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WEATHER: INDEX
Wednesday, much colder, partly cloudy with News Digest.2
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cloudy and colder with a chance of flurries, low of Arts & Entertainment 9
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December 13,1989_ University of Nebraska-Lincoln Vol. 89 No. 73
WWi«m Lau*r/Daily Nebraskan
Graduate architecture students protest Regent Robert Allen’s proposal to hire value
engineers. From left: Joe Saniuk, Scott Lumsden, Michelle Gatzemeyer, Dave Wiebe and
Michael Penn.
Building designs at issue
Students to battle with regents
By Jaoa Pedersen
Senior Reporter
A group of graduate students
in UNL’s College of Archi
tecture is preparing for a
January battle with some members
of the NU Board of Regents.
The students are upset with a
resolution Regent Robert Allen of
Hastings made at the last meeting.
Allen proposed that future Univer
sity of Nebraska construction proj
ects be reviewed by a team of
“value engineers” who would
offer options for “more normal
design.”
The architecture students ex
pressed concern over Allen’s view
that construction projects in the
(past were overly expensive be
cause of unnecessary aesthetic
qualities, such as artwork and open
spaces.
But Scott Lumsden, graduate
architecture student, said Allen is
“trying to replace architects with
engineers.”
“Open spaces help relieve
stress,” Lumsden said. “They
create an alternative for social
needs."
Graduate student Dave Wiebe
agreed.
“It sounds like he (Allen)
would have the profession of
architecture abolished,” Wiebe
said. “People need more than just
a room and lights; more than just a
box.”
But Allen said he introduced
the resolution to help balance what
he sees as inequities in the current
NU system of financial distribu
tion.
“What people like myself want
to see is that colleges like Arts &
Sciences and other ones that are
growing get more money for aca
demics,” Allen said.
He said that reducing the
amount of money spent on “un
necessary frills” in construction
could provide funding for under
graduate educational expenses.
The value engineers would
come from other architectural
firms who would submit alterna
tives to the original architect’s
designs, Allen said.
“An honest, objective critique
never hurt anybody,” he said.
“Value engineering doesn’t nec
essarily mean the elimination of all
aesthetics of design quality, but it
docs offer the owner an alterna
tive.”
Although “unnecessary archi
tectural frills” are fine in the pri
vate sector, Allen said, “In a pub
lic facility for the purpose of edu
cating students, we have to gel the
most for our money.
“Many people think it’s just
done for the architect to make a
shrine to themselves.”
Regents tabled action on the
resolution until the January meet
ing, when, Wiebe said, students
will come prepared to fight.
Arch itecture student Joe San i uk
said the fight not only will include
attending the next regents meeting
in January, but also writing letters
and speaking out against the pro
posal.
“We’d also like to issue an
open invitation to have him (Al
len) come speak to us and have him
explain the proposal,” Saniuk
said. “Of course, he wouldn’t be
allowed to speak out here in this
open space.’’
But Allen said students don’t se
See ARCHITECTURE on 3
Trustee board backs
suggested changes
By Victoria Ayotte
Senior Kditor__
The Nebraska State College
Board of Trustees plans to
give a statement today of
“qualified support and open
mindedness” to the recommenda
tions submitted to the Legislature’s
Higher Education Committee, said
board chairwoman Cclann LaGreca
of Omaha.
LaGreca said Tuesday that board
members4 4 feel we have a desire to be
cooperative and have some meaning
ful input” into the study process.
4 ‘The board secs the importance of
moving toward a resolution of gov
ernance in role and mission,” La
Greca said. ‘‘While we don’t want to
move too quickly, we feel it’s impor
tant to move forward.”
The changes, proposed by the
independent consulting firm
Widmayer and Associates, would
create seven lay boards of trustees to
oversee the three NU campuses and
the four slate colleges. A board of
regents would be created to oversee
the boards of trustees and public
higher education in general.
Currently, the NU Board of Re
gents oversees the NU campuses,
while the existing board of trustees
oversees the state colleges.
