1 News Digest . . Pago 2 Editorial Page 4 Sports Page 9 Entertainment Classified . Page 7 Page 11 March 18, 1987 University of Nebraska-Lincoln Vol. 86 No. 125 . JATII VJl: An BO pcroint chat ice . f h'jht ram today with a !u;;li noar and noitho.'i-it vvinris 15 2'i mph. Cloudy with a 40 percent chance of l:ht tain tonight, low around 35. Mostly cloudy Thursday, high 47. .- r-i 1 V. ! iJ ) V I I Vs. : VD n nr Cl -fen TTT) "' ' ... "r f f s . w V " " : - ' ' s V.- H ' - - A I : ; - i - 1 1 4 i V . i -- ... .... .,.....,. .. ... Student-fee smrplns grows Debt service can't be lowered despite $6.2 million excess By Michael Hooper Senior Reporter Andrea HoyDaily Nebraskan Mark T. Landgren and Mary Jo Rogic withstand the cold wind and rain while participating in the Phi Gamma Delta and Pi Beta Phi pole-sit philanthropy project Tuesday. The project calls for 100 sitting hours, and the money raised will be donated to the Humane Society. Student-fee surpluses have grown to $6.2 mil lion, but UNL is not attempting to overcharge students, two UNL officials said. Jack Goebel, vice chancellor of business and finance, said keeping the fund at $6.2 million is good financial management. Goebel's assistant, Kim Phelps, explained that the surplus comes from two sources: residence-hall revenue and a portion of student fees. Each semester a full-time student pays about $105 in student fees, and $18 of that goes toward retiring revenue bonds that were issued for the construction of buildings such as Cather and Pound residence halls. Phelps said that after bond payments are made with those two sources of money, the rest of the fees goes into the surplus fund. Phelps said the fund will grow to $6.4 million by the end of the semester. Currently, UNL officials hope to borrow $3.5 million from the surplus fund for the proposed student recreation center and indoor practice field. The money will be paid back through a $3.50 surcharge on general-admission football tickets. The Nebraska Legislature has yet to approve the proposal. The main reason for the surplus, Goebel said, is that when the bond agreements were made in the late 1960s, occupancy projections for the residence halls were low, and since more stu dents have chosen to live in the halls than expected, there has been some extra revenue. "The (surplus) gives some great comfort to the bond holders because it's sitting there and it's available to meet installments if, for some reason, that we can't pay it," Goebel said. He said, however, there has always been suffi cient money to pay off the bonds. While the surplus has grown over several years, Phelps said he doubted that the $18 debt service charge in student fees could be lowered. The original bond agreement would not allow the NU Board of Regents to reduce the $18 figure for debt service, Phelps said. Phelps said that under the bond agreements, money can only be borrowed from the surplus fund for new buildings that would enhance stu dent life, such as the student recreation center. If an existing building, such as Cather Hall, needed renovation or repair, Phelps said, the surplus fund could be used to pay for it and it wouldn't have to be paid back. When the University Health Center was reno vated last year, money from the surplus fund was used to pay for the renovation, Phelps said. How ever, when a new project such as the recreation center is planned, the money borrowed from the surplus fund must be paid back, according to the provisions of the bond agreements.. When the proposal to borrow money from the surplus fund exceeds $100,000, Phelps said, the proposal needs legislative approval. Jim Griesen, vice chancellor for student affairs, has said that the surplus fund should be kept at a minimum of $2 million. Phelps agreed that was a reasonable figure. 'The (surplus) gives some great comfort to the bond holders because it's sitting there and it's available.' Goebel Phelps said that by the year 2001, the bonds will be paid off and the surplus-fund account, currently in the custody of a trustee at FirsTier Bank of Lincoln, would be turned over to the NU Board of Regents, who then would decide what to do with the money. ASUN President Chris Scudder said ASUN has no plans to borrow surplus-fund money. But she said she was glad it was available to help build the recreation center; If someone proposed a project that would be for students and would pay for itself, Scudder said, it might be possible to borrow some of the money in the surplus fund. She said it would