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Wednesday, mostly sunny and mild, high in the News Digest.2
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Wednesday night, partly cloudy, low in the mid- Sports.7
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__ Vol. 89 No. *75
[Education restructuring receives support
William Lauer/Daily Nebraskan
$ State Sen. Jerome Warner of Waverly gives testimony before the Legislative Education
Committee on Tuesday.
By Jennifer O’Cilka
Staff Reporter
TThe Nebraska Legislature’s
Education Committee on Tues
day heard mostly supportive
testimony on legislation that would
restructure stale
higher education.
After about
six hours of tes
timony from
educational
administrators
and leaders and
Nebraska citi
zens, the com
mittee adjourned
without acting on
LR249CA and LB 1141.
Whilccxplaining the bill and reso
lution, Sen. Ron Withcm of Papil
lion, co-sponsor of legislation, said
the restructuring proposals recom
mended by the consulting firm
Widmayer and Associates “opened
eyes’ ’ that governance and coordina
tion arc “radically different.’’
Until now, he said, that difference
has been ignored, so money spent on
the study of Nebraska higher educa
tion was “well, well worth it.”
The bill and resolution propose a
coordinating Board of Regents for
Nebraska Higher Education and gov
erning boards of trustees for the seven
state higher-education institutions.
Sen. Jerome Warner of Waverly,
another sponsor of the legislation,
answered senators’ questions about
how governance and coordination
would be distributed.
Under the proposal, Warner said,
the new board of regents would have
control over the structure of the budget
so that individual budget concerns
would not be brought before the
Legislature. «
“I strongly believe that now there
is no structure,” he s^jd. “There is
nowhere in the system today where a
single entity is looking at the system
as a whole.”
James McShanc, University of
Ncbraska-Lincoln Faculty Senate
president, said the Faculty Senate
supports the proposal. But professors
think nonvoting faculty members
should be included on the institu
tional governing boards, he said.
McShanc said he didn’t ask for an
official faculty vote because he thinks
participation is more important than
voting power.
Allen O’Donnell, president of the
State Colleges Education Associa
tion, said the association at its Jan. 27
meeting also recommended that
LR239CA include nonvoting faculty
members on the eight new boards.
O’ Donnell, a professor of political
science at Wayne State College, said
including faculty members on those
boards would “close a large gap” in
~ See HIGHERED on 3
Committee adjourns without passing resolution
Testimony on student-regent vote heard
By Jennifer O’Cilka
Staff Reporter
The Nebraska Legislature’s Education
Committee adjourned Tuesday without
taking action on a resolution that would
add a student-regent vote to the current higher
education governance -
system.
If a bill and proposed
constitutional amend
ment to restructure higher
' education governance
fail, LR24CCA would
provide an official vote
for one of the three stu
dent members of the
current NU Board of ■ ■
Regents. ^ M u B
In testimony Tuesday, Sen. Scott Moore of
Seward said arguments in favor of the official
vote include concerns over poor student serv
ices, such as financial aid and poor computer
services for students.
Moore, who introduced the resolution, said
one reason these issues arc not addressed is that
student regents “aren’t paid attention to” by
other regents.
Moore said that in the past, regents have
attempted to keep student regents out of meet
ings when they considered controversial is
sues.
“Go out and watch a few regents’ meet
ings,” Moore said. “The regents could really
care less about what the students arc saying.”
Moore said the restructuring proposal,
L.R329CA, which calls for institutional gov
erning boards and a statewide coordinating
board of regents, should include voting student
members on the seven institutional boards. The
resolution calls for nonvoting student mem
bers of those boards.
Student government today encourages stu
dent leaders to “suck up to the people in
charge” because that’s the only way they can
achieve anything, Moore said.
Moore said that lakes away students’ ability
to think for themselves.
Bryan Hill, University of Ncbraska-Lincoln
student regent, said he thinks denying student
regents a vote ignores student needs.
Hill said the addition of student members to
the board was based on the belief that student
views and ideas arc crucial.
