Proponents push bill increasing scholarship funds
By Kara Wells
Staff Reporter
Proponents of legislation to increase the
Nebraska Coordinating
Commission for
Postsecondary Educa
tion’s scholarship fund
Thursday said the bill
would provide more
money for some colleges
and stop Nebraska’s “brain
drain.”
Omaha Sen. Brad Ashford, co-sponsor of
LB485, told the Nebraska Legislature’s Ap
propriations Committee that Nebraska “lags
far behind” surrounding states in providing
financial aid for needy students.
Ashford also said Nebraska’s private and
independent colleges receive “significantly less”
funding than state-sponsored colleges, and an
increase in the scholarship fund would make
higher education available to more students.
“The idea is to move Nebraska toward a
system where financial aid follows the student
... and to keep the student motivated to stay in
Nebraska,” he said.
John White, president of Nebraska Wesleyan
University, said that although state-sponsored
and private schools provide the same types of
education, private and independent colleges
receive no state support and must charge a
higher rate of tuition.
An increase in the scholarship fund would
help the private and independent schools “provide
support for students to get an education,” he
said.
White also said needy students are making
college choices for “purely economic” reasons
and are being lured to out-of-state schools.
“The individual and the state are the losers,”
he said.
Father Michael Morrison, president of
Creighton University, said Nebraska exports
students instead of importing them.
Nebraska should close the gap between state
sponsored and private schools, he said, and
LB485 would be a “beginning step in the
problem.”
No opponents spoke and the committee
took no action on the bill.
Present
Continued from Page 2
general procedures committee, said
his committee is charged with ex
amining broad topics in the transi
tion.
General procedures include some
aspects of the payroll system, em
ployee benefits, life insurance, re
tirement plans, sick-leave policy
and the process of submitting bids
for capital construction projects.
“It's not the kind of thing where
you’re starting from scratch. We’re
just refining procedures to bring
Kearney in line with Board of Re
gents policy,” Seagren said. He said
he has met several times with his
counterpart at KSC to build an
agenda and decide on issues.
“We have some things that aren’t
resolved yet but they aren’t impos
sible tasks,” he said.
Seagren said one of the major
projects people in his committee are
working on is an extensive property
evaluation of KSC to determine in
surance rates for the new campus.
James Van Horn, NU director of
finance and administrative systems,
said his committee, which consists
of finance directors of the three NU
campuses and KSC, oversees all of
the money-related aspects of the
other committees and makes sure
communication lines for money
matters remain open.
“When we meet, wc go down
through areas that relate to dollars
and cents and keep everyone in
formed on how it (the transition) is
progressing,” he said.
He said one of the main ob
stacles his committee is tackling is
the integration of KSC’s account
ing, financial management system,
ledgers and transactions into NU’s
system.
“Actually, the whole thing has
gone better than I thought it
would,” he said.
Wilfred Schutz, director of
universitywide computing, is
chairman of the computer support
committee, which is charged with
linking the administrative computer
systems of KSC and NU.
“We must by July 1st have the
Kearney computer on our payroll
personnel system. That has been a
nigh priority,” Schutz said. To do
that, he explained, a computer net
work and related software must be
in place at KSC.
Schutz said KSC will have the
access needed for its administrative
functions and will have a close link
with academic computing in the
university system.
“We will proceed to make Kear
ney a full partner in the university
system and provide them with the
same capabilities as UNL, UNO
and UNMC,” he said.
Schutz said his committee’s proj
ect is ongoing and will not be done
by July 1.
“The members of the committee
will be interacting in the computer
arena for years to come,” he said.
The committee will be able to solve
problems as they come up, he said.
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Future
Continued from Page 2
students graduate and go into a
competitive job market beyond the
state of Nebraska. We’ll have more
recognition,” he said.
Steve Stromp, KSC student body
vice president, agreed that the name
change would be one of the biggest
advantages of the transfer.
