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News Digest . . Pago 2
Editorial Page 4
Sports Page 9
Entertainment
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March 18, 1987
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Vol. 86 No. 125
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Cloudy with a 40 percent chance of
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Mostly cloudy Thursday, high 47.
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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.
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'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.
