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■m ▼ | Daily
Nebraskan_
Consultants suggest new UNL peer group
5 Ohio State
$ Purdue
O Iowa State
Report merits more
review, officials say
By Dionne Searcey
Senior Editor
Officials at the NU Board of Regents
meeting Saturday said they would take
a closer look at the peer group recom
mendation before they decided whether to
approve it.
In January, the univer
sity system hired three
consultants, all former uni
versity presidents, who
revealed their choice Sat
urday for a new UNL peer
group.
If officials approve the
new group, four schools that the University of
Nebraska-Lincoln now compares itself with
would be replaced with four others.
The consultants included Bryce Jordan,
president emeritus of Pennsylvania State at
University Park, Robert O. Nfauston, president
emeritus of the University of Florida at Miami
and Edward J. Boling, presidentemeritus of the
University of Tennessee at Knoxville.
The consultants recommended that Colo
rado State, Colorado, Illinois, Iowa State, Iowa, '
Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Ohio State and
Purdue become UNL’s new peer group. Colo
rado State, Colorado, Iowa and Kansas would
replace Maryland, Penn State, Wisconsin and
Michigan State.
George Tuck, Academic Senate president,
said officials should not act in haste when
deciding whether to support the recommended
peer group.
“I think the report bears more careful rec
See REGENTS on 3
r orum gathers input
on new disability act
Extent, cost of
changes unknown
By Jeremy Fitzpatrick
Senior Reporter ' •* •
ueslions of how the Univer
sity of Ncbraska-Lincoln must
change to comply with new
f disability legislation and the
cost of these changes were raised at a
forum Friday in the East Union.
The American Disabilities Act self
study committee, appointed by for
mer Affirmative Aclion/Equal Op
portunity officer Brad Munn in De
cember, called for the forum to an
swer questions about and solicit input
on the ADA.
Nine people attended the forum.
The ADA, a federal law that went
into effect Jan. 26, requires that pub
lic institutions make all their pro
grams— but not necessarily all their
facilities — accessible to disabled
Americans. It requires public institu
tions to conduct self-evaluations to
determine what steps they need to
take to comply with the law.
“This forum is part of that process
so we can get input from the univer
sity,” said Carmen Maurer, acting
Affirmative Aclion/Equal Opportu
nity officer.
Rich McDermott, director of fa
cilities management at UNL and co
chairman of the self-study commit
tee, encouraged the audience to voice
its concerns, which he said the com
miuce would include in its report.
Ted Harlung, associate vice chan
cellor for the Institute of Agriculture
and Natural Resources, asked the
committee how far off U NL was from
requirements, and when the deadline
for compliance was.
“I suppose the concern is ihc un
known,” he said.
McDermott said he did not antici
pate “a great list of tens of millions of
dollars (in changes) on the building
side.”
Before the ADA was passed, he
said, UNL already was subject to the
federal Rehabilitation Act, which
required public institutions to make
their federally funded programs ac
cessible.
With the passage of the ADA,
McDermott said, UNL now must make
all its programs, but not necessarily
all its facilities, accessible. He said
the ADA required public institutions
to have their programs accessible by
January 1995. w'
Carol Fritz, an administralivc as
sistant in the biological systems engi
neering department, asked who would
pay for any changes UNL had to
make — the university or the state.
Committee members said they were
not sure who would pay the bill.
“Right now, we arc certainly hop
ing the state will help,” McDermott
said. “We’ll know how much we’re
hoping the state will be there after we
finish the self study ... and we know
how much it will cost.”
“I guess the only answer to your
question is the people of the state of
Nebraska.”
Fritz also asked what kind of train
ing or education would be given to
UNL faculty and staff to help them
comply with the ADA.
Committee member Christy Horn,
coordinator of services for students
with disabilities, said educating people
was a major obstacle that UNL faced.
UNL has more of a problem with
attitudes than facilities, she said. The
university must create an understand
ing of what kinds of attitudes exist
and how they can be changed, she
said.
“I think we’ve done a lot,” she
said. “We still have a lot to do.”
Maurer said in an interview that
she thought people were unnecessar
ily concerned about the degree of cost
and change the ADA would require.
“People arc concerned that this is
going to take lots of money to change
facilities,” she said. “Bui the spirit is
to make simple, creative changes to
provide accessibility.”
Maurer used the example of a class
that was held on the third floor of a
building that did not have an elevator.
To make it accessible, she said, the
class could simply be moved to the
first floor.
Correction: A photo in Friday s Daily Nebraskan incorrectly identified Ron Fuller as a
staff assistant for the UNL Police Department Fuller is with Parking Services
Also in Friday's Daily Nebraskan, an article incorrectly identified James Zank as an
office manager at the Environmental Resource Center Zank is a member of Ecology
Now •
An article in Friday's Daily Nebraskan should have said stated that a peer group up
’ for discussion by the regents had not yet
ikincv been identified.
Wire liMUfcA 2 The Daily Nebraskan regrets these er
Opinion 4 «**
Diversions 5 Huskers use wind to earn win
Sports 13 over No. 9 Oklahoma State. Page
Classifieds11 5 _
William Lauer/DN
Ride ’em cowboy
Lee Hetletved, a competitor from South Dakota State University at Brookings, charges
after a calf during the calf-roping event Saturday at the 34th Annual College Rodeo. See
story on pages 6 and 7.
Three women among candidates
_ ... _ A itn _ ’ll n_1_ .1
r-rom start Heports
Three of the five candidates for
senior vice chancellor of aca
demic affairs at UNL are
women, the search committee’s chair
woman said Supday.
Jean Aigner, executive dean of
international affairs at the University
of Ncbraska-Lincoln, said she was
pleased that the list of finalists in
cluded three women.
“We had not factored (gender) in
our review of people,” Aigner said.
“We feel very comfortable with the
group we’ve selected.”
i nc candidates arc:
• Robert Altenkirch, dean of the
engineering college at Mississippi State
at Starkvillc.
• Madeleine Goodman, assistant
vice president for academic affairs at
the university of Hawaii at Manoa.
• Joan R. Lcilzel, director of the
Division of Materials Development,
Research and Informal Science Edu
cation at the National Science Foun
dation and professor of mathematics
at Ohio State at Newark.
• Ann Morey, dean of the educa
tion college at San Diego State Uni
versity.
W r\. Ixavi ixaviiiuiaii,
of industrial engineering and associ
ate provost at the University of Okla
homa at Norman.
Starting next week, Aigncr said,
each finalist will visit UNL for sev
eral days. The candidates will inter
view with Chancellor Graham Spanicr,
Academic Senate executive commit
tee members, vicechanccllors, deans,
directors and others.
Ravindran will visit UNL next
week, she said. Morey, Goodman and
Altenkirch will visit the first week in
May, and Leitzel will visit sometime
in mid-May.