X-tra, X-tra wins
UNL softball tourney
VVEATIIER: Today, mostly sunny
with a high in the mid 80s. Fair
tonight with a low nt-ar (50, No rain
expected until Sunday.
Sports, Page 7
Ponderous pachyderms!
the circus is coming
Arts & Entertainment, Page 6
August 8, 1986
ckroeder joins
By Colleen Kenney
Senior Reporter
Chuck Schroeder will end his job as
the Nebraska Department of Agricul
ture's director Sept. 1 to enter a newly
created job as the University of Nebras
ka Foundation's vice president of the
Ag 2001 project.
The Ag 2001 project is a UNL Insti
tute for Agriculture and Natural Resour
ces plan to improve Nebraska's econ
omy and quality of life by the turn of
the century. Donations of up to $25
million are hoped to be obtained for
funding of agricultural projects and
programs at UNL, said J. Robert Sand
berg, NU Foundation vice president of
gift planning.
Sandberg was the corrdinator of the
Ag 2001 project in additin to his duties
involving gift planning. Now that a new
vice president has been hired, Schroe
der will be able to give the Ag 2001
project "full time leadership," Sand
berg said.
Schroeder said he was approached
Grant lets
UNL link
with super
computer
By Colleen Kenney
Senior Reporter
A $1 million grant from the National
Science Foundat ion will link UNL com
puters with those of seven othermid
western universities by next spring, a
UNL official said Thursday.
Douglas Gale, UNL Computing Re
sources Center director, said the new
"super computer" network would pro
vide students, faculty members and
researchers easy access to information
from other computer-linked univer
sities. The system called MIDnet will be
linked with a national computer net
work of Supercomputing Centers, re
cently established by the NSF to pro
vide scientists throughout the U.S.
access to high-tech computers.
MIDnet will replace the present
computer link up system, BITNET, Gale
said. The old "cumbersom" system
connected UNL with 800 colleges, he
said, but was not as sophisticated as
the MIDnet system.
Other universities in the MIDnet
system include Iowa State University,
Kansas State University, Oklahoma
State University, the University of Kan
sas, Washington University of St. Louis,
the University of Missouri-Columbia
and the University of Oklahoma.
Most of the $1 million grant will pay
for expensive high speed digital com
munication lines, much like telephone
lines but more intricate, said Gale, who
will serve as director of the MIDnet
consortium.
Small interface boxes will be set up
on both UNL campuses, he said.
See COMPUTERS on 5
by NU Foundation officials earlier this
year about the job possibility.
"It was an opportunity that in good
conscience I couldn't walk away from,"
said Schroeder, a farmer from Palisade
and a partner in the Schroeder Cattle
Co.
Schroeder graduated from UNL in
1973 with a major in animal science. He
has been the Dept. of Agriculture
director since March 1985.
Schroeder said the Ag 2001 commit
tee, which in 1984 researched and then
recommended areas that the institute
could improve, was the "most signifi
cant citizen-based program in Nebraska
in years."
The committee was comprised of 150
experts from across Nebraska in agriculture-related
fields, from farmers and
ranchers to bankers and agri-business
people.
Sandberg said the committee was
not a "rubberstamp" for UNL. From its
recommendations, NU Foundation and
Institute for Agriculture and Natural
Resources officials decided what areas
needed outside funding to meet pro
A
Paul VonderlageDaily Nebraskan
A long way down. ...
Lincoln firefighters pull Henry Greenwalt, 66, into an eighth
floor office at Lincoln's National Bank of Commerce, 13th
and O St., after he dangled on a safety line for about 50
minutes Wednesday afternoon. Greenwalt, an NBC mainte
nance engineer, had been inspecting the building for cracks
along with an NBC vice president, Maurice Lange, 43, Bud
Trotter, 42 of Walton and his 17-year-old son, Jeff, when a
cable supporting the scaffold on which the four were stand
ing broke loose about 4 p.m. Greenwalt fell two stories before
being caught by his safety rope.
i kwrtfa
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
NU Ag
jected goals, he said.
About $5.5 million in donations and
pledges have already been awarded to
the institute, Sandberg said.
They include:
O The Energy Conservation Educa
tion fund, $600,000, a program to help
farmers and ranchers learn how to keep
costs down by conserving energy.
The Water Quality Research fund,
$1 million, a program to research the
preservation of underground water in
Nebraska.
