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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 25, 1991)
Rates increase Official suggests programs to reduce university cost By Angie Brunkow Staff Reporter Increased mailing costs will mean a one-fourth to one-third higher post age bill at the University of Nebraska Lincoln, an official said. UNL will see a 20 to 25 percent increase in first-class postage rates and up to a 30 to 35 percent increase in third-class rates, said Viann Schroe der, director of UNL Publications and Mail Service. A first-class stamp will rise from 25 cents to 29 cents Feb. 3. Third class, non-profit bulk mailings will go from 8.4 cents per piece of mail to 12.5 cents. “We expect a $250,000 to $400,000 increase in postage for the 1991-92 fiscal year,” Schroeder said, “depend ing on how much is mailed and what we can do as an institution to reduce that cost.” The high third-class postage in crease has made reducing costs of third-class bulk mail, such as admis sions brochures frequently sent out by the university, a top priority. The idea behind the third-class postage increase is to get those send ing the mail to do part of the work the post office docs now by providing Rise in UNL postage rates £ Poitiimaitt—s MA* \ ’ H * $250,000 U" ^0 ; \ $400,000 V .. Source: LflSjL PabKcatton & Mat Service Brian Shellito/Daily Nebraskan discounts for better prepared mail, Schroeder said. Mailers will be able to qualify for discounts if they prepare mail in advance for automated post-office sorting machines, she said. One way to get a discount is to use the zip-plus-four code when address ing envelopes, she said. Another is to spray the zip-plus-four code onto the lower right-hand comer of the enve lope in bar-code form. Once these steps have been com pleted, all the post office must do is put the envelope in the right box to mail, she said. Schroeder said she hopes the uni versity will be able to implement programs to qualify for discounted rates and recoup some of the losses from increased postage. She said initiating these programs would be expensive, but once they are underway, about $100,000 could be saved each year through discounted rates. For the last year and a half, the university has been considering the development of a bulk-rate center to offset rising postage costs, Schroeder said. Ultimately, the automation plan would help the university save 4 to 6 cents a letter on first through third class, Schroeder said. “That may not seem like a lot, but we have found that we can fund a lot of academic programming through the money we don’t spend,” Schroe der said. One cost saver has been the cam pus mail system, she said. The uni versity can deliver mail directly to residence halls and save by avoiding the postal system, she said. Teaching individual departments to take advantage of first-class pre sorting also could cut costs, she said, saving from 2 to 4 cents on every letter. Program to focus on minority students By Dionne Searcey Staff Reporter The development of a program that pairs minority students with faculty members will make stu dents feel more welcome at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, an official said. Vemon Williams, director of the UNL Counseling Center, said faculty members will serve as mentors, helping students get in volved with activities that interest them. “Minority students are not made to feel as welcome as they could be,” Williams said. Each student will be able to choose a staff member who has similar interests, he said. The pair can attend events together or work on academics, he said. “Our focus would be on getting students to feel comfortable at the university and to get them involved,” Williams said. The faculty member will be available to meet with the student -«-— Minority students are not made to feel as welcome as they could be. Williams director, UNL Counseling Center -♦» - on a daily basis, he said. Williams said the program, which is expected to start next fall, will be limited to incoming freshman majoring in general studies. He said that, ultimately, any minority student on campus will be able to participate in the program. A coordinator must be desig nated before the program can be gin, Williams said. The mentors also must be selected and trained, he said. He said incoming students will be contacted and invited to join the program later this semester. Mandatory retirement unlair, orhciais say By Kim Spurlock Staff Reporter A mandatory retirement policy has not sig nificantly affected the University of Nebraska Lincoln, but some officials and instructors still are pleased by its impending abolishment. The federal policy, which will be removed in 1994, now requires all law enforcement personnel, fire prevention personnel and ten ured faculty members to retire by July 1 fol lowing their 70th birthday. John Russell, NU assistant vice president for administration and personnel director, said the NU Board of Regents changed its bylaws so they will be consistent with the federal laws. Russell said mandatory retirement still will affect law enforcement and fire prevention personnel; because they may not be physically capable of performing their duties. Greg Clayton, director of insured benefits and retirement at UNL, said the removal of mandatory retirement won’t have a big impact on UNL because most faculty members retire before they tum 70. Fifty-six percent of university faculty retire between the ages or 65 and 69, and 30 percent retire between 60 and 64, Clayton said. Clayton, who is against the mandatory pol icy, said retirement should be the employee’s decision. “It depends on their own financial situation and their own interests,” he said. “It depends on if they can afford to retire.” Physics professor Edgar Pearlstein, who has been teaching for more than 35 years, also said a mandatory retirement policy is unfair. “I wouldn’t like it if I was forced to retire. Retiring depends on the person’s way of life and if they can afford to retire,” he said. Pearlstein said older instructors have a lot to offer students. “It’s the experience that counts,” he said. Clayton added that some faculty members who are on the brink of retirement are very productive and shouldn’t be forced to retire. James McShane, Academic Senate presi dent at UNL, said the mandatory