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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 22, 1983)
r y n Oaf ly n if uuesaav, February 22, 1033 University of Nebraska-Lincoln Vol, 82, Ho, 103 I n n on jsrnL iosso j am U U By Terry Hyland A budget proposal that would discontinue funding for a National Guard tuition assistance program will not mean the end of tuition benefits for Guard members attending Nebraska state-supported colleges, Gov. Bob Kerrey said last week. Kerrey said the proposal would shift funding responsibility from the Guard to colleges that Guard members attend and that colleges will decide funding arrangements. He said the statutes that provide for benefits will remain intact. Under current state statutes, Guard members are entitled to have 75 percent of their tuition paid when they attend Nebraska colleges. The program, instituted as the State Tuition Assistance Program in 1974, was designed as a recruiting incentive to help the Guard and other military reserve forces attain full strength. It originally provided a 50 percent tuition benefit for all reserve forces but was amended in 1978 to provide a 75 percent tuition benefit for Guard members. When the program was started, colleges included the tuition benefit program in their budgets. In 1980, a separate fund was established and tuition money was allocated to the National Guard by the state. The Guard then paid the Nebraska colleges that Guard members attended. The governor's proposal would shift funding back to Nebraska schools. State Budget Administrator Larry Bare said that since the Guard has almost reached full strength, the incentive provided by the fund is no longer necessary. The proposed funding cut would last at least a year, Bare said. The state will request that use of the tuition benefits be limited to Guard members attending college for their undergraduate degrees. William Swanson, vice president of governmental relations and corporation secretary at UNL, said it is too early to determine how UNL will fund the program. He said the issue will be discussed after the appropriations committee has acted on the proposal. In 1979, funding responsibility for the program was delegated to the National Guard by a legislative bill. Some controversy has accompanied the proposal to discontinue the tuition fund. Major General Edward Binder, adjutant general of the Nebraska National Guard, said a newspaper story about the governor's proposal set off an effort by Guard members to save the fund. Binder said the story reported that the tuition benefits would be cut. The enlisted men's and officers' associations of the Guard then started a leaflet campaign, urging guardmembers to contact their state senators and oppose the cut. Binder said he talked with Bare and was told the benefits had not been eliminated, but that the funding program would be discontinued. But efforts to oppose the proposal already had been started by the guard associations, which operate independently of the Guard. Efforts are now in progress to inform Guardmembers of the details of the proposal, Binder said. Clarification of how the program will be financed and who will use it is the main concern of the Guard now, Binder said. He said he thinks fhat funding should not be limited to guard members seeking undergradudate degrees because this may discourage students attending vocational schools or junior colleges from using the program. He said he will present these issues when he testifies before the appropriations committee next week. Figures for the 1982-83 school year show that 1,469, or about one-fourth, of all Nebraska Guard members are attending Nebraska colleges and universities. Total state costs for tuition payments for these students is $323,506. UNL had 547 guard members enrolled and the state's share of their tuition costs totals $142,655. By Lauri Hopple Discussion at Thursday's RHA meeting centered around the Office of University Housing's tentative plan for a University run, low-cost guest housing service, to be opened on a residence hall floor. RHA President Melba Petrie said a floor for guests will be opened when the number of housing contracts is low enough. The fall semester of 1983 is a possibility, she said, because of a projected decline of about 300 incoming students'planning to live in residence hall housing. "Since most freshmen live in the residence halls, a reduction will probably hold the number of vacancies (present this year), and there maybe more," Petrie said. Neihardt Residence Center and Selleck Quadrangle are the halls currently being considered for guest floors. Richard McKinnon, assistant director of housing and RHA sponsor, said housing is considering using Selleck 's 5100, 5200 or 7300 floors. Selleck would offer more security to guests and students than Neihardt, he said, because Selleck's buildings are isolated from one another. Separate buildings also provide the advantage of a lower-costing heat because one section at a time can be heated rather than a whole building, he said. Petrie said although housing has not made definite plans for repaying lost funds, she believes RHA "will most likely make up the difference." Guriana Wittstruck, assistant director of housing and coordinator for the guest accommodation project, will speak at a March 2 meeting open to all students, at which plans for the guest floor will be discussed. McKinnon said the purpose of the plan is to provide low-cost rooms during holidays to students unable to go home, particularly foreign students. During the rest of the school year, rooms will be used by people like visiting artists or professors and people who otherwise have a connection to the university. Students' friends also will be able to rent rooms. I A""l ? -") Y 'X-V' f Vs 8 Xpt ill!!!- It 111 iIBlEi,;1! ? .? r !- v . IV j.V J (3 II li I .- '" 1 , I I H L ' ' ' -A-4--' r 1 i ... . , ... UNL compytei' team -.wins 'Ctaimge Uowl of Computers' Staff photo by Craig Andresen The UNL Computer Team: Mark Tuttle, left, Thane Plambeck, Bruce Oberg, Paul Petersen and Dave Leavitt. By Kristi Lynch The UNL computer team returned from Orlando, Fla., Friday with a first place title in the six-hour national competition of the "Orange Bowl of Computers." The team members were math majors David Leavitt and Thane Plambeck and computer science majors Paul Petersen and Mark Tuttle. Math major Bruce Oberg accompanied the team to serve asan alternative. The win was the result of a complete team effort, Tuttle said. "We went in as a team, we worked as a team and we won as a team," he said. "Everyone worked just as hard as anyone else. It was really a neat experience." Ironically, the computer problems the team solved at the national contest seemed easier than those presented at the local and regional competitions, Petersen said. "The problems at the nationals seemed to fall right into our areas of expertise he said. Tuttle said the diverse backgrounds of the team members also must have contributed to the win. "It was a well-rounded background because everyone on the team is proficient in a different area," Tuttle said. The 24 competing teams were given six problems to solve by writing programs in either Fortran-77 or Pascal programming language. The problems included verifying the accuracy of coded data, simulating a card game, working with tables of numbers and evaluating algebraic expressions. Every problem was solved by at least two teams. However, no problem was solved by all the teams. Oberg, sporting Mickey Mouse ears, a souvenir from Disney World, said when Nebraska was announced the winner, everyone was a little surprised. "Nebraska. Who is Nebraska?" he said. Despite an overloaded, outdated computer network at UNL, Leavitt said the team won, "in spite of the system." "When any of us need to do any kind of computing on our own, it's almost never on the university system," Plambeck said. The five men said the computer system at UNL "goes down" often. Also, it is difficult to get access to the main computer because of the lack in the number of available terminals. "However, there are people in the computer science department who are working pretty hard to fix the problems," Tuttle said. "The equipment won at the contest is really nice, but it won't solve the problem." In addition to being presented a plaque which will be given to the university, the UNL team also was awarded a microprocessor development system and the four team members were awarded single-board computers from Intel Corporation. UCLA won second place; North Carolina State University, third place. Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, fourth place; and the University of Illinois, fifth place. Washington University of St. Louis, which placed first in the area regionals last October, placed sixth. UNL placed second to WU in the regionals. 3 3