WEDNESDAY
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__ August 30, 1995
High on her horse
Jon Waller/DN
Debby Walentine of Fort Calhoun hands her daughter Meghan a hat while she mounts her
horse in preparation for State Fair competition. .
Byrne’s contract
upsets regents
By Matt Woody
Senior Reporter
Former UNL Chancellor Graham
Spanier’s decision last spring to re
new Athletic Director Bill Byrne’s
contract and not tell anyone doesn’t
jibe with an NU Board of Regents
policy about reporting university em
ployment changes, a regent said.
In late 1994, the
board decided to
assume less control
over employment
contracts and hir
ing, giving more
authority totop uni
versity administra
tors, Chairwoman
Nancy O’Brien of
Waterloo said
r Leitzel ' Tuesday night. In
return, the board asked to be notified of
such decisions, she said.
* According to the policy, O’Brien
said, the board is to be notified every
three months of major university em
ployment decisions. The Board often is
* informed each month, she said, or in
special cases, it is notified immediately.
Spanier and Byrne closed the deal
in early March, Byme said, but news
of the contract extension got out to the
public only in the last few days.
Byrne said his two-year extension
contains a rollover clause, which
means another year will automatically
be added to the contract each year.
O’Brien said she learned about
Byrne’s renewal about 10 days ago,
about five months after the deal was
made.
Upon learning that the contract
extension was signed in March and
not in July as she had previously be
lieved, O’Brien said, “That’s even
more troublesome.” •
As chancellor of the University of
Nebraska-Lincoln at the time, Gra
ham Spanier could renew Byrne’s
contract on his own authority, without
seeking approval from the central NU
administration.
Regent Robert Allen of Hastings
agreed with O’Brien that the board
should have been notified of the deci
sion.
“I guess technically he could do
this without telling us about it. ... It
would have been better if he had talked
to us about it.”
Spanier, now president of Pennsyl
vania State University, declined com
ment Tuesday night, saying he was no
longer involved with UNL.
UNL Interim Chancellor Joan
Leitzel, who took over for Spanier on
July 24, said Spanier’s handling of
Byrne’s contract was by the book.
“It followed the university’s per
sonnel procedures to the letter,” Leitzel
said.
Although she didn’t know about
Spanier’s move at the time, Leitzel
said she learned of it in July while
preparing to assume UNL’s top post.
The extension of Byrne’s contract
was discussed in executive session at
Saturday ’ s Board of Regents meeting.
O’Brien emphasized die wasn ’t ques
tioning whether Byrne deserved to have
his contract extended, but she was tak
ing issue with the way it was handled.
“I don’t think it should have been a
secret, and I don’t think anything about
it was secretive in nature,” she said,
“but it looks suspicious in retrospect.”
However, Allen disagrees with
Spanier’s decision. He said heavy criti
cism of Byrne — some of which he
feels was justified—warranted a re
view of the position.
“I wouldn’t agree with what he
(Spanier) gave him,” Allen said. “I
think Bill’s got himself in some prob
lems here, especially with the Chris
Peterson situation.”
Peterson was an Associate Ath
letic Directorat UNL, until last week,
when he was named a consultant at the
NU Foundation.
Speculation had surrounded
Peterson’s future in the athletic de
partment for months. Peterson’s of
fice underwent an audit in February,
which proved Peterson had done noth
ing illegal.
But Allen said Byrne and Peterson
just didn’t get along, and that tension
was at least partly responsible for
Peterson’s departure.
New dean to change
engineering direction
By Paula Lavigne
Senior Reporter --
A new dean wants to plunge the
engineering col
lege back into de
bate.
It is a new de
bate, which goes
beyond the sepa
rate engineering
college contro
versy and branches
into national is
sues.
James Hendrix
has been engineering dean for fewer
than two weeks, but he says he is ready
to take the college out of its controver
sial rhetoric involving area business
leaders and put it back into the hands
of higher education.
Earlier this year, NU President
Dennis Smith rejected a proposal, af
ter much debate, to build a separate
engineering college in.Omaha.
Hendrix replaced former Dean Stan
Liberty, who was forced to resign amid
the controversy.
And though he still has to look at
his stationery to find his office ad
dress, Hendrix said he had a full box
of business cards on his desk and was
ready to go.
“What we must deal with is worry
ing about engineering issues in higher
education,” he said. “It’s not localized
to the state of Nebraska.”
Hendrix said the engineering col
lege had to respond to the national
debate and a. changing field.
Themodels of education arechang
ing with time, he said. Several years
ago, education focused on teaching.
After the space age began, education
switched to research. Then about seven
years ago, he said, it went back to
teaching.
“Before most universities can re
spond, you have another model,” he
said. “We have to figure out how we
can respond — even if we can re
spond.”
The college has to change from a
See HENDRIX on 8
Triple-room rebate spells relief
By Angie Schendt
Staff Reporter
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
students who found themselves stuck
in temporary residence hall rooms will
get some relief—financial relief, that
is.
UNL Housing is offering rebates
to compensate the third person in triple
rooms and people living in lounges,
Housing Director DougZatechka said.
The “third person” in a residence
hall room is the one assigned to that
room last.
As of Sept. 15, students still in
temporary housing will receive a $35
rebate for each month, including the
first month they stayed in their tempo
rary assignments, Zatechka said.
The rebate is valid until the stu
dents have the chance to move to
permanent rooms.
Because only 40 people did not
show up for their residence hall as
signments, the temporary housing may
become permanent, he said. That’s
why rebates are being offered.
“It is a good idea, if the people are
stuck in the rooms for a long period of
“It is a good idea, if the people are stuck in the
rooms for a long period of time. ”
ROSE RYAN
Freshman computer engineering major
time,” said Rose Ryan, a freshman
computer engineering major. Ryan is
the third person in her temporary triple
room.
The number of no-shows in the
residence halls is about the same as
last year, Zatechka said.
Thirteen women and 27 men didn’t
show up to their residence hall assign
ments this* year, Zatechka said.
Originally, UNL Housing planned,
to make people move out of tempo
rary rooms when permanent rooms
became available, Zatechka said.
“Now we are not going to force
them to move out,” he said.
The increased number of first-year
students right out of high school also
has affected the housing situation for
transfer students, Zatechka said.
After a certain date this summer,
housing did not accept housing appli
cations from transfer students.
Many of those transfer students
who wanted campus housing but
missed the deadline received a spot in
university-owned apartments on Vine
Street. About 54 non-freshmen live in
the apartments, Zatechka said.
Sophomore transfer student Megin
Schutte, an elementary education
major, got her housing application in
late.
Before she got her current room in
Pound Hall, Schutte said, she was told
about the Vine Street apartments.
“Then they told me that it was all
booked up, too,” Schutte said.