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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 13, 1990)
■m, -Y- i #a 1 I V WEATHER INDEX Hk W jgS m*'Wi „JL W III Today, colder with flurries possible in the late ■ B , Ilf j&H afternoon, north winds 5-10 miles per hour Notticnin<i<;t ? I tMk I M .rntfc .gfiaMk H r-tfMifc changing to the southeast later on, high in the mid S”,.4 1 ffl Mk wT1® gB*®^ ®T * m Jr * lH Ws® 308 l°ni9hlL30 chance of light snow DiVers,ons. .5 ^§Ssk 1 rmriii ■ liWrf Wm WB fH -J96ff ,.JaB H 1m possibly mixed with light freezing ram, low in the cnnr;r n ^SsHsi 18$ fi| SB m rlSPffgf IfrBEk jgfPjli S H mid to upper 20s Friday, 20 percent chance of classifieds .15 IB Mr 1§| Jjf Jsl ga Iwf Jjj 181 Bl light snow or light freezing rain in the morning, msSmtt pftk-| aSr Jl»1_ jJgSSst HL | partly cloudy in the afternoon, high near 40___ December 13, 1990 University of Nebraska-Lincoln " Vol. 90 No. 74 Allen: Board laws broken Regent contends Massengale advice violated policy By Tabitha Hiner Staff Reporter An announcement by Univer sity of Nebraska Regent Robert Allen of Hastings that Martin Massengale allegedly violated Board of Regents’ policy by advising him during the 1988 campaign received little support from other regents Wednesday. Regent Rosemary Skrupa of Omaha said she thought Massengale had not violated the policy. “Martin has a right to be a private citizen and offer his advice on any thing,” Skrupa said. “Bob called Martin, and Martin helped him as a private citizen.” Allen said he received advice from NU President-elect Massengale be fore his election as regent, but did not know at the time that a violation had been committed. Allen said that he has about 40 transcribed pages of phone conversations that were taped between he and Massengale before the election. Allen said he routinely tapes phone conversations when there are details involved. The regent policy states: “No administrative officer of the Univer sity of Nebraska shall be asked to participate or shall participate, di rectly or indirectly, in the campaigns for election of members of the Board of Regents.” NU President-elect and UNL Chancellor Massengale was serving as chancellor at the time. Regent Donald Frickc of Lincoln said he didn’t see anything wrong with Massengale answering questions. “I think he (Massengale) is obli -n Martin has a right to be a private citizen and offer his advice on anything. Skrupa NU regent --tt - gated to answer any question about the university,” Frickc said. According to Joe Rowson, NU direc tor of public affairs, Massengale said Allen had called him from time to time during the campaign to find out the needs of the university or to ask questions. Massengale said he would have done the same thing for any other candidate who would have contacted him, Rowson said. Regent Chairman Don Blank of McCook would not comment on the legality of Massengale’s advice, and he said he thought the Board of Re gents should move ahead. Skrupa said the Board of Regents would not he affected by apparent divisions. “It makes good press to say the regents are divided, but it’s not,” she said. “After the Martin issue, I think we’ll get back to work as usual.” Allen said he became aware that the advice he received from Masscn galc before his election could violate regents’ policy after the Nov. 6,1990, elections. He said he did not make the phone conversations public to punish him self or Masscngale, but to make the public aware of what happened. Calling publicity “the only way you can stop backdoor politicking,” Allen said that “the institution is owned by the public, and it has a right to know what’s going on.” Allen has criticized the search process, saying that Masscngale was chosen as president although he didn’t have enough support from the search committee to be a finalist. The presidential search commit tee submitted its nominees for NU president to the Board of Regents Nov. 9. Masscngale was not on the list. n 1a. Al Schaben/Daily Nebraskan Running late . . . Sophomore general studies major Julia Schott runs in Cook Pavilion Wednesday night. Preliminary parking report spurs mixed reactions By Sara Bauder Schott and Jennifer O’Cilka Senior Reporters n parking consulting firm has not pre sented its final report and recommen dations yet, but members of the Parking Advisory Committee had mixed reactions to a preliminary report. Jim Brandlc, chairman of the committee and an associate forestry professor at the Uni versity of Ncbraska-Lincoln, said he was a little disappointed that the report is not yet available. But the preliminary report confirmed some things the committee already had known. “Generally speaking, they have confirmed much of what we’ve been talking about for the past few years,’’ Brandlc said. Brandlc said he is hopeful that the consult anls’ final report will present some ideas to solve parking