M Sports
Running Again
Nebraska's Kate
Galligan has returned
to action after a knee
injury ended her
1992-93 season.
Page 8
Wednesday
11/5
Today, partly cloudy
with bitterly cold
wind chills.
Vol. 93 No. 100
Academic senate votes down minus system
William Lauer/DN
Sally Wise, Academic Senate president, counts hand votes during Tuesday’s meeting. Hand voting was
necessary because spectators voiced their sentiments during oral votes.
40-point grade scale
was not considered
By Angie Brunkow
Senior Reporter
After tabling a vote on a 40-point dec
imal grading system, Academic Sen
ate members decided Tuesday that
adding minuses to UNL’s course grading sys
tem wasn't a plus.
After more than two hours of discussion, the
senate voted down the proposal to add minuses
to the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s grad
ing system, which currently includes letter grades
and pluses.
By tabling the decimal system, which would
have allowed instructors to choose from 40
possible categories to evaluate course work,
Academic Senate President Sally Wise said
senators indicated they didn’t want to consider
the proposal any time in the future.
“1 think it’s a sign (faculty members) haven’t
found anything else,” Wise said at the meeting.
The minus-system proposal, amended to
include an A+ and exclude a D-, was voted
down 25-22.
James Ford, who proposed the minus sys
tem, said he wasn’t sure what he planned to do
with the proposal now.
Ford said he would consider bringing the
issue to a mail ballot. The faculty assembly,
which meets twice a year, must approve such a
ballot.
Trent Steele, ASUN first vice president, said
the decision was a victory for students.
“The students have a right to breathe a
collective sigh of relief,” he said.
Steele and Doug Oxley, a graduate senator
for the Association of Studentsof the University
ofNebraska, voiced student opposition to chang
ing the grading system at the meeting.
See SENATE on 7
Engineering college questions dominate budget hearing
oy isara u. Morrison
Senior Reporter
Senators had more questions about the
possible creation of an engineering col
lege at UNO than about actual budget
requests Tuesday at the university’s
midbiennium budget request hearing.
University of Nebraska President Martin
Masscngalc, Regent Chairman Charles Wilson
and all four chancellors of the university system
presented their informal deficit budget requests
to the Legislature’s Appropriations Commit
tee.
Sen. Scott Moore of Seward, the chairmanof
the committee, asked Del Weber, chancellor of
the University of Nebraska at Omaha, why he
had never mentioned to the Legislature that
UNO s engineering program nao promems.
“How come, if this was such a burr under the
saddle, we’ve never heard a peep about it?”
LEGISLATURE
iviuuiL^diu. ican lauuaw
something I don’t know
anything about.”
Weber said Omaha facul
ty and businessmen had
been telling him for 17 years
the engineering college
needed to be relumed to the
UNO campus. Weber said
he had always told them he
didn’t think a new college
wouiu DC politically or i manually icosiuit.
“It was not my job to advocate an engineer
ng college,” Weber said. “When it wasn’t
happening, I finally had to.
Weber said he did not take a position on the
issue until the debate was in full swing. Then,
he said, he had to agree or disagree.
“1 chose to take the position I took,” Weber
said.
Sen. Brad Ashford of Omaha said he was
disturbed by statements made by Wilson and
UNL Engineering and Technology Dean Stan
Liberty questioning the push by Omaha busi
ness leaders, regents and senators for a new
UNO engineering college.
Ashford quoted Liberty as saying, “The
Omaha delegation has muddied the waters”
with their public support of the new college.
“We weren’t muddying any waters,” Ashford
said. “If any waters have been muddied it is by -
the engineering department over the last six
years.
Ashford said UNO’s engineering needs were
being “inadequately served.”
Wilson said he was merely asking everyone
to keep somewhat of an open mind until the
independent panel studying the issue was able
to present its findings, which Wilson expects in
the next month or two.
“The process is in place that should bring us
an analysis as to what the state’s needs are,”
Wilson said.
Sen. David Bernard-Stevcns of North Platte
said if Omaha could get a new college because
its needs weren’t being met, colleges in the
western part of the state “should be booming.”
See LEGISLATURE on 7
Push ror new hiring practices persists
Hispanic tacuity,
staff show support
for MASA boycott
By Paula Lavigne
Senior Reporter
Despite a meeting with UNL
administrators Tuesday,
MASA said it would contin
ue its boycott of the Office of
Multicultural Affairs until the office
changed its hiring practices.
The Mexican American Student
Association began the boycott last
Friday after charging the office with
unfair hiring procedures that favored
blacks.
Of the 1,188 minority students at
the university, 41 percent arc black,
29 percent are Hispanic, 23 percent
arc Asian American and 7 percent are
American Indians.
Of the six full-time staff members
in the office, two are Hispanic.
Cathy Maestas, MASA president,
said a meeting Tuesday morning gen
crated support for the boycott from >
University of Nebraska-Lincoln His
panic faculty and staff members.
“They realize the problem and
they’re in this too,” she said.
UNL Chancellor Graham Spanier
and Vice Chancellor for Student Af
fairs James Griesen attended the meet
>ng.
“Spanier is very concerned,
Macstas said, “but we still need to see
the commitment. We’ve had a voiced
response, but we need to have a matter ,
of trust.”
Maestas said administrators had .
lied to MASA in the past.
“They deceived us,” she said. “We <
heard the words, now we need to see j
the action.”
Maestas said the administration (
told her they addressed the problem
and were making strides to correct it. 1
“They say their directors have been :
using diverse hiring practices, but
when you look at who’s been hired, it
doesn’t show that,” she said.
Griesen said MAS A presented him
with a statement of concerns at the
- 44
It ’s a message with
which / have
sympathy.
—Griesen
Vice Chancellor for Student
Affairs
-tf -
meeting.
“The group expressed concern
about the Office of Multicultural Af
fairs and that it isn’t as supportive of
I'hicano students as it should be,” he
said.
Griesen said there were no Latino
ar Chicano deans or administrators.
He also said there was a dismal num
ber of Latino and Chicano faculty and
staff members.
“(MASA) would like to see more
control in the hands of Chicanos/
Latinos,” Griesen said.
See MASA on 3
Deans visit York, Seward
for input on college goals
By Matthew Waite
Senior Reporter__
Deans from the University
of Ncbraska-Lincoln met
with citizens of Seward
and York Tuesday during another
stop in the statewide tour.
The tour, which began last fall,
serves to gather input from Nebras
ka comm uni ties on the Vision State
ment—long-range goals and plans
for the university.
Cecil Steward, dean of the Col
lege of Architecture, and Don
Edwards, dean of the College of
Agricultural Sciences and Natural
Resources, fielded questions from
high school students and commu
nity leaders.
The tour began at Seward High
School where students in vocation
al education classes questioned the
deans about UNL classes.
“Don’t be afraid to knock on
doors,” Edwards said.
Edwards said practical experi
ence was the best experience stu
dents could receive. He told the
students when he was in college his
grades were close to academic pro
bation. If it wasn’t for the experi
ence gained in an internship,
Edwards said, things would have
been different.
“When you are on the job... the
experience comes alive,” he said.
“If it weren’t for that, I wouldn’t
have graduated from college.”
Steward told the 16 students in
an architecture and mechanical
drawing class that architects didn’t
get paid much because they loved
their jobs.
“It’s a good professional living,
but it’s not one that you are going to
See VISION on 7