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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (April 26, 1989)
WEATHER: INDEX Wednesday, partly cloudy and very warm with a 20 percent chance of thundershowers, high News Digest 2 85-90 with SE winds at 10-20 mph Wednes- *d.lt0,ric . . ;.i day night, chance of thundershowers, low ams ^Entertainment.5 around 50. Thursday, partly sunny and not as classifieds.9 warm with a 20 percent chance of thunder showers, high in the low to mid 70s. Vol. 88 No. 146 ■Senators debate public, private priorities I By Chris Carroll Senior Editor tate senators Tuesday debated whether private or public in stitutions should receive a higher percentage of State Student Incentive Grants. Debate started in the Nebraska Legislature when Sen. Ron Withem of Papillion tried to amend LB812, which allocates funds for general state operations, postsecondary edu cation and state aid. Withem wanted to strike the bill’s section 11, which would redistribute funds allocated to the state’s SSIG program for the 1988-89 school year. The amendment was narrowly de feated 20-22 on a roll-call vote and the bill advanced to final reading. SSIGs are awarded to students displaying financial need. The fed eral government matches the state’s contribution to this program. Ne braska institutions received $ 1.3 mil lion in SSIG grants in 1988-89. Of the $1.3 million, $750,000 was contributed by the state. Section 11 would attempt to put this $750,000 in a separate account in anticipation of changing the distribution formula. Larry Scherer, legal counsel to the Education Committee, said some senators want to change the formula to favor public schools by not taking tuition into account as much. They cannot do so under the federal SSIG guidelines, however, so they want to setup the separate account Withem said that by attempting to reclassify funds already distributed under the SSIG program, “We’re going back in an attempt to fool the federal government.’’ Scherer said Withem has asked Nebraska Attorney General Robert Spire to determine if section 11 is constitutional. Withem said it is ri diculous to reallocate funds that al ready have been spent Sen. Jerome Warner of Waverly said section 11 is a simple accounting maneuver intended to give the state leeway when distributing scholarship assistance. Many of the senators opposing Withem’s amendment support an SSIG distribution formula that would give a higher percentage of financial aid to students at public institutions. Withem said Nebraska’s distribu tion formula for SSIGs currently dis criminates against private colleges., as tuition costs are not considered. He said guidelines that favor pub lic institutions when distributing scholarship aid are outdated. Distri bution formulas in almost every other state weigh tuition costs more heav ily, Withem said. Warner said South Dakota, New Hampshire and Tennessee use for mulas similar to Nebraska’s. Sen. Gary Hannibal of Omaha said he favors a formula that primarily supports students at public institu tions. Sen. Sandra Scofield of Chadron said the need for aid is high among students at public institutions. Seventy-six percent of students attending public institutions come from families with incomes under $20,000, compared to 54 percent of those enrolled in private institutions, she said. 4 ‘Our first obligation is to the poor students in the state," Scofield said. Withem said students at public institutions already receive nearly all the money allocated by the Legisla ture to postsecondary schools. ‘‘We spend a quarter of a billion dollars of tax money (each year) to support public institutions," he said. Private institutions, he said, annu ■ ally receive less than a quarter of a million dollars. I Measles update No new cases diagnosed By Brandon Loomis Senior Reporter Six days after university health officials diagnosed a male undergraduate as having the highly contagious rubeola measles, the health center has confirmed no further cases, the center’s medical director said. Dr. Gerald Fleischli said four students have reported symptoms after hearing of the case, but no more cases have been diagnosed. The students had rashes from other causes, he said, including hives and chigger bites. He said it is not surprising that no additional students have come down with the disease yet, because the incubation period is 10 to 14 days. ‘‘It’s just at the beginning of where we expect to see more cases,” Fleischli said. Health center officials sent a blood sample from the original victim to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., for confirmation, but Fleis chli said the confirmation is only for technical purposes. He said there is no doubt the student has measles. “It’s the classic case,” he said. Health officials will give free immunization shots in the Nebraska Union Centennial Ball room and Cook Pavilion from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. today. Thursday, they will give the shots at the same times at the Cook Pavilion and the Ne braska Union lobby. Lists of 13,282 students who are not known to be adequately immunized are posted in the Nebraska unions. Love Library, the health center, the Reunion and residence hall cafete rias. Students with last names starting with A-M should come for immunization today, Fleischli said, and N-Z students will be immunized Thursday. i Fleischli said the health center has enough doses to immunize 10,000 students, and that he expects to use much of it “I’m expecting to have good compliance,” he said. “The students seem to be taking this responsibly.” See MEASLES on 3 Peace institute studies U.b. goals By Eric Pfanner Staff Reporter_ __ As a counterpart to military institutions that teach the strategies of war, the United States government has had a peace institute since 1984 dedicated to creating an “intellectual map of peacemaking.’’ Rev. Sidney Lovett, a member of the U.S. Peace Institute’s board of directors, talked about the origins, role and long-range goals of the institute to political science faculty and students Tuesday in Oldfather Hall. The institute is not a “swat team to bring peace to conflicted areas,’ ’ he said, but rather a group to study “long-range goals for a peace ful world.” To study these goals, the institute has a grant program. Of the institute’s $7 million budget, 25 percent goes for grants to scholars world wide, Lovett said. These scholars use the money, he said, to study the means by which peaceful solutions can be arrived at for specific crisis areas. During the the 1960s and ’70s, several peace groups supported the idea of a peace institute, he said. When support for such a group “sputtered,” he said, the U.S. Congress took up the issue. See LOVETT on 3 Pole position Joni Johnson, s Junior broadcasting major, and R.G. Burford, a Junior accounting major, sit on the pola located in front of the PhlGamma Delta fraternity house. Money raised from the philanthropy will benefit the Madonna Rehabilitation Center. .■< • * .- ■ --.-. ' —.- - I Engine invented m 17UUs may help today By Matt Evertson Staff Reporter _ Two University of Nebraska Lincoln engineering profes sors are among those hoping Congress will grant their request for $7.5 million to create a consortium to perfect an 18th century engine with 20th century technology. Peter Jenkins, chairman of me chanical engineering at UNL and director of the Center for Engine Technology, and William Splinter, UNL associate vice chancellor for research, recently appeared before the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate subcommittees to request funds for research of a Stirling en gine. Researchers from Mississippi State University and North Dakota State University, along with repre sentatives from a Nebraska interest, Valmont Industries, also joined the group. They are requesting the money to research and eventually produce a working Stirling engine. The Stirling engine was invented by Robert Stir ling in 1816, and uses a process called external combustion which allows the device to operate on a diverse range of fuels. Experts believe a Stirling engine would allow farmers and other indus tries to substitute alternative fuels in their operations, thereby increasing their own savings and lessening U.S. dependency on foreign oils. Jenkins said that if approved, the consortium would create a partner ship between the University of Ne braska-Lincoln and the two other state universities to do research and develop a working Stirling engine. Each school would receive an equal distribution of money to con duct their own independent research and produce their own designs and improvement. Eventually, the best aspects of each school’s designs would be incorporated into a proto type to be manufactured by Valmont Industries, he said. Valmont, one of the two Fortune 500 companies in Nebraska, already has conducted $9 million worth of research on the Stirling engine, Jen kins said. As the largest manufacturer of center-pivot irrigation systems in the U.S., Valmont hopes to incorpo rate the engine into their systems, but has not been able to come up with a completely workable design, he said. Jenkins said each university would have designated problem areas of the engine to work on. Twelve faculty members from UNL would be involved in such research and 30 re searchers from the three universities would be involved overall. UNL would be the principal investigator, Jenkins said, through the Center for Engine Technology, which he di rects. The Stirling engine uses a concept called external combustion to pro duce its power. Unlike a typical inter nal combustion engine that bums fuel inside the engine to power a piston, the Stirling engine relies on an exter nal fuel source. A heat pipe inserted into an exter nal combustion chamber is heated by the burning fuel and transfers thermal radiation to the internal working components of the engine. The gas produced from the heat pushes the piston back and forth which in turn moves a crankshaft that can be con nected to whatever application is desired. Jenkins said that since the heat necessary to power the engine is generated in a separate combustion chamber, any combustible fuel can be used. The only restriction, he said, is that the fuels are non-corrosive to the materials of the engine and com patible with the environment. Alter native fuels could include coal, com stalks and stubble, wood waste, rice hulls and others. "What makes this so good is that the Stirling cycle is theoretically one of the most efficient cycles attain able,” Jenkins said. Throughout this century, several companies have attempted to pro duce working models of the Stirling engine, including General Motors in 1958 and Ford in 1971, Jenkins said. Although researchers through the years have not changed the basic concept behind the engine, technol ogy has been unable to produce mate rials that would work in the engine. With the advent of better materials, such as those used in the space pro gram, some of the engine’s persistent problems now can be attacked, he said. Jenkins said these problems in clude seal and ring life, problems with controlling the hot gasses and durability of the engine components. A report prepared for Congress by the researchers outlines the benefits of the Stirling engine. The consortium would plan to develop an engine with 100 net horse power and 23-35 percent system effi See ENG IN Eon 3