Wednesday, January 21, 1976 vol. 99 no. 66
inside Io&mj
Third Dimension: The laws, the "
insurance and the availability
of abortions
Faculty Senate: First meeting
under its new bylaws. . . p.2
Editorial: If the financial grab bag i
goes back to the NU Board of Regents,
what might happen? . . . p.4
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By Dick Piersol
NU President D.B. Varner presented a plan for ac
countability to the Nebraska Legislature's Appropriations
Committee Tuesday in the first of two committee hear
ings on the university budget for fiscal 1976-77.
The committee asked for such a plan last month after
Varner requested greater flexibility for the NU Board of
Regents in spending university appropriations.
Varner told the committee that the plan would require
four elements: Long-range goals, short-range goals, bud
geting and evaluation.
A statement of long-range goals should not deal with
quantified matters, but be reduced into short-range objec
tives to be accomplished in one year budgetary intervals,
he said.
Those objectives, Varner said, should concern such
issues as size of enrollment, employes and extension staff,
faculty-student ratio, faculty salary levels, costs per credit
hour at undergraduate and graduate levels and credit
hours produced per faculty member.
Other non-quantifiable objectives Varner only used as
examples were: Development of a formula to assure
equitable university resource allocation, review of cur
ricula to phase out and add programs, identification of
specific departments or programs for emphasis and pro
cedures for improving selected graduate program quality.
Merit salary increases
Varner said a commitment should be made for merit
salary increases. He suggested specifying faculty members
to receive no merit increases and others to receive propor
tions of available money.
Varner's third element was the NU budget. He sug
gested that the Appropriations Committee discuss goals
and objectives with NU administrators, arrive at consensus
and draft a bill containing a specific one-sum appropria
tion for NU, including legislative intent.
Under the plan, the. regents then would allocate thpse.
resources,"" subject to justification, if they depart from
legislative intent.
The key to such a process would be that the university
could derive its budget from a management plan, he said,
and not vice-versa.
The fourth element, evaluation of results, would be
easier under this plan, Varner said. He proposed that the
first annual budget committee hearing review previous
expenditures.
Varner cites advantages
Varner said advantages to his so-called plan of flexi
bility and accountability include forcing NU to:
-Provide the committee, Legislature and governor with
a clear statement of goals and to resolve any differences.
-Give the regents what he called needed flexibility to
govern more cost effectively.
-Give regents more budgetary control to fulfill what
he termed their constitutional duties as managers of the
university.
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He also said it would retain legislative and executive
responsibility for appropriating and monitoring the use
of public money, with external fiscal management
auditing.
Varner admitted to Utica Sen. Douglas Bereuter that
the plan would be subjective, but said the objective data
would be useful in monitoring the university. He said the
North Central Accreditors and Areas of Excellence review
committees investigate programs' weaknesses and
strengths, but admitted those were not foolproof.
Not tuned in
Committee chairman Sen. Richard Marvel of Hastings
said the university is evaluated constantly by faculty
members and students, but that the senators were not
tuned in to their conclusions.
Sen. Glenn Goodrich of Omaha said the Area of Excel
lence Review Committee for the College of Architecture,
which he served on, "dissected" every part of that
program.
But Sen. John Savage of Omaha said information like
that was not available for every department.
Varner admitted that "raw data is a tricky business,'
but said that administrators are working on management
information system to provide common denominators.
Salary increase
Sidney Sen. Robert Clark asked Varner what he would
do with a five per cent salary increase provision to be
distributed on merit.
The committee's higher education appropriations bill,
LB690, contains a four per cent salary increase, plus
another one per cent to be awarded at the administra
tion's discretion for merit.
Varner replied that he would rather have six per cent
increase for all staff and faculty members with another
632 per cent for merit.
"It seems we do have a cost of living obligation, he
said, and the regents would want to divide a five per cent
increase between cost of living and merit raises.
Clark told Varner that he would like to give him 5 per
cent as an arbitrary figure, and "let you find out what
kind of an administrator you are.
Further hearings before the committee will be
conducted on Jan. 28.
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Photo by Tad Kiric
An estimated 30 persons attended an hour-long vigil at the Lincoln Federal Bldg. Tuesday noon pro
testing President Gerald Ford's "State of the Union request to finance the manned B-l supersonic
nuclear bomber.
The vigil was sponsored by the Nebraskans for Peace and the Lincoln-Omaha War Resisters League.
Cent rex crosses campus wires
P!v&? fey Siwt Sonr
Centex operator Joyce Dana
By Joyletta Woodruff
New telephone numbers, new dialing instructions and a
few problems remaining to be ironed out, reflect the
status of the recently-implemented UNL communication
lystem-Centrex.
Lincoln Telephone and Telegraph Co. (LT&T), which
rents the system to UNL, installed telephones in all resi
dence hall rooms last June and the system was to begin
operation then. However, computer programming
problems delayed operatin until Dec. 19, according to
Ruth Michalecki, director of UNL's Telephone and Radio
Communication Center.
Since the implementation, she said, several problems
have arisen which still need to be solved, including dead
phone lines, two calls on one line, and phones that do not
ring when they should. ' v
LT&T is working around-the-clock to clear up the
problems, she said.
- She said the university began seven years ago to look
for a new system that "could include the dorms, offer
flexibility for growth and answer the need for sophisti
cated communications."
The old system, which UNL purchased in 1959,
operated on a manual switchboard, said Ronald Wright,
UNL business manager. The system, which originally was
constructed before World War II, wis Impossible to buy
parts for, he said.
Ccntrex operates through an LT&T computer, he said.
With its implementation, the entire university, including
residence halls, operates on the same major telephone
lines.'
Under the old system, UNL's monthly telephone rental
rate was $36,000, Wright said. With Centrex, that price
now is $30,000 per month.
When phones were installed in residence halls last June,
residents were assigned regular Lincoln telephone
numbers, Michalecki said. The mid-year change forced
LT&T to issue new phone numbers with the university's
472 prefix.
Before Centrex, persons calling from a phone with the
472 prefix to another phone with the same prefix simply
dialed the last four digits of the number. To call a non
university phone, the person first had to dial nine, listen
for the dial tone and then dial the seven-digit number.
Persons placing a call from a residence hall phone last
semester had to dial the entire seven-digit number for
both on and off campus calls.
Dial "2 first
With the Centrex system, to call from a 472-prefixed
number to another, the caller must dial two and the num
ber's last four digits. To call a non-university phone from
the university, the caller must dial nine, followed by the
seven-digit number.
Residence hall phones cannot use the Wide Area Tele
phone Service (WATS). University employes may use a
WATS line to make long-distance business calls, but
students are billed for all long-distance service.
A temporary student information number established
last semester provides persons with phone numbers of
' residence hall residents and information concerning uni
versity activities, Michalecki said.
She said the service, staffed by work-study employes,
will discontinue next year as regular university operators
replace the special student information operators.
Telephone numbers of residence hall dwellers are avail
able from the student hiformatioii number, 472-1234.
The 1975-76 Builder's Busy. Book also lists student
numbers.
