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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 13, 1987)
Inside: News Digest Page 2 Editorial Page 4 Sports Page 10 Entertainment Page 12 Classified Page 13 WEATHER: Partly sunny and warmer Friday. High near 50. South east wind 5 to 10 mph. Partlycloudy Friday night. Low 25 to 30. Partly cloudy Saturday. High in the upper 403. February 13, 1987 University of Nebraska-Lincoln Vol. 86 No. 102 Agiicmltinnre college losing professors, graduate stiMeints By Christine Anderson Staff Reporter UNL's College of Agriculture faces "times of challenge," says Associate Dean Earl Ellington, and many stu dents and faculty fear the college may suffer. Cuts of more than $411,000 in the past four years have led to compara tively low faculty salaries, vacant teaching positions and the inability to update many buildings. Although the college ranks as one of the nation's top-12 agricultural schools, faculty salaries "are not competitive" with markets in other agricultural col leges, Ellington said. OF THE COLLEGE REPORTS On the average, salaries of UNL's full-time faculty rank 30th out of 41 colleges in the north-central region. UNL animal-science professors rank 10th out of 13 regional colleges, and full-time horticulture professors rank seventh out of nine colleges. Irv Omtvedt, dean of the agricultural research division of the Institute of Agricultural and Natural Resources, said salary levels have "lost ground considerably in the last threeyears" because of budget cuts. The Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources is composed of the College of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Division, Cooperative Exten sion Service, Conservation and Survey Division and International Programs. Omtvedt said that some professors have left because they received better offers from other universities or com panies. These open positions are difficult to fill, he said. "We have to keep positions open longer . . .or not fill them at all," he said. Currently the college has eight vacant positions, and the Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources has about 50. 4 hlfi:!V -V , K Alt; ; llzclti Center's revest for : .7,i3 v.ill 13 t::,:J i:i ccvcril :: i: c:t;cn prc'rcrr.s. Dr. Gerard Fleischli, medical director of tha University Health Center, sdd that there has been a 4 percent increase' in student visit this year over last year. The University Program Council also made an appeal to the CFA for approximately $127,000. Members of the UPC contested that rising performance costs are making it STATE Ellington said professors sometimes are shifted to unfilled positions that are already funded. "This may not be the most fruitful direction to go," Ellington said, "but it meets a need." The agronomy depart ment has lost and will continue to lose professors, he said, partly because many are retiring. Francis Haskins, professor of agron omy, said that the loss concerns faculty and students. With budget cuts, "there's a certain restlessness," he said, "if positions are unfilled. . .students won der if the course they want to take will be taught. . .and professors wonder if their position will be affected." ... Examples of vacant positions in the agronomy department include a soybean-breeding position that has been open for a year and a weed-science position. , "Budget cuts have, resulted in the elimination of some of these positions, and some have been reconstructed," Haskins said. Budget cuts have elimi nated approximately 40 research posi tions, Omtvedt said. These elimina tions are happening at a time when a solid agricultural research program is needed, he said. "There is a greater need to help individuals today," he said, "and there are fewer resources to do it." Budget cuts also have eliminated many graduate-student positions, he said. Many professors are conducting much of their own research. This is detrimental, Omtvedt said, because "graduate students are the key to the future of research programs." "If you lose a pair of hands, less work gets done," Haskins said. As well as a cutback in technicians and graduate students, money is scarce to fund research experiments and to update buildings, he said. Agronomy research technologist Ken Kniep said that budget restrictions have affected equipment purchases. "There are experiments that you simply can't do due to the lack of equipment or money," Kniep said. But he said that grain-storage conditions are his greatest concern. "It's not unusual to get your grain samples months later and find them See AGRICULTURE on 3 - ! : :. . v t t ',!": C It i , 1 .. t... Js ' Uii'J : iiiiifc.u-.i M'vJ ;. Fii i iiIe $. Ccisnuttsd 2.3; '. t : , : :! ; i $2 J,C . $ iD3 miz than A:.-cr.