daily nebraskan
thursday, december 7, 1978 lincoln,nebraska vol. 102 no. 56
Lack of funds reduces scope of capital improvements
By Shelley Smith
Some residence hall students will not be seeing some
expected improvements or repairs on their hall floors due
to a lack of funds for capital improvements.
Richard Armstrong, vice-chancellor for student affairs,
said the housing office, the unions and the University
Health Center will be resorting to the capital improvement
reserve fund for new money this year. The housing office
has been asked to cut its proposed budget to allow enough
funds for repairs in the health center.
Doug Zatechka, director of university housing, said
the cut will eliminate new carpet for several residence hall
floors, thermostat repairs, air conditioning in one resi
dence hall director's room, the purchase of a steam kettle,
shower rod partitions, a dessert bar and several minor
repairs.
Armstrong said $228,945 out of the $234,000 in the
reserve fund will have to be used for mandatory repairs in
the health center and residence halls. He said $388,357
will be used from previously allocated projects.
The total amount requested, $617,302 will be debated
by the regents at their meeting Friday.
Armstrong said nothing has been cut, just shifted to
another source of funding because of recent spending for
fire and life safety items, and a one-and-a-half million
dollar payment to re-purchase the bonds which serve as a
mortgage on the university's buildings.
Zatechka said housing originally asked for $390,000,
but when he found out only $234,000 was available for
the unions, health center and housing he said he knew
"we'd better start looking somewhere else for money."
The housing office is now proposing that certain pro
jects, previously approved by the regents that have been
identified as less important than those presently being
requested, be eliminated so that these funds can be ap
plied to support the current requests.
The report indicated that $2,000 allocated for the pur
chase of two pianos in Sept. 1976 was never used.
Zatechka said he didn't know why the pianos were
not bought, and other allocations not used.
"What I have done now is informed my staff that
if a project is important enough to be approved by the
regents, it is important enough to be ordered immediately.
From now on if they sit on an order for more than six
months, I'll eliminate that project," he said.
The report also cut in half the January 1978 approval
of $200,000 for solid core doors in Cather-Pound-Neihardt,
part of the fire and life safety program.
The main improvements still in the budget, according
to Zatechka, include repairing the water leaks
in the dormitories, replacement of worn out lounge
furniture, new draperies, and new chairs and tables in
the Cather-Pound-Neihardt cafeteria.
Schwartzkopf wants student regent to be elected at large
By Randy Essex
Editor's note: This is the third in a series of in-depth
profiles of the eight members of the NU Board of
Regents.
Regent Edward Schwartzkopf says he can understand
why UNL students sometimes feel the NU Board of
Regents "doesn't give a damn" about them, but he
doesn't agree with that view.
The board member of 12 years said students come to
the regents in crisis situations rather than contacting the
board regularly.
Schwartzkopf, who lives in Lincoln and represents Lan
caster and Saunders counties, said he tries to seek out stu
dent opinion on regular basis by coming on campus.
He said he would like to see the student regent posi
tion separated from the duties of the ASUN president. He
explained that the student regent it not always able to
attend board meetings, and can not represent all the
students.
Student participation
"I would like there to be more than one student
regent, (per campus) and I would like to see our board
meetings less formal," Board Chairman Schwartzkopf
said.
He explained that before there were student regents
the elected regents met with 10 or 12 students from
each campus before montly meetings to discuss student
concerns. He described that form of student participation
as better than the present method .
"Students should present positive things to the board as
well as negative," he said.
"I would be willing to meet with students on a regular
basis in order to gain desirable input. I would like to hear
the students' concerns about the quality of education,
and the other kinds of concerns that exist every day,
rather than just hearing from them in times of pressure."
Second in seniority
Schwartzkopf, 59, said he decided he wanted to be a
regent when he was a student in the 1940s. He was
selected as the student representative to the Athletic
Board, a body composed of administrators, faculty
members and a student, that governed athletic policy.
He said he thought about becoming a regent someday
after meeting some members of the board then and work
ing with the chancellor.
Schwartzkopf is now second in senority on the board.
Robert Raun was appointed six months before the
Lincoln native was elected for his first term. He has been
re-elected twice, most recently last month when he
defeated Leo Hill.
