, ' . ' „ • • *»•!, . . 1 • . - - ■>■•••••. ■> •
Spanier criticizes budget tactic
Assigned minuses’
called poor practice
By Jeremy Fitzpatrick
Senior Reporter
SCOTTSBLUFF — UNL Chan
cellor Graham Spanier wants all uni
versity colleges to remove deficit:
known as “assigned minuses” frotr
their budgets as soon as possible.
Discussing the University of Ne
braska-Lincoln’s current 3 percem
budget cut Thursday, Spanier said he
thought the assigned minus was i
poor budgeting practice that shoulc
be eliminated.
An assigned minus is a budgetary
device through which colleges use
funds from vacant faculty position:
or from anticipated retirements 01
denials of tenure to cover shortfalls ii
other areas of their budgets.
“Any system that has based the
expectation that a certain number 01
people are going to die or leave or no
get tenure is not a good system,’
Spanier said. “I would like the con
cept changed next year, and I woulc
like (the colleges) to work their waj
out of it as soon as possible.”
Spanier predicted that the remova
of the assigned minuses could require
some colleges to trim their budget:
beyond the cuts now underway a:
part of UNL’s 3 percent budget cut.
4.— Tom Becker, UNL’s budget offi
cer, said the complicated assigned
minus was a budget financing con
cept that had its origins in the 1950s.
At first, the concept used portions
of faculty salary increases to finance
other areas of the budget, he said.
Becker said UNL faculty are on
nine-month appointments, from Sep
tember to May, but are paid year
round. Faculty salary increases begin
in July as part of UNL’s budget, but
the faculty do not receive the in
creases until the beginning of their
appointments in September.
The salary increase paid out in
; July and August then is used to fi
■ nance other parts of the budget, Becker
> said.
He said that policy had evolved
into the assigned minus, which had
come into existence when some col
leges faced budget shortfalls in the
1970s. Tocover deficits, Bcckersaid,
colleges began to use portions of their
I approved budgets, such as vacant
faculty positions or faculty antici
pated to leave, to Finance other areas
i of the budget — hence, the assigned
; minus.
; The cumulative effect of the as
; signed minus is a deficit that grows
larger every year, Becker said.
Currently, the architecture, arts and
sciences, business adm inistration and
engineering colleges have assigned
minuses.
John Peters, dean of the College of
Arts and Sciences, said his college’s
assigned minus amounted to $650,000.
The problem originated, Peters said,
in the late 1960s and early 1970s,
when UNL expanded at a rate of
2,000 students per year without any j
new funding from the Nebraska Leg- j
islature.
“We took students in without the ]
resources, and we’ve never been able j
to catch up,” he said.
Peters said he agreed with Spanicr j
that the assigned minus should be i
eliminated.
“I applaud him for that,” Peters ]
said. “When I took over as dean (in !
July 1988), I had two goals: to hire the j
best people I could and to solve the i
assigned minus.”
Peters said he was developing a ]
plan to eliminate the deficit, although j
the current 3 percent budget reduc- j
lion has complicated his plans. He j
said he did not yet want to comment ]
on the details of the plan.
“Still, I’m looking forward to paying
it off.”
Spanier
Continued from Page 1
SAT score of 850. However, student
who do not meet these requirement*
can be conditionally admitted.
But Spanicr’s desire for highci
admissions standards is not aimed ai
excluding anyone, he said.
“The idea isn’t to screen anyone
out who is capable, but to make sure
everyone we do admit is capable ol
graduating,” he said.
Spanier said he recognized the
i “delicate balance between admission*
and access” at an institution that re
ccivcd 70 percent of its money from
public funds. But he said admitting
students to UNL who weren’t pre
pared to graduate from UNL was a
waste of taxpayers’ money.
He also said that UNL would work
with high schools that had difficulty
in providing the classes he would like
to sec required.
However, increasing quality must
go beyond raising admissions stan
dards, he said. There also is a need to
“get back to basics” at U NL by stress
ing human and social issues and
improving the curriculum.
A student’s ability to speak a for
eign language, identify a country in
Africa or understand Japanese cul
ture will become increasingly impor
tant in the future, Spanicr said, and
UNL’s curriculum needs to reflect
that need.
“We need to prepare students to
live in society, not just to work in
society.
“Students need to understand other
cultures, understand cultural diver
sity within our society and under
stand how to relate to other human
beings.”
Spanier said UNL needed to im
prove its general education curricu
lum, which he said has declined in
recent years. He said writing, interna
tionalization and science and tech- |
nology should be stressed now.
UNL must focus on “what our
graduates of 2000 and beyond need to
know to be productive citizens,” he
said.
Spanicr also said that he wanted
UNL’s accountability improved. The
university has been in a transition
period for the last two years, he said,
and he wants it to move forward.
He said he would build a leader
ship team that would be more ac
countable to the state and Legisla
ture.
Spanicr said he thought he had a
responsibility to be a leader in im
proving the university.
“It’s an acadcm ic institution so the
chancellor should be an academic
leader.”
UNL to extend office hours for students
rrum oian i-iepons
Beginning^next semester, UNL
students will be able to take advan
tage of additional office hours on
both City and East campuses.
* Peg Blake, assistant to the vice
chancellor for student affairs, said
current office hours of 8 a.m. to 5
p.m. will be extended.
The offices of admissions, reg
istration and records, general stud
ies advising, multi-cultural affairs,
scholarships and financial aid, vice
. chancellor for student affairs,* high
school and college relations and
studentjudicial affairs will beopcn
Tuesdays, 8 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.
Also, Campus Activities and Pro
grams on both City and East cam
puses, the University Health Cen
ter and the centers for career plan
ning and placement, counseling and
student employment and internship
will be open Tuesdays until 7:30
p.m.
TheCounselingCenteralsowill
be open Wednesdays until 7:30
p.m.
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