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Weather: Cloudy, windy and
cold today with a chance of light
ram. Northwesterly winds at 20 mph
to 35 mph and a high near 45.
Cloudy and cold tonight with a low
of 32. Partly cloudy on Tuesday
with a high ner 50.
April 14, 1986
Warner syg
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By Todd von Kampen
Senior Reporter
Several NU programs and colleges
that escaped elimination during the
last round of budget cuts won't be so
lucky if the legislature sustains line
item vetoes to Nil's 1986-87 budget,
Waverly Sen. Jerome Warner said Sun
day. Warner, chairman of the Legisla
ture's Appropriations Committee, said
he will suggest that the committee vote
to override Gov. Bob Kerrey's veto of
$3.1 million in NU state support. Such a
vote, he said, would be in keeping with
the committee's practice this session
of protecting health and education
programs from further cuts.
The committee will meet in the
Capitol, room 1003, at 7:30 a.m. today to
decide which of Kerrey's .$32.6 million
in cuts should he overridden. The
.Legislature. yyill .take. up .wejTiJe mo
tions at 1:30 p.m. Thirty votes are
needed for the motions to .ucceel.
Warner said the NU programs that
would be lost represent "elimination of
opportunit ies in the state" that Nebras
ka needs.
In a statement Saturday, NU Presi
dent Ronald Roskens said the damage
that would result from Kerrey's cuts
'"will not be quickly or easily repaired."
"The university has historically been
an integral part of our common efforts
to fashion the good life," Roskens said.
"Denying adequate resources to the
university at this juncture may seem an
attractive, short-term option. But it is
one that will inevitably jeopardize the
quality and scope of education availa
ble to our children and grandchildren."
Each of NU's three campuses would
i
Purple' star Avery to -'talk at UNL
Oscar-nominated actress Margaret (
Avery will be the featured speaker '
at the University Programs Council
American Minority Council Honors
Day Program on Saturday.
Avery, nominated for her portrayal
of Shug Avery in 'The Color Purple'
will address a limited audience at
the Wick Alumni Center at 6:30 p.m.
Avery will focus on personal achieve
ment. . .
People interested in attending
must contact the Campus Activities
and Programs office, Nebraska Union
Cuts drain council
By Deb Hooker
Staff Reporter
With NU increasingly strapped for
money, administrators have chosen to
cut programs to improve teaching rather
than cut research or faculty positions,
said the chairman of the teaching
council Friday.
The teaching council, which was a
primary funding source for proposals
that would improve the quality of
teaching, no longer can afford this role,
Books on tape great
for people on the go
Arts and Entertainment, page 9
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have to choose from a list of program
eliminations that the Appropriations
Committee received during the last
fall's special session, Warner said. UNL
would have to find $1.6 million in
further cuts, UNO $417,000 and the NU
Medical Center $1 million, he said.
Possible budget choices for UNL
would include closing the NU School of
Technical Agriculture at Curtis, the
Nebraska State Museum in Morrill Hall
and the Bureau of Business Research.
UNL also could eliminate programming
money for the Nebraska ETV Network
and cut funds for the Bob Devaney
Sports Center and women's athletics.
The people In my
district all of them
can't stand a tax
increase of any
kind.'
: Haberman
Budget-cutting options for UNO in
clude closing its branch development
office and taking more money from
intercollegiate athletics and the Col
lege of Continuing Studies. UNMC would
have to decide whether to close the
College of Pharmacy, the Lincoln div
ision of the School of Nursing, the
Nebraska Psychiatric Institute and the
Meyer Children's Rehabilitation Insti
tute. Kerrey said Thursday that the line
item vetoes, with few exceptions, would
cut every state agency's budget by 2
percent. But that statement distorts
200, to make reservations. One
hundred slots are still available,
and there is no charge for the reser
vations. Tickets wilt be required for
attendance.
Avery has starred in numerous
films, specials and on the stage. In
her most recent role as the lusty
nightclub singer, Avery said playing
the part had tremendous impact on
her own work.
"When I first read the book," she
said, "I immediately identified with
said Chairman James McShane. The
council share of the NU budget has
been cut from $97,130 in the 1977-78
fiscal year to $10,699 for the 1985-86
year. The NU Foundation provided
$12,000 annually for three years, but
that support ended in 1985. McShane,
an associate English professor, said
funding for the improvement of teach
ing is easier to cut than research fund
ing because "innovation and research
is more obviously necessary."
'The university is the research insti
" '
i "V
T1
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
MU yts.
the true effects of the cuts, Warner
said.
