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Wednesday, partly cloudy and very warm with
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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