retirement policy isn’t fair to universities. “I am opposed that it (retirement policy) is only for the university-level faculty,” he said. McShane said the end of mandatory retire ment will help UNL because more faculty members will retire in the ’90s than the univer sity will be able to replace. Not having specific retirement deadlines will give the university more time to find replacements, he said. Divest Continued from Page 1 Horn said. It’s important that the university look at each security, he said. For bonds that would expire within two, three or four months after passage of the bill, Van Horn said, it would make more sense to let the bonds expire than to sell them. The university also needs to take into consideration the roller -coaster ing stock markets, he said. “If the prices are down, you might not want to sell right away,” he said. The 1993 deadline would allow the university and other institutions investing in South Africa to achieve good returns on investments, Van Horn said, something Chambers probably had in mind when he was creating the bill. The university would want to “do it (divest) in a way that we won’t lose any money on our stocks,” Van Horn said. Alan Seagren, NU vice president for administration and a professor of curriculum and instruction and edu cational administration, echoed Van Horn’s sentiments. “It’s important to have a chance to look at the fiscal impact,” he said. Phil Gosch, president of the Asso ciation of Students of the University of Nebraska, said that as long as di vestment doesn’ t hurt the uni versily ’s portfolio or its collective securities held for investment, he didn’t think there was any reason to stand in the way of LB395’s passage. Both Gosch and Seagren said word from Nelson Mandela, president of South Africa’s African National Congress, indicates the ANC may be urging that sanctions be recalled. Such pronouncements may inhibit legisla tion, Gosch said. ASUN supported partial divest ment of South Africa, and Gosch said the senate will be debating whether to support Chambers’ bill. The president of the Nigerian Stu dent Association said he thought it ■ 1 """ was imperative that LB395 be pushed through. Joseph Akpan said the university has not complied with the Sullivan Principles, and a mandatory divest ment law is the only answer. Akpan, a graduate student, said it shouldn’t take a legislative bill to encourage the university to have the integrity to pul! its investments from apartheid South Africa. “It should not come to a law... for the university to do something about integration in South Africa.” '■ JERUSALEM (AP) - It’s a strange war for Israel. Generals appear on children’s television shows and civil ians are more endangered in their homes than sol diers are at the front. The pressures on Israelis, who arc not used to wailing out a war, have brought a flood of phone calls to hot line services about the paralyzing uncertainty of when the next missile will fall. Psychiatrists say the anxieties build every day as the gulf war drags into a second week with no quick end in sight. Iraq already has struck four times at Israel with missiles but has not made good on its most dreadful threat — to use chemical weapons. Schools have been closed since last Thursday because of the missile threat, and state television is trying to keep nationa* morale high with chil dren’s shows that deal with fears. Children are shown making clowns out of gas masks, the splashes of color concealing the sinister appearance of the masks. _ An Israeli version of ‘ Sesame Street” features a burly porcupine named Kippi who jokes with Oscar. of trash can fame, about suffering insomnia because of the missiles. The older kids get to interview army officers. Thursday’s guest was Agriculture Minister Rafael Eitan, a retired general who was army chief of staff in Israel’s 1982 Lebanon inva sion and a paratrooper in Israel’s earlier wars. Asked by a wide-eyed girl named Adi Ezroni how he managed to keep from being afraid all the time, Eitan recalled four jumps when his para chute failed to open properly. “There is no such thing as a person who isn’t afraid.... You just try to think about other things,” he said. Dr. Yehuda Oppenheim, a psy chiatrist at Jerusalem’s Shaarei Zedek Hospital operating an emergency nationwide hot line, said adults often have a harder time coping with the missile threats than children. “It is happening to the most out wardly confident people,” he said. “They find themselves in a situation where they have no control and can not have control.” Since last Friday, missiles crash ing into the Tel Aviv area have in jured more than a hundred people, caused fatal heait attacks to three elderly Israelis and damaged more than 1,350 homes and apartments. The experience is different from previous wars, when soldiers were called away lo fight while their fami lies stayed home, safe but worried. This time, Israelis tell of phone calls from sons on remote border outposts asking if everybody is safe at home. The daily Haarciz ran a car toon showing a hclmeted Israeli in a dugout phoning home and asking: “Hello mom, is everything OK at the front?” Oppcnheim’s hospital, one of dozens of emergency mental health services, has gotten about 30 calls an hour since the first missile attack last Friday, he said. The number of callers doesn’t increase immediately after an attack. But it’s higher after dark, when most attacks have occurred. The signs of distress include hys teria, freezing when an air raid siren sounds and breathing trouble that interferes with putting on a gas mask. Almost nobody is immune to the anxiety, but Holocaust survivors and mothers of newborns seem particu larly troubled. Oppcnheim told of an elderly woman who saw a newspaper photo of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, was reminded of Hitler and stopped breathing in a fit of fear that she would be sent back to a World War II concentration camp. Cancun Air/Hotel 4 Nights $349 Beach Hotel $469 Jamaica $358 Grand Cayman $410 Air from Omaha Air from Omaha Ft. Lauderdale Pensacola $ 189 $231 Air from KC Air from KC I’HONl 423-4500 Contact Pam, Miki, or Donna WATCH THE GAME ON 3 TVs FREE MUNCHIES DRAWINGS FOR HATS & T-SHIRTS 2137 CORNHUSKER OPEN SUNDAY NOON -1 A M. Israeli civilian mental distress higher at home than front lines
