JULY 14,1583
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BY JOANNE YOUNG
A shortfall in the operating budget of the
University of Nebraska libraries is blamed
for cuts in library services and the reshuf
fling of library personnel, according to the
dean of University of Nebraska libraries.
"The University Libraries cannot con
tinue to operate as they have in the past.
There just isn't the money available to ab
sorb all of the duties that must be per
formed," Dean Gerald Rudolph said.
In a letter sent this month to the univer
sity community, Rudolph described meas
ures being taken, which he said might be
critical for the survival of the library sys
tem. Money appropriated for the operating
fund for the 11 university libraries, exclud
ing the law library, has not kept up with
inflation over at least the past five years,
Rudolph said. The operating fund, which
covers supplies, equipment and computer
cataloging time, falls about $00,000 short of
the $260,000 needed to pay expenses, he said.
"Telephone costs go up, postage prices
go up," Rudolph said, "and those costs have
to be made up somewhere."
Rudolph said those costs are made up by
taking money from the salary and wages
budget. When that happens, he said, faculty
and staff must be shuffled around.
Rudolph said the university is instituting
a fee for interlibrary lending services to
state libraries in order to discourage them
from using the university library system.
That will free one staff member for other
duties and attempt to make the service self
supporting. "That change won't, affect you (univer
sity faculty, staff and students)," Rudolph
said, "but it will affect our relations with the
rest of the state because ... it represents a
sharp curtailment of the University Librar
ies' public service commitment to the other
libraries in the state."
Reductions of student assistants causing
delays in reshelving books and periodicals, a
lack of current information in the card cata
logs and inaccuracies in record-keeping will
affect the university community, Rudolph
said. He said those reductions last year re
sulted in a "housekeeping nightmare."
Minor changes in library hours are also
planned. Beginning in the fall, the libraries
will open at 8 a.m. instead of 7:30 a.m., and
the libraries will close on Saturdays when
there is a home football game.
The libraries have been able to get by on
WASTE
that I worked in the university before," he
said. "We're not interested in going over
these old programs. What we're interested
in is present conditions."
Gardecki said that, on the contrary, Haes
seems to running the licensing program for
the health department. He said Haes served
as chairman for a meeting between the uni
versity and the health department on Mon
day and was the chief spokesman for the de
partment. "Not only that," he said, " Haes is making
it very difficult for us. He's making up his
own regulations."
Gardecki said that Haes objected to the
university using a compactor to handle
radioactive waste.
"Haes said he thought a compactor
would cause contamination," Gardecki said.
"When I asked him if he ever worked with
one, he said he hadn't. So I asked him why
he thought a compactor wouldn't work.
Haes said, T just have a feeling.' "
- Gardecki said that compactors are used
throughout the country to help deal with
radioactive waste.
the current budget, by shuffang personnel
and moving funds around, Rudolph said. And
although these measures are thought to be
temporary, Rudolph said he doesn't see any
change in funding soon.
Rudoph said the university administra
tion has been generous by not cutting the li
brary budget, but administrators have said
there will be no increases.
"Other universities have dipped into the
libraries for reductions in staff," he said.
"UN-L has never done that."
The university may have to face a 2 per
cent budget reduction next fiscal year, he
said. If told that will happen, Rudolph said
he has to be ready with a plan.
The library faculty is already the lowest
paid faculty on campus, according to Ru
dolph. The staff vacancy rate is 18 percent
and Rudolph predicts it will be as high or
higher by the end of this year, because
many personnel are leaving.
Rudolph said this is a frustrating time for
him as dean of the libraries.
"It's not a very nice place to be", he said,
"when you have to tell people they will have
no job."
Rudolph said last week he had to tell
three people they would not have jobs at the
end of the year.
"We've got a good group with fine ideas
and a good faculty on campus," he said. "But
we cannot give the (library) service every
body deserves, and that is frustrating."
Rudolph said he is hoping times will get
better and things will improve, but then he
thinks, maybe this is the future of the uni
versity. That's what's frustrating, he said.
Rudolph said the current lack of money
for the libraries affects the quality of the
university, although he declined to say how
much.
Quality faculty will not come to a univer
sity with a poor library system, because fac
ulty depend on the library system for pres
tige and job enhancement, heaid.
"Most students don't make that kind of
decision," he said. "But once you get here, if
you get a poor education, you should com
plain as loudly as you can."
"We must survive this economic poverty
and at the same time still try to continue to
provide the library services that you de
serve," Rudolph said in his letter to the uni
versity community. "Should our ability to
survive lessen dramatically, then we will
need to think of reducing the libraries'
hours, philosophically abhorrent though that
idea may be to me and you."
i Continued from Page 1
"I think that Haes is out to give the uni
versity problems," Gardecki said.
The health department's action has made
his job at UN-L more difficult, said Gar
decki. If the broad-scope license had not
been withdrawn, he said, most of the non
compliance items in the survey would have
been taken care of quickly. Now, he said, he
was going to have to spend most of his time
helping people fill out their individual li
cense forms and "putting out fires."
Gardecki said it would take at least six
months before the university could apply for
a new broad-scope license.
Haes denied that he was biased against
his previous employer.
"I'm concerned and I am genuine," he
said. "I will state categorically that I do not
have any personal vendettas against the uni
versity. I am interested in the health and
safety of the people working at the univer
sity. "Some people say that I am digging skel
etons out of the closet," Haes said. "I say
these are live bodies, they are not skeletons."
State will ask Medicaid penalty waiver
The Associated Press
Because of errors made two years ago in
state Medicaid payments, the federal gov
ernment is assessing a $1.58 nillion penalty
against the state of Nebraska, Welfare Di
rector Gina Dunning said Wednesday.
She said she plans to request a waiver of
the penalty and also plans to challenge the
method by which the 1930-81 error rate was
calculated.
The money would be taken out of the
state's claim of federal funds for the Medic
aid program and would have to be replaced
with state revenue, said Jerry Bahr, admin
istrator of research and statistics for the
state Weifare Department.
He said the federal government probably
would review the waiver request before
withholding the money. The state expects to
receive about 8S.6 million in federal funds
for the Medicaid program this fiscal year.
State and county revenues also support the
program, which pays for medical care for
elderly, disabled and low-income people.
Nebraska's error rate on Medicaid pay
ments was 6.05 percent from October 1980 to
September 1981, according to the federal
Health Care Financing Administration.
The financing agency administrator said
the errors were made primarily in pay
ments to people whose resources were too
great for them to be eligible for Medicaid,
and in a failure by some clients to report
changes in their circumstances, making
them ineligible for the program.
11::
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Photo by Sheryl Neyens
Shelves need restocking at Love Library.
Rural McLean man dies when tractor overturns
McLEAN (AP) A rural McLean man
was killed Tuesday afternoon when the trac
tor he was driving overturned in his drive
way, Pierce County authorities said.
The Pierce County attorney's office iden
tified the victim as Louis Cuhel, 73.
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