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Present, arms!
Cadet Pfc. Quintin Treadway keeps a steady salute while Cadet Maj. Jim Workman (left) inspects the other cadets.
UNL Navy ROTC spared from cuts
By Sean Green
Statf Reporter
Forced budget reductions in the U.S. Navy
have caused some Naval ROTC units to
be selected for closure, but the UNL
NROTC has not been directly affected by the
cuts.
Col. Dan McKnight, chairman of the De
partment of Naval Science
at the University of Ne
braska-Lincoln, said the
Department of the Navy has
selected five host NROTC
units and 68 crosstown
NROTC units at colleges
and universities across the
nation to be phased out over the next five years.
UNL is considered a host unit because it
houses the NROTC program on its campus.
Nebraska Wesleyan University and Concordia
College in Seward, which are slated for elimi
nation, are crosstown units because they send
NROTC midshipmen to UNL for training.
However, the UNL NROTC program will
not be phased out.
Nor has the chief of Naval Education and
Training put a cap on the number of midship
men any university NROTC unit may recruit or
train, McKnighl said.
NAVY
“We’re developing midshipmen to be offi
cers in the U.S. Navy and U.S. Marine Corps,”
he said. “We have no limit as to the number of
students we can accept into our program at
UNL as we have not been limited in size or
significantly affected by the overall program
reduction.”
However, McKnight said the future of
NROTC programs is uncertain.
Over the next four to five years, he said,
NROTC program may be cut as much as 40
percent nationally.
And while the amount of money the UNL
unit gets from the Department of Navy today
has not been reduced significantly, funds may
be reduced more in the future.
For future midshipmen and the 110 mid
shipmen in the UNL NROTC program now,
the standards for becoming a commissioned
officer may be raised because of a reduction in
the number of positions available in the U.S.
Navy.
“Anybody who is physically qualified and
wants to join the NROTC program is encour
aged to attempt to satisfy the requirements to
receive a commission,” he said. “Students
shouldn’t let the reduction of forces scare them
off.”
But the academic criteria that students must
meet continue to increase.
The overall NROTC program goal is a 3.0
grade pointaverage, he said. The UNL NROTC
had an average GPA of 2.998 last semester, so
the unit already is close to meeting its goal.
GPA is the primary indicator used by the
Navy to select midshipmen, McKnight said,
and to decide who to commission and what jobs
to assign.
Mandatory
AIDS tests
may enter
sports world
Wrestling coach says virus
adds risk to contact sports
By Wendy Navratil
Senior Reporter
The threat of transmitting the AIDS virus
to athletes in contact sports may culmi
nate in mandatory AIDS testing for ath
letes, the Nebraska wrestling coach said.
“If a cure hasn’t been found within five
years, I’d be in favor of mandatory testing,”
Tim Neumann said.
Jack Harvey, chief physician for USA
Wrestling, the governing body for interna
tional Olympic wrestling, said he had been
talked into supporting mandatory testing for
wrestlers.
“Wrestling is the most risky of sports,” he
said. “Twenty-five percent of our matches inter
nationally result in blood being spilled.”
International wrestling is more risky than
collegiate wrestling because athletes come into
contact with people from other nations, such as
Romania, where the incidence of AIDS is higher.
But the threat exists at the collegiate level as
well, he said.
“It only takes one droplet of blood in the
cornea of the eye” to transmit the virus from an
HIV-positive wrestler to an opponent, Harvey
said. “We will see mandatory testing.”
Harvey, chief of sports medicine at the
Ortliopedic Center of the Rockies in Fort Collins,
Colo., said an incident in 1990 in which an
HIV-positive soccer player in Italy transmitted
the virus to another player received relatively
little attention. The virus was believed to be
transmitted when the two collided and both cut
their heads during a match.
But both Harvey and Neumann said that
concern about the AIDS virus and its implica
tions for athletics has elevated since Earvin
“Magic” Johnson announced earlier this month
that he tested HIV-positive.
Chuck Fallis, spokesman for the Centers for
Disease Control in Atlanta, said the threat of
transmitting AIDS through contact sports such
as wrestling is more theoretical than real.
“There have been no cases of transmissions
of HIV in this way, fortunately,” Fallis said.
“There’s always a theoretical risk, but it would
have to involve huge amounts of blood.”
See AIDS on 2
Faculty roles coming into question
Professors say
research shares
time with teaching
By Tom Mainelli
Staff Reporter_ _
he importance of research at
the University of Nebraska
Lincoln doesn't distract from
the school’s role as a teaching institu
tion, UNL officials and faculty said.
UNL Chancellor Graham Spanier
said a university’s job is not only to
transfer knowledge, but to help de
velop new knowledge.
“A great deal of the knowledge
that is generated in our society comes
from universities,” Spanier said.
But, he said, neither teaching nor
researching predominate at UNL.
“It's not a matter of of which gets
emphasized. This is a teaching and
research university,” he said.
Research at UNL is “critical, but
it’s not more important than teach
ing,” said Derrel Martin, an associate
professor of biological systems engi
neering. “It’s the feeder program that
keeps teaching up to date.”
Martin said his personal appoint
ment at the university calls for 80
percent research and 20 percent teach
ing, which translates into about three
classes a year.
He said that he has balanced his
workload well, but added, “There’s
no such thing as a 40-hour week.
Sometimes it feels like 110 percent
on research and 50 percent teaching.”
Research is important in fields such
as computer science because the half
life of knowledge is so short. Marlin
said.
Knowledge that was new five years
ago is now outdated, he said, and
teaching students this information will
make their education obsolete by the
time they graduate.
While research benefits students,
it’s also necessary for a land-grant
university, he said.
Bill Splinter, interim vice chan
cellor for research and the dean of
graduate studies, said that UNL’s
emphasis on research comes, in part,
because of its unique position as
See RESEARCH on 6
The figures below
I exdude student
5J teaching super
■ vision, indepen
■ dent study and
B masters and
Wdissertation thesis
r courses.
Average
course credit hour*
per instructor
Agriculture 6.45
Ag. Waaaaroh Division 1040
Other IANR 20.49
ArcMtgctUfs .. & MS
Alia A Sciences 7.36
*vrnm
Admin la tr at ton • *■ 7.M
Englnooring
A Taehnology
Horn# Eoonomlca :im
Journalism 6.90
Law "' 9.t5
Teachers 7.93
Other 6647
Source: Stan Liberty, In la rim vice
chanoattor tor academic affairs
Amie DeFrairVDN
Study to clarify
university image,
UNL official says
By Wendy Navratil
Senior Reporter
UNL faculty may view a univer
sity faculty workload study by
the Nebraska Legislature as a
witchhunt, but they shouldn’t, a UNL
official said.
“I don’t see this as something that
is threatening at all,” said Stan Lib
erty, interim vice chancellor for aca
demic affairs. “I see it as an opportu
nity for the university to clarify its
image.”
The study, which Liberty said will
focus on the entire NU system with
the University of Nebraska-Lincoln
as a focal point, is being conducted by
the Legislature’s education and ap
propriations committees.
Sen. Dan Lynch of Omaha, a
member of the appropriations com
See WORKLOAD on 6
NU basketball teams set to
open season. Page 7
Top comedian coming to Un
ion. Page 9
Studio Theatre full of Fire
bugs Page 10
INDEX
Wire 2
Opinion 4
Sports 7
A&E 15
Classifieds 17
