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I _ Jl MiL/JL mULJL wL I Classified.Page 15
October 8, 1987___University of Nebraska-Lincoln_ ' Vol. 87 No. 31
Curtis officials await Gov. Orr’s decision
By Bob Nelson
Staff Reporter
Officials and students at the Ne
braska College of Technical Agricul
ture at Curtis will have to wait a little
longer to find out what will happen to
their school.
Gov. Kay Orr said in a news confer
ence Wednesday that she would an
nounce her decision on the fate of the
college in about 10 days.
Gerald Huntwork, associate direc
tor of the Curtis school, said adminis
Itrifa ■ - -*r - ^ -- ~r Ttt7 Hi iW
trators and students need a decision
from Orr as soon as possible.
“There’s a tremendous amount of
frustration out here,” Huntwork said.
Huntwork said they must know the
fate of the school so they can begin
informing high school students inter
ested in attending the Curtis school.
He said high school students have to
start making decisions on where they
will attend college.
“We realize it’s a tremendous
decision for her,” Huntwork said. He
said the school needs a decision soon,
though, and hopes it is a positive one.
The lagging attendance at Curtis
had also been blamed on indecision on
the fate of the Curtis school. The
school ’s attendance has dropped from
an average of about 300 students to
158 during the 1986-87 school year
and 58 students for the 1987-88 school
year.
The search for money to finance
the Curtis school began after the col
lege was eliminated by the NU Board
of Regents last spring. The school was
dropped in an effort to scale down the
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university’s budget. Last spring On
vetoed a legislative bill that would
have appropriated money to keep the
school open for two years, but she
allowed it to remain open this year.
A meeting of a committee to dis
cuss proposals for the fate of the Curtis
school was held Friday in Grand Is
land.
In another education related topic,
Orr said in the press conference she
would like to get away from calling
this year "the year of education." On
said there doesn't appear to be any
additional money for education ex
cept for the $4 million proposed for
research at the University of Ne
braska-Lincoln.
“We’ll have to wait for this econ
omy to produce those dollars,” On
said.
She said that even without extra
financing, education can improve in
the state.
“It shouldn’t be equated that the
only way we can assisteducation is the '
additional infusion of tax dollars,” On
said.
Butch Ireland/Daily Nebraskan
Jeanne Tsai, a UNL research associate for food science and technology, holds a sample of
cultivated oyster mushroom. Oyster mushrooms, grow in straw and newspapers, and are
the second popular mushroom In Europe. See Mushrooms on page 3.
Wanted: Opinions on AIDS
Last year the Daily Nebraskan had
an open forum on the anniversary of
the Roe vs. Wade abortion decision.
The response was overwhelming.
With the recent controversy about
AIDS, the DN has planned another
open forum in conjunction with its
Sower supplement. On Tuesday, the
DN will run letters from readers re
sponding to the following questions:
• Should children with AIDS be al
lowed to attend public schools?
• Should health-care professionals
undergo mandatory testing for AIDS?
If they test positive, what conse
quences should they face? Should the
test results be made public?
Please center your letter on only
one of the questions. Drop off letters at
the DN front desk, Nebraska Union
34. Show identification to the secre
tary when you leave the letter. Dead
line is Friday at noon.
Financial aid petition
stirs ASUN debate
By Lee Rood
Staff Reporter
Emotions were stirred at AS UN’s
senate meeting Wednesday night over
a petition drive started by a first- year
law student because of student com
plaints about the Office of Scholar
ships and Financial Aid.
Dave Regan, the law student who
started the drive, asked senators to
endorse the petition and discuss form
ing an investigative committee later
on, to research problems within the
financial aid office.
Regan said he started the petition
after he heard several complaints from
students about delays in the process
ing of their financial aid packages,
lack of assistance, and unnecessary
late fees.
The petition includes a space for
students to voice specific complaints
and problems they have had in dealing
with the financial aid office, Regan
said.
Regan said university officials
have acknowledged problems within
the office, but have been slow in react
ing.
“As the Financial Aid Director
(William McFarland) has graciously
indicated, the administration is acting
slowly on this matter. They have gone
as far as to identify some of the
office’s problems, but they haven’t
made a priority of solving these prob
lems ... we’re going to have to make
some noise.”
Several senate members said they
believed in what Regan wasdoing.but
criticized his lack of organization and
the manner in which he was dealing
with the problem.