be nice if students had access to the fund, but that won't be possible until 2001, when the revenue bonds expire. By that time she said, she hopes students have some input on how the money is spent since some of it comes from students fees. Nebraska Union's hanking machines have most transactions in Lincoln By Linda Holmes Staff Reporter The automated teller machines (ATM) in the Nebraska Union have the highest volume of transactions in Lincoln, said Gordon Shupe, assistant vice president in the electronic banking department at Lincoln's National Bank of Commerce. Shupe said the transactions at the Nebraska Union are run well over the break-even point for most machines, which is 5,000 a month. Shupe said there are about 80 ATMs in Lincoln that take about 5,000 tran sactions a month, but the union ma chines make well over 5,000. He refused to name exact numbers. The number of machines in the city is at a saturation level, Shupe said. "Eighty ATMs is high in number for the population in Lincoln," he said. Shupe said about 15 Lincoln banks participate in an automated-teller network. The Nebraska Bank Association formed the Nebraska Electronic Sys tem, or NETS, to introduce a "shared environment," Shupe said. The system, he said, enables customers from one bank to use their cards in machines from other banks. Banks charge other banks for the service, Shupe said. Some banks pass the fee on to the ATM users, he said. Others, like NBC, spread the cost out to all customers. See RELATED STORY on 6 ASUN run-off election today for second vice-president Polling sites for today's run-off election for ASUN second vice pres ident will be the Nebraska Union, the East Union, Hamilton Hall and The Walter Scott Engineering Cen ter. They will be open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. AIM party's second-vice-presidential candidate Michelle Ardis and UNITE party's second-vice-presidential candidate John Bergmeyer are the two candidates. In last week's ASUN election, Bergmeyer took an unofficial 1,213 votes to Ardis' 953. The run-off election is needed be cause Bergmeyer did not win by more than 10 percent of the total vote; 3,163 students voted. Both a photo and student ID are needed to vote. Students who do not have a photo ID should go to the ASUN office, Nebraska Union 115, for verification to vote. 1 ( 'Blinking' getting costly, speakers say By Kip Fry and Jen Deselms Staff Reporters Water was on the clothes and hair of Lincoln residents and on the mind&of participants at the Nebraska Water Conference on East Campus Tuesday. Participants in the two-day con ference will hear speakers address the topic of this year's meeting, "Nebraska's Water Future: Market ing and Policy Option." William Klostermeyer, assistant commissioner for administration for the U.S. Bureau ofReclamation, said in an afternoon conference that ris ing costs have led to a decrease in dam construction which could hurt the quantity and distribution of water. "We must increase the quantity and effective distribution of water and at the same time we must steadily increase the quality of water we provide," which is primarily for drinking, Klostermeyer said. He said the Bureau is looking to Congress for funds to help the situa tion and in the meantime, working on fewer projects. However, the lighter workload has meant an increase in quality dams being built, he said. While the Bureau is not planning to cancel any of the current con tracts to build dams, it is looking for ways to allocate funding within the Bureau itself. Later in the conference session speakers discussed the future of Nebraska's groundwater policies. While surface water policies are imbedded in the state constitution, groundwater politices are not and remain ever changing, several speak ers said. A long term policy to protect water resources would cost a great deal of money, said Robert Raun, a Minden farmer. The federal govern ment might provide better protec tion for people through water pro grams than some of the arms that the federal government is financing, Raun said. The cost for quality water gener ally comes from agriculture related sources, even though it is for the good of the general public, said Bryce Neidig, President of the Nebraska Farm Bureau Federation. While water is necessary for all peo ple, the public is reluctant to finance water programs, he said. Water will continue to increase in importance, Raun said. He told participants not to give up in their struggle for improved water policies.