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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (March 5, 1987)
II l)yflWS( News Digest , . P2-3 2 Editorial PS33' 4 Sports Page 14 Diversions Pags 5 Calendar Pag:? 13 Classified Page 14 March 5, 1987 University of Nebraska-Lincoln Vol. 86 No. 116 WEATHEIi; Thursday, sunny and warmer, High in the 70s. South east wind 5 to 1 0 rnph. Mostly clear Thursday night with the low in the upper 30s. Mostly sunny and warm Friday. High in the lowerto mid-703. t Tl My f ) ( r H -1 X . v v. 5 ; i . -yy "yj7 " - I '"'1 V ' NU officials request foi By Michael Hooper Senior Reporter ' . At a legislative budget hearing Wednesday, NU officials asked for more support for university library systems, recommended the closing of the Lincoln Division of the Col lege of Nursing, and recommended, if necessary, a tuition increase to preserve the quality of NU programs. , While university officials were divided over the tuition increase, they seemed to agree on the closing of the Lincoln Division of the Col lege of Nursing and on the need for more support for the university library systems. Regent Margaret Robinson noted the need for automation in libraries and information system. "If faculty are the heart of a uni versity, the library in a very real sense is its soul," Robinson said. Cutting the Lincoln Division of the College of Nursing would help make up for the $3.1 mllion budget cut the Legislature made during the December special session, NU Pres ident Ronald Roskens has said. Since the three NU nursing pro grams have had to compete against other medical center campus pro grams, UNMC chancellor Charles Andrews recommended the closure of the Lincoln division. In addition, Andrews said UNMC could possibly use the Lincoln division's resources to finance its nursing program in Scottsbluff. If the Lincoln Division were closed, Andrews said he would consult with the dean and notify the students accepted in the program to give them the opportunity to enroll in UNMC's nursing program. He said he also would try to bring the Lin coln faculty to Omaha. To keep other programs healthy, Roskens said, "we are willing in these difficult times to consider a tuition increase in order to preserve the quality of our programs and to meet additional vital needs." But, UNL Chancellor Martin Mas- Paul VonderlageDaily Nebraskan Roskens 6 sengale said students cannot afford a tuition increase. At UNL, he said, tuition for an uii-'irgraduate Ne braska resident has increased 65.1 percent since the 1980-81 academic year. The increase at UNO was 57 percent and tuition for a first-year Nebraska resident medical student at UNMC has increased 144.5 percent. "I believe that we cannot con tinue to ask our students to shoulder a disproportionate share of the costs of their education," Massengale said. NU officials also asked that the Legislature appropriate its general fund request of $177.6 million with out earmarking where the funds would go. Roskens said that if the Legislature appropriates the funds in one single sum, the NU Board of Regents and administration would have flexibility to place the funds where they are most critically needed. Gov. Kay Orr has recommended a $167.2 million budget for fiscal 1987-88, and the Appropriations Committee has placed $161.5 mil lion in its preliminary budget re quests for the university. Massengale said that at UNL there are 10.3 faculty to one execu tive administrator, which is low compared to the ratio at Iowa State 2.97 faculty to one administrator. Sen. Sandy Scofield of Chadron, , an Appropriations Committee mem ber said that she "was encouraged," to hear the ratio of 10.3 faculty to one administrator. She said that was a fair ratio. Allen Blezek, UNL's Faculty, Senate president, who was repres enting the faculty senates from UNO and UNMC, said faculty members are leaving the university because of low salaries, inadequate facilities and equipment and job insecurity. "Faculty are saying, Will my depart ment, division or college be next to be considered for elimination?' " Blezek said. Roskens said he supported elim See HZARi JG on 3 ASUNS By Merry Hayes Staff Reporter The ASUN Senate Wednesday voted to cut funds entirely for the Nebraska State Student Association and to expand the budget of the Government Liaison Committee in a bill appropriating stu dent fees to fee users. Sen. Paul Reynolds said NSSA, which lobbies on behalf of state colleges and the University of Nebraska, "has not and does not have any chance in best serving our needs." Despite poor pay, equipment, engineering morale is high By Colleen Kenney Staff Reporter UNL's College of Engineering and Technology balances on a ful crum. On one side are underpaid faculty members, aging equipment and inadequate budget allocations; on the other, prestigeous faculty members, increased private fundings and suc cessful recruiting. UNL's mission as a land-grant uni versity is the fulcrum: to always provide quality engineering instruction in Nebraska. Dean Stan Liberty and several faculty members and students said the mis sion is holding steady despite univer sity budget restraints. There is no question we are getting stonger all the time," Liberty said. The engineering college has main tained its quality teaching and research programs, improved recruiting efforts for top high-school students and doubled private funding in the last six years, he said. "If our image went, we wouldn't be able to do it," Liberty said. But the college is about three years behind the schedule Liberty had in mind in 1981 when he came to UNL. The reason: inadequate state funding. The college's teaching and researching aspects, which have kept it in the top one-third of engineering colleges nation wide, are threatened by budget con straints that are not keeping pace with the need for state-of-the-art technology and adequately paid instructors, Lib erty said. For example, budget restraints have forced the agricultural engineering department on East Campus to do without a robotic machine and a Texas Instrument computer system, said Bill Splinter, department head. The robotic equipment broke down five years ago and the computer system broke down two years ago, Splinter said. Agricultural engineering, like other departments, has not been able to pay for contract maintenance for its equipment because funding is "ex