The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current, December 13, 1990, Image 1

Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page. It is also available as plain text as well as XML.

    ■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