-j tl.c3 CFA ztqzs d;r.:?i C Z'CZ1) for the Executive Crd, C$2,334 for UPC-City, which included an appeal by the Gay Lesthn Programming Council. C$390 for UPC-East Main Events. When asked what he thought of the appeal decisions, CFA voting member Doug Weems said, 'i thought we made appropriate decisions at our first meeting." r if i i if i a f n j Makin 1 tracks Greg Repp takes a short cut to the Coliseum by following the railroad tracks north of Buck Beltzer baseball field. Gasahol industry needed, forum speaker says By Lisa Hoffman Staff Reporter A proposal to mandate gasahol at Nebraska filling stations by 1990 was discussed at an open forum debate Thursday afternoon. The debate, which discussed pros and cons of LB658, was sponsored by Omicron Delta Epsilon, the UNL econ omics honorary. The proposed bill would mandate the inclusion of ethanol in all gasoline sold in Nebraska. Public power districts would be required to finance, construct and operate ethanol plants throughout the state. Money for these plants would be generated by a surcharge on elec trical rates. The bill would also estab lish an ethanol research and develop Safety man 'cleans By Kent Endacott Staff Reporter Earle;Brown is in charge of keeping UNL safe. He handles it all from radiation to asbestos to mercury spills The Friday feature that fo cuses on the offbeat or unex plained on campus. to safety glasses. Dangerous substan ces are part of his healthy life. For. the last several years, Brown almost by himself has monitored asbestos levels in buildings on both campuses, lie uses a device the size of a tape recorder that sucks air in at , '"A A - . 1 Y "A Andrea HoyDaily Nebraskan ment fund in cooperation with NU. Jack Hart, the principal speaker at the event, has spent 30 years with the Lincoln Journal as farm editor, where he was first introduced to the gasahol issue. Hart listed the nation's agricultural crisis, the depiction of the oil reserves and our nation's air pollution problems as reasons to develop the ethanol industry. Hart said ethanol burns cleaner than gasoline, would create a market for grain and would reduce the United States from its dependency on foreign oil. Hart said "Someplace, at some time hopefully in Nebraska there will be a significant ethanol industry." See ETHANOL on 8 about nose level for a day or two. Then the samples are sent to a Colorado lab. So far, the air's tested out well below the recommended levels. But Brown, director of environmen tal health and safety at UNL, doesn't stop there. He also tests solid samples of asbestos, occasionally getting some of those fibers right in his face. It's all in the line of duty. Brown's also the guy they call to clean up when the chemistry depart ment has some mercury floating around from a broken thermometer. Brown has a special vacuum for that purpose. He and his coworkers also test those little microwaves all over campus for radiation leaks. Brown also cooperates with UNL's scientific stores to supply professors and students with safety equipment like lab masks and eyewear. Brown is particularly proud of his protective-eyewear program. Under the program, anybody who needs protec tive, horn-rimmed glasses can put in a Supporters testis at budget jhe&niing By Eric Paulak Staff Reporter Students, faculty, administrators, business persons and a state senator presented their cases for saving two programs from NU President Ronald Roskens' proposed budget cuts to the Ad-hoc Budget Reduction Review Com mittee Thursday. Representatives from the University of Nebraska School of Technical Agri culture at Curtis (UNSTAC) and the Division of Continuing Studies spoke to the 18-member committee and about 60 people on why their program's budgets should not be cut, and in the case of UNSTAC, why it should not be closed down. The College of Agriculture Dean, Ted. E. Hartung, led the presentation on behalf of UNSTAC. He said his prim ary concern with the proposed budget cuts was programs that are not offered anywhere else in the state, except at Curtis, would be eliminated if the cuts are approved. UNSTAC has been faced with elimi nation three times in the last two years, according to UNSTAC Student Senate secretary Kelly Headley. Gerald Huntwork, Director of Aca demic Affairs at UNSTAC, said an aver age of 272 to 317 students enroll each year. This year, he said, 70 people who had enrolled did not start school be cause they didn't know if UNSTAC would remain open. The majority of those people, instead, chose to go to school out of state, Huntwork said. Dr. Everette Stencel, a member of the veterinary technology staff, said a decision on whether to keep UNSTAC or not has to be made now. "I, personally would hate to see it leave. . .but we can't face being closed year after year," Stencel said. UNSTAC offers associate degrees in six fields including Agri-Business, Agriculture Machinery Management, Commerical Horticulture, Production Agriculture, Soil and Water Conserva tion and Veterinary Technology. UNSTAC is the only school in Nebraska that offers Veterinary Tech- See BUDGET on 7 up' UNL request to the UNL Environmental Health and Safety office, and Brown will see that he or she gets a pair. Brown, who has a master's degree in public health from the University of Minnesota, also serves as a trouble shooter. A few years ago, Brown recalled, a group of maintenance workers came to him with a strange problem: a chemical similiar to nail-polish remover, which they were using to remove expoxy from buildings, was melting their gloves. Brown solved the puzzle almost. "Doing a little investigation, we found that the best kind of material was a poly-vinyl-alcohol glove," he said. "It's resistant to xylene, (nail-polish remover contains xylene) but being an alcohol base, it's susceptible to water. "Of course, when they'd get their gloves contaminated with this stuff they'd want to clean it off. They'd go over to the sink and start washing them and their gloves would disappear."