Friday
Weather:
Continued cloudy and cool today
with a 30 percent chance of thunder
storms. High ot 69. Cloudy tonight
with a low of 55. Weekend outlook
calls for partly cloudy skies with highs
in the upper 70s to lower 80s.
Barb BrandaDally Nebraskan
September 13, 1985
Cute timairt ffaciialtLy
By Todd von Kampen
Senior Reporter
Mid-year budget cuts and alloca
tions have forced UNL to eliminate 41
faculty positions since 1981, said John
Yost, associate to UNL Chancellor Mar
tin Massengale.
In addition, four UNL department
chairmen said faculty members in pro
grams such as chemistry, history, com
puter science and business adminis
tration have resigned to take better
paying jobs at other universities or in
the private sector.
Yost said faculty members seldom
leave merely because NU budgets are
cut. However, tight budgets keep the
university from providing salary levels
and teaching and research support
needed to retain them, he said.
"We do the best we can to retain our
faculty members," Yost said. "But there
have always been faculty members who
receive offers from other institutions
who can afford them better profes
sional opportunities than they receive
here."
"Some of them leave reluctantly," he
Job, not politi
to state partj
By Ann Harrell
Senior Reporter
In 1982, Lincoln native Brian Coyne
graduated with honors from Cornell Uni
versity with a degree in government. On
Sept. 1, at age 26, he became executive
director of the Nebraska Democratic
Party.
But despite an occasional raised
eyebrow, Coyne says he doesn't think
his youth will affect his ability to do the
job.
"I suppose I am a bit young," he
said. "But I feel it's a challenging job
that I'm capable of."
Coyne comes to his new job with
experience in political organizations.
In college, he worked as a political
volunteer and was active in issue
oriented politics. After graduation, he
became the state coordinator for the
Nebraska nuclear freeze campaign. As
the group's first paid staff member, he
organized a statewide program regard
ing arms control issues. He left the
freeze campaign in May.
Coyne also attended the Democratic -presidential
convention in 1984 as an
alternate delegate. He was committed
to candidate Gary Hart.
Coyne said his interest in politics
began as a child. He said he remembers
his parents, also traditional Democrats,
taking him to see Bobby Kennedy and
Eugene McCarthy speak. He has fol
lowed political campaigns ever since.
Coyne said he looks forward to his
new duties because he enjoys electoral
politics, campaigning and traveling to
meet diverse groups with common ideas
on how to meet goals. He chose the
Democrats, he said, because their pol
itical philosophy most closely matches
the principles and ideas in which he
believes.
"It's the common citizens party, the
party that (takes into account) the
Nebraska cross country
host of rare home meet
Sports, page 9
added.
NU salaries average 12 percent less
than salaries at its "peer" institutions,
said Robert Furgason, UNL vice chan
cellor for Academic Affairs. He said
schools in the peer group, including
Iowa State University, the University of
Missouri and non-Big Eight schools
such as Penn State University and the
University of Illinois, are land-grant
schools with a scope similar to NU.
Benjamin Rader, chairman of the
UNL history department, said some of
his colleagues believe their careers at
UNL are becoming "more of a dead
end." He said the department has not
had a budget increase in five years, and
now has the lowest operating budget in
proportion to staff in the Big Eight.
"There's more concern now than
during my experience at the university
about the future of NU,'' Rader said,
who came to UNL 18 years ago.
Rader said his department lost its
urban history instructor because of
budget cuts. In the last five years, he
said, four of the department's full and
associate professors resigned to take
higher-paying jobs, and less experienced
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Mark DavisDaily Nebraskan
Coyne
people," he said. "It clearly best re- where both his parents are professors,
presents my hopes for national and
Nebraska society."
His hopes include a society that is
fiscally responsible, yet compassionate
and just, he said. Coyne said he would
like to see a U.S. society that helps
create a more peaceful world and
opens more economic and societal
opportunities for all people.
"I'm by nature a very political per
son," he said. "This job provides me an
opportunity to use my skills to achieve
some of (my) personal dreams of
society."
As executive director, Coyne over
sees the day-to-day operations of the
party. He also will work with candi
dates to organize campaigns, provide
services for candidates, participate in
fund-raising and organize the party's
bi-annual state convention.
Coyne also has several personal
goals.
Last summer, he applied at UNL,
s
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
retention
assistant professors now fill those posts.
Although the chemistry department
lost only one faculty member during
the summer, it has been short of pro
fessors for some time, said George
Sturgeon, the departments vice chair
man. Some longtime professors have
retired or moved to other jobs within
the NU system, he said.
"There's just that many fewer people
to take care of the students," he said.
