Connie Sheehan/Daily Nebraskan
Paul Stromberg, a junior anthropology student, looks for
small artifacts by sifting mud from excavation pits near Lex
ington.
UNL Field School students
‘dig’ looking for artifacts
By Victoria Ayotte
Staff Reporter
As the mid-morning sun parches
the earth below, 12 University of
Nebraska-Lincoln students sift
through the dry sou, digging history
from a central Nebraska cornfield.
For hundreds of years, this farm
land se ven m i les southeast of Lex ing
ton teamed with Woodland Indians.
m See DIG 6
Problems in Financial Aid Office
result in director’s resignation
By Curt Wagner
Senior Editor
Problems in the Office of Scholar
ships and Financial Aid caused the
June 15 resignation of director Wil
liam McFarland, according to his let
ter of resignation.
McFarland, director since January
1987, has agreed to stay on through
December as a special consultant,
said James Gricsen, vice chancellor
for student affairs.
This nnsilinn will hn full limn
Griescn said.
McFarland could not be reached
for comment, but according to his
letter, four main discrepancies caused
his resignation. In his letter,
McFarland said he resigned because
he had “to assign too many of my
scarce professional staff members to
the FAM (financial aid management)
project and still try to provide excel
lent service to students.”
Griescn said the computer-based
FAM project, has given the financial
aid office problems since it was in
stalled two years ago. It is not yet fully
operational, he said.
McFarland also stated in the letter
that the office did not have adequate
technical assistance to install the
FAM system properly.
Griesen said that during the 1987
88 school year, the administration
supported the financial aid office with
temporary and permanent funds.
“We provided as much resources
as they could consume the past year,”
Griesen said.
He said over $115,000 has been
distributed to the office. The money
was used to hire a larger and better
accommodated graduate assistant
I I
FAM system’s effectiveness
questioned by UNL officials
By Curt Wagner
Senior Editor
The recent resignation of Wil
liam McFarland as director of the
Office of Scholarships and Finan
cial Aid has raised questions about
the effectiveness of a computer
system that office uses.
In a letter McFarland gave four
main points for his resignation. A
computer-based financial aid
management system was men
tioned in two of those four reasons.
McFarland’s letter said too
many members of his staff were
being used to operate the system,
taking away manpower from the
office. It also pointed out that the
office didn’t have adequate techni
cal assistance to operate the sys
tem properly.
The FAM system can keep
track of all information about stu
dents seeking financial aid, can
generate award letters and model
the awarding and dispersement
process, among other capabilities,
said James Griescn, vice chancel
lor for student affairs.
The system, purchased in April
1987 for $175,000, is not yet fully
operational, Griescn said.
He said the financial aid office
has been bothered by problems
with the FAM system, which has
two parts, since it was installed.
The year it was installed, prob
lems arose in interfacing the com
mercial-made Information Asso
ciates data system to a computer
system custom-made for the finan
cial aid office by university com
puter experts, Griescn said.
This year, he said, federal laws
were changed requiring new man
dates for financial aid eligibility.
The university had to wail for In
formation Associates to update
their existing computer software,
then had to rcinterfacc that sofl
See FAM on 3
staff, and to expand office space,
Gricsen said.
McFarland’s letter also expressed
the existence of additional problems
due to “the pressing need to revise the
freshman and upperclass scholarship
programs.”
Griesen said he ordered the revi
sions in application and processing
procedures. When implemented on
schedule, they "worked tme," he said.
The final problem McFarland
■ _ I __
identified in the letter was the change
in federal regulations for financial aid
in 1988-89.
Griesen said these changes not
only affected the FAM system, which
was already troubling the office, but
also office procedure.
Staff members in the financial aid
office had to be taught the new federal
system, and new internal office pro
See RESIGN on 3
_I_X
New smoKinq policy aireaay lawna some neai
By Larry Peirce
Staff Reporter
Less than two weeks before the
Nebraska Union’s Clean Air Policy
goes into effect, the Union Advisory
Board voted Tucsday night to alter the
policy and allow smoking in recrea
tion rooms in both unions.
The change came in response to a
complaint from union staff members,
who argue that not allowing smoking
in these rooms might cause smoking
customers to go elsewhere to bowl
and play pool and video games.
A memo from Marv Buysman,
Nebraska Union recreation manager,
and Ray Koziol, assistant director of
operations at the East Union, said that
despite the decline in smoking, a large
percentage of recreation room cus
tomers were smokers.
The memo, written to Nebraska
unions director Daryl Swanson, said
“This is to say that the type of person
who frequenUy plays pool, bowIs and/
or plays video/pinball is more apt to
smoke than others.”
The advisory board, made up of
student and faculty members, voted
3*2 to allow smoking in the East
Union recreation room, the video
game room in the main lounge of the
Nebraska Union and the east side of
the Nebraska Union’s recreation
room.
The plan already allowed smoking
in the video game area in the base
ment of the union.
There was disagreement among
members whether allowing smoking
would help or hurt business. Union
Board member Lee Kimmons said
some businesses, such as airlines,
may have seen an increase in business
because smoking was not allowed.
“We have to keep an open mind
about this,” Swanson said.
Swanson said the no-smoking
policy will be a big change for the
union. He said the policy follows a
national trend to -*rotect the rights of
non-smoking pub».c.
“Up until this I think we’^c been
protecting the rights of smokers to
smoke somewhere, wherever,”
Swanson said. “I think the balance has
lipped now to the rights of the non
smoker to clean air.
“The union is going to be affected
a great deal by this because we arc
such a public place, and we arc the
kind of place where people spend a
great deal of time.”
Swanson said the current smoking
areas in Burger King will stay the
same.
The union policy is in accordance
with the clean air policy adopted by
the NU Board of Regents in February.
UNL’s policy for all other campus
buildings and vehicles goes into ef
fect Aug. 8.
Swanson expects a fe 'complaints
and some confusion about the policy.
He said there will probably be a few
people who will be defiant and
smoke, but that peer pressure will
help enforce the policy.
The policy provides no sanctions
or penalties for smoking in non
smoking areas, but smokers will be
told that they arc breaking the rules.
Enforcement of the policy in offices
will be left up to office managers, he
said.
Swanson said that the board had to
be careful not to designate an area
where non-smokers walk as a smok
ing area.
“You almost have to set up an area
in a comer,” he said. “Otherwise
you’re going to set yourself up for
complaints.”
Swanson said the union was taking
a chance by designating the south
corridor on the second floor as a
smoking area, since non-smokers
may have to walk through that area.
One of the more difficult areas in
which to enforce the policy will be the
restrooms, he said, because smokers
assume the restroom is one place
where they can smoke.
See related story on 3