After discussing other business,
senators chose not to discuss the peti
tion and adjourned.
After some senators had left, Re
gan asked to reconvene the meeting
and take a straw poll for support of the
petition.
Before the unofficial poll, ASUN
President Andy Pollock asked Vice
Chancellor for Student Affairs James
Griesen to comment.
Griesen said the university is al
ready “painfully aware” of the prob
lems within theoffice,butencouraged
senate members to support the univer
sity in dealing with the problems.
“The last thing we need is an inves
tigative committee to come in and
take staff time they desperately need
to help students,” Griesen said.
Despite major cuts in federal aid,
lack of staff and space, Griesen said
the financial aid office has done con
siderably well.
Steps were being taken to alleviate
some of the problems, he said.
Regan then withdrew his request
for the poll, but said he will continue
to get signatures and come to the next
meeting to sec what was being done.
Before the senate adjourned the
second lime, Sen. Pete Castellano
complained about the effectiveness of
recent ASUN activities and said he
foresees criticism of the senate.
“I think ASUN has stopped being
an effective voice for students,” he
said.
Castellano said he was disap
pointed because a student had come to
ASUN for help and senators were
unable to help him. Little was accom
plished in the meeting, he said.
President Andy Pollock agreed
that ASUN has to be an effective voice
for the students.
“If we’re here, that’s one thing,” he
said, “but if we’re doing something,
that’s another.”
UNL ag professors span the globe
By Kip Fry
Staff Reporter
Farming isn’t just an industry in
America’s bread basket, according to
several professors from the University
of Nebraska Lincoln College of Agri
cultur< who have traveled to countries
around the world to assist in agricul
ture.
Instructors have traveled to coun
tries like Morocco, Israel and Costa
Rica. Another instructor plans to go to
Kenya on sabbatical next year.
Darrell Watts, professor of agri
cultural engineering, has spent the
last five years in Settat, Morocco,
directing the Dryland Research Cen
ter.
The center conducts research to
make belter use of the limited water
and soil resources of the region,
which is similar to Nebraska, western
Kansas and Oklahoma, Watts said.
The main difference between
Morocco and the Midwest, Watts
said, is that Morocco’s productivity is
extremely low. While Moroccans
consume 7 million tons of cereal a
year, they only produce between
4 1/2 and five tons each year.
The project is designed to develop
an applied research capability, Watts
said, so Moroccans can improve pro
ductivity.
“We’re not able to feed them, but
we can help them get closer to it,” he
said.
Watts became director of the cen
ter in the fall of 1982 after its incep
tion in the spring of 1981.
Walts said one of the primary
problems with Moroccan agriculture
is the Hessian fly, a “miserable bug”
which deposits larvae on wheat. Tne
larvae then either destroy the plant or
reduce its capability to make grain.
Scientists at the center developed
a variety of wheat with resistance to
the fly. Researchers were aided by a
strain of wheat in the United States
that is resistant to the fly.
However, Watts said, the genes
won’t appear in Moroccan wheat for
10 to 12 years.
Nebraska may benefit from this
research as much as Morocco, he
said, because this wheat also can be
introduced here.
Nebraska agricultural knowledge
also will travel to Costa Rica. Earl
Ellington, associate dean of the Col
lege of Agriculture, visited the site of
a new college near San Jose, Costa
Rica, last April.
UNL joined forces with California
Polytechnic State University in San
Luis Obispo and Rutgers University
in New Jersey to create the Costa
Rican institution.
“In the past, we have done re
search and service,” Ellington said.
“With this, we build an institution.
We’re trying to be helpful in an inter
national situation.”
Although no buildings have been
built, a 7,000-acre plantation has
been purchased for the college in an
area between the cast coast and the
mountain ridge where San Jose is,
Ellington said. The region is very
productive and is used primarily for
grain crops, bananas, coffee, vege
tables and macadamia nuts. Poultry,
sheep, goats and cattle arc also raised
there.
Ellington said the project is still in
its embryonic stages. He visited the
site in April to lake care of adminis
trative duties. The college should
begin operation in 1990, he said.
Once the college begins instruc
tion, students from UNL will be able
to study there, which might lead to
employment there, Ellington said.
Gary Anderson, research patholo
gist for the department of veterinary
science, visited Israel in June, initiat
ing a scientific dialogue with Israeli
scientists and “throwing out some
ideas about common agricultural
problems between Israel and the
U.S.," he said.
See FARMING on 3