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Thursday, October 7, 1982
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Vol. 82 No. 35
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.Hearing is scheduled on MX missile-basing
plan
By Chris Welsch
People in western Nebraska will have
a chance today to voice their opinion of
the possible dense-pack scheme for placing
MX missiles in the area, state Sen. Robert
Clark of Sidney said.
The Executive Board of the Nebraska
Legislature is holding a public hearing in
Sidney to discuss the feasibility of the
plan.
Clark said representatives from the
Strategic Air Command near Omaha,
Warren Air Force Base in Wyoming and
Washington, D.C., will attend the hearing
and answer questions about the missile
plan.
"We are hoping to find out all the
facts about what the Air Force is plan
ning to do with the MX," he said. "How
ever, I don't think they know."
The hearing is the first step toward
fulfilling the requirements of Resolu
tion 326, stipulating that the Legisla
ture should demand disclosure to Ne
braskans of the Air Force plans for MX
deployment in Nebraska, Colorado and
Wyoming. Clark introduced the resolu-
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tion, which the Legislature approved April
6.
Investigation wanted
The resolution calls for an investiga
tion of Air Force plans for health and
safety around the project, along with
studies of the economic, sociological
and environmental impact of the MX on
the land-owners and Panhandle residents
if it is placed in the area.
The resolution also requires public
hearings throughout the state with co
operation of Air Force personnel.
The Tri-State MX Coalition, a con
cerned citizens group opposed to land
basing the MX, wrote the resolution.
Mark Bonkiewicz, a farmer from Sid
ney and member of the Tri-State MX
Coalition, said the coalition is a pro
defense group concerned about nega
tive impact the MX would have if it were
placed in Nebraska, Colorado or Wyoming.
"We believe if the MX missile is needed,
it should be based at sea in submarines,"
he said.
The possibility of the MX being placed
in an underground tunnel system still
exists, Bonkiewicz said.
The "race-track" system would take
up 19,000 square miles of land, and the
cost would be astronomical, he said.
$25 billion cost
The dense-pack mode would cost
$25 billion with expansions being made
until the end of the century, he said.
"The only reason we can farm west
of the 35th meridian is irrigation," Bon
kiewicz said. "The MX project would
usurp vast amounts of water, which we
cannot afford to lose."
Bonkiewicz said the plan to base the
MX at Warren Air Force base in Wyoming
poses a dilemma.
"Where will the water come from?" he
asked. "Undoubtedly it will be upstream
from us."
Warren Air Force base doesn't have
enough land to house all the MX sites,
he said. While dense-pack would take
9,600 acres, Warren has only 7,600 acres,
most of which is taken up by buildings.
Bonkiewicz said he fears the lack of
prohibition to stop the government from
acquiring private lands.
"Dense-pack is an ever-growing pro
posal," he said.
"We hope to get answers to specific
questions at the public hearing," Bon
kiewicz said. "How much water will be
needed? Where will it come from? How
much land and where?"
This hearing may provide some ans
wers to those questions, he said.
"By having this hearing we also hope
to gather data to rally farmers against
land-basing of the MX," Bonkiewicz
said. "The more we educate people about
the MX, the less they'll like it."
Chemistry department trailed
for refined doctoral program
Staff Photo by Craig Andrastn
Debbie Cutcliff, coordinator of UNL's Educational Learning Center, drives a point
home during her talk on study habits. Cutcliffs speech was presented as part of
Wellness Week activities. Story on Page 8.
A study that ranked UNL's chemistry
department as one of the country's six
most improved doctoral programs should
help attract more chemistry majors and
quality members to UNL, said Reuben
Rieke, the department's interim chair
man. The study was conducted recently
to observe the quality of the 596 graduate
education programs in the United States.
Two other UNL doctoral programs,
in mathematics and physics, scored below
the average of other programs in the
same fields.
The results of the study, conducted
by a committee of the Conference Board
of Associated Research Councils and
published in the Sept. 9 issue of the
Chronicle of Higher Education, make
up the first of a five-volume assessment
of VS. graduate programs. The Chronicle
of Higher Education reported that the
four additional volumes, including a study
of humanities, social sciences, biological
sciences and engineering disciplines, will
be released by the end of October.
Rieke said the study is not an attempt
to rank programs in any kind of numeri
cal order.
"It would be hopeless to try and rank
schools' chemistry programs like football
teams," Rieke said. "We don't go out
and have playoffs or anything like thai."
Rieke said this is the first study to
use a non-ranking approach. He said
the study cannot be infallible, but that
it is more reasonable.
The department also may attract
more grant money as a result of its im
proved status, Rieke said.
The only thing wrong with the study,
he said, is that some of the more presti
gious schools around the country may
be receiving high marks based in part
on past reputation. But he added that
it would be good for UNL to build such
traditions.
Rieke praised the chemistry depart
ment's faculty for the improvement,
saying that it takes a hard working and
dedicated faculty to produce such re
sults. He said he wants the department to
do even better next time.
According to the Chronicle of Higher
Education, the last major evaluation of
U.S. graduate programs was conducted
by the Council on Higher Education in
1969.
Beutler: Legislature should control UNL budge
By Jeff Goodwin
The Legislature's Appropriations Committee has the
power to review the effectiveness of UNL's academic
programs but doesn't do so, State Sen. Chris Beutler
said Wednesday.
Beutler spoke at a Brown Bag Discussion sponsored
by the Colloquium Committee of the UNL Political
Science Department.
"The Appropriations Committee has that function
in the Legislature," Beutler said. "They could do it now
if they wanted to."
The Appropriations Committee does audit some
governmental programs, but "they are usually small,
relatively meaningless organs of government " he said.
Beutler said he favors the present style of university
appropriations whereby the Legislature retains a certain
amount of control over the way the university spends
its money.
A substitute has been offered by Regent Kermit Han
sen of Omaha that would have the Legislature give the
university a lump sum of money with the right to spend
it as the regents saw fit.
"I think the present system is advantageous," Beutler
said. "It gives the Legislature some say in how the funds
are spent, but the university can also spend federal funds
and cash funds however they want to."
Beutler said the Education Committee, which he serves
on, has little to do with UNL.
"The committee that deals the most with the univer
sity is the Appropriations Committee,' he said. "Usually
the only contact the Education Committee has with the
university is when the university is involved in matters
dealing with secondary and elementary education."
Beutler said the Appropriations Committee is generally
sympathetic to the university.
"Jerry Warner is the chairman and you have two
additional members from Lancaster County," he said.
"That gives Lancaster County three out of nine members
on the committee. I would say all three are philosop
hically inclined to support the university."
Beutler pointed out that there is only one member
of the NU Board of Regents from Lancaster county -Ed
Schwartzkopf of Lincoln.
He said there is an agreement among the members of
the appropriations committee to vote against any changes
in the budget when it comes before the Legislature.
This and a tendency on the part of the Legislature to
not vote against the Appropriations Committee make it
difficult to make any major changes in the budget.
The personal attitudes of legislators also makes a dif
ference, Beutler said.
"There is an element in the Legislature that is more
rural than urban that tends to think the faculty is paid
well enough - in some cases overpaid - and that the
university gets enough money," he said.