Wednesday, October 27, 1982
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Vol. 82. No. 49
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By Laurie Moses
The Arts and Sciences Executive Committee and the
Arts and Sciences Council have approved a proposal that
would prepare for possible UNL budget cuts.
The proposal asks that classes be closed for approxi
mately one week, early in the spring semester, and that a
10 percent surcharge on students tuition be assessed.
Both the executive committee and the council are
comprised of chairpersons from each of the college's
departments. The council also includes vice chairpersons.
June Levine, associate professor of English and a
member of the Arts and Sciences Council, said UNL
administrators have asked the colleges to prepare -for
possible budget cuts to be made by the Nebraska Legisla
ture. The legislature will meet in a special session beginning
Nov. 5 to reduce the state's budget for this year.
"The state is facing a large deficit right now. Our first
desire is not to have to face any cuts in the spring,"
Levine said. "The budget cut would be 4 to 6 percent.
That would amount in the Arts and Sciences department
to between $800,000 to $1.2 million dollars. The money
just isn't there," she said.
The Arts and Sciences Council believes that halting
classes for about a week and not paying the faculty for
that week early in the spring semester would save about
$500,000, Levine said.
Also, the 10 percent surcharge on student .tuition
would be roughly equivalent to a 4 to 6 percent cut,
she said.
"A number of departments have met and voted on this
proposal. The English department passed closing down
and docking pay overwhelmingly. Also psychology and
sociology (departments) have passed this proposal. The
10 percent surcharge was passed with great reluctance,"
Levine said.
"We mainly want to tell citizens in the state that we
can't do more with less, we can only do less with less.
'set budget cuts
We think the most clear and dramatic way in conveying
this and not impairing the base budget is to close the
classes and put in the surcharge," she said.
"We simply can't expect to demand that the deficit
be ignored," Levine said.
Staff Photo by Dave Benti
A lone fanner near Lincoln clears his field of milo Tuesday. Area farmers are in the midst of the harvesting season.
Nuclear 4eiense jgelie&on massive evacuations
By Vicki Ruhga
If a nuclear bomb were dropped on
Lincoln, the city probably would have
longer notice than 20 minutes, Francis
Laden, state director of the Nebraska
Civil Defense Agency, said.
"Most people with definitive knowledge
do not believe the 1950s philosophy
that some Sunday morning, someone is
just going to push a button and launch
a nuclear bomb," Laden said. "There has
got to be some reason; for example, a
change in the status of European or Mid
east countries."
The new philosophy is known as an
increased tension period, and it would
probably last about two weeks, he said.
During the increased tension period,
Laden said, a Crisis Relocation Period
(CRP) would take place. It would involve
the movement ot people from areas con-
f Nuclear
c? Issues
sidered dangerous risk areas tq areas that
are thought to be outside of the direct
effects, such as the heat and blast of a
nuclear bomb.
Laden said Nebraska has four risk
areas, which are Omaha (Strategic Air
Command, Offutt), Lincoln (state capi
tal), South Sioux City (air bases) and
Kimball, Cheyenne and Barren counties
(offensive missile bases connected with
Warren Air Force Base in Wyoming).
Population evacuated -
"One-half to two-thirds of the VS.
population would have to be moved to
someplace else, so CRP would not be
done without good reason," said Laden.
"It would be a very big step by the na
tional government.
Laden said residents of Lincoln would
be relocated in Hastings.
Laden said people in risk areas would
have to bring survivial supplies with them.
These would include clothing, bedding
and food, personal safety items such as
prescriptions, and tools such as a hammer,
ax, naisl and screwdriver for constructing
a fallout shelter.
Brian Coyne of the Nebraska Nuclear
Freeze Association said he believes that
the crisis relocation plan is absurd.
"Besides the practical matter of getting
people out, there is a basic question of
whether there will be enough food and
shelter for them," Coyne said. "People
must bring their own food and transpor
tation. We don't know how people will
react in a crisis. What's going to happen
if a car breaks down on the highway on
the way to Hastings? They will become
hysterical."
Other side alarmed
Coyne said he thinks that the crisis
relocation will escalate the crisis period.
As one side moves out, it will look like
they are getting ready to absorb a nuclear
attack. This wUl alarm the other side; he
said.
Another issue is how long people can
stay in the shelter areas without a lot of
problems, he said.
Coyne said that by giving information
on relocation planning, the government
is making a nuclear attack seem survivable.
"Most people who are for the freeze
do not believe that an attack is survivable,"
he said. "People are being lulled into
believing crisis relocation will work, and
they are given a false sense of security."
The actual warning of a nuclear attack
would come ftom the National Warning
System of Norad, which is located in
Colorado Springs, Colo. It goes to all
states as well as all the counties in Ne
braska, Laden said.
The Emergency Public Information
system and Emergency Broadcasting Sys
tem would then be used to inform people
of the attack. Laden said the national
program for civilian defense tf 1 nuclear
attack can take two basic forms.
The first option is to provide shelter
for people, he said. It would involve
building blast shelters with 42-inch walls
to protect people from the blast and heat.
The estimated cost of this is about $100
billion, he said. '
Fallout is problem
Laden said the alternative is to move
people from where they are at risk to
where they would be safer. However, this
still leaves the problem of protection from
fallout, he said.
Richard Gilbert, a UNL chemical
engineer, said fallout results when a bomb
goes off, because much of. the nuclear
radiation is in the form of dust and dirt
particles in the bomb's mushroom cloud.
Some of the particles become radio
active as they go up with the cloud. When
they come back down, they blanket the
ground with radiation, Gilbert said.
However, he said that not all particles
become radioactive; it depends on what
they are.
If the radiation is strong enough, it
kills everything on the ground. If it is
less strong, it kills gradually because
certain molecules in the body change, he
said.
If the radiation is low enough, Gilbert
said, nothing may happen.
However, if a person's body cannot
adjust to the changes caused by radiation,
diseases like leukemia and cancer can be
the result, he said. In the long run, it
could result in genetic changes passed
from parent to child.
Generally, Gilbert said, the effects of
radiation are accumulative. There is no
such thing as a "harmless" dose, he said.
Enough radiation will eventually do some
damage.
Gilbert said it is impossible to deter
mine how long fallout would last. It may
be a few weeks to more than a year, de
pending on the size of the blast, he said.
Basically, Gilbert said, the two danger
ous aspects of a nuclear bomb are the
blast itself and then the radioactivity.
Laden said the effects of the fallout
factor could be reduced by simply being
undercover in someplace like a basement.
He said radioactive particles decay quite
rapidly. For every sevenfold increase in
time, radioactive particles decay tenfold.
Continued on Page 6