“There’s something about just
saying ‘university of,’ whether it’s
Idaho, Utah, Montana or whatever.
(There are) more aesthetics to be
coming a part of the university than
saying, T come from a small public
school in Nebraska,”’ he said. “The
name itself adds a little more pres
tige.”
Stromp said that although students
at KSC generally support the transfer,
some are worried about UNK’s voice
being lost to the magnitude of UNL.
“Some students are a little afraid
of the power of Lincoln and their
control over the (NU) Board of Re
gents and money,” he said.
Although Stromp stressed that KSC
students want to work for the best of
everyone involved in the transition,
he said that some KSC students worry
that the school might get pushed down
the priority list as pan of the large NU
system.
“I don’t think Kearney State stu
dents want to come into the system to
take things away from the university
students. We just want a little more of
the services provided. Our classrooms
are overcrowded; there’s not enough
instructors for the students. It’s really
pandemonium,” Stromp said.
Rowson said NU tries not to em
phasize one campus over another.
“We’ve tried to have a single fo
cus for the university. We have a
single lobbyist (at the Nebraska Leg
islature). We go through an awful lot
of work to put together a common
plan that sets up a common budget
and a set of priorities for NU as an
entity,” he said. ‘‘We have had a uni
fied approach, and they’d become a
part of that decision-making process.
They will win some and lose some
like the other campuses.”
Stromp said some KSC students
were worried about a possible tuition
increase, especially since they think
KSC tuition is high in relation to the
amount of slate support the school
receives,
Haack said the transfer will not
directly increase tuition at KSC.
“Wc’ 11 have to look at their tuition
in respect to comparable institutions.
Just because they ’re in the N U system
doesn’t mean they arc comparable to
UNL,” he said. ‘‘Wc will be looking
at institutions of similar si/e and support
and make some assessment at thai
H0 Haack said that although the re
gents have projected a 5 percent tui
tion rate increase for the next aca
demic year for all NU campuses, nc
“hard-and-fast” decisions have beer
(There are) more aes
thetics to becoming
part of a university
than saying 7 come
from a small public
school in Nebraska
The name itself adds a
little more prestige.
Steve Stromp
KSC student body vice
president
made.
Nester said faculty salaries at
Kearney, like tuition, need not be
equal to UNL levels.
Salaries “should be different be
cause we have a certain kind of insti
tution that is unique from a municipal
university (UNO) or a land-grant
institution (UNL). Each had its own
reference groups,” he said. “They have
comparable salary with the kind of
institution that they are. No one ex
pects that we would have comparable
salaries with UNL or UNO.”
However, Nester added that sala
ries at KSC are behind the average
salary level in its reference group
“just as UNL and UNO are behind in
theirs.”
Rowson said he doesn’t think the
transition will cause any elimination
of jobs in the Kearney administra
tion.
“The president will become the
chancellor, etc. I don’t see any other
changes,” he said. Rowson said KSC
does not have any surplus of admini
stration.
“They’re pretty shorthanded. Some
of our central people might lighten
the workload a little, we hope,” he
said. “They have some hard-working
administrators.”
Rowson explained that in the NU
system, money procured through stu
dent fees are divided into Fund A and
Fund B categories. Fund A is the
portion managed by student govern
ment while Fund B is predesignated
to provide certain items, such as up
keep of student-serving projects.
KSC currently has no equivalent
to Fund B, he said, so all of its student
fees are managed by the student gov
ernment.
The details of how the fees will be
managed at UNK have yet to be worked
out, Rowson said.
He said other changes brought about
by the transfer will include the addi
tion of a student regent from UNK
and the ability of Kearney State alumni
to exchange their KSC diplomas for
NU diplomas.
But overall, Rowson said, the switch
should help the university system.
In the past, NU has been subject to
criticism because it is totally located
in the eastern part of the state, Row
son said. He said he hopes that the
new campus will help people see the
university as a statewide institution.
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