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January 30,1990__ University of Nebraska-Lincoln Vol. 89 No.«£9 y^i
NU officials make emergency deficit requests
By Victoria Ayotte
Senior Reporter
The NU Board of Regents’ chairman
thanked members of the Appropriations
Committee on Monday for the Legisla
ture’s support in past years, but said unex
pected circumstances make an additional $12.6
million necessary for the 1989-91 budget.
Chairman Don Blank of McCook and Uni
versity of Nebraska interim President Martin
Massengale faced a barrage of questions about
the emergency deficit requests.
Sen. Scott Moore of Seward said the univer
sity’s request for instructional equipmentcould
have waited until the biennial budget for 1991
93.
Sen. Jerome Warner of Waverly, Appro
i priations Committee chairman, explained that
the Nebraska Legislature has set the univer
sity’s budget for 1989-91 and that adjustments
one year into the biennial budget should only
be those that could not be anticipated.
While Blank and Massengale said their request
met those criteria, Moore said die university
could have used “millions of dollars’’ from
energy savings during mild winters the last two
years for their one-year needs.
“In the middle of a biennium, you survive
until the next biennial,” Moore said. “You
come here asking for money when you actually
can do it yourself.”
The regents’ method of request “makes me
boil,’ ’ Moore said, because, if the money is not
appropriated, the regents and administration
will explain to employees and students that
“it’s my (Moore’s) fault” that they can’t have
the funds.
The university is requesting $750,000 for
1989-90 and $1.7 million for 1990-91 for in
structional equipment for UNL.
Massengale said $875,000 of that request
would be appropriated to the College of Engi
neering and Tochnology. The college would
use the money to buy
equipment needed to
maintain accreditation, he
said.
Rather than using
“unstable” income
sources such as energy
savings, Massengale said,
the engineering accredi
tation team coming this
fall wants the university
to have a more stable fund for continued equip
ment purchases and upgrades.
Massengale said he docs not think it would
be in the “state’s best interest to have a non
accrcditcd engineering college.”
The university could “survive” without
budget increases several ways, he said, but
“there’s still not a steady, reliable source of
money.”
Warner questioned why NU spends money
on property acquisition and other things in
stead of on equipment.
Several senators wondered why the univer
sity could find money for a buy-out contract for
former NU President Ronald Roskens and a
search committee for a new president but not
its current requests.
Blank said the money for Roskens’ salary
was already in the budget. He said the univer
sity finds ways to finance other unanticipated
expenses through such things as energy savings
and tuition income that exceed projections.
Finding money for such unexpected ex
penses is hard enough, he said, but financing
continuing expenses, such as instructional
equipment, increases the problem.
See COMMITTEE on 3
GLC to bus students
to education hearings
as show of support
By Cindy Wostrel
Staff Reporter
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
students will pack legislative
committee hearings Tuesday
if all goes as planned for the Govcm
«mcnt Liaison Committee.
GLC plans to bus students to the
State Capitol to fill Education Com
mittee hearings with students sup
porting an official student-regent vote
and the proposed restructuring of
Nebraska higher education boards.
Vans will leave from S Street behind
the Nebraska Union every 15 minutes
Tuesday, starting about 1 p.m. and
continuing until the end of the hear
ings, said Deb Fiddclkc, GLC chair
man. Hearings for LR239CA and
LR240CA arc scheduled at that lime,
she said.
LR239CA would restructure the
governance of Nebraska’s four-year,
post-secondary schools. Currently, the
NU Board of Regents, composed of
eight elected members, governs UNL,
the University of Nebraska at Omaha
and the University of Nebraska Medi
cal Center.
The Nebraska State College Board
of Trustees, composed of seven ap
pointed members, sets policy for
Kearney State, Peru State, Wayne
Stale and Chadron State colleges.
The resolution would establish a
Nebraska Board of Regents for Higher
Education composed of six elected
members and five members appointed
by the governor for all seven institu
tions. Each institution would have its
own board of trustees to handle insti
tutional problems.
