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December 17,1990 University of Nebraska-Lincoln Vol. 90 No. 76
Regent denounces
Allen’s comments
By Atieana Leftin
Staff Reporter
Regent Robert Alien’s statement
concerning last year’s dismissal
of Ronald Roskens, former
president of the University of Ne
braska, has caused “unfortunate ten
sion in the university,” one regent
said.
Regent Nancy Hoch of Nebraska
City said Allen of Hastings acted to
further his own purposes and did not
act in the interests of the university
system.
She said Alien spoke out because
“things didn’t go his way.” Allen voted
against Martin Massengale, Univer
sity of Nebraska-Lincoln chancellor
and University of Nebraska president
elect, at the Nov. 20 regents’ meet
ing.
Last week, Allen said he was in
fluenced by Hoch and Massengale to
vote for the dismissal of Roskens in
July 1989.
Allen cited Roskens’ lack of sup
port of the regents as a reason for his
dismissal. In particular, Allen said,
Roskens failed to appear before a
Nebraska Legislature committee when
then-regents Chairman Hoch was
testifying.
Allen called the reasons for
Roskens’ dismissal normal.
He said the national average for
public presidents is 4 1/2 years, and
after 10 years there is generally a
change. Roskens had been NU presi
dent for 12 years.
Allen said Roskens had spoken to
him about leaving NU.
“Having talked about leaving .that
kind of puts you in the situation of a
lame duck,” Allen said.
Allen said he revealed his reasons
tor voting to fire Roskens now be
cause the university is again in a state
of transition.
Hoch said the process of removing
Roskens was done in a closed re
gents’ session that was supposed to be
confidential.
Allen said he may face a personal
irfterest lawsuit, but said, “I think the
public have the right to know. I don’t
know how you can sue over normal
process.”
Massengalc and Regents Chair
man Don Blank of McCook declined
to comment on the situation.
Richard Wood, NU general coun
sel, said he stands by his advice for
the regents not to disclose their rea
sons for terminating Roskens.
Condoms in dorms
possible by spring
By David Dalton
Staff Reporter
Condoms may be available in
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
residence halls as early as next
spring, an official said.
James Griesen, vice chancellor for
student affairs, said the issue is unre
solved, but the UNL administration is
willing to compromise with Residence
Hall Association demands for greater
condom availability.
“I don’t think we’re too far from a
solution,” he said.
Belise Draper, chairperson of
RHA’s Residence Enhancement
Committee, agreed.
“If all goes as planned, we could
see it as early as sometime next se
mester,” Draper said.
However, Griesen said condom
machines will not be installed in the
dorms. He said other means of distri
bution are being considered.
Griesen said permanent machines
are not being considered because 10
and 12-year-olds use the halls during
summer camps. And, he said, ma
chines could taint UNL’s image.
“We don’t want to give the im
pression that the university promotes
promiscuity,” he said.
For now, Draper said, RHA is
keeping quiet about the possibilities
to avoid a proliferation of rumors.
“We want to make sure we have a
concrete proposal before we begin
advertising,” she said.
Griesen said he wants to address
concerns about student health. An
estimated one in 500 college students
nationwide carries the AIDS virus, he
said.
Housing Director Doug Zatechka,
however, questioned whether putting
condoms in the dorms will help as
much as proponents contend.
“How many people stop just be
fore completing the act and run down
the hallway to get one?” he said. “The
experience of some schools has been
See CONDOMS on 8
Searching for Christmas past
Pam Howard of Lincoln browses for Christmas gifts by an
antique stained glass window at Conner’s Architectural
Antiques, 247 N. 8th St.
Regents postpone decision
on revised budget request
By Tabitha Hiner
Senior Reporter
The NU Board of Regents post
poned voting on a revised
budget request for 1991-93 at
its meeting Saturday.
The request included adding 75
faculty positions, continuing implem
entation of the educational telecom
munications plan, adding to the
administrative computer system by
acquiring a more powerful mainframe
computer, and working with higher
social security employer rates.
The educational enhancements
would have totaled about $8 million,
the proposed telecommunications plan
$463,000, the administrative systems
$729,000, and the social security
addition $1 million.
Regents Chairman Don Blank of
McCook supported the postponement,
saying the board wants to work with
senators and Gov.-elect Ben Nelson
during the 1991 legislative session.
See BUDGET on 3
Scale-down
legislation
considered
By Lisa Donovan
Senior Reporter
One state senator may intro
duce legislation to scale down
NU’s central administration,
but he said this was not spurred by the
alleged violation of regents’ policy
by President-elect Martin Massengale.
“This is not a new idea. This is an
idea I have been exploring in the
past,” said Sen. Ron Withem of Papil
lion, chairman of the Nebraska Leg
islature’s Education Committee.
