Rule search
sparked by
suggested
budget cuts
By Wendy Navratil
Senior Reporter
An exhaustive search into University of
Nebraska bylaws and rules will deter
mine whether the UNL budget reduc
tion process and the emerging recommenda
tions violate any institutional policy, NU gen
eral counsel Richard Wood said.
UNL Interim Chancellor Jack Goebel, NU
m President Martin Massengale,
B U DG ET Wood and other administra
tors received a letter dated
r Sept. 25 from the American
Association of University
^ Professors. The letter outlined
possible violations of UNL
bylaws, the Bylaws of the
NU Board of Regents and A AUP regulations as
a result of the budget-cutting process.
“I don’t want to say I think it will be OK,”
Wood said. “I’m going to look it over carefully
from the standpoint of the legal issues raised.”
In the letter, A A UP supported criticism raised
by its UNL chapter regarding the proposed cuts
of about 45 faculty positions, about half of
which are tenured or tenure-track positions.
The letter also supported criticism of the pro
posed elimination of the speech communica
tion and classics departments.
Budget reduction proposals were made in
response to a mandate by the Nebraska Legis
lature that UNL cut its budget by 2 percent this
year and by 1 percent next year.
Wood said no final determinations to dis
continue programs or eliminate departments
have been made.
“We’re in the very preliminary stages of the
process. There has been no decision that any
program or department will be cut,” Wood
said.
But if faculty cuts arc made, he said, proper
procedures for faculty due process, much like
those required by the AAUP Statement of Prin
ciples, would be observed.
“Procedures are required to accord due process
to affected faculty members,” Wood said. ^That’s
something I will want to be sure takes place.”
The AAUP letter stated that the Bylaws of
the NU Board of Regents indicates that tenured
faculty can be terminated if their fitness is
questioned, if the institution has demonstrated
financial exigency or in the case of a “bona fide
discontinuance of a program or department.”
Wood said financial exigency can be de
fined as a state of immediate financial emer
gency.
“The process that we’re going through now
of reducing budgets and discontinuing pro
grams is not mandated by financial exigency,”
so requirements under financial exigency for
faculty termination or participation in the budget
culling process arc not relevant, he said.
But Wood said he is thoroughly researching
institutional policy to identify requirements for
faculty participation in budget-cutting proc
esses when financial exigency is not a factor.
“What we’re looking at is whether or not
See AAUP on 3
Michelle Paulman/DN
Janene Sheldon, a graduate student in music and a member of the
MENSA, improvises on a piano at Westbrook Music Building.
High IQ
Mensa member says
her brilliance doesn’t
affect her everyday life
By Sean Green
Staff Reporter
Janene Sheldon won’t admit it, but
she could probably clean up on
“Jeopardy.”
She won’t admit it because she’s
modest.
She could probably do it because she
has an IQ of 143.
Sheldon, a graduate student of music at
ldfirtlhe University of
KCbraskaLincoln* says
rome having a high IQ doesn’t
have much of an effect i
on her everyday life, and \
she laughs when she \
talks about common
stereotypes of people
with high intelligence.
Sheldon is the vice president of the
Lincoln Mensa chapter, a group where
people who score 130 or more on a
nationally standardized IQ test can
socialize with others of above average
intelligence.
A score of 100 is average, below 70 is
legally retarded and 200 is the highest the
scale goes although some people have ac
tually buried the needle and gone off the
scale, Sheldon said.
“A lot of people think of very intelli
gent people as being social nerds, and
while it may be true for some, it’s
certainly not the rulct” Sheldon said.
' While there arc brilliant people who
happen to be absent-minded, she added,
there arc just as many people with average
intelligence who don’t have much
common sense.
“Some people’s strongest form of intcl
See MENSA on 3
Error, new rule delay financial aid
By Michael Hannon
Staff Reporter
The delay in disbursement of some finan
cial aid checks this semester was caused
by a new federal regulation and a mis
calculation by the Office of Scholarships and
Financial Aid, a UNL official said.
John Beacon, the director of the Office of
Scholarships and Financial Aid at the Univer
sity of Ncbraska-Lincoln, said a new regula
tion issued by the Department of Education
was partially responsible for the delay of the
checks.
The regulation, which went into effect this
semester, requires that financial aid for incom
ing freshmen and transfer students with less
than 27 credit hours be held for 30 days after
the first day of classes, Beacon said.
He said this regulation was an attempt to
hold down default rates on Stafford loans and
supplemental loans for students.
In 1990, $1.8 billion in student loans de
faulted. This amount is expected to increase
nearly 100 percent to $3.5 billion in 1991,
Beacon said.
“That is the reason the government is seri
ous,” he said.
He added that UNL’s default rate was only
5.1 percent, as opposed to other institutions
where the default rate was as high as 60 per
cent.
This semester, the Office of Scholarships
and Financial Aid requested that student loan
checks be ready by Sept. 24, one day before the
end of the 30-day period and the day before
tuition was due, Beacon said.
But he said he expected the checks to arrive
10 to 12 days earlier because banks have sent
the checks out early in the past.
Because the financial aid checks arrived
later than expected, the Office of Scholarships
jnd Financial Aid had only about 400 of the
300 delayed checks available, Beacon said.
“We’ll know better next time,” he said.
Beacon said that in the future, he would
request the checks earlier and would be able to
process them beforb the end of the 30-day
period. J
Robert Clark, director of Student Accounts,
said his office waived the S20 late fee for
tuition for first-time borrowers who would not
be able to get their financial aid in time to pay
for tuition.
“It’s very possible we may need to do some
thing for the spring semester,” Clark said.
This may happen every semester to first
time borrowers, he said.
Beacon said the late checks caused no seri
ous problems because Student Accounts sent
letters to the affected students informing them
that they didn’t need to pay tuition until Oct. 1.
Forum addresses minority issues
Faculty, students
say recruitment,
retention needed
By Kim Spurlock
Staff Reporter
A forum, sponsored by the Chan
cellor’s Commission on the
Status of Minorities, addressed
concerns about recruitment and re
tention of minority students Tuesday
at the Nebraska Union.
About 100 people heard testimony
from faculty, staff and residents of
Lincoln about problems that minori
ties face at die University of Ne
braska-Lincoln.
Ralph Vigil, professor of history
and ethnic studies, said the solution to
recruitment and retention of minority
students lies with the Board of Re
gents and the administration.
“The commission can’t do any
thing. You can’t do anything and I
1 can’t do anything. It is ultimately up
to the policy of the president (Martin
Masscngaie) and the Board of Re
gents,’’ Vigil said.
Ayanna Boykins, a sophomore art
education major, said the university
recruits talented football players from
across the country but doesn’t recruit
academically talented students.
Boykins said that her brother, a
senior at Northwest High School in,
Omaha, has been offered full-ride
academic scholarships from top uni
versities across the United Stales, but
UNL has shown little interest in him.
“We are always looking for ath
letes, but arc we looking for schol
ars?” Boykins asked.
Ernest Smith, a sophomore cbemi
cal engineering major and president
of Afrikan People’s Union, said the
university needs to create a better
environment on campus for minori
ties. He also said that minorities to
gether need to create an agenda to
present to the administration.
“There were people who said they
were here years ago and nothing has
changed. It kind of puts a damper on
your hopes. . . .The initiative must
come from the administration and the
Board of Regents,’’ he said.
Colin Ramsay, a former chairman
See FORUM on 3
“God Squad." Page2.
Marines return to Union. Page
3.
' Huskers want to extend win
ning streak. Page 7.
Black poetry unites. Page 9
INDEX
Wire 2
Opinion * 4
Sports 7
ME -9
Classifieds10_