LaGreca said the trustees gener
ally agree with the principles and
philosophy of the phase 1 report.
“One observation is that structure
by itself doesn’t mean very much
until we know how role and mission
and budget processes will work,’’
said the statement from the trustees to
the Higher Education Committee.
Post-secondary institutions need
enough flexibility to respond to re
gional needs “in a timely and effec
tive manner’’ to make restructuring
successful, the statement said.
“We need to be focused on the
goal of delivery of quality education
to meet changing needs,” LaGrcca
said. “Restructuring is not the goal; it
is the means to the goal.”
The board’s statement made four
observations on how restructuring
should proceed.
• The roles of a new statewide
coordinating board and board for
each state college and university
campus should be defined more
clearly.
“Power over budgets, role and
mission and program development
could give the board of regents
‘superboard’ status unless limits are
clearly defined. Local-regional gov
erning boards without real governing
authority and responsibility will be
come useless and wasteful append
ages.”
• The recommendations must be
considered as a whole.
“If the proposals come un
bundled, some moving through the
legislative process and some being
rejected, the package is likely to
become less acceptable and less
workable,” the statement says.
• Current higher education gov
erning bodies should agree on a sup
portive or neutral position. Some
recommendations will require con
stitutional amendments, so the public
must think a vote for the changes
would not be seen as a vote for or
against any higher education sector.
“ Although wc share with others
some reservations about the results,
the statement says, "... wc sec the
36-11 -2 vote in the 1989 Legislature
for the study as evidence of a desire
among Nebraskans represented by
those legislators for some structure
changes.”
• The trustees and others directly
involved in post-secondary educa
tion should participate in discussions
See TRUSTEES on 3
Library to use new computer
research information system
By Doug Isakson
Staff Reporter
By April 1990, students at the
University of Nebraska-Lin
coln will be able to locate li
brary materials using computers in
stead of time-consuming card cata
logues and flcxolines.
Anita Cook, coordinator of auto
mated systems at UNL, said the new
Innovative Research Information
System, or IRIS, will save students
time and legwork, and will be easy to
use.
“We visited several universities
who are now using the same system,”
Cook said, “and the one thing they all
said over and over again was how
quickly students learned how to use
it.”
Cook said the new system will al
low users to get a listing of all books,
articles or periodicals on a given
subject by entering key words of a
title or subject into one of the coin
See LIBRARY on 6
Some students say weed-out courses exist
By Jerry Guenther
Senior Reporter
Although some University of Ncbraska
Lincoln students think academic offi
cials design certain classes to reduce
the number of students majoring in over
crowded subject areas, most faculty members
insist the practice does not occur.
“Weed-out” classes, as some students
commonly refer to them, are designed to trim
down the number of majors in overcrowded
fields.
Students say the classes, which are typically
large and on the freshman or sophomore level,
can determine whether students retain the
majors they’ve chosen.
Barb Jung, a senior accounting major, said
she thinks the accounting department has two
intermediate accounting courses that she
would classify as weed-out classes.
The courses, Accounting 313 and 314, arc
extremely difficult, cover a lot ol material, and
require students to spend most of their time
studying for them, she said.
Jung, who plans to graduate next May, said
accounting majors arc supposed to take Ac
counting 313 and 314 in consecutive semesters
early in their academic careers.
Even though Jung said she received an A in
Accounting 313 when she took it two years
ago, she decided to “put off’ taking Account
ing 314 until this semester because Accounting
313 was so difficult.
Jung said Accounting 313 exams were long,
and seemed to be designed so the student had
only enough time to finish them - not enough
time to check any answers.
Tom Hudson, a sophomore accounting
major, said he also thinks the accounting de
partment designs some classes to reduce the
number of majors in the department. Account
ing 252, one of the beginning level accounting
classes, turns away some accounting majors,
he said.
About one fourth of the original class usu
See WEEDOUT on 6
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Andy Manhart/Dally Nebraskan