O The Outstanding Scholars fund,
$1.5 million, a program that will pro
vide scholarships to undergraduate and
graduate students at UNL t o keep out
standing students in Nebraska.
O The Adult Leadership Programs
fund, $1.25 million, which will promote
UNL programs and provide special pro
grams for adults on agricultural topics.
Out of the 18 broad-purpose funds
yet to be received, Sandberg said some
of the more important funding will go
towards:
O A new food processing center, $2
million, which will add to Nebraska's
t V,
7 f7) Tr;
rri
2001 project
economy by giving more value to pro
cessed raw materials, Sandberg said.
The Distinguished Professorship
fund, $1.9 million, which w ill pay com
petent, professors higher salaries and
provide them with supplemental re
search funds.
The Faculty for the Future fund,
$1.8 million, which will give grants to
junior and intermediate level instruc
tors to upgrade their skills.
The extension staff fellowship,
$ 1 million, which will enable extension
staff members to take time off for
research to improve their knowledge
and skills.
The General Research and Equip
ment fund, $1.8 million.
Farm and Ranch Management
fund, $1.5 million, which will develop
programs to help farmers and ranchers
manage farms more effectively.
O The Youth Leadership and Aware
ness Programs fund, $1.5 million, which
will try to make high school students
more aware of agriculture-related jobs
available in Nebraska.
By Colleen Kenney
Senior Reporter
Willa Cather cared about rela
tionships with friends, at least that's
what a recently discovered, hand
written note by Cather emphasizes,
UNL English professor Susan Ros
owski said.
Rosowski, a Cather expert, said
she has no doubt that a letter
uncovered July 22 in a Lincoln home
was written by the famous Nebraska
author.
Cat her was 23 when she wrote the
letter to her Lincoln friend Marie!
Gere in 1896. In the letter, Cather
inquires about a friend named
Katharine in Montana who seems to
be ignoring her. Cather writes that
she is becoming impatient with that
friend, who had slighted her before,
and asks for her whereabouts,
The letter was signed "Willa."
The contents of Gather's personal
writings cannot be printed because
of stipulations in her will, Rosowski
said.
Greg McClure found the letter in
a box among newspaper articles
written in 1967 about Willa Gather,
McClure, an employee of Lincoln's
Ficke and Ficke Auctioneers, had
been going through boxes at the
Grace Solan residence, 2228 So,
15th St., when he found the letter.
Don Ficke, a partner in the corn
pir.v, s;iw the letter next.
. "it was a thrill Ficke said. Tve
seen a lot of things in this business
but this is the first Willa Cather
letter we've found."
Ficke said the letter was on
unlined paper yellowed from age,
and in poor condition. All the words
but one were legible, he said.
The Cather letter will be auctioned
Vol. 85 No. 171
3
Linda StoryDaily Nebraskan
Charles Schroeder raises a
symbolic toast to his past,
with the State Department of
Agriculture, and to the future,
as vice president of the NU
Foundation, effective Sep
tember 1.
Friday afternoon at the Grae Bolan
residence, The Bolan estate auction
begins at noon and the Cather let ter
wil l be put up for bid around 3 p.m.,
Ficke said.
The letter, matted and framed for
protection, will probably sell for
$200 to $400, Ficke said.
Rosowski said the short note will
not make a significant difference in
understanding Gather's life.
"It's just one more piece in
understanding Willa," she said. "But
the question is raised: How many
other pieces exist?"
Rosowski said the letter is clearly
Gather's style, and handwriting. The
letter had a Pittsburgh return
address. She worked there as man
aging editor for Home Mont hly mag
azine at that time.
Katharine's last name is not
known, but many letters from Cather
to Gere exist, Rosowski said.
The correspondence is well-documented
and stems from their
friendship while Cather attended
UNL from 1890 to 1895.
Ficke said the letter probably
came from an auction in the early
1960s of a direct Gere family des
cendant Parts of the Gere library
were bought then by the late Gladys
Gere, Grace's sister.
Mariei Gere was the daughter of a
Gere who owned the Lincoln Jcur
' nal where Cather worked as a drama
critic snd essayist during her col
lege years, Cather was good friendes
with the Gere family, Rosowski said.
The letter had no envelope but
was dated October 4, 1886, Rosowski
said that in Calher's youth she usu
ally write such a date line but as she
grew into midlife she left it out or
only wrote the day or the month.
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