Computer numbers lacking, official says
By Angie Anderson
Staff Reporter
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
students are provided with one-third
the computers the average student is
provided with nationwide, a UNL
official said.
Gerald Kutish, associate director
of the Computing Resource Center,
said UNL provides about one public
access computer for* every 136 stu
dents.
The average ratio of public com
puters to college students in the United
States is about one to 45, according to
a recent study by the University of
Southern California and EDUCOM,
a consortium of colleges and univer
sities interested in computing. The
study was released last week, The
Chronicle of Higher Education re
ported.
“Right now, our computer facili
ties are barely adequate in meeting
the demand,” said Douglas Gale, di
rector of the Computing Resource
Center.
UNL also has fewer public-access
computers than any school in the Big
Eight, according to the 1990 Direc
tory of Computing Facilities in Higher
Education.
Kutish said UNL’s microcomputer
availability falls shortof all of its peer
institutions. The University of Wis
consin and the University of Illinois
have four to five times more acces
sible computers per student than UNL,
he said.
For UNL students, the shortage
means waiting in lines to type papers
and assignments. For instructors, the
shortage means not giving some as
signments because students would be
unable to obtain adequate computer
time to do them, Kutish said.
This is especially true in the col
leges of engineering, business admini
stration and computer science, he said.
Kutish said the ratio of students
per computer would be lower if semi
acccssible facilities were taken into
consideration. Semi-accessible labs
include those in the colleges of busi
ness, engineering, agriculture, home
economics and journalism. The labs
are available only to students in those
colleges.
The lack of public-access comput
ers is the result of other schools hav
It’s a new investment for UNL,” Kutish
said. The ratio of students per com
puter has improved. Last year, Kutish
reported that one computer was avail
able per 200 students.
Officials hope eventually to pro
II
Right now, our computer facilities are barely ade
quate in meeting the demand.
Gale
director
Computing Resource Center
ing a head start with computer invest
ment, Kutish said.
But priorities arc shifting toward
more computing facilities, he said.
“Five years ago, UNL had no
microcomputer facilities for students.
vide one computer per 30 or 45 stu
dents, he said.
However, Kutish docs not foresee
reaching the optimum in the near
future because of lack of resource
money.
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Progressive topics covered
Ecology Now starts newspaper!
By Doug Isakson
Staff Reporter
Ecology Now is starting up a
newspaper, the Weather, to give stu
dents and area residents a closer look
at progressive issues, one of its edi
tors said.
The monthly paper focuses mainly
on the environment, said Phip Ross, a
UNL graduate student. It also will
cover racial and minority issues, he
said.
Now, Ross said, these issues are
not being covered adequately by the
media. The goal of the Weather is to
provide more in-depth coverage and
more investigative reporting, he said.
“We’re in a crisis of perception,”
Ross said. “That’s a way you view
change and your surroundings. And
right now, we end up solving prob
lems with Band-Aids.”
Ross said he and co-editors Mark
Nemeth and Paul Chandler started
the paper to replace the 1-year-old
organization’s newsletter, Fandango,
with a larger and more complete for
mat.
The newspaper is financed by
membership fees and fund-raisers, Ross
said. But Ecology Now will have to
sell advertising space to increase the
paper’s size and circulation, he said.
J Burger, public information coor
dinator and co-founder of Ecology
Now, said the paper will give a me
dium for alternative views.
“My feeling is that it is going to be
closer to the students,” Burger said.
“It will serve as a medium of ideas
that don’t get covered.”
Ross said the majority of the ar
ticles in the Weather will be contrib
uted by outside sources. Getting enough
writers will be a problem at first, he
said, butas the newspaper gainscredi- \
bility, the number of writers will in
crease and quality will improve.
The first issue of the Weather was
released Oct. 22 with a circulation of
about 1,000 and was distributed on
City Campus, in the East Union and
to some downtown businesses, Ross
said.
The circulation is expected to in
crease to 2,000-3,000 and eventually
the newspaper will be distributed to
all campuses in the university sys
tem, he said.
Hffi
1 Beginning midnight Friday,
Oct. 26
12:01 p.m. — Injury reported late,
Oldlather Hall.
2:53 p.m. — Porsche emblem taken,
parking lot at 19th street between
R and U streets, S240.
3:32 p.m. — Bicycle taken,Cather
Residence Hall bicycle rack, S435.
9:13 p.m. — Woman taken to the
Peoples City Mission, 10th and R
3U
10:51 p.m. — Bookbag taken,
Nebraska Union, SI25.
Beginning midnight Saturday,
Oct. 27
12:41 a.m. — Follow-up, man ar
rested for arson.
3:30 a.m. —Car window broken,
Harpcr-Schramm-Smith parking lot,
S75.
12 p.m. — Hit-and-run accident
reported late, i /tn and k streets
parking lot, S2(X).
12:57 p.m. — IBM laptop com
puter taken, Nebraska Union,
S2.500.
2:04 p.m. — Window shot with
BB gun, married student housing,
S40.
4:24 p.m. — Bicycle taken, out
side the Nebraska Historical Soci
ety, SOS.
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Beadle center project
receives USDA funds
By Alan Phelps
Staff Reporter
The financing effort for UNL’s
biotechnology, biochemistry and
chemical engineering center has re
ceived a $4.5 million boost from
Congress.
Sen. Bob Kerrey, D-Ncb., an
nounced last week that Congress al
located the $4.5 million in the U.S.
Department of Agriculture appropria
tions bill now before President Bush.
“This is certainly what we were
hoping for from the USD A,” said
Marion O’Leary, director of the Uni
versity of Nebraska-Lincoln’s Center
for Biological Chemistry.
The allocation will help the slug
gish funding acquisition effort for
construction of the George W. Beadle
Center for Genetic and Biomatcrials
Research, O’Leary said.
The project is estimated to cost
from $23 million to $24 million.
Federal funds of $3 million were
secured last year.
Groundbreaking for the Beadle
Center, to be located on the south side
of Vine Street between 19th and 20th
streets, originally was scheduled for
November 1991 with completion in
1993. However, O’Leary said the slow
procurement of funds probably will
mean that the project’s beginning will
be delayed until the spring of 1992.
“It’s always been the intention that
this was a multi-year project,” O’Leary
said. “What we don’t get this year
we’ll ask for next year.”
The USDA appropriations bill
includes money for other UNL proj
ects:
• $110,000 for the Industrial Ag
ricultural Products Center, a program
for developing non-food products from
farm commodities.
• $80,000 for the milkweed re
search program, a cooperative effort
with a firm in Ogallala looking into
the feasibility of milkweed as an al
ternative crop.
• $40,000 for a program research
ing how to make plastics from corn
starch, a renewable resource.
• $99,000 for the sandhills graz
ing management practices program
for range-land management research.
• $67,000 for research into prod
ucts that could be made from the
erucic acid oils in crambe/rapcsccd.
• $194,(XX) for the Managing Main
Street Project, which attempts to fa
cilitate rural development by helping
agriculturally impacted businesses
assess their plans for the future.
• $380,000 lor the Rural Revitali
zation Program, a project to help ru
ral communities remain viable in the
future.
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