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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 30, 1978)
daily nebraskan monday, january 30, 1978 page 4 Fire in Abel Hall causes no damage An electrical fire in the elevator call box on Abel Hall's ninth floor broke out Saturday night, according to Abel Hall officials. No damage or injuries were reported except for ex tensive soaking of ninth floor's carpeting. An investigation into Abel Hall's south elevator elec trical system is being conducted by the Abel mainten ance department and the state fire marshal. It was reported that work recently had been done on the system. Steve Bayer, ninth floor student assistant, was informed of the sparking unit by floor residents. Bayer attempted to extinguish the fire, but the floor's extin guisher did not work. Bayer pulled the fire alarm at 9:30 p.m. The Lincoln Fire Department extinguished the fire with water and by shutting off the elevator power system, according to Marc Mushkin another Abel HaH student assistant. The only damage reported was to the call box, the wood paneling around it, and the carpeting. Elevator service was restored within an hour. Car hits train; student injured A UNL junior, Mary Virginia Read of Omaha, is in fair condition with a fractured pelvis in Lin coln General Hospital following a car-tnin accident Saturday night. Read was injured when the car she and five others were in was hit by a train on North 14th Street, near the Harper-Schramm-Smith residence hall complex, according to Lt. Mike Larimer of the Lincoln Police Dept. The car was southbound on 14th Street and had stopped at the crossing because the warning lights were flashing, Larimer said. Shelly Jennings, the driver of the car, continued and broadsided the train, Larimer said. Jennings, Rosemarie Eschliman and Susan Bosworth of Lincoln and Julie Moore of Omaha were treated and released from Lincoln General. The other unidentified passenger apparently was not injured. PLATO is new teacher at library The teacher is PLATO and through patient repeti tion and encouraging words, PLATO hopes to teach UNL freshmen the library system, according to Kathy John son, UNL special projects librarian. The teacher is not the Greek philosopher reincarnate but a video terminal called Programmed Logic for Auto matic Teaching Operation. Love Library has programmed a card catalog presenta tion on the terminal and will determine whether the system can teach students the system. The name PLATO is derived from philosopher Plato's definition of learning through the question-and-answer process, Johnson said. The machine will ask questions and students will type their answers. The computer system will indicate wrong responses and explain why, Johnson said. The Control Data Corporation of Minneapolis loaned two terminals to UNL. The terminals would cost about Administrators find silence request OK UNL administrators say the NU Board of Regents request that they remain silent until the regents give final approval to decisions is not unreasonable. The regents made the request at their Jan. 7 meeting after University of Nebraska at Omaha officials announced the hiring of football coach Sandy Buda before official regents' approval. According to UNL Chancellor Roy Young, waiting for regents approval for policy announcements has "normally been the policy." "We treat it (official announcements) rather carefully," said Richard Armstrong, vice chancellor for student affairs. "Material that goes to the regents is (publicly) avail able a week before," said Armstrong, but states the ad ministration's position, pending regents' approval. Vice Chancellor for Business and Finance Miles Tom meraasen said that in hiring new staff the press announce ment is worded something like "we intend to hire him upon approval of the regents." "These are highly visible appointments," said Tornmer aasen, "Everybody is speculating whether he is going to take it." Because of that sometimes it is incorrectly worded in the papers "even though we have said we are intending to hire them if the regents approve," Tommeraasen said. you are invited to our . . . KFOR Bridal Forum January 31,1978 7Pm Pershing Auditorium an occasion you'll remember $1,100 to lease, according to Dave Embley, assistant computer science professor in charge of the project. According to Johnson, computer programs are stoned in the Minnesota computer center. Long distance phone lines connect the terminals to the main computer. Johnson developed the card catalog program. Four groups of freshman students will test the program. One group will study the catalog system through the PLATO process, the second group will take a library tour, the third group will learn the system in small groups and the last group will not learn anything about the card cata log. The four groups then will be tested for each systems' effectiveness. The PLATO groups will be tested to deter mine their attitude toward the computer, Johnson said. "The idea is whether one way of teaching library skills will work better than another," Johnson said. The PLATO system has been used for more than 12 years at the University of Illinois at Urbana, Johnson said. The University of Colorado at Boulder and an Arizona college also use the program, Johnson said. The terminals will enable teachers to be released from routine tasks, she said. "It does not replace teachers and, of course, it won't replace librarians," Johnson said. "It can deal with stu dents at all levels." UNL terminals are located in Ferguson Hall and the College of Dentistry. Military and naval science, computer science and speech communication departments also have used the PLATO system, Embley said. It n-.T -mmtm00 ,r I DAMSEL TINA LADY LOVE CORSAR Keepsake Registered Diamond Rings Give the perfect symbol of your love . . . the brilliant beauty of a perfect Keepsake diamond, permanently registered and guaran teed perfect. Keepsake . . . there is no finer diamond ring. cT omas Jewelers The Atrium 1 200 N St. 475-9709 STUDENT ACCOUNTS INVITED. it i' Simplified tax form reduces filing blues By Elizabeth Barrett The federal government has attempted to simplify all 1978 tax return forms because of the Tax Reduction and Simplification Act of 1977. Ron Meyer, of the Internal Revenue Service, said two of the fomis, (1040 and 1040A) are the easiest IRS forms ever. Some of the changes are in the 1040 itemized deduc tion form. Meyer said all Income lines are on the front of the form. Tax Computation, credits, payments, and other taxes such as Social Security are listed on the back. "Before, they were scattered all over, causing a person to flip pages back and forth," Meyer said. Signatu. ,J-3s are at the end of the form where the taxpayers are less likely to overlook them. White boxes for numbers are provided which stand out on the blue form, according to Meyer. "The form follows a definite sequence in steps one has to go through to file a tax return," he said. "No more bouncing around from front to back." Meyer said the taxpayer probably will complain that he can't line up last year's return to this year's to help him fill it out. But "in the long run, he'll find out the new forrn is simpler," he said. A taxpayer can use the 1040A form if his income consists of wages, salaries and tips no more than $400 in dividends or $400 in interest, Meyer said. The new form is simpler and requires fewer entries than last year's form. "It also depends on whether or not they itemized deductions which a student probably wouldn't do unless he had an income more than $2,200 a year," he said. According to Meyer, the IRS wants the taxpayer to use the simplest tax form to his full advantage to get all the deductions and credits he's entitled to. Tax return forms can be picked up at IRS offices in Lincoln, 100 Centennial Mall, Room 155. They are avail able also in post offices and banks. Forms are due April 17. For help in filing tax forms, an IRS satellite office is open at Gateway Shopping Center; 61st and O Sts., on Wednesdays from 10 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. Volunteer Income Tax Assistants (VITA) can be reached through the Campus Activities and Programs office, Nebraska Union 200. mm DO (Off 931 m -4 u