I '' T..z.T~ r* *
"' jjTj.
60/38
Today, mostly cloudy with a
30 percent chance of show
ers. Tonight, partly cloudy.
Friday, partly sunny with a
high of 55 to 60.
Robin Tnmarctii/DN
Boris Notkin, anchor of “Good Evening Moscow,” speaks Wednesday at the Lied
Center for Performing Arts. Notkin’s appearance was part of the E.N. Thompson
Forum on World Issues. Notkin said issues such as ethnic strife and state bounda
ries set by Josef Stalin are “tearing the Union apart.”
Ties loosening
Soviet Union will dissolve, commentator says
By Alan Phelps
r Editor
he Soviet Union, as the
world knows it, will cease
to exist within five years, a
Moscow TV news commentator
said Wednesday.
Boris Notkin, anchor of “Good
Evening Moscow,” a Soviet news
program viewed by 40 million
people daily, spoke to about
1,500 people at the Lied Center
for Performing Arts at the
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
as pari of the E.N. Thompson
Forum on World Issues.
In response to a question from
ihc audience, Nolkin said lhal al
though he disliked predictions
because of the number of
variables involved, he believed
that the Soviet Union would
dissolve into “a very loose rela
tionship, something like Western
Europe today.”
“I think there will be no
Soviet Union,” he said. ‘‘There
will be slates united by common
economic interest and Russian
culture.” /
Nolkin polled to ethnic strife
and conQkflfover artificial state
boundaries^#. by Stalin as forces
that arc tearing the Union apart.
‘‘The SoVict Union was held
together by force,” he said. “If
you remove the force, you will
have no Soviet Union.”
The removal of heavy govern
mental force in Soviet society has
also had crippling effects on the
economy, he said.
“Fear has been eliminated, but
there is no positive incentive at
all” to stimulate production, he
said.
Nolkin said that when some
one asked him what the correla
tion was between the ruble, the
dollar and the pound, he said he
replied “it takes a pound of
See NOTKIN on 6
Homosexuality films raise controversy
Cutting budget
a recurring theme,
UNL officials say
By Wendy Navratil
Senior Reporter
Fewer than five years ago, the
Budget Reduction Review
Committee listened to hours
of impassioned testimony defending
UNL programs that were being con
sidered for cuts. □ 11 nn CT
And while oUUUt l
many UNL pro
grams survived -
proposals for ^lo
elimination as
successive budget cuts were made in
1986 and 1987, the threat of elimina
tion was just as real then as it is in
1991, university officials said.
Now, an even bigger chunk of
UNL’s budget is at stake, and even
fewer programs and resources arc
available to consider for reduction.
“We’ve been through this several
limes,” said Stan Liberty, interim vice
chancellor for academic affairs. “But
percentage-wise, the volume of the
budget shortfall this time is larger
than at any other time in (UNL) his
tory. It also comes after a decade of
sporadic cuts, for a compound ef
fect.”
The University of Nebraska-Lin
coln is acting on a mandate by the
Nebraska Legislature to cut 2 per
*
cent, or about S2.5 million, from its
budget this year, and 1 percent next
year.
John Benson, director of Institu
tional Research and Planning, said
that in 1986, the Academic Planning
Committee recommended $2,022,700
in cuts. Among the cuts being consid
ered were the merger of the anthro
pology and sociology departments and
an $800,000 reduction in the Institute1
of Agriculture and Natural Resources
budget. The merger wasn’t approved
by the APC; the IANR reduction was.
In 1987, according to documents
supplied by William Holmes, chair
man of construction systems technol
ogy at UNO, the BRRC recommended
a little more than $1.5 million in cuts
to then-UNL Chancellor Martin
Masscngalc. Among the cuts consid
ered were the elimination of the Col- •
lege of Architecture and the Univer
sity of Nebraska School for Techni
cal Agriculture in Curtis.
