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Husken face
Oklahoma in
45/25
Mostly sunny for today,
« tea ^breezy and mHd.ll
fc t 'Weekend outlook,
continued mild and dry,
highs in the 40's.
Robin Trtmarchi/DN
Students walk across the campus of the University of Nebraska at Kearney.
No respect ^ :
UNK neglected, ‘shut out’ of NU system, students say
By Chuck Green
Senior Reporter
KEARNEY—Trying to gain a state’s
respect has become a full-time pur
suit for some students at the Univer
sity of Nebraska at Kearney.
And few recognize that quest more than
UNK’s newly appointed and outgoing stu
dent regents.
S— related storias on Pagas 6 and 7
Andy Stock, a junior Spanish major from
Lincoln, took over UNlC’s student regent
position last Tuesday night, replacing Kevin
McCully, who had served the previous year.
Even before he was installed as UNK’s
student body president, Stock had heard
comments from several students.
Most have been frustrating ones.
“Some people have a real identity crisis
here,’’ Stock said. “Students sometimes feel
like UNK is being shut out or ignored, like
we’re just along for the ride and we don’t
really count.”
Many of the8,600 students at UN K chose
to come to Kearney over the University of
Nebraska-Lincoln or the University of Ne
braska at Omaha to learn in a smaller envi
ronment than Lincoln or Omaha could offer.
Stdtk, who graduated from Lincoln East
High School in June 19%, simply wanted to
get away from home.
“I came out here to live on my own,” he
said. “If I would have stayed in Lincoln, I
would be hanging out with my same friends
from high school, doing the same things 1 did
then, and I wouldn’t have gotten to meet as
many new people.”
But there was a lime when Stock would
have been less enthusiastic about his stay in
Kearney. After his sophomore year, he al
most transferred to UNL, frustrated by sched
uling problems that made it impossible to
register for some of the classes he needed—
a result of underfunding.
That makes it easy to understand why
UN K ’ s budget lops Stock ’ s list of irritations.
“We’re drastically underfunded,” he said.
“Right now, we have a very sparse class
selection. Our teachers are teaching more
classes than they should, and this forces
students to hang around here for six years or
so to get their degrees, rather than four or
Five, just because they can’t gel into the
classes they need.
“And with any more budget cuts, those
six years could turn into seven.”
Nevertheless, Stock insisted that UNK
was betteroff since it became part of the NU
system.
As part of the university, he said, UNK’s
name change would help him and other
students Find jobs after graduation, particu
larly if their search takes them outside of
See REGENT on 6
Candidates clash
on budget tactics
at AS UN debate
Car accident keeps Benes
from representing VOICE
By Sarah Scalet
Staff Reporter
A SUN candidates debated theories and
platforms Thursday evening, despite
a car accident that prevented VOICE’S
presidential candidate, Keith Benes, from at
tending the debate.
Andrew Sigerson, president of the Associa
tion of Students of the University of Nebraska,
said Benes was in Bryan Memorial Hospital in
Lincoln.
Benes was admitted for overnight monitor
ing after suffering a severe concussion when his
car apparently hit a tree near 40th and St. Paul
streets. Benes was en route to the debate when
the accident occurred.
The debate indicated agreement by both
parties on the issues of sexual assault and
harassment and student football seating.
Both said sexual harassment was a major
problem that deserved AS UN attention. Re
garding football seating, both parties said stu
dents should not have to sit in the worst areas of
the stadium.
Sieve Dietz, PARTY presidential candi
date, opened the debate by saying many false
allegations had been made against his party.
- He said VOICE was bothered by PARTY’S
non-traditional style.
“They are scared students will hear me,”
Dietz said. “Not just listen to me, but hear me.”
He called for a change in the status quo and
said PARTY wanted to give the government
back to the students.
“ASUN needs an attitude change and that’s
what we represent,” he said.
Trent Steele, VOICE’S first vice presiden
tial candidate, said that as elections approached,
parties tended to become nervous.
“(Dietz’ opening remarks) were the most
desperate, negative comments I’ve heard since
I’ve been in politics at UNL,” he said. “I don’t
even know where to begin.”
Steele said PARTY had few female candi
dates and no candidates from East Campus or
the residence halls. VOICE’S ticket is 52 per
cent women, and candidates from a wide range
of residence halls and greek organizations, he
said.
Steele said VOICE was running a positive
campaign and had talked with many residence
hall and off-campus students.
Debate questions, submitted by members of
the audience, included issues of budget cuts at
UNL and unlimited spending in AS UN elec
tions.
Leslie Strong, PARTY vice presidential
See DEBATE on 2
Three Big Eight schools to face budget woes
5 percent budget cut
to lessen UNL’s quality,
university officials say
By Steve Smith
Senior Editor
With an alpnost $7 million budget cut
looming over the University of Ne
braska-Lincoln, some college offi
cials have braced themselves for the worst.
John Peters, dean of the College of Arts and
Sciences, is one such official.
Peters said further budget cuts would cause
■g his college to take drastic
measures.
|| When the Legislature’s
special session ordered a 1.5
»JL percent cut last November,
fgn he said the arts and sciences
college
nHHH! in 10 accommodate.
li resulted in larger class
sections, less opportunities
for students to get into required classes and
elimination of such events as the all-state music
program. It also led to cuts in the actuarial
science department, he said.
“We’ve done what we can do with the first
round of cuts, and I think we’ve done a pretty
good job,” Peters said.
If the university goes along with the pro
posed 5 percent cut in the current Legislative
session, Peters said, consequences could be
hard to handle for a college that teaches 58
percent of UNL’s courses.
“If we get cut again, well — we’re out of
strategy for that one,” he said. “It would have a
devastating effect if we get our budget cut
again."
If the proposed cuts are passed by the Leg
islature, Peters predicted severe problems with
students getting into required classes and de
lays in graduations resulting from losses in
faculty.
“We will be jeopardizing the investment of
the people of Nebraska,” Peters said.
The College of Arts and Sciences has done
everything in its power to cope with the first
round of cuts, Peters said, and another round
See CUTS on 3
i
OSU, Colorado confronting
difficult cuts, while three
schools expect budget hikes
By Kara Morrison
Senior Editor
Three Big Eight universities, including
UNL, face severe or potentially severe
budget cuts, while three others expect
budget increases.
Ray Dowen, provost of
Oklahoma State University,
said a 9 percent budget cut
for his school, recently man
dated by the state’s legisla
Jture, was surprisingly severe.
“It’s going to be very de
structive,” he said. “A lot of
long-time, faithful employ
ees are going to lose their
-- jobs.”
Dowen said OSU had been bracing itself for
about a 5 percent cut. The University of Ne
braska is facing a proposed S percent budgetcut
next year.
The University of Colorado at Boulder also
is preparing itself for a substantial cut. But
Kansas State University, Iowa State University
and the University of Missouri are receiving
budget increases.
Pauline Hale, director of public relations at
the University of Colorado at Boulder, said CU
was expecting bad news from its legislature
next month.
“It’s difficult not knowing what’s coming,
but knowing it's not going to be good,’’ Hale
said.
Hale attributed budget problems to a “state
wide fiscal emergency’’ and said problems
were complicated by an amendment that pro
hibited increasing taxes and limited spending
on all government agencies — including edu
cation.
Hale said CU’s chancellor indicated the cuts
at the university were cxpcc ted to be too signifi
cant to sustain across-the-board cuts. Instead,
Hale said, entire programs probably will have
to be sacrificed.
But Dowcn said 8 percent of OSU’s budget
See BIG EIGHT cn 3