tremely limited," he said. "If something goes wrong, we just have to abondon it," he said. But overall, engineering has not suf fered as much as other UNL colleges, Liberty said. Through private funds and research grants, the college has become some what self-supporting and is better able to cushion its programs from budget reductions, he said. The regents like to see that, he said. "We're not apt to come on the chop ping block because of the fact that today technology is the driving force of the economy," Liberty said. "If Nebraska is going to improve its economic situa tion, it needs the educational base of a strong engineering program." Last year, the college's state-sup -A. emace-ems ASUN President Chris Scudder said in recent lobbying efforts for the stu dent regent vote, the recreation center and the university's budget, NSSA was not needed. She said the lobbying efforts for UNL should come from UNL's campus and not NSSA. She said NSSA can't effec tively represent both state colleges and the uniersity because the two body's have different interests. She said paid lobbyists are never as effective as students who lobby at the Legislature on their own time. ported allocation of $5 million was cut by $30,000. The cut was a "very small" percentage of what other UNL colleges were cut, Liberty said, but still reduced the college's flexibility. Although the college is seeing "a richness of activity" now in the area of faculty research and publication, the college needs about three more faculty members in electrical engineering to cope with enrollment stress, Liberty said. There are 91 faculty members now. Liberty said stress from high enroll ments and limited resources forced the college to restrict the number of stu dents admitted. The restrictions began in 1983 when there were 2,523 engi neering students; this year there are 1,666 students. - - - THE The college's largest department, electrical engineering, went from 491 students in 1983 to 448 this year. The department has 20 faculty members. Mechanical engineering, the second largest department, went from 361 stu dents to 276. Mechanical engineering has 17 faculty members. Other engineering degree programs are in the departments of chemical engineering, civil engineering, indus trial engineering and computer science. There is also a graduate program and the School of Technology at UNO. Although restrictions have cut total enrollment in these departments, tfre academic potential of the students increased, Associate Dean Morris Schneider said. The average composite ACT score of entering freshmen increased fom 26.2 to 27.2, Schneider said. Liberty said 20 percent of freshmen engineering students now have an ACT score higher than 30. , Liberty said college has been able to attract top Nebraska high-school grad uates through privately funded scho larships, including the $1 million Wal ter Scott, Jr. Scholarship, which awards six or seven incoming freshmen $3,000 a year. Matt Langemeier, an electrical engineering junior, received the Scott scholarship in 1984. Langemeier said he had considered several engineering schools besides UNL, but the scholar ship offer "clinched it." Langemeier said the college has good laboratories and teachers and a "solid" curriculum. "I don't really know if there are many weaknesses except for lack of funding," he said. COIvIiEGdi .1 rams Sen. Doug Weems said he talked to an aide of State Sen. Dave Landis who said if UNL pulled out of NSSA, "prob ably nobody would notice." Sen. Camile Castellano encouraged the senate to compromise by upholding the Committee for Fees Allocation's recommendation of increasing GLC's budget and giving NSSA a one-year probation period. Steve Linenberger, the new NSSA director, told the senate, "all I want is one damn year." But while state dollar support for the college has been "inadequate," Liberty said, alumni contributions and other private-sector donations have doubled since 1981, adding $2.5 million to the college's base budget of about $5.5 million. Liberty said updating equipment, strengthening the graduate program and funding faculty research projects are priorities for any extra money. An engineering college's prestige is based on published faculty research and its graduate program, he said. Unlike other UNL colleges, Liberty said, private funds have supported engineering faculty travel. "Our faculty is able to research, pub lish and go out to speak about what 1 they are doing," he said. "All this is exposing our research capabilities to the rest of the world." The result of the publicity is evident, Liberty said. Despite relatively low salaries, the college is "finding it easy" to hire successful engineering teachers at a time when other engineering col leges struggle, he said. Last year's salaries for the college's 51 professors and 51 associate profes sors averaged $40,361, which was $3,578 below the $43,939 national average, statistics indicate. Despite the lower salaries, Liberty said many engineer professors are attracted to UNL because of its research emphasis. Since 1981, nearly one-third of the current faculty members, one depart ment chairman and an associate dean (Schneider) have been hired. Last year the college was fully staffed for the first time in 15 years, Liberty said. "Anytime you have that quantity of personnel come in, that changes things quite a bit," he said. The graduate program is improving, Liberty said, mostly because more scholarship money is given to graduate . students. Liberty said the number of full-time graduate students has doubled during the last six years. This year there are 301 full- and part-time gradu ate students. Liberty said student and faculty morale is high despite "very weak" state support for the college. "Our resources for instruction and research are very inadequate," he said. "A college of this size should plan on a half a million dollars a year as a min imum for the replacement of equip ment. I would say we probably hit only $250,000 a year." Splinter said agricultural engineer ing's effectiveness has been lowered by limited funding. Several years ago, Splinter said, the ag-engineering de partment was in the top 10 percent of similar departments nationwide but now is just in the top one-third. Since the 1984 renovation of L W. Chase Hail, which houses ag engineer ing, the department has been unable See ENGir:ni?IG on 3