Schwartzkopf was a Cornhusker lineman when he
attended the university. He played on the only Nebraska
team to go to the Rose Bowl. NU lost the 1941 game to
Stanford, 21-13.
Great game
Schwartzkopf said it was a "great game," and said
football enthusiasm was abundant even in the '20s. The
Huskers played to packed houses of 40,000 in those
days, he said .
"We have a great football heritage. We were the only
team to beat the Four Hosemen (Notre Dame) and Red
Grange (Illinois). Football has always been a great uni
fying force in the state."
Football was more important to the students then
than now, according to Schwartzkopf. He shared his
memories of huge bonfires and student rallies.
"But we used scrap wood for our fires," he said. "It
bothers me to see furniture destroyed." Schwartzkopf
said permits were (and still are) required for bonfires, and
"we got them. And we didn't have our bonfires in the
street."
Students arrested for their activities before the
Nebraska-Oklahoma football game distressed the regent.
"Our number one objective is to educate students and
encourage positive, constructive, law-abiding activities,"
Schwartzkopf said.
mlf' -JIk Jill
Twelve-year regent veteran Ed Schwartzkopf
Photo by Ted Kiric
However, he said he would not trade the NU student
body for any other in the nation.
"We have fine young men and women here, second to
none."
Schwartzkopf said football is only a phase of the uni
versity. The importance of quality education is "not as
easily understood" by the people of the state.
"It's harder to get statewide support for academics
(than for football) because the result of our investment is
not as easily seen," according to Schwartzkopf, who has a
masters degree in school administration from NU.
The long-time educator and administrator in the
Lincoln Public Schools explained that students are not
being trained for today, but for 10 years from now.
Years ahead
"Because we're looking ahead, we need the latest tech
nology and equipment available. It's easy for people of
the state to think we only need equipment that will do
the job; it's easy to forget that our preparation is for the
years ahead.
But, he said, taxpayers are capable of understanding
the needs if they are informed of the reasons.
Just as taxpayers can understand the need to spend
money for quality equipment when all of the facts are
available to them, Schwartzkopf said, the regents can
come together with the students-when the students pro
vide their opinions.
Board members listen to what they hear, as most
regents did last year on speaker funding. Schwartzkopf
said he got calls and letters from many constituents
reacting to the Young Americans for Freedom's letter
writing campaign against mandatory funding for political
speakers.
Resented letters
Recent student court action placing
probation was needed, he said. The
campaign did a great disservice to the state and the
student body."
YAF "deviated from the truth of the situation" in
their letters, he said. After he told those citizens who con
tacted him what the situation really was, they didn't
want anything to do with opposing the speakers' program.
Schwartzkopf said he resented the involvement of non
students in the YAF effort, and the use of phrases like
left-wing Marxists" and "homosexuals on campus" in
the letters.
the YAF on
letter-writing
But, he said, the result of inviting Jane Fonda to
campus was predictable.
"It's a rough way to learn a lesson, and now future
student bodies will suffer (from the lack of mandatory
speaker funding)," he said.
Pleased with support
He was pleased with the cooperation among campus or
ganizations to bring speakers to UNL without student fee
support.
He pointed out to those on the board who have said
there has not been a political balance of speakers that .
Gen. William Westmoreland represented the conservative
point of view.
He said because Westmoreland represented the military
establishment, some negative reaction to him was to be
expected.
The regent, like Westmoreland, was a military man.
Schwartzkopf was a major in the Army during WWII,
and served in the South Pacific for 32 months. He left
the university before graduation to enlist in the military
shortly before Pearl Harbor was bombed by the Japanese.
Conflicts of interest
"I went to school on the 10-year plan," he said.
He describes his political beliefs as "pragmatic reason
ableness." He said he can sometimes be described as con
servative, modeate and maybe even liberal. He bases his
decisions, he said, on a study of available facts.
He tries to take a stand on every issue before the board,
he said, with the exception of times when he declares a
conflict of interest. He declared a conflict once last year
when the university sold 200 acres of East Lincoln land to
his business partner's son.
Continued on Page 7
inside thursday
Thatsa lotta dough: Valentino's donates $10,000
to UNL speakers program page 3
No place like home: Good ethnic food can be
found in Lincoln page 1 2
Busy, busy, busy: Athletic teams at UNL have
full slate this weekend page 14