"The perception is that 2 percent
(cuts) takes 2 percent out of every
activity," he said. "It doesn't work that
way in any agency. You take it out of
specific activities and try to retain the
quality of what you have left."
The NU Board of Regents would have
the option of using the money meant
for a 3 percent salary increase to fight
the program cuts, Warner said. But
such a strategy, he said, would force
the regents to choose between giving
faculty and staff members raises or
cutting the programs in which they
teach.
Because some senators want to avoid
a tax increase. Warner said, several
probably will vote to sustain the vetoes.
But those who think they can keep
taxes stable should remember the reve
nue shortfalls of the last five years, he
said.
"If the overrides all fail, there wi 11 be
no tax rate adjustment," he said. "It
probably also means we'll be back in
November because the reserves would
be running low."
Imperial Sen. Rex Haberman, who
consistently has voted for budget cuts,
said "there are some things I like and
some things I don't like" in Kerrey's
vetoes. He said he will oppose a tax
increase in any event.
"The people in my district all of
them can't stand a tax increase of
any kind," Haberman said.
After the override votes this after
noon, the Legislature will consider two
bills that would raise tax rates. LB539
would raise the state sales tax, while
LB3 1 probably will be amended to raise
the state income tax, Warner said.
ul admire Shug's spirit," Avery
said, "I'd like to think I have some
of it But she's much freer than I am,
and that's what I had to work the
hardest for in playing the role."
Avery previously starred in two
major biographies of great musi
cians. She was honored with the
NAACP's Image Award for her star
ring performance in the feature film
"Scott Joplin" as the wife of the
premiere ragtime composerpianist.
She also starred opposite Ben Vereen ,
in the title role of "Louis Armstrong,
Chicago Style," a made-for-TV movie.
of funds to improveteaching
tution of the state," he said. ... -
Because the council no longer can
afford to fund proposals, members have
redefined its role to one of a "lever."
"We said, 'Look, give us the best
proposals you can, and we'll try and
find funding for them elsewhere,"'
McShane said.
In the past, the council funded or
partially funded proposals to pay tea
chers to spend a summer putting toge
ther new courses, pay travel expenses,
design programs in which students
Ropin' and wrestlin'
at annual NU rodeo
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Mark OavisOaily Nebraskan
Crockett sits in front of a collection of awards he won for
running marathons. Crockett said that competition gets
easier as he gets older; there's less of it.
UNL sociology professor Harry
Crockett, honored by faculty mem
bers for his devotion to academic
freedom, said he is worried about
deteriorating conditions at U.S. uni
versities conditions that could
erode academic freedom.
Although Crockett worked for the
past three years on the Academic
Freedom and Tenure Committee, he
says "conditions essential to the
exercise of academic freedom at
UNL are not in excellent repair." He
said he advocates more faculty in
volvement in personnel discussions
and "rewards."
Crockett said that despite his
work academic freedom at UNL is
under greater duress today than it
was in 1978, when he was secretary
of the UNL Faculty Senate.
That year, Jim Lake, a UNL law
professor, said he had been at the
university 27 years and had never
seen morale so low, Crockett re
called. On Tuesday, Crockett received
the Lake Academic Freedom Award,
could work on projects with outside
departments and colleges and to re
search ways to improve teaching.
As the number of grants that the
council could afford to fund decreased,
so did the number of requests for
grants. In 1977-78, the council funded
44 of 116 requested grants. This year,
the number dropped to 3 grants out of a
requested 16.
"Why would you ask money from
someone who didn't have any?" Mc
Shane asked.
Vol.85 No. 138
LC ?
7
named for the law professor.
Crockett was co-investigator of a
national study of civil liberties,
which resulted in "Tolerance for
Nonconformity" and is regarded as
a landmark book on the subject.
, Crockett said he has been inter
ested in academic freedom since
his days as a graduate student.
Academic freedom, Crockett said;
is a necessary base for any univer
. sity.
Although he sees no signs of ero
sion of academic freedom at UNL,
that freedom could erode if condi
tions continue to worsen, he said.
Despite his concerns about the
conditions at UNL, Crockett said he
has a "great respect for UNL faculty."
Crockett, a member of the UNL
faculty since 1976, was chairman of
the Committee of Academic Free
dom and Responsibility for the Mid
west Sociological Society from 1974
to 1977. In 1976, he organized an
academic responsibility panel for
the society.
McShane said that as students' tui
tion costs rise and state support de
clines, students have a right to see con
tinued effort to improve teaching.
"I think it's a matter of as long as the
students must bear the added costs,
the administration could find a little
more money to put into the support of
teaching," he said.
"Teaching is the first priority of the
university's responsibilities," he said,
"and the teaching council's budget
should reflect this."
