Students unprepared
New economics missings ag expert says
By Dave Weber
Staff Reporter
Students today are ill-equipped to
understand the complexities of glo
balized agricultural trade, said Ed
ward Schuh, director of agriculture
and rural development for the World
Bank in Washington, D.C.
Schuh encouraged about 100 fac
ulty, students, administrators and
other citizens Wednesday afternoon
to change the current curriculum di
rection to one more relevant to the
needs of today’s economic picture.
“1 think we’ve wasted an inordi
nate amount of students’ time and I
don’t know why they put up with it,”
Schuh said during a seminar in Plant
'Our students know
precious little about
the cultures in other
parts of the world.'
—Schuh
Science Hall on the University of
Nebraska-Lincoln East Campus.
“We need to go back to the drawing
board,’’Schuh said. “We don’t need
five courses in farm management.”
Rapid changes in the international
economy have resulted in a great
knowledge gap, he said.
“When we loaned Brazil $500
million, uninformed lobbyists raised
their voices in protest, although we
made $4.3 million and that Brazil has
traditionally provided very high sub
sidies to its farmers.”
Schuh said he left the University of
Minnesota three years ago for the
World Bank.
The bank has provided $19.5 bil
lion in farm loans worldwide this year
and has had an 87 percent return rate,
he said. The World Bank is a branch of
the Department of Agriculture, estab
lished after World War II to provide
loans to eligible countries as well as a
list of consultants available.
UNL has been represented in
Morocco for the last four years be
cause of Nebraskans’ expertise in dry
crop production.
David Keith, an extension ento
mologist, was chosen in July to live in
Morocco because of his expertise with
the Hessian fly, to replace the previ
ous agricultural engineer there, said
Doug Jose, a professor of agricultural
economics.
Keep on cruisin';
Big finish coming
for Homecoming
By I Rood
Staff Reporter
Activities for this year’s Home
coming, “Cruisin’ Through the
Years,” will continue with a parade
and pep rally today and a party on the
plaza Saturday.
The parade will begin at 6:30 p.m.
and will march through downtown
Lincoln. It will return to City Campus
in time to start a pep rally in front of the
Nebraska Union at 7:30 p.m.
KFRX will broadcast live from the
pep rally. Featured guests include the
UNL Marching Band, the Nebraska
Yell Squad, some Nebraska football
players and the Homecoming Roy
alty.
If it rains, the pep rally will be
moved into the Nebraska Union, said
Heidi Bergmeyer, Homecoming
committee chairperson.
Saturday’s “On the Plaza Pep
Rally” will be emceed by John
Bergmeyer, second vice president of
ASUN. The Women’s Chorale, Var
sity Men’s Glee Club, Yell Squad,
Scarlet and Cream, and the winners of
Wednesday night’s talent show will
perform. Royalty candidates will be
introduced again.
The pep rally will begin at 10:30
a.m. and continue until noon.
Kick off for the Nebraska-Kansas
Stale game is set for 1:30 p.m. The
Homecoming king and queen will be
announced at halftime.
Don Hutchens, assistant director of
the Nebraska Com Board, said UNL
doesn’t offer courses in global agri
culture. After farming for 14 years, he
recognized the importance of interna
tional agricultural trade and finance.
“The first thing you do is to look to
sec what the university offers in inter
national trade and finance,” Hutchens
said. “I found nothing.”
“What is important to me is that we
look at the international sector and
ask, ‘How docs the international trade
policy affect the Nebraska pro
ducer?’” Hutchens said. He added that
the university should take advantage
of foreign students who understand
the political and social environments
of their country.
Azzeddinc Azzam, assistant pro
fessor of agricu Itural cconom ics, said,
“Sometimes we’re guilty of needing a
quick solution to problems that re
quire long-range research. Graduate
students could be taken out of the
university payroll and be paid by the
commodity board money to provide
those short-term answers to specific
problems.”
Schuh said, “Our students know
precious little about the cultures in
other parts of the world. Our citizenry
is also economically illiterate. They
don’t understand that, with flexible
exchange rates, it is very difficult to
dump domestic economic problems
abroad.”
He also cited a lack of understand
ing of Marxist thought and knowledge
of U.S. history as weaknesses of land
grant colleges.
“Financial markets are driving the
commodity markets, affecting the
price of financial markets to affect
exchange rates,” he said.
Schuh said he’s astonished that
people in power understand the cur
rent economics system so poorly.
“How can we expect our citizenry
to understand it?” he said.
This was the first in a scries of four
sem inars designed to give members of
the search committee for a new direc
tor of the agriculture economics de
partment a belter chance to under
stand their needs. The other seminars
will be on Thursday afternoons in the
East Union. Bill Miller, the previous
department director, left in July.
The search for a replacement ends
Dec. 18, and interviews will begin
early next year, said Dr. Larry Bitney,
professor of agricultural economics
and chairman of the search commit
tee.
“I think these seminars will help to
find the direction that this department
ought to be going,” he said.
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