But without official voles, Hill said, those
members are kept from involvement in policy
making. Student regents often are left out of the
“information loop’’ of regents lobbying for
their positions, he said.
“As I’ve said before, if you don’t have a
vote, you’re not a player,” Hill said.
Because student regents don’t have a vote,
Hill said, administrators occasionally don’t
deal seriously with their concerns.
“During the past year, there have been two
situations in which I believe administrators
purposely withheld public information from
See VOTE on 6
Downtown Dillard’s to close doors
despite efforts by Lincoln officials
By Doug Isakson
Staff Reporter
Dillard’s downtown department store, 13th
and O streets, will close despite efforts
by Lincoln officials to keep it open,
said the chairman of Miller & Paine, which
leases the building.
Bob Campbell, who spoke Tuesday at a
press conference at Mayor Bill Harris’ office,
said Dillard’s officials notified him Monday of
their decision.
Campbell said Dillard’s decision to move
was based on “complexities” during negotia
tions with Miller & Paine. Those complexities
concerned “cost-of-spacc reductions” and
“fixture changes,” he said.
Efforts to keep the store open included pro
posals by Miller & Paine to reduce the size of
the store and the rent Dillard’s pays, according
to Bert Harris, Lincoln economic development
administrator.
Campbell said he guessed the closing would
take place in about two months. He said it is
time to go ahead with other plans for the
building.
“I think it’s very important that we get on
with it quickly,” Campbell said. “One of the
good sides of this is that it docs remove some of
the doubt” about whether Dillard’s would leave.
Plans for the building include using the
basement, first and second floors for retail
space and the floors above for office space, and
building an entry way on the second level con
necting with a new downtown Skywalk.
Campbell said he doubted that Miller &
Paine would use the building for major retail
ing again. The company owns a few small
businesses there, including a restaurant, hair
salon, diner, food court, bakery and candy
store, he said.
Harris said Dillard’s decision represents a
national trend.
“The retail market has changed dramati
cally in the U.S.,” Harris said. ‘‘And part of
that change has been the exodus of the tradi
tional downtown retail to more suburban-type
malls. Now that’s reality. And it’s a reality that
we arc facing in Lincoln this very day.”
Harris also said the Dillard’s decision climi
Brian Shellito/Daily Nebraskan
nates some uncertainty about the development
of the downtown area and that he looks forward
to new projects in the Miller & Paine Building.
Environmentalist *
pleads for national
forest preservation
By Ann Manchester
Staff Reporter
An environmentalist brought a plea
to the Nebraska Union Tuesday
to preserve what is left of na
tional forests m the Pacific Northwest.
Lou Gold, a former professor of po
litical science turned “overnight envi
ronmentalist,’’ is trying to gain support
to help pass the National and Native
Forest Protection Act of 1990. He said he
hopes 100,000 letters will be sent to
congressmen by Earth Day, April 22, in
st of the act
I told an audience of more than
100 that timber industries are harvesting
the natural forests and replacing them
with new trees to be cut down again, then
repeating the cycle.
That strips the natural minerals in the
soil, making it infertile.
“This is not nature’s way,” he said.
There is a balance between life and
death (of a forest).”
Nature’s way of replenishment is
through fires that bum away the “litter”
on the floor of the forest, making room
for new vegetation, he said.
Gold said forests arc being destroyed
by a technique called dcarculling, in
which machinery cuts everything in its
p‘h even if the materials cut aren ’ t going
to be used. Only 50 percent of the mate
rial cut is used, he said.
When trees go down, animals and
vegetation also are hurt, he said.
“In the natural world all things arc
interconnected. A forest is just more than
trees,” Gold said.
Natural forests are not protected by
law from logging, he said, but he is not
totally opposed to logging if it is done
“carefully” and “respectfully.”
But industries must agree not to take
too much, he said. In the past 15 years,
cutting of limber has increased 28 per
cent nationwide, Gold said.
Thirty-five percent of national forests
arc used for timber, while only 2 to 3
See GOLD on 6 %
