University gains prestige in U.S.
UNL’s ratings rise; Moeser sets
expectations during address
RATING from page 1
percent budget, Moeser said.
And programs to increase cultural
diversity among UNL faculty, staff and
students received about $709,000 - the
largest chunk of reallocation funds.
Some of that money will create a
Targets of Opportunity fund, from
which UNL departments and colleges
3an borrow money to help recruit talent
sd minorities for faculty positions and
place women in senior-level positions at
the university.
Other money will help recruit
minority students into engineering and
technology majors and support minori
ty and women graduate students.
The reallocation process will also
increase the number of faculty positions
at the university and support the “core
mission of the university - teaching,
research and service,” Moeser said.
The university’s support for its hon
ors programs will also increase by
$619,000 this fall, he said. UNL will
spend the money to recruit and instruct
high-ability students, enable more
undergraduate research opportunities,
pay for additional teaching assistants in
honors courses and expand the honors
curriculum.
Moeser said the university will fol
low the reallocation process by assess
ing its strongest Ph.D. and research pro
grams and further strengthening those
programs.
“Our future as a major national
institution will probably rest on the
strength of 10 to 15 graduate or profes
sional programs,” he said.
This fall, Suzanne Ortega, sociolo
gy professor and associate dean of grad
uate studies, will lead the assessment,
Moeser said.
The selected graduate and research
programs will highlight the university’s
move to create a more rigorous academ
ic environment “alive with the electrici
ty of intellectual discourse,” Moeser
said.
“I don’t want this university to be
known anywhere for easy courses,” he
said. “We need to push our students to
perform at their very best ability, to
grade them highly when they achieve
and appropriately lower when they do
not.”
New admissions standards for this
fall resulted in the best incoming fresh
men class in the history of the universi
ty, Moeser said. The freshmen to sopho
more dropout rate should quickly fall
from last year’s 25 percent, he said. The
percent of students who graduate within
six years should also rise from 50 per
cent, he said.
Moeser called on faculty to help the
more prestigious freshmen class and
other students learn through participa
tion and experimentation rather than
just through traditional lectures. He said
students today learn differently than
when he attended classes at the
University of Texas at Austin.
Students have spent most of their
lives in an electronic environment, and
faculty must adapt their teaching styles
to student’s new learning styles, he said.
Students also must be pushed to
appreciate diverse cultures, Moeser
said.
“I do not believe many of our stu
dents are racists, but I do believe that
some are ignorant of other cultures and
often deaf and blind to the issues that are
of great significance to others,” Moeser
said.
Moeser said he envisioned the UNL
campus as beautiful and comfortable
for people of all backgrounds. Such a
campus requires that an atmosphere of
respect exists where campus disagree
ments may spark controversy and
debate, he said, but the opinions of those
involved are understood without per
sonal hatred.
Money allocated to increasing
diversity cannot create such a campus
environment, he said.
Moeser touts distance learning
By Erin Gibson
Senior Reporter
The University of Nebraska
Lincoln should maintain its posi
tion as a leader in distance educa
tion and outreach by hiring a new
vice chancellor for extended edu
cation, Chancellor James Moeser
said Friday.
“Without a clear strategy for
the future, we may not be able to
maintain that lead,” Moeser said
during his annual State of the
University speech. “We desperate
ly need a vision for what we want
to be five years from now.
“We need someone to provide
coordination and leadership in this
important new field.”
Moeser said he would ask the
NU Board of Regents to approve
the new position and would recom
mend Irv Omtvedt, last year’s
interim senior vice chancellor, for
the job.
Omtvedt will continue to serve
as vice chancellor for the Institute
of Agriculture and Natural
Research.
The new position would help
dismantle the misconception that
students are all 18- to 21-year-olds
who attend courses on a college
campus, Moeser said. “A small
business person in Scottsbluff, a
farmer in Minden or an informa
tion officer at an Omaha bank” are
also candidates for learning
through distance education, he
said.
Omtvedt said should the
regents create his new position, he
would determine the need for dis
44
We desperately need a vision for
what we want to be five years from
now
James Moeser
chancellor
tance learning statewide and find
those geographic and academic
areas where UNL could best pro
vide education and outreach.