Withem denied that it was a knee
jerk reaction to the recent release of
phone conversations taped in 1988
between then-regent candidate Robert
Allen of Hastings and then-chancel
lor Massengale.
Allen had said Massengale gave
him campaign advice, which violated
regents’ policy prohibiting NU ad
ministrators from participating in
regents’ campaigns.
Although his consideration of leg
islation was not a reaction to the re
lease of the phone transcripts, Withem
said, “hassles” over the presidential
candidate selection and hiring led him
to question whether a presidential
position and central administration in
general were necessary.
According to Withem, Massengale
made references on the tapes to the
“failings of central administration and
what he considered failings with
Ronald Roskens’ leadership.”
“I think that it’s rather ironic that
when Martin Massengale was (UNL)
chancellor... that he was critical of
central administration” and that now
he is the leader of it.
Massengale was not available for
comment.
Although Withem has not drawn
up specific legislation, he said that he
had been questioning the need for
central administration even when
Ronald Roskens was NU president.
Roskens was fired in July 1989.
One impetus to considciing a scaled
down central adm inistration, Withem
said, was the report given in 1989 by
consultants studying the higher edu
cation system. Widmayer and Asso
ciates of Chicago released a report
that called for restructuring higher
education governance.
In addition to this, Withem said,
the passage of an amendment strength
ening the Nebraska Coordinating
Commission for Poslsecondary Edu
cation made it obvious that Nebras
kans would like to see some restruc
turing of higher education.
Officials: Competitive peer groups beneficial
Editor's Note: This article is the last in a
series examining UNL's peer group.
By Michael Ho
Staff Reporter
Several administrators differ over the Uni
versity of Nebraska-Lincoln’s true posi
tion within its peer group, but they agree
that the group has served its purpose: to im
prove the quality of the
university.
The peer group —»Illi
nois, Iowa State, Mary
land, Michigan Stale,
Minnesota, Missouri,
Purdue, Ohio State, Penn
State and Wisconsin — is
fair, said James Gricsen,
vice chancellor for student affairs.
UNL’s bclow-avcragc showing in faculty
salaries and other areas is profound enough to
discredit most peer-group criticism, he added.
“I dismiss it pretty readily, because 1 can
show that no matter which group wc pick,
we’re behind” on faculty salaries, Griesen said.
In most statistical comparisons, UNL lands
in the bottom three of its peer group. It is
usually joined by the other two Big Eight
schools in the peer group, Missouri and Iowa
State.
Even so, Griesen said, it isn’t fair to charac
terize the group as an “aspiration group.”
However, some schools readily admit that
peer groups are wish lists, not true groups of
peers.
The University of Maryland’s comparison
group is called an “aspiralional peer” list, said
Linda Freeman, a spokeswoman for the univer
sity.
Maryland’s five peer institutions — Cal
Bcrkeley, the University of California at Los
Angeles, Michigan, Minnesota and North Caro
lina — arc not necessarily equals, but rather
“schools wc want to be like,” she said.
Sta:i Liberty, interim vice chancellor for
academic affairs at UNL, said such aspira
tional lists serve a useful purpose.
“Frankly, the word ‘aspiring’ doesn’t mean
anything bad to me,” Liberty said. “There’s
nothing wrong with aspiring to be better than
you are.”
Peer groups can’t always be done by region,
he said. They have to reflect competitiveness,
he said.
“Wc’nc not competing against some regional
group of institutions at all,” Liberty said.
A similar line of thought led Iowa State to
adopt its current peer group, called the “land
grant 11.”
Like UNL, Iowa State defined its group in
the mid- 1980s, said Elizabeth Stanley, director
of institutional research at ISU.
Before then, Iowa’s state universities had
been comparing themselves informally with
neighboring slates’ schools.
But as limes changed and the battle for
faculty members became more heated, the
universities in Iowa — including Iowa Stale —
felt compelled to draw up new lists, Stanley
said.
“We didn’t feel that we were primarily
competing with institutions in the neighboring
states,” she said.
Their primary competition had become other
institutions that, like ISU, were major land
grant research universities, she said.
All of Iowa State’s current peer institutions
are among the top 40 in research spending,
except for Iowa State itself, which is 49th.
Liberty said being behind the midpoint of
one’s peer group is nothing to be ashamed of.
“Not everyone can be above average,” he
said.
Schools that are behind in their groups should
try to catch up to the other universities, he said,
not reduce their standard of comparison.
Instead of lowering its sights. Liberty said,
UNL chose to compete. That was the right
choice, he added.
‘‘I dunk that if we had a lower-level peer
group, that wouldn’t serve the institution very
well at all,” Liberty said.
But sometimes, schools have less ambitious
See PEER on 8
