ndaily n
monday, april 24, 1978 lincoln, nebraska vol. 101 no. 104
SB
Regents tap cash reserve fund for salary increases
By Rod Murphy
The NU faculty will get 8 percent pay
raises next year, the NU Board of Regents
decided Saturday, but since the money is
to come from cash reserves, the money
may not be available in future years.
The board approved spending about $2
million from self-generated cash funds to
raise salaries.
William Erskine, executive vice presi
dent for administration, said the cash'fund
was not needed for operating costs this
year.
Regent Kermit Wagner of Schuyler,
noted that once the cash reserve is spent
there are no funds to replace it.
"When it's gone it's gone," Wagner said.
"This will have to be carefully explained
to the Legislature."
Kermit Hansen of Omaha echoed
Wagner's concern. "Don't be upset by
some of the people who look at the budget
and say, you didn't begin to hurt your
self.' We did," he said.
If the increased salaries are to be main
tained next year, the Legislature must
approve more money for the university.
If the Legislature does not make the in
creases, it could mean smaller faculty in
creases or no increase in the future, said
Regent Robert Raun of Minden.
Regent James Moylan of Omaha
agreed to try it as an experiment but said
the move should not be a precedent.
Erskine admitted the action contained
"an element of risk."
NU President Ronald Roskens said "we
must realize there will be sacrifices," but
said it was the only way to treat the issue.
The university will have to operate
under a "lean budget," he said. "It's not
just words, it's there, or as the case may be,
it's not there."
Regent Robert Simmons of Scottsbluff
said the board was "going awfully fast
without knowing what we are doing."
The regents passed the proposal with
Simmons the only member voting no.
The move would increase faculty salar
ies 8 percent, about half of which would be
granted for merit.
Non-teaching personnel would receive
an average of 6.5 percent.
The regents originally requested that the
Legislature allocate enough money for a 9
percent salary increase for faculty members
and 7 percent for other staff members.
The measure also provided a $ 1 .50 per
credit hour tuition increase.
William Petrowski, University of Nebra
ska at Omaha faculty senate member, said
UNO has more administrators per faculty
member than UNL and recommended
some administrators be eliminated to help
increase faculty salaries.
UNO Chancellor Del Weber said the
UNO administrative staff is "lean." But he
said Petrowski's charge was something to
be looked at department by department.
Petrowski said UNO faculty eligible for
merit increases were giving "more for less,"
since the faculty pay raises have not kept
up with the rate of inflation.
In other action Saturday, the board
approved serving wine at Sheldon Memor
ial Art Gallery at the May 5 Nebraska Art
Association's 90th anniversary party.
The item, placed on the agenda as an
emergency measure, carried with Regent
Robert Prokop of Wilbur stressing that it
was only a one-time basis.
Moylan and Robert Koefoot at Grand
Island voted against the request and Raun
abstained.
Wagner, among those voting yes, said he
did so in the hope that it would "open
other avenues," on the question.
The board also approved the formation
of a major in Textiles, Clothing and Design.
Board Chairman Ed Schwartzkopf of
Lincoln noted that the program was
popular and growing.
The board also decided to reject an
offer by the Department of Roads to
purchase right-of-way access through the
North Platte Ag Experimental Station.
They also rejected all bids for toilet renova
tions received April 4 for Memorial
Stadium.
The regents tabled until May any action
that would redistribute student fees.
Under the proposal for consideration is
a Fund A allocation of $133,375 and Fund
B allocation of $2,678,460.
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Iranian students protest
Photo by Ted Kirk
Iranian and American students joined Friday to protest
the "fascist regime of the shah" and U.S. oversight by
lack of media publicity. Story page 3.
UNL professor tries to lick chain letter origin mystery
By Deb Shanahan
A UNL instructor actively is seeking
what most people (and the Post Office)
consider a nuisance and what he calls "an
interesting phenomenon of American
culture -the chain letter.
Roger Welsch, associate professor of
English and anthropology, started collect
ing chain letters 15 years ago after receiv
ing one.
. .i
insioej
Regents decide on speakers: Final
decisions on speakers will rest
with the chancellors page 2
Regents approve athletic department
choices: Wrestling, men's swim
ming and women's basketball
teams will have new coaches
page 7
Dancer still "blows her nose like
everyone else": Royal Winnipeg
dancer talks about her career
page 6
A chain letter is sent to several persons
with a request that the receiver send copies
of it to all persons listed. The receiver is
asked to drop the first name from the list
and add his to the bottom.
Welsch said the origin of the chain letter
still is a mystery, although he found an
article suggesting they may have started in
Denver during the 1930s. Welsch said he
suspects chain letters were a fad during the
Depression but were around long before
that.
'The Denver letters were dime chain
letters. You sent a dime to the first person
on the list, dropped their name, then added
yours. In the end you got something like
$18, which was a lot of money in those
days," he said.
This type of letter is like a pyramid, he
said where a small amount of something is
put out, and after a period of time, the per
son accumulates a large amount. These
usually involve big money -with cash,
whiskey or bonds exchanged -and make up
about 10 percent of the chain letters sent
and received in the United States, he said.
"I interviewed a woman once who an
swered a chain letter, and after two weeks
had enough money for a trip to South
America. When she came back, she bought
a car with the money that had been sent
while she was on her trip," Welsch said. He
added that this type of letter uses the mails
for lottery, which is illegal.
A second kind of chain letter which
constitutes another 10 percent of the total
are those which deal with minor consider
ations, Welsch said. He cited prayers,
recipes and post cards as common items
exchanged.
Another 5 percent are chain letters that
tells housewives to send their husbands to
the bored housewife at the top of the list.
It threatens that if she breaks the chain,
she will get her "old man" back.
A fourth kind, a Dutch letter, is inter
esting, Welsch said, because essentially one
letter makes up about 70 percent of all
chain letters sent and received.
Welsch said he has 43 of these letters,
and although each differs slightly, they all
share certain common elements.
For example, all say they were started
in the Netherlands and have been around
the world at least once, according to
Welsch.
The letter tells the receiver to pass on
the chain and promises that within a
certain time period the person will receive
good luck, money or something else he
wants, Welsch said. It also warns that if the
chain is broken, something bad will
happen.
"The statement 'This is no joke' always
appears, and Don Elliot is always the name
of the guy who lost his job or died be
cause he broke the chain," Welsch said.
This fourth kind of chain letter presents
another problem -the legality of passing
such letters along, Welsch said.
"Any chain letter with a threat involved
is illegal. In the Dutch letter there is the
implied threat of bad luck. No one knows
if this makes them illegal the post office
won't tackle the question, and I'm not a
lawyer," he said.
This may be one reason he was had
difficulty collecting chain letters, Welsch
said.
'Teople don't like to admit they sent
them on. Almost every one I get has a note
attached that starts out i heard you were
interested in chain letters, so I took this
out of the wastebasket . . .," he said.
The denial is only one way people react
to chain letters, according to Welsch.
"Some people are outraged. Others
object vigorously on religious grounds.
They consider them non -Christian; I
suppose because of the superstition," he
said.
