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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 11, 1994)
Presidents to debate Dispute persists over Engineering college By Brian Sharp Staff Reporter It’s a question still unanswered. But while the dilemma of whether to create a separate engineering college ip— Omaha remains with the NU Board of Rcgcijjs. the students’ presidents arc speaking out. A debate between Andrew Loudon, presi dent of the Association of Students of the Uni versity of Nebraska, and Matt Schulz, president of the University of Nebraska at Omaha student government, is scheduled for August 17 in Omaha at the Swanson Library, located at 90th and Dodge streets. "1 see this as the starting point of the much larger debate as to whether we will have an engineering college in Omaha,” Loudon said in a phone interview from Washington D.C. Loudon spent the summer working for Rep. Doug Bcrcutcr. The issue of a separate college is not one of Lincoln versus Omaha, Loudon said, but of responsible spending. “AnOmahacnginccringcollcgcisawasteol taxpayers money,” Loudon said, “and a misuse of taxpayer money by the university.” Schulz disagrees. In order to justify spending the money now, Schulz said, it’s necessary to look at the long term effects that the college would have on See DEBATE on 2 Jason levkulich/DN Keep Firing, Boys! ) Members o< the 9th Texas, 3rd Mo. and the Trans Mississippi Rifles, who comprise the “Extra Missouri Battalion,” advance toward the Federal line at the War Between the States reenactment Sunday August 8th in Grand Island. UNL participates in project to help Moroccan farmers By Paula Lavigne Staff Reporter Sixteen years ago, the city of Sattat, Morocco, was suffering under the impact of a chronic rm—ii . i ii i I l 111 I II LUH drought which plagued the country side leaving its citizens without food or water. Now, with the help of the Morocco Project, the citizcnsof Sattat are learn ing to live again. The project, which T-rrhTHi.ru 11 ri r I M I I Ml 1 1 1 I M m ILLL Him 11111 ii in in11 James Mehsling/DN will be officially terminated August 31, was engineered by the Mid-Amer ican International Agricultural Con sortium. Funded by USAID, the program is composed of educational institutions in the Midwest in cooperation with the Moroccan government. The Uni versity of Nebraska-Lincoln was the lead university in directing the project. Larry Bitney, project coordinator at UNL, said the main goal of the project was to increase food produc tion in the dryland area of Morocco. in order to do this, he said, an agricultural experiment station was built near the project area where a team of American scientists researched and developed ways to increase crop production. . “The reason for the project was much of the agricultural development was based on irrigation,” he said. “They have fairly limited water sup plies there.” Bitney said scientists worked on developing drought-resistant variet ies of crops. He said they also worked — 44 It was a chance to operationalize my U.S. education for the benefit of people who have real needs that go beyond Just intellectual curiosity. Those people are poor. There Is no reason why academics cannot go to an applied environment like that and make a real impact on people. —Azzeddine Azzam UNL Agriculture Economics Professor -tf on developing crops resistant to the damaging Hessian flies which burrow deep into the wheat stalks and reduce the flow of nutrients. “We wanted to make the crops much healthier and make more effi cient use of what is there,” Bitney said. “Our project runs the gamut of cultural practices, resistance and dis eases.” “All disciplines of agricultural sci ence are there. It’s apretty well-outfit ted center,” he said. Bitney said the project was abroad ening experience. “You get a lot of personal satisfac tion out of it,” he said. “You’re help ing people help themselves produce their own food.” Azzcddine Azzam, an agricultural economics professor at UNL and na tive of Casablanca, Morocco, assisted with the project. Azzam and his wife, Sarah, worked together to develop a package for the economic evaluation of technology at See MOROCCO on 3