“We know we can’t do all
things for all people,” Omtvedt
said. “Our challenge will be to
determine where we will get the
greatest return on our investment
in terms of making the greatest
contribution to the future of
Nebraska.”
UNL’s greatest demand for
distance education may come
from professional Nebraskans
seeking graduate degrees,
Omtvedt said.
For example, 18 women
received their master’s degrees this
month from the College of Human
Resources and Family Sciences.
None of the students attended
classes on campus, Moeser said.
Moeser said the university will
not neglect its campus in favor of
the “virtual university,” however.
“Having a beautiful campus is
a critical part of the aesthetic envi
ronment we want to have,” he said.
Regents approved a tuition
increase of 4.5 percent this sum
mer, including 1.5 percent to pay
for building maintenance on cam
pus, he said. UNL administration
will request similar 1.5 percent
increases every year for three years
to continue funding maintenance
projects, he said.
Extensive renovations at
Richards Hall begin next year,
Moeser said, and renovations will
follow on Love Library South,
Avery Hall and Hamilton Hall.
Moeser suggested that a single
new building could replace both
Bancroft and Lyman halls, and
UNL should build a new research
facility to replace Biochemistry
Hall.
In addition to the $ 11 million in
state funding the university will
receive for maintenance and build
ings projects in the next two years,
the university continues to cam
paign for private funding of con
struction projects. Right now $40
million in construction projects
wait to receive private funding, he
said.
All new physical improve
ments to the UNL campus will be
detailed in a new campus master
plan that will map new construc
tion and building design, address
the shortage of parking space on
campus and maintain the high
quality of landscaping on campus,
Moeser said.
-—I
New garage brings parking relief (j
GARAGE from page 1
50 cents each addi
tional hour with a
maximum of $3.75
daily. The lot will be
open 6 a.m. to 11
p.m. weekdays and 9
a.m. to 6 p.m.
Saturdays.
Christina Blackmer, a senior dietet
ics major, thought the parking garage
was a good idea and hoped that it would
ease parking shortages.
“Parking is such a pain,” Blackmer
said. “People literally fight for spots.”
But Blackmer was skeptical about
the pi ice for the year. Last year she did
n’t buy a permit and thought she ended
up paying more for parking at meters
than she would have if she had bought a
permit.
“If I only had one or two classes a
day I might consider parking there,”
Blackmer said.
Todd O’Connell, a junior business
major, said he already purchased a per
mit and didn’t want to spend any more
money on parking.
In addition to the new parking
garage, an 85-stall faculty and student
lot was built on the west side of the
garage. To be able to park in this lot, stu
dents have to buy a 12 month permit for
$300; faculty can buy one for $360.
O’Connell said he didn’t think the
$300 permit was worth it.
“It is not that much closer than the
green lots,” O’Connell said. “I have
classes early in the morning and have
never had a problem finding a spot in
the green lots.”
The parking garage and lot replace
140 staff and faculty spots and 60
meters that were in the old lot. With the
addition of the garage and lot, the num
ber of parking spots tripled along 10th
Street and T Street.
Faculty who parked in the old lot
were moved to a lot north of the garage
and Big Red Shop. The lot north of
Memorial Stadium was converted from
staff and student parking to green stu
dent permit use only.
McDowell said the garage and
other lots were built to help meet the
parking needs of visitors, staff and fac
ulty.
“We hope the garage will help meet
some of the unmet demand for 1,200
permits,” McDowell said.
Besides parking, the new garage
will also house new UNL Parking and
Transit Services’ offices, a snack shop,
an observatory, the first indoor shuttle
bus stop, the NU Athletic Department
Ticket Office, a satellite UNL police
station and a Huskers Authentic sports
retail store.
Huskers Authentic will occupy
5,500 square feet of the garage’s ground
floor. The store is scheduled to open
Friday and will have 25 television
screens that will show HuskerVision
during game days and past Husker
games on off-days.
The Bakery is expanding and will
open a second shop in the garage to
compliment its Nebraska Union shop.
Flavored coffees, yogurt, sandwiches,
salads, baked goods, popcorn, sodas,
and juices will be