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Tom Macy 489-6392
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The Daily Nebraskan (USPS 144 080) is published by the UNL Publications Board.
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ALL MATERIAL COPYRIGHT 1989 DAILY NEBRASKAN
NU budget approved ,
Resents shelve Roskens’ raise
By Jana Pedersen
.Staff Reporter
A salary raise for University of
Nebraska President Ronald Roskens
was not part of the >$710 million
budget approved Friday by the Ne
braska Board of Regents.
Regents ^proved salary increases
for other staff members of all three
branches of the University system,
but failed to grant an increase for
Roskens as it has in past years.
Joseph Rowson, NU Director of
Public Affairs, delivered a message
to the press Saturday from Board of
Regents Chairman Nancy Hoch
about Roskens’ pay raise delay.
In a telephone interview Wednes
day, Rowson said Hoch s message
stated that board members ran out ol
lime before the June meeting and
were unable to make a decision on
raising Roskens’ salary.
“The board has an obligation each
year to review the performance of the
president, and they simply were un
able to do that,” he said.
The board will act on Roskens’
salary at its July meeting, he said.
The approved budget includes an
11.5 percent increase in faculty and
staff salaries at UNL.
At the board meeting, Roskcns
said he was pleased with that increase
and hopes it will help bring NU fac
ulty salaries back in line with ten
other land-grant institutions that have
been determined as NU’s peer insti
tutions.
In the past decade, NU has fallen
behind its peer institutions in what it
pays its faculty, Roskens said.
Currently, he said, NU is 10th out
See BUDGET on 6
■ - - ■ ■ - 11 —
More graduates are needed
Industry presidents predict
major engineering shortages
By Emily Rosenbaum
Staff Reporter
The demand for engineers in
American industry is not being met
by the number of students graduating
from colleges and universities, said
the presidents of US West and Gen
eral Motors at a press conference
Tuesday.
Richard McCormick and Robert
Stempcl said that the quality of edu
cation is there, but not enough Ameri
can students are willing to pursue an
engineering degree.
< mm mmmmmmmmmmmmmm
‘We do a better job
of encouraging
people to join the
Army than to be
come engineers. ’
— McCormick
Current predictions indicate that
this lack of engineering students will
result in a shortage of 560,000 needed
engineers by the year 2010,
McCormick said.
The press conference was held in
Lincoln’s Pershing Auditorium as
part of the annual meeting of the
American Society for Engineering
Education. American industrial rep
resentatives, exhibitors from compa
nies and educators from across the
United States gathered in Lincoln
Monday through today for the event.
At the press conference,
McCormick stressed the importance
of making students interested in engi
neering and to cultivate that interest
at an early age. He said that engineer
ing is an exciting profession that
doesn't involve just laboratory ex
periments.
“We do a better job of encourag
ing people to join the army than to
become engineers,” McCormick
said.
Making math and science enjoy
able in grade school is paramount to
starting that interest in engineering,
Stempel said. He added that students
are not interested in such subjects
partly because homework assign
ments are not challenging and teach
ing techniques arc old-fashioned.
“We want to be sure that students
find the joy of learning again,” Stem
pel said. “We have to make science
less frightening.”
During the 1960s, engineering
technology was considered a fasci
nating profession, Stempel said.
Disappointment followed in the
1970s and into the ’80s because of the
Challenger space shuttle and Three
Mile Island disasters, he said. The
public’s confidence in technology
also has been shaken because no
cures have been found for AIDS or
cancer, Stempel said.
Fundi. w cuts also create problems
for engineering education,
McCormick said.
“We’re turning out engineering
graduates with 1990 ideas after hav
ing them use 1960s equipment,’’
McCormityc said>
universities and colleges need
money to prepare college students for
the ever-changing advances in tech
nology, he said.
The number of foreign students
entering engineering programs in the
United States illustrates the lack of
interest among American students,
he said.
The fact that foreign students want
to study in the United States ‘‘speaks
well for our educational institu
tions,” Stcmpel said.
But after earning U.S. degrees,
many foreign students return to their
homeland, he said, allowing their
native countries to reap the benefits
of their U.S. training.
Alton 8ctwben/l(al^tobraBkin
Flyin high
Temperatures weren’t the only thing that were high Tuesday.
Curtis Cotton, a sophomore defensive back from Omaha,
jumps 41 inches, a vertical jump record among Nebraska
football players.
Kerrey : Handling of Two Forks Dam is disappointing I
By Jana Pedersen
Suff Reporter
U.S. Sen. Bob Kerrey D-Neb., told reporters
at a press conference in Lincoln on Tuesday
that he was very disappointed with the way the
Denver Water Board was handling the Two
Forks Dam issue.
Referring to a private meeting that members
of the Denver Water Board were having with
local politicians Tuesday, Kerrey said,
“They’re two years too late.’’
Kerrey said the two groups should have met
two years ago, when the Two Forks Dam first
was proposed.
Colorado officials want to build the dam on
the Platte River near Denver so the metropoli
tan area will have enough water to meet needs
in the 21st century.
Nebraska politicians have objected to the
dam, saying it would lower water levels in
Nebraska, endangering the habitat of water
fowl.
According to Del Weed, environmental
health and safety officer at the University of
Nebraska-Lincoln, the dam also would reduce
the flow of the Platte River in Nebraska, lower
ing water level of the underground aquifer.
Monday's session with local politicians was
held at a Nebraska Water Resources meeting,
closed to the press and public.
Not allowing the press or public to attend
the meeting is an example of why the water
board is “in trouble,’’ Kerrey said.
Kerrey said the water board has been afraid
to involve the public in the issue because they
want to get the project done without showing
concern for anyone downstream and without
considering the possible environmental ef
fects.
The Environmental Protection Agency is
studying the Two Forks Dam issue. Kerrey said
this should ensure that the situation is dealt
with fairly.
' Kerrey also commented on the recent Su
preme Court decision that states flag burning is
protected under the first amendment to the
constitution. Kerrey called the decision “most
unfortunate.”
Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell
has studied the constitutionality of the issue
carefully and has issued a very persuasive
argument for making flag burning illegal,
Kerrey said.
But Kerrey said any emotional response on
the issue, including amending the constitution
to make flag burning illegal, would be “dan
gerous” because other problems, such as pub
lic apathy, are a greater threat to the U. S.
government than flag burning.
In other matters, Kerrey called the U.S.
administration’s “guarded” stance toward the
Chinese government a good, constant re
sponse.
The administration shouldn’t break off any
diplomatic ties with China, he said. Instead, it
should find other ways to promote democracy
within the country, Kerrey said.
One way to promote democracy in China
would be to challenge Great Britain’s policy
towards its Chinese colony of Hong Kong.
Great Britain has avoided implementing
democratic policies in Hong Kong, Kerrey said.
According to a treaty between Great Britain
and China, Great Britain is scheduled to give
control of Hong Kong to the Chinese govern
ment by 1997.
Until Hong Kong changes governance,
Kerrey said. Great Britain officials should be
doing all they can to promote democracy
within the city.
Instead, Great Britain officials are doing all
they can to control the citizens of Hong Kong,
he said.
The U.S. government should pressure Great
Britain to grant more personal freedoms to the
citizens of Hong Kong, Kerrey said.
He said democratic reforms in Hong Kong
could show “that personal freedom and do
mestic tranquility can work (in China).”