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December 12,1990 University of Nebraska-Lincoln ~ Vol. 90 No. 73
Official: UNL catching up in graduate programs
Editor’s Note: This is the second in
a series of articles examining UNL’s
peer institutions. Future articles will
analyze UNL’s position among its
peers in faculty salaries and under
graduate teaching.
By Michael Ho
Staff Reporter
Some graduate programs at the
University of Ncbraska-Lincoln
still lag behind those of its peer
institutions, but UNL is catching up,
the graduate
dean said.
In some ar
eas, UNL al
ready is a na
tional leader,
said Bill Splin
ter, interim vice |_
chancellor of
research and dean of graduate stud
ies.
“IANR (the Institute of Agricul
ture and Natural Resources) is one of
the lop ag programs in the country,”
he said.
The institute coordinates opera
tions for the College of Agriculture
and Natural Resources, the Agricul
tural Research Division and the Co
operative Extension Service.
The Tractor Testing Lab on East
Campus serves as the proving ground
for farm machinery from across the
United Slates and from many foreign
countries.
Splinter said his objective is to
bring UNL’s other programs up to
IANR’s standards.
“We are making efforts to get
ourselves more competitive,” he said,
“but we still are not where we should
be.”
In the 1970s, UNL ranked about
90th in the nation in total research
spending, Splinter said. But in 1989,
he said, it moved up to 74th in the face
of tough competition.
“Our job is to get ourselves up in
the upper 50,” he said.
All of UNL’s peer institutions —
the 11 universities it compares itself
to — arc in the lop 50 except for the
University of Missouri, which is 68lh.
The National Science Foundation
compiles the research totals each year.
Even though UNL’s research spend
ing ranked last in the peer group last
year, Splinter said, UNL shares a bond
with each university on the list —
Illinois, Iowa State, Maryland, Michi
gan State, Minnesota, Missouri, Ohio
State, Penn State, Purdue and Wis
consin.
“If you’ll look at every one of
those,” Splinter said, “the schools that
arc there are the agricultural universi
ties in the state — and that’s what we
are.”
To gauge the competitiveness of
research schools, the Carnegie Foun
dation for the Advancement of Teach
ing has developed a ranking system
that classifies each institution as a
Research 1 or Research II university.
See RESEARCH on 5
John Bruce/Daily Nebraskan
Computer
virus found,
restrained
By Alan Phelps
Staff Reporter
n computer virus loose in the
law college infected some files
on a student’s personal com
puter Monday, but swift action was
taken to isolate and eliminate the
vermin, an official said.
“It’s an ongoing problem for which
we have an ongoing program,” said
Gerald Kutish, associate director of
the Computing Resource Center.
Kutish said a computer virus is a
program designed to “infect” com
puters. It moves from a diskette to the
computer’s memory and usually
remains there undetected until it is
triggered, he said.
A virus can do anything from flash
ing a message on the screen to wiping
out files, he said.
“It depends on the intentions of the
virus’ creator —was he malicious or
did he just want to say ‘Hi! I’m in
your computer!”’ Kutish said.
A1 lan H ul 1, a m icrocom putcr tec h -
nical support specialist with CRC,
said the virus found in the computer
at the College of Law was “a non
destructive prank virus” called
“Stoned.”
The Computing Resource Center
sent virus detection and eradication
software to the law college after the
virus was reported Monday, Hull said.
The problem appears to have been
cleared up, he said.
Kutish said the CRC receives a
report of a virus on campus “every
other week or so. Once in a while
there’s an epidemic. We’re kind of
like the Health Center.”
“We (UNL) haven’t had a major
problem, but the potential is out there,”
he said.
Because most of the viruses caught
at UNL originate from the outside,
Kutish said, the best way to avoid
See VIRUS on 5
Students rarely use
Lied, survey shows
By Pat Dinslage
Staff Reporter
More than three-fourths of 250
University of Nebraska-Lin
coln undergraduate students
surveyed have not used the L.ied Center
for Performing Arts.
But Lied officials aren’t complain
ing about the figure.
The survey, conducted as a group
project for the Principles of Manage
ment class this semester, found that
78 percent of students have not at
tended a performance or been inside
the Lied Center.
Cheryl Clark, Lied marketing di
rector, said that means 22 percent
have used the Lied Center.
“That’s a very good percentage” if
it is applied to the total UNL student
population, she said. “We would be
happy with that.”
Clark said she has talked with
marketing directors at other college
performing arts centers, and they arc
having similar challenges getting
student participation.
Ron Beebe, associate director of
the Kranncrt Center for the Perform
ing Arts at the University of Illinois,
said that he “can’t imagine exceeding
10 percent” ot the 36,000 student
population However, about 50 per
cent of the audiences arc students, he
said.
The center differs from the Lied
Center, however, because it offers a
lot of student performances, as well
as a professionally acted series of
performances, Beebe said.
Robert Chumblcy, Lied Center
director, said the Kranncrt docs more
academic programming than the Lied,
but Lied is closer, as far as academic
relationships, to the Krannert than it
is to die University of Iowa’s Han
schcr Auditorium.
Judith Hurtig, Hanscher market
ing director, said the center has a
range of programming, but does not
present student productions. Hanscher
does rent the facility to Iowa’s theatre
and dance departments for their an
nual major productions, she said.
Hurtig said audiences include about
26 percent to 27 percent students on
average.
Chumblcy said that the Lied’s
figures on student ticket sales “are in
line with sister institutions with simi
lar types of facilities.”
The 22 percent attendance gener
ally would fit with the numbers on
student ticket sales that the Lied has
developed, he said.
A report recently completed by
the Lied Center showed that during
the current season, an average of 17
percent to 23 percent of ticket-buyers
were students.
“If we’re pulling in 20 percent to
22 percent of the students,” Chum
blcy said, “I think that’s a tremendous
beginning . . . considering the new
ness of the Lied Center_We hope
the average percentage gets up to 30
percent. We’re more than halfway
there now.”
The class’s non-scicntific survey
asked students from each UNL col
lege about their attendance at the
Lied Center and their reasons for at
tending or not attending the events.
A lack of interest, time and money
were the main reasons students gave
for not attending performances.
Of the surveyed students who in
dicated that they had not attended a
performance, 42 percent said they
were not interested in the events of
fered at the Lied. A lack of lime or
event times compatible with their
schedules was reported by 38 percent
of the students as a reason for not
attending events, the survey showed.
The third most common reason,
given by 30 percent of the students
who had not seen an event or per
formance at the Lied, was that tickets
were too expensive or that they had
no money.
The students surveyed were about
evenly split on their plans to attend a
See LIED on 6
David Fahlason/Dally Nebraskan
“Dead Week”
Korey Klover, a sophomore construction management
major, naps in Love Library Tuesday, taking a break
from studying for his trigonometry final.
