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April 15, 1983
Vet. 2, No. 142
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University of Nbreska-Lincofn
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kadlgeii by $6 rffoini
By Terry Hybrid
The State Legislature adopted an
amendment Wednesday to cut $6 million
from the University of Nebraska's
proposed 1983-84 budget. The
amendment, added to the main budget
bill, LB628, was adopted on a 26-12
vote.
Sen. John DeCamp of Neligh sponsored
the amendment, which drops the university
budget from the $153.6 million
recommended by the Legislature's
Appropriation Committee to $147.6
million.
Reaction to the cut was mixed.
The office of NU President Ronald
Roskens issued the following statement:
"We hope that the senators will
carefully review the impact of this
proposal and restore funding to what
already was an austere budget request.
"If this decision holds, however, it will
mean severe reductions in personnel and
programs. Jt will also make it impossible
to maintain a traditional quality education
program for the 40,000 students we
serve, 95 percent of whom arc residents
of this state."
Gov. Bob Kerrey said he was pleased
with the action from a budgetary
standpoint, but added he was aware that
the cuts may cause serious consequences.
Kerrey said he has not sacrificed his
commitment to education by supporting
the cut and expressed confidence that the
university could absorb the cuts without
serious damage.
In proposing the amendment, DeCamp
said the budget cut's main purpose was to
provide money for property tax relief,
especially lor home owners.
He said Thursday that because the
university system uses one-fourth of the
state's budget, reductions in NU's budget
had to be considered in paring the state's
budget.
DeCamp said it is not possible for a
state of Nebraska's size to support the
kind of educational system that Nebraska
lias. Too many of the colleges in the
state want to have university status, he
said, and a state with only 1 .5 million
people cannot support that kind of
educational system.
He said he favors a "super-strong"
central university, with other colleges
assuming their own functional roles.
Sen. Don Wesely of Lincoln said he
saw "the university being used as a
scapegoat for property tax relief" and
termed the cut "unreasonable."
He said he believed the university
budget has been cut as much as possible
and cited overcrowded classes, classes
not being offered to students and the
departure of quality faculty members
from I lie university as problems
existing because of an inadequate budget.
Wesely said he believes that many of
the legislators are thinking in terms of
the proposed regional veterinary college
(wliich would be part of UNL) and not
in terms of the total university. He noted
that 20 of the 26 senators who voted
for the budget cut voted Tuesday to
advance the vet school bill.
Wesely said it may be possible to
get some of the S6 million reinstated in
the budget. He said regaining S3 million
would put the university budget at the
level recommended by the governor.
PisKceGTDeoTrS: pmgmm aadte giradtafiiiinig hw stademite
By Kevin Hanken
The economy is slow. Job opportunities
are tight. Competing for those jobs avail
able is a fact of life. Job hunters need to be
persistent and undaunted by rejection. Pre
paring for the job hunting stage can in it
self be an education.
At UNL's College of Law, the job place
ment program has emerged as a prudent,
versatile and viable addition to the edu
cation of its students.
When John Strong, now vice chancellor
of academic affairs, stepped in as dean of
the law school in 1977, the placement pro
gram was extended a higher priority status
than in previous years. Two years ago
Strong hired Janet Krause to head the pro
gram. tZ- :
Acting Assistant Dean Krause's philo
sophy maintains that a law school's respon
sibility is to not only prepare students as
lawyers, but to help them find their first
job as well.
When one looks over the program she
has built and how she has structured it, her
title as acting assistant dean might come
across as something of a misnomer.
"Coach" would seem a more fitting term.
Embedded in Krause's philosophy is the
old sport maxim "teamwork." By dipping
into the resources of the law college, she
has put together a Student Placement
Advisory Committee, comprised of nearly
40 members and divided into subcom
mittees. "Our students are very bright, very
capable and professional people, and
when they come to us they have a degree
in hand and some job experience. And
with that talent they contribute a lot,"
Krause said.
Jan Beran, a senior law student, served
as this year's chairman of the placement
committee. Beran was awarded a plaque as
standout contributor to the placement pro
gram. One of his accomplishments has been
to establish a Job Placement Library at the
law school.
Using the National Association of Law
Placement Recommendations Library
Bibliography, Beran put together a room of
information covering various fields of the
legal practice. Krause called his efforts out
standing. One of the student subcommittees spon
sors a series of placement seminars at the
law college throughout the school year.
Krause said that a result of the seminar
with the trust officers, she was able to
develop an internship program with a local
bank.
Another subcommittee has helped to
organize a conference to be in Omaha Oct.
21 and 22. For the first time, seven mid
western law schools have cooperated to
create this Central Regional Law Place
ment Conference. Thousands of firms,
corporations and agencies are being invited
to attend this conference to interview stu
dents for possible employment.
Junior law student Barb Berry has work
ed hard to put the conference together.
Krause said. Berry and her staff of about
20 have set up a mailing list for all 50
states.