Sturgeon said the department can
attract entry-level faculty because it
offers competitive starting salaries and
start-up money for research. But faculty
members often think twice about stay
ing, he said, because department salar
ies improve little compared to those at
other schools.
The computer science department
has filled its vacancies during the last
four years, said Roy Keller, department
chairman. The department would like
to double its staff from its present 15,
he said, but the nationwide demand for
computer science faculty far exceeds
the supply. Private firms compete
fiercely for computer experts, he said.
to pursue a master s degree in pol
itical science. Coyne said he had intend
ed to write a biography of former
Democratic Nebraska governor Frank
Morrison. Instead, he chose to work for
the party.
"Had this job not been there, I would
have been a graduate student," he said.
Coyne said he still wants to write the
biography and still may work toward a
master's degree.
But right now, that's on the back
burner.
"It's hard to set your agenda," he
said. "I'm just getting situated, learn
ing the new responsibilities. At this
point I'm focusing on being the 26-year-old
director of the Nebraska Demo
cratic Party."
Coyne said he doesn't know how long
he will work for the party, nor whether
he ever would consider running for pol
itical office.
"You never know," he said.
'A Sunday in The Country'
s
honing now
Arts and Entertainment,
1LU
rate, officials say
The College of Business Administra
tion faces a continual problem of stay
ing competitive in the faculty job
market, said Dean Gary Schwendiman.
Some of the college's professors left
because they were earning more money
as private consultants than as profes
sors, he said. If the trend continues, he
said, "we could have more people
leave."
Schwendiman said the price for
good business professors rises faster
than the university can raise salaries.
New professors with doctorates cost
about $41,000 a year, but UNL can offer
them only $36,000, he said.
"The question is, 'will the university
and the Legislature do what it must to
meet market demands?' " he asked.
Furgason said that statements by
Gov. Bob Kerrey and others that the
university must narrow its scope by
cutting programs or colleges make it
harder to retain faculty members. When
a program is threatened with elimina
tion, he said, "good people feel threa
tened" and consider leaving even if the
program survives.
Kerrey repeats stand:
'reduce NU scope'
By Todd von Kampen
Senior Reporter
The experiences of other universi
ties facing budget cuts shows NU will
become stronger by narrowing its scope,
Gov. Bob Kerrey told UNL's Young
Democrats Thursday. .
Speaking before a crowd of about
100 in the Nebraska Union, Kerrey said
Nebraska simply does not have the
demographics to support NU at its
present size. If NU narrows its scope,
he said, the state can afford to raise
salaries in the remaining programs and
keep them competitive with other insti
tutions. Kerrey cited a recent story in the'
New York Times that told how the State
University of New York handled its
budget problems. State University, he
said, chose to narrow its program offer
ings so it. could give its remaining
faculty members the best possible
salaries.
Nebraskans would be able to sup
port NU's present offerings if the state's
population and NU enrollment were
rising, Kerrey said. With declines in
population, enrollment and disposable
hi )
Kerrey signs the roster at the Young
5
at Sheldon
Page 7
Vol. 85 No. 14
3
"The minute you put out a list of that
nature, it's almost fait accompli" he
said.
Sturgeon said proposals to cut state
funding for research would be "disas
trous" for many departments. Trim
ming research would cost NU millions
of dollars in private grants and would
cause many chemistry professors to
look for other jobs, he said.
Rader said research cuts would
damage NU's reputation as well.
"The reputation of the university
depends much more on research than
on the teaching product we have,"
Rader said.
If the university continues to lose
faculty, its status as a comprehensive
university will suffer, said George Tuck,
UNL Faculty Senate secretary. Those
who say the budget must be cut should
trim everything not necessary for edu
cating students before they propose
more faculty cuts, he said.
"You can have a university without a
lot of different things," Tuck said. "But
you cannot have a university without a
faculty."
income, he said, the "phenomenal
growth" of the first part of the 20th
century has passed.
The fate of Nebraska's so-called
advocacy commissions, Kerrey said,
taught him good work can be done
without high budgets. Although he
"first thought it was horrible" that the
Legislature took all budget money from
the Mexican-American Commission, the
Indian Commission and the Commis
sion on the Status of Women, he said,
he now believes the state can serve the
causes of the affected groups through
all state programs.
Which programs should be cut will
be decided by the NU Board of Regents,
Kerrey said. But he said the regents
should take the initiative to raise
faculty salaries through budget cuts.
The regents' 1986-87 proposed budget,
which calls for a 2 percent increase
before salary changes, does not do that,
he said.
"Even if they were to get their cur
rent budget request," he said, ". . . it
angers me to have them say they want
to raise salaries and wait for me to tell
them what I want."
Dan DulaneyDaily Nebraskan
Democrats meeting Thursday.
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table
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