most items included in this year's operating expenses, Varner said, though he said some costs will jump even higher. Postage will cost 30 per cent more next year, paper costs will be 20 per cent higher, and the university will be paying 15 per cent more for health insurance and library - books next year, Vamer said. Lose funds The Medical Center will lose $2.8 million in federal funds next year, Varner said. Most of these funds were used for basic education rather than extra programs which could be discontinued and will have to come out of the university general fund next year, he said. Varner said agricultural leaders in the state met with NU's budget planners and decided that $2.3 million will be needed next year for agricultural research. "It seems unfortunate that we must label these costs as part of the cost of operating the university when they are actually to serve the agriculture industry," Varner said. He added that the university has a unique responsibility by tradition and legislation to serve Nebraska's agriculture industry. Varner said that none of the $23 million increase is. marked for new or expanded programs, but is needed to "keep the uni versity operating at its present level." Nebraska bar examination criticize By Teni Willson The Nebraska bar examination has Come under fire in recent months because it is "becoming increasingly difficult to pass," according to Eugene Crump, president of the Student Bar Association. Student dissatisfaction has caused the exam to be topic at the annual Nebraska State Bar Association meeting, Oct. 1 through 3 at the Lincoln Hilton Hotel, according to Henry Grether. UNL College of Law dean. Added areas of study The biannual exam, most recently issued in June, added two or three r?as of study, Crump said. Although he has not taken the exam, Crump said UNL' Law College has no bar exam review coarse. Either such a course or some "remedial type of mechanism" should be available to aid in preparation, he said. Some students axe exploring these avenues now, because they think both questions and grading of the-exam are unfair, Crump added. According to Bar Commission mcmbe! Lewis Ricketts of Lincoln, tests ar identified by number only. Sex, race, col lege grades and school are unknown tc graders. George Turner, Nebraska Supreme Court Clerk and Secretary of the Bar Com mission, said of the 194 UNL, Creighton University and out-of-state law graduates who took the exam, 27 failed. Of the 27r 11 were UfIL graduates. Nine of the 27 who failed had their cases reviewed by the Bar Commission. Of the nine, seven ap pealed, and one of the seven graduates has since teen admitted to the bar. Exam may be repeated Law practice in Nebraska is not allowed without passing the exam, according to Crump. Graduates who fail may do legal research until retaking the exam. Crump added that he knew of no one repeating the exam more titan two or three times. Burton Berger, executive director of the Nebraska Bar Association, said passirig the exam is mandatory for admittance to the bar. . ' ' Lincoln attorney John Robinson said he thinks a "two-day bar exam" is not true test of ability, compared to "feres years .of course work." He added that "graduating from an accredited school should be cre dentials enough" to practice law. Exam format tanfatr Indicating grading of the bar exam is the problem rather than quality of the questions, Robinson said there is no uni form method of grading the subjective bar exam. For this reason he cited the combination multiple-choice, essay exam as being "inherently unfair." Approximately 33 states are included in a multi-state bar exam which uses a general exam set by the Second Court of Appeals in New York and parts of their own state exam. Nebraska does not participate in this because of the long waiting period for graded exams, Grtther said. Roger Prokes, second semester Law Col lege senior, said State Senator Ernie Cham bers tried to excuse Nebraska graduates from the state bar exam. He said students graduated by South Dakota's law school aren't required to take a state bar exam to ptactice law there. Tom Kellcy, director of Continuing Continued on p.S . Though Varner said he is "uncomfortable" with the budget total, he said the request reflects "minimum legitimate needs, without being unrealistic." : No new programs - Regent Robert Simmons of Scotts bluff expressed concern that the budget lacked money for new programs. "Any institution which can go for two years without something new is sterile," he said. Simmons suggested that there must be some new programs which could improve upon existing ones. He said that though the entire state is inclined to "keep something merely because it's here," the university ' should not. . Varner explained that existing programs are building new emphasis from within. In other action Saturday, six regents voted to accept the 1976-77 capital construction budget, although Omahans Kermit Hansen and Robert Moylan were opposed to the order of priority of next year's construction projects. Budget planners have earmarked the first $400,000 of the $12.1 million capital construction request for correction of fire safety hazards on the campuses. Other high-priority projects include construction of a physical education building and down town educational center at UNO and a plant sciences building at UNL. The capital construction budget includes over $800,000 for outstate agricultural research construction. Legislative approval Varner said all 13 items on next year's construction budget request have received prior legislative approval or funds. fhe university had a commitment to cut down on consturction requests in light of expected enrollment decreases in the next five or six years, he said. However, the current 22,225 enrollment figure is a record for UNL, he said. Ken Bader, UNL vice chancellor for student affairs, told the board that the resi dence halls have a 99 per cent occupancy rate. In addition to increased enrollment, Bader cited high off-campus rent, physical improvements in the residence halls and differentiated housing as reasons for the high occupancy rate. With differentiated housing, living arrangements vary according to the residence hall the student selects. Campus requests from all funds, includ ing operations such as residence halls and student unions include: UNL, $121,459,056; an increase of 13.5 percent. i -UNO, $28,643,823; an increase of 11.7 percent. University of Nebraska Medical Center, $68,464,130; an increase of 12.7 percent. -NU system, $5,723,951; a rise of 20 per cent, mostly because of increased expenses of the computer center operation housed there. The next board meeting is scheduled for October 11. inside k New Lending Code: for Love Library New kirk: becomes president of American Home Economics Association New Hearings: planned for 1-80 sculpture project Also Find: Editorials Entertainment Sports Crossword p.3 p.2 p.7 P-4 p.S p.6 p.S Weather Monday: Partly cloudy with s!i?it chance of thundershowers. Highs should be near 80. Monday night: Mostly cloudy with a 20 per cent chance of thunder showors. Low should be near 55. Tuesday: Again mostly cloudy with chance of thunder showers and 30 per cent precipitation probabilities. High should be about SO. .