Continued on Page 6
AdlinninijTiDSftirsiftE
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Editor's note: This is the first article of a
two-part series on the Central
Administration.
By Mona Koppelman
Attacked by many, known by few, the
NU Central Administration is an enigma.
From its headquarters at Regents Hall,
various officials make few appearances
yearly, and when they do, the
repercussions are felt in the academic
sphere . . . affecting tuition, the budget and
insurance policies.
In December 1979, the Central
Administration came under the fire of
the UNL Faculty Senate. The senate
unanimously accepted a resolution stating
that the university can't afford two levels
of administration. The senate asked the
NU Board of Regents to eliminate some
central administration offices that
"duplicated similar structures on each of
the campuses."
In October 1980, ASUN passed a bill
forming an ad-hoc committee to
"investigate and reveal the power structure
of the NU Central Administration."
Former ASUN Sen. Tim Rinne said the bill
was a result of the lack of response to the
faculty senate's December 1979 resolution.
Rinne said the only answer came in the
form of "an investigation of Ronald
Roskens by Ronald Roskens."
Roskens was questioned by Sen. Jerome
Warner of Waverly about the purpose of
the Central Administration at the
Legislative Appropriations Committee
hearing earlier this spring.
"Since the University of Nebraska was
established as a three-campus system,
both the regents and the Legislature have
been quite firm in their commitment to
irsnfiy
the concept (of Central Administration),"
Roskens said.
'The Central Administration serves as
the central point for the establishment of
policy to be recommended to the regents
for the general operation of the university
in as clear and consistent and, hopefully,
as efficient manner as possible," Roskens
flop admMstato&'s desco'ibeci
"The Central Administration is the
administrative arm of the NU Board
of Regents," James Raglin, director
of public affairs, said. "The decisions
' the board of regents make are executed
or basically given to the people in this
building (Regents Hall) to see that they
are implemented."
Raglin describes the duties of each
of the six biggest players in the Central
Administration in the following
paragraphs:
Ronald Roskens, president of the
University of Nebraska, salary $76,500.
"Roskens is the chief executive officer
of the university. He is the boss of the
chancellors. Roskens tries to develop
overall administrative policies for the
benefit of the entire university
network."
Howard Ottoson, executive vice
' president of Academic Affairs, $58,000.
"Ottoson is the number-two guy on
the roster. Each campus has a vice
chancellor or vice chancellor for
academic affairs. Ottoson is their
contact person for the regents."
Alan Seagren, vice president for
Administration, $59,000. "Seagren
is the chief business officer. He is
the business contact for the business
officers on each campus."
William Swanson, vice president
tor governmental relations and
corporation secretary, $51 ,000. "He
has a dual job . . . secretary and
lobbyist. He takes notes at all the
regents' meetings, sets up the meetings
. . .getting eight people from scattered
around the state and three students
together to sit as a board. There are
people from each campus assigned to
help him lobby, but he is the lobbyist."
Richard Wood, general counsel,
$53,200. "Dick runs all of the legal
business. He can represent us in court,
he signs codicils, checks over wills
and writes about grievance procedures."
Hans Brisch, executive assistant to
the president, $48,800. "He has a lot
of contact with the campuses. He's
kind of a 'sensor,' sensing moods and
things like that. He's not a spy, either.
He knows a lot of faculty, and they
tell him things. He helps Roskens a lot
in formulation of administrative
policies. He also assists in planning the
president's schedule, and that's pretty
damn important."
Raglin said these men usually
compose the president's cabinet, with
himself included.
"We meet every Monday morning
at 7 30 and just generally talk about
whatever anybody chooses to bring
up," Raglin said. "It's very seldom
formatted. We're very free under the
Roskens administration. There's really
no holds barred, so it's kind of an
" interesting group."
said.
The 30 full-time and four part-time
employees of the Central Administration
pull down a total of more than $864,000
in salaries to form "clear, consistent
policy."
James Raglin, director of public affairs,
said he was "quite sure there's no
university of this size that has so few
people in its Central Administration."
Raglin explained that though Central
Administration commands 2 percent of
the university budget, almost half of that
is tied up in the vast computer network
serving all three campuses, but which
operates out of Central Administration
funds. The number of employees involved
with computers numbers 66, nearly twice
that of the Central Administration.
"I guess you have to look at this pretty
much like your basic corporation," Raglin
said. "Tlus building could be the
corporation's headquarters. The three
campuses and all their satellites could be
holdings of the corporation. They each
have a corporate head. They all get
together at a board meeting and then they
make a presentation to the outside board
which is the board of regents.
"The regents in turn then say, 'OK, it's
going to be A instead of B or C Then,
they turn it back over to this building and
we (the Central Administration) have to
manage the plans. We in turn disperse
some responsibility.
"That's how it's supposed to function.
And it does, I think, moderately well.
There arc times when things get out of
hand. I suppose that's inevitable.
. Part Two will focus on the past and
present relationship between the university
faculty and the Central Administration.