"T" *| Daily | 27/18
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Officials
examines
UNL peer
group
By Jeremy Fitzpatrick
Senior Reporter
UNL ’ s peer group could c hange
if a chancellor’s committee
determines that it does not
reflect the university, an official said
Tuesday.
Herbert Howe, associate to the
chancellor and chairman of a com
mittee formed this fall to evaluate
UNL’s peer group, said the commit
tee was prompted by questions raised
in the Legislature about UNL’s peer
group.
“The process we’re in now is trying
to decide what comparative groups
are used for and what they are not
used for,” he said. “Once that’s done,
we’ll move forward with an examina
tion if the current peer group is the
correct one.”
The University of Nebraska-Lin
coln’s peer group — Illinois, Iowa
State, Maryland, Michigan State,
Minnesota, Missouri, Purdue, Ohio
State, Penn Stale and Wisconsin — is
used to evaluate UNL’s performance
against other universities.
Faculty salaries are one area of
comparison. Last spring. Sen. Scott
Moore of Seward, chairman of the
Legislature's appropriations commit
tee, expressed reservations about
determining UNL’s faculty salaries
based upon its current peer group,
saying that the institutions were not
similar.
Moore cited report findings that
place UNL below its current peer
institutions in student enrollment,
research expenditures, tuition, sala
ries and in degrees awarded in some
fields.
He said then that he hoped a new
group could be formed on which both
the Legislature and UNL could agree.
Howe said that he thought salary
considerations had played a part in
the decision to examine UNL’s peer
group.
“That certainly was a part of it,” he
said. “I suspect it (the motivation)
varies with different individuals, but
some of the concern came out of the
appropriations committee.”
George Tuck, president of the
Academic Senate, said many faculty
members support the retention of
UNL’s current peer group.
“Faculty, to a large extent, still
believe the existing peer group is a
realistic one because it recognizes the
fact that institutions in the group are
the ones we compete with for fac
ulty,” he said.
Tuck said he thought it would be
incorrect to attack UNL’s peer group
as a way of attacking faculty salaries.
Committee member Michael
Mulnix, interim assistant to the chan
See PEER on 6
Mammoth task KlteyTlmp*rt9,"DN
Chip Gossett, a freshman architecture major, sketches a mammoth in Morrill Hall for a beginning drawing class.
NU press helping European transition
By Adeana Leftin
Senior Reporter
The University Press hopes to
continue teaching survival
lessons to Eastern European
university presses that want to know
how to cope in market economies.
Within the past 12 to 15 months,
staff members from the University
Press have traveled to the Charles
University Press in Prague, Czecho
slovakia to set up desktop publishing
computers.
And Daniel Ross, assistant direc
tor and editor of the University Press,
said the Nebraska publishing com
pany is reaching out to other coun
tries.
NU press officials have been shar
ing their knowledge about selling books
with representatives from Prague.
“We’re showing them how to gear
Director says teaching needed
up for survival in a universe where
they have to sell their books and have
to compete,” Ross said.
Because of the press’s success in
Prague, Ross said he thinks it is time
to invest in other countries.
Besides setting up computers, the
staff members also showed the Pra
gue press how to write contracts with
authors, set up and meet payrolls and
handle shipping orders to bookstores.
“They had never had to do that
because the state took care of every
thing,” Ross said. “It gives them a lot
of responsibility, but it gives them a
lot more room to fail.”
But, he said, the Czechoslovakians
were quick learners and often asked
questions that were over the heads of
officials from the University Press.
“They are very ready to rejoin the
rest of the world,” Ross said.
The university may be interested
in targeting Lithuania and Romania
next, he said. The two countries have
old, established universities, Ross said,
and before the Iron Curtain fell, both
had university presses.
Before any commitments are made,
however, Ross said the NU press would
have to do more research to establish
Lithuanian and Romanian needs and
interest in gaining advice.