problems at UNL. Gordon Karels, an associate professor of finance and a committee member, said the preliminary report didn’t tell the committee anything new. The committee wants specific recommendations about things like pricing structure, Karels said. Ray Coffey, business manager for UNL and a non-voting member of the committee, said he was surprised at the number of spaces the consultants said UNL needed. Dick Kenney, vice president of Walker Parking Consultants, said Monday that UNL is short about 3,700 spaces. Coffey said he was surprised because some of those spaces had never been asked for. According to Kenney, grcck houses need about 1,000 spaces more than they have requested. Karels said he was surprised to leant that faculty and staff members’ parking needs have been met, and added that he hadn’t realized that commuter students using visitor lots was a big problem. Kenney’s statement that reserved parking is an inefficient use of space because stalls are not full all the lime met with disagreement from some committee members. Karels said he disagreed with Kenney’s definition of efficient. “Wccould makcall parking free and the lots would be full all the time, but would that solve the problem?” he asked. Coffey said reserved parking is one way to take care of people’s parking needs because no matter what lime they get back to their office, they will have a place to park. The reserved system has worked “fairly well,” Coffey said. “Il docsn t use space as efficiently as over selling, but there arc complaints about that, loo,” he said. “In the past, commuter students wotild keep buying permits, but then they couldn’t find a place to park ” John Pacchetti, a student member of the committee, said he always has thought the reserved parking system was inefficient. “Every time I drive by those lots, they arc about a quarter full, and that’s terrible,” he said. Brandle said he has mixed feelings about Kenney’s sense that reserved spaces arc ineffi cient. He said he understands how those who have the spaces see their value, while others get upset when they look at empty spaces. See PARKING on 3 -- UNL faculty, aid called accessible Editor’s Note: This is the third in a series of articles examining UNL’s peer institutions. The next article will analyze UNL’s posi tion among its peers in faculty salaries. By Michael Ho Staff Reporter Accessible faculty members and plentiful financial aid are good indicators of a quality undergraduate program, and the University of Nebraska-Lin coln scores well on both points, UNL offi- _ cials said. “Under graduate stu dents should not be denied access to the very best faculty,” Stanley Liberty, interim vice chan cellor for academic affairs, said. Having a low student-faculty ratio is important, Liberty said, but it also is important to interpret the numbers carefully. UNL’s peer group members — Illinois, Iowa State, Maryland, Michigan Slate, Minnesota, Mis souri, Ohio State, Penn State, Pur due and Wisconsin — all report fewer students per faculty member than UNL. The lowest ratio, according to Barron’s Profiles of American Col leges, is at Minnesota, which has five students per faculty member. UNL has 14 students per faculty member, more than any other peer group school. Liberty said those kinds of fig ures can be misleading. Some schools’ research faculty members “arc spending very little lime with undergraduates,” he said. At some of the schools in the peer group — the 10 universities with which UNL compares itself — research faculty members don’t even teach undergraduate classes, Liberty said. UNL has been good about keep ing undergraduates in contact with researchers, he said. When parents of prospective stu dents visit UNL, he said, one of the first questions they ask is how much personal attention their sons and daughters will get. “Access to faculty — in the classroom and out of the classroom — is an important factor” in re cruiting freshmen, he said. Equally important is financial aid, Liberty said. UNL tops the peer group in aid to upperclass men, according to the Barron’s pub lication. About 80 percent of con tinuing students at UNL receive fi nancial aid. Assistance is more scarce for incoming freshmen, with only 45 percent receiving financial aid. Financial support attracts stu dents to a university, Liberty said, and helps students reach their full potential in the classroom. “If a student is stressed because of financial problems,” he said, “then it’s definitely going to wear on the learning side.” John Beacon, director of schol arships and financial aid, said improvements in the financial aid office should help ease stress. After recovering from a “bot tom point” between 1986 and 1988, he said, the office is now “on par with” other scliools in the Big Eight, t A recent progress report shows that the Office of Scholarships and Financial Aid handled $36.8 mil See PEER on 3