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February 22, 1033
University of Nebraska-Lincoln Vol, 82, Ho, 103
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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.
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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.
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