Also, he said, the University Press
must receive another grant of more
than $30,000 from the U.S. Informa
tion Agency that financed its work in
Czechoslovakia.
Ross said the University Press
became involved with Czechoslova
kia by chance. He said a press staff
member met with Czech officials
visiting the University of Nebraska at
The officials mentioned needing
computers, and the press stepped in
by helping them acquire and set up
the desktop publishing computers, Ross
said.
NU also gets something out of the
exchange of information, Ross said.
Now that the press knows more about
Czechoslovakia, he said, it has con
sidered printing a scries of books about
the country and its culture.
He said the Prague press would be
able to put the University of Nebraska
in contact with Czech authors and
researchers who might be interested
in publishing in the United States.
“It’s nice to know that you can be
of help to someone,” Ross said.
Foundation’s private status valid, letter states
V
State official says
some organization
duties public, though
By Chris Tipton
Staff Reporter
The University of Nebraska
Foundation’s status as a pri
vate organization is not af
fected by its involvement in manag
ing university funds, according to an
opinion recently issued by the Ne
braska state ombudsman.
In a Nov. 22 letter to Lee Booker,
president of the Anti-Apartheid Coa
lition of Nebraska, Marshall Lux staled
that “the foundation is a private cor
porate entity and I do not believe that
this status can be said to change sim
ply because the foundation acts as
trustee for property or funds donated
for the benefit of the university.”
The coalition had questioned
whether the foundation was a private
or public entity and therefore subject
to Nebraska public open meetings
laws.
Lux’s opinion said that because
the foundation is a private corpora
tion, it is not subject to divestment
statutes, public records law or public
open meetings law.
“It’s essentially a private founda
tion,” Lux said.
However, he said that in the course
of investigating whether the founda
tion is a public or private organiza
tion, he discovered instances in which
funds belonging to the university were
being managed by the foundation.
Those funds arc considered state funds
and subject to divestment and public
records laws.
Those funds include the Minori
ties Scholarship Fund, the Woods
Scholarship Fund, the Wolfe Memo
rial Scholarship Fund, the Broady
Scholarship Fund and the Martin C.
Hemsworth Scholarship Fund.
Paul Olson, a University of Ne
braska-Lincoln English professor and
mepiber of the coalition, said he
welcomes Lux’s recognition that some
funds managed by the foundation are
public.
“My understanding is that, in the
past, public money has been handled
(by the foundation) in closed meet
ings,” Olson said.
The foundation needs to establish
two boards to handle public and pri
vate monies, he said.
Theresa Klein, director of public
relations for the University of Ne
braska Foundation, said that in 1967,
the NU Board of Regents passed a
resolution encouraging all private funds
to be given directly to the foundation.
Terry Fairfield, president of the
foundation, could not be reached for
comment.
Sununu calls it quits. Page 2
Gymnastics coach confident. Page
7
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‘Leafy Green Things sprouting at
Duffy’s. Page 9
INDEX i
Wire 2
Opinion 4
Sports 7
A&E 9
Classifieds 11 *
Post-game celebration costs
$6,300 in damage to stadium
Frdm Staff Reports
The removal of two goal posts and dam
age to one of the 25-sccond clocks
Friday at Memorial Stadium will cost
$6,300—$3,000 per goal post and $300 for the
time clock, a UNL police official said.
The damage occurred when fans rushed the
football field after Nebraska defeated Okla
homa,-19-14.
Ll Mylo Bushing said the removal of goal
posts is illegal and considered criminal mis
chief, but asked, “Who’s the guilty person
*
when so many people arc involved?”
“Our objective is to keep people from tear
ing down the goal posts at least until the game
is over and be concerned that nobody gets
hurt,” Bushing said.
The tearing down of the goal posts has been
a tradition at UNL, he said, and UNL police
don’t have the manpower to prevent it.
“As of now there is no solution for this
problem in the future,” he said. “Things will
stay the way they are for now.
“Spectators want to enjoy the victory and
have part of a souvenir.”