daily nebraskan
friday, april 28, 1978
Retired professor recalls 59 years ofNU change
wrsitv in 1913 at the ace of 19.
page 6
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Harvey Werner, retired horticulture professor, has seen the construction of most east campus buildings
By John Ortmann
When the NU Board of Regents Saturday approved dip
ping into cash reserves to give the NU faculty an 8 percent
pay raise next year, the move was not without historical
precedent.
The same thing happened in 1920, when the NU
faculty was given a 25 percent raise to counter post-World
War I inflation, according to 84-year-old Harvey Werner.
"My salary at that time was $2,400 per year and I got
a 25 percent raise up to $3,000," the retired horticulture
professor said.
Werner, who came to Nebraska in 1919 with a doctor
ate in botany from Chicago University, said the board ac
tion followed a number of unofficial meetings called by
the local chapter of the American Association of Univer
sity Professors.
The two-house Nebraska Legislature accepted the raise
as a legitimate use of funds, Werner said, and financed fur
ther pay raises in succeeding years.
Werner said pay raises followed until the Depression
struck and forced across-the-board pay cuts in the early
1930s.
As a result of these cuts Werner's salary went from
the $3,600 he was making by then down to $2,800, he
said.
In one respect the Depression was helpful to the De
partment of Horticulture because federal National Youth
Assistance Act Funds allowed the department to hire
"excellent student help," Werner said.
The student workers were paid 35 cents per hour, Wer
ner said, which was 10 cents per hour more than the uni
versity usually offered new workers.
The program also was beneficial to the students, many
of whom went on to become department heads and deans
all over the country, Werner said.
"That was one of the most constructive things that has
ever been done for students," he said.
A native of Wernersville Pa., which, he said, was named
after an ancestor who sold land to a railroad on the con
dition the town built on the site would bear the family
name. Werner graduated from Pennsylvania State Uni-
He came to Nebraska to work in the extension divi
sion, but soon expanded his activities, he said.
"I came here as an extension specialist in horticulture
and soon took work at the experiment station," he said.
"Since 19191 was about 50-50 extension and research."
Although retired, he still spends about one-third of his
time on east campus studying data collected in 43 years of
research. Much of his work dealt with potatoes, a major
crop on irrigated land in western Nebraska that actually
brought Depression-era farmers in that area more money
than grain, he said.
In addition to having seen most of the buildings on
east campus built, Werner said he has seen other changes
"In the ten years the idea still was the agriculture col
lege graduates should go back to farming," he explained.
"At that time we just had a general agriculture course.
We had enough electives so a man could specialize in
agronomy or animal husbandry.
"Now we have a curriculum headed toward research,
which requires a science background. We have a
curriculum headed toward teaching. We even have one
heading toward what is called 'agribiz'," he said, explain
ing that one of the biggest changes is the number of stu
dents taking pos;ons in private industry.
Another impoitant change Werner witnessed was the
rise in educational qualifications of professors. In 1919
only one or two agriculture college faculty members had
doctorates. Most of the professors were NU-educated
Nebraskans, he said.
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Art Lending Library Prints
Please return prints to the
East Union Loft on Saturday,
April 29, 1978 from 1pm to 4 pm.
New Prints Next Fall!
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