A nonvoling student trustee would
sit on each board of trustees.
If restructuring fails, LR240CA
would grant voting status for one
year terms to one of the three student
regents on the NU Board of Regents.
A student regent from one of the
three NU branches could not have the
vote two years in a row.
If passed, the resolutions would go
before voters in November as pro
posed constitutional amendments.
GLC supports bbth measures,
Fiddelkc said, but support for the
restructuring resolution would be
greater iI it wereamended in commit
tee to include voting student trustees.
One argument against a student
regent vote, Fiddelkc said, is that
students would receive two votes
because they elect both a student regent
and the regent in their district.
‘‘I don’t think it’s dual representa
tion,” Fiddelkc said, because often
the regents don’t consider student views
when they arc elected.
“If the students arc represented on
the board at all, it’s through the stu
dent regent,” she said.
See LOBBY on 5
Spire says Pawnee tribe
entitled to burial remains
By Matt Herek
Staff Reporter
The Nebraska Slate Historical
Society is not “treating the
Pawnee Indian tribe with ap
propriate respect by opposing its ef
forts to get burial records and re
mains,” said one Nebraska official.
Nebraska Attorney General Robert
Spire said a civil rights issue has been
raised regarding proper respect for
the tribe and its religious convictions.
Spire said in his legal opinion the
tribe is entitled to the society’s infor
mation and burial remains.
The society is required under the
Nebraska Open Records Law to make
j its records available for public ex
amination, Spire said.
The Unmarked Burial Sites and
Skeletal Remains Protection Act of
1989, or LB340, requires Pawnee
skeletal remains and related burial
gtx)ds now held by the society to be
returned to the tribe.
“I think a fundamental issue is
whether or not the historical society
is following its obligations under the
open records law or LB340,” Spire
said.
The society has asked Lancaster
County Court to tell it which law to
comply with.
James Hanson, historical society
director, said the two laws arc contra
dictory and he wants to know which
one the society is bound by.
Spire said the society’s lawsuit
claims that it is legally not a suite
institution and therefore not subject
to the open records law. Last year, 77
percent of the society’s budget was in
the form of state money, he said.
If he has to, Spire said, he will seek
an order from the county court requir
ing the society to produce the infor
mation under the open records law.
Erika Kuebler, 18, leads an aerobics class Monday afternoon at the Lee and Helene Sapp
Recreation Facility. Kuebler is an undeclared UNL freshman.
I-—
‘Significant’ relationship shown
Survey: TV and good grades don’t mix
_ _ . .. . . .knr. 7 1 ...Ilk 17 rw'iv'/'nt K'lli'r than
oy r.ai umsiage
Staff Reporter
More time in front of the tele
vision results in lower grades
for University of Ncbraska
Lincoln students, according to an
analysis by Wayne Osgood, UNL
Bureau of Sociological Research co
director.
The analysis, based on informa
tion from the 1985-88 health surveys
of 1,236 UNL students, shows a
“significant” relationship between
the amount of television students watch
and their grade point averages, Osgood
s«uu.
Undergraduate students watching
three or more hours of television a
day had an average GPA 0.3 lower
than those who watched no televi
sion. Graduate students’ GPAs showed
similar effects, with a difference of
almost 0.4, according to the analysis.
Of the 981 undergraduate students
in the study, 62 percent of those who
watched no television had GPAs of
3.1 or better with 28 percent better
than 3.6.
In comparison, 35 percent of the
students watching three or more hours
of television a day had GPAs higher
0
3.6, the analysis shows.
Osgood said that more than two
thirds of the students at the graduate
level watching no television had GPAs
higher than 3.6, compared to one
third of those watching three or more
hours a day.
Further analysis shows that the
average UNL student watches 1.8 hours
of television daily, and 25 percent of
students watch three or more hours a
day.
‘‘I feel this (analysis) is a good
representation of this university, if
not the world at large,” he said.