Neither proposal was ultimately
approved, but the UN ST A neared
elimination, Holmes said.
“The committee recommended that
(UN ST A) be dropped, but the Legis
latucc£Q*ridn’t come to grips, w ilh it,’’
he said.
See CUTS on 3
Speech chairman defends
department from questions
regarding mission, quality
By Jeremy Fitzpatrick
Senior Reporter
Bill Seiler, chairman of the speech
communicalion department,
Wednesday defended the pro
gram against attacks that it was not
central and essential to UNL and that
it lacked quality.
“There’s no data that suggests that
speech isn’t cs- Q. irNprj
senlial,” he said. DUUvaC I
“There is more
that suggests it
is.”
Tuesday, Stan
Liberty, interim
vice chancellor for academic affairs,
presented to the Academic Planning
Committee a report that clarifies his
original recommendation to eliminate
the Department of Speech Communi
calion as part of UNL’s budget-cut
ting process.
Liberty argued that the speech
communicalion department was not
central and essential to the role and
mission of the College of Arts and
Sciences and to the University of
Ncbraska-Lincoln, and he raised
questions about the department’s
quality. He said that there was a na
tional trend to eliminate speech
communication departments.
Seiler questional Liberty’s con
clusions.
He said that only two programs,
English and history, arc required for
students to graduate in the College of
Arts and Sciences.
“To say that it (the speech commu
nication department) is not essential
is basically to assume that every
department besides English and his
lory is not essential to arts and sci
ences,” he said.
According to that criteria, he said,
many departments would have to be
eliminated.
Seiler said the assertion that the
spooch communication department was
not a quality program is incorrect He
See SPEECH on 3
By John Payne
Senior Editor
Three films about homosexuals,
one of which was denied airtime
on the Nebraska Educational
Television Network, are stirring up
controversy at the University of
Nebraska-Lincoln.
“Tongues Untied,” adocumentary
about gay black men, will be shown
tonight pirough Saturday at the Mary
Ricpma Ross Film Theater, 12th and
R streets. The scheduling of the film,
along with two others focusing on
gay life, has brought a torrent of phone
calls to the UNL Office of Public
Relations, director Michael Mulnix
said.
Mulnix said that in the last week,
his office has logged more than 100
calls from people objecting to the
films.
“We’ve had more calls on this
issue than on anything in the two
and-a-half years that I’ve been here,”
he said.
NETV, along with more than two
thirds of the PBS affiliates nation
wide, chose not to air “Tongues Un
tied,” which PBS offered as part of its
“Point of View” series last August.
NETV Associate General Manager
Ron Hull described the film as “inap
propriatc for a mass audience.”
The film, which includes scenes
with men dancing and kissing, was
rejected because of the profanity it
contained, Hull said.
“We think that any subject matter
is worthy of airtime,” Hull said. “It’s
how this subject was handled that we
objected to.”
Dan Ladcly, curator of films at the
Ross theater, said he has received
only three or four phone calls from
people objecting to the films.
‘Trankly, I think these people
(objecting to the films) are in the
minority, Ladcly said.
The decision to include “Tongues
Untied” in the theater’s fall schedule
was prompted by NETV’s refusal to
air the film, Ladcly said, adding that
he wanted people to have an opportu
nity to see the film.
Ladcly also decided to have a dis
cussion about the three films after the
7 p.m. screening on Friday night. The
seven-member panel, which will dis
cuss censorship of the arts, includes
professors from the UNL Film Stud
ies Department and College of Law,
as well as a representative from the
Coalition for Gay and Lesbian Civil
Rights.
See FILMS on 6
Baker says Vietnam/U.S.
normalcy tains to begin next
month. Page 2.
Missouri to make “bus stop"
in Lincoln. Page 15.
Inside: Classi
cal Diversions.
Page 7. /V J
INDEX ~
Wire 2
Opinion 4
Diversions 7
Sports 15 ^
Classifieds 17