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Weather: Tuesday, sunny and mild,
high in the mid to upper 60s, winds from
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cold, low in the mid to upper 30s.
Wednesday, sunny, high near 70.
Air Force ROTC
closings postponed
Officials to re-assess programs in 1990
By Anne Mohri
Senior Reporter
U.S. Air Force officials an
nounced Monday they will delay until
1990 their decision to close or con
solidate nearly 40 university Air
Force ROTC programs, including
one at the University of Nebraska
Lincoln.
Carol Lawrence, press secretary
for Rep. Doug Bcreuter’s Washing
ton office, said Bcreuter, R-Neb.,
received a letter from Col. Timothy
Titus, chief of the Program Liaison
Division of the Office of Legislative
Liaison at the Pentagon, with the
announcement
“After further scrutiny, the secre
tary of the Air Force has decided to
postpone the current plans of closure
and consolidation,” Titus wrote.
After two years, the Air Force will
re-evaluate the ROTC programs us
ing the same criteria as before, Law
rence said, and the two-year post
ponement gives the programs suffi
cient notice of when the next evalu
ation will be and time to meet the
criteria.
She said Bcreuter has talked with
several Air Force officials since the
Air Force’s decision to close UNL’s
program in January.
Bereuter is concerned about the
use of the same criteria in 1990 be
cause of their emphasis on the size of
the ROTC program instead of the
academic quality, Lawrence said.
Susan Olson, legislative assistant
to Bcreuter in Washington, said
Bereuter, along with Rep. Virginia
Smith, Rep. Hal Daub and Sen. David
Karnes — members of Nebraska’s
Republican congressional delegation
— wrote a letter to the Air Force
discussing the criteria. The letter said
the criteria were unfair and unrepre
sentative of the quality of UNL’s
program, she said.
Olson said UNL’s ROTC program
was ranked high, and Bereuter em
phasized that the program had qual
ity, especially in the engineering
program.
Lt. Col. Jan Dalby, spokesman for
the Air Force at the Pentagon, said the
decision was to postpone the closing
and consolidation of university
ROTC programs because the criteria
had not been adequately communi
cated to the programs.
Dalby said the decision to post
pone was based on fairness to the
programs, so they would have the
opportunity to improve their standing
and meet criteria requirements.
A number of U.S. congress mem
bers expressed their dissatisfaction
with the closing of Air Force ROTC
programs in their states, he said. But,
Dalby said, the issue is the criteria,
not the complaints. Air Force ROTC
units said they had been mistreated by
the lack of communication of the
criteria, Dalby said.
Col. John Vick of UNL ROTC said
the decision “struck me by too much
of a surprise.”
He said it will be difficult for UNL
to meet requirements in 1990 for
several reasons. Vick said after the
decision last January to close the
program, many cadets either dropped
out of the program or made arrange
ments to transfer to a university that
offers it.
ui>l. c-nanceiior iviarun masscn
gale agreed with Vick.
“We have some work to do be
cause a number of students have al
ready transferred,” he said.
The number of cadets in the pro
gram has dropped to 75 because ca
dets felt it was not in their best inter
ests to remain involved, Vick said.
Masscngalc said the students are
the winners because UNL’s Air Force
ROTC program allows options they
would not otherwise have. UNL is the
only college in Nebraska with an Air
Force ROTC program, he said.
Vick said the Air Force ROTC
program stopped recruiting when the
decision to close the program was
announced Jan. 27.
Vick said he had to write to high
school seniors who were awarded
four-year scholarships and decided to
attend UNL and tell them the program
was going to be closed. He said now
he has to write them and tell them the
program has two more years. How
ever, he said, they may not want to
take the risk of it closing in 1990.
Sen. J.J. Exon, D-Neb., said in a
written statement, “I am pleased the
Air Force is coming around and real
izing the value and excellence of the
UNL ROTC program.”
In February, Exon wrote Edward
Aldridge Jr., secretary of the Air
Force, asking him to reconsider his
decision to close UNL’s Air Force
ROTC program because of its size.
“We have won the first round,”
Exon said. “Now we must work to
make sure that the re-evaluation in
two years is based on the quality of the
program and not primarily on the
quantity of graduates.”
Eric Grogory/Dsily Nebraskan
Up in arms
Texas rocker Joe ‘King’ Carrasco rocks’ em in front of the Nebraska Union Monday
afternoon.
Moore uncertain of more pay hikes
By Amy Edwards
Senior Reporter
Nebraska Sen. Scou Moore of
Stromsburg said Monday he may not
support further financing of faculty
salaries for the University of Ne
braska-Lincoln.
Moore said that although he did
not have any problems with appropri
ating $20.5 million for research and
faculty salary increases at the Univer
sity of Nebraska this year, UNL needs
to re-evaluate what universities it
includes in its peer group.
The 10 schools UNL compares
itself with for faculty salaries are not
valid peer institutions, Moore said.
UNL should consider Big Eight and
some Big Ten schools when compar
ing faculty salaries, he said.
The 10 universities in UNL’s peer
group for salary comparisons are
Wisconsin, Illinois, Iowa State,
Maryland, Michigan State, Missouri,
Minnesota, Ohio State, Penn Stale
and Purdue.
Moore said he cannot ask his con
stituents to pay more taxes for univer
sity salaries when he can’t defend the
increase. He said people would be
willing to pay the money if there was
a peer group argument that could back
it up.
John Benson, associate director
for institutional research and plan
ning at UNL, said the peergroup UNL
compares itself to depends on what is
being compared.
When UNL is comparing tuition, it
is compared with colleges that are
competing for students, Benson said.
Salary comparison is a representation
of a national market, and it isn’t a fair
comparison to look at both when
more than 90 percent of UNL’s stu
dents are from Nebraska, he said.
The 10 other schools in UNL’s
peer group for salary comparisons are
all land-grant universities and belong
to the American Association of Uni
versities, he said.
Moore said because the peer insti
tutions are larger in enrollment and
their states have larger populations
and budgets and more federal dollars,
they shouldn’t be used to compare
faculty salaries.
If UNL is not competing with these
institutions for students and tuition,
then the taxpayers have to make up
the difference, Moore said.
Moore said he does not want to
raise tuition 27 percent to make fac
ulty salaries comparable, but that it is
not fair to make taxpayers make up
the difference.
UNL Chancellor Martin Massen
gale said the peer group used when
determining faculty salaries has been
used for more than 10 years.
Massengale said the mistake most
people make is comparing the whole
university with the other universities.
The universities that UNL competes
with for faculty members are institu
tions with similar roles of mission as
UNL, he said.
“We are comparing English pro
fessors to English professors,” he
said.
If the university is going to com
pete with peer institutions for profes
sors, Massengale said, the salaries
must be comparable.
“If salaries are comparable, we can
compete with them for better faculty
and bring in better students,” Massen
gale said. “We are a small state, but
when we are putting our resources on
the line .. . education is the highest
priority.”
Moore said he understands that
UNL is not a top institution from an
employee’s standpoint. The Univer
sity of Nebraska is often a “stepping
stone” to a better institution, and if
professors do choose to stay in Ne
braska, it is probably for the quality of
life, he said.
“There comes a time when you
have to level with the people of the
state and tell them where we can
afford to be, where we want to be and
where we are,” Moore said.
UNL rated as average by N.Y. Times survey
By Victoria Ayotte
Senior Reporter__
Two University of Nebraska-Lincoln ad
ministrators said they think the results of a
guide by a New York Times editor comparing
major universities are just another indication
that UNL is a quality institution.
The Selective Guide to Colleges, compiled
and edited annually by Edward Fiske, educa
tion editor of the New York Times, gave UNL
a three-star rating in academics, a four-star
rating in social life and a three-star rating for
quality of life.
A three-star rating is average and a four-star
rating is above average, Fiske said. Five stars is
the best rating possible.
The results of the survey are based on inter
views with students, he said.
Fiske’s study called UNL a “typical land
grant university."
The English, math, history, and animal sci
ence departments were cited in the report as
outstanding, but the report called UN L’s finan
cial aid office a fiasco.
UNL chancellor Marlin Massengale said he
thought the results of the guide were positive
and was not disappointed that UNL was not
rated higher.
UNL has gone up in Fiske’s guide in recent
years, he said, and the five-star rating is re
served fora small number of highly prestigious,
elite universities that have more award-win
ning faculty.
“So many of these (surveys) are indications
that we are a quality institution,” he said. “We
are a quality institution and probably better
than that (average).”
Massengale said the above average rating in
the social category is probably because the big
student population at UNL and the large
amount of activities and programs sponsored
by the university.
James Griesen, vice chancellor for student
affairs, said he thinks the survey was not a very
good indication of how UNL rates with other
universities.
Griesen said he remembers receiving 10
forms from Fiske and being advised to give
them to representative students to fill out. Grie
sen said he gave them to volunteer students
from the Association of Students of the Univer
sity of Nebraska.
“The whole businesses of rating colleges in
this way frustrates me,” he said. “I see surveys
of that type as being of precious little value.”
Griesen said he thought it was impossible to
rate a university’s social life, and said he
thought UNI. should receive a five-star rating
for its quality of life because students can easily
become involved on this campus.
Robert Furgason, vice chancellor for aca
demic affairs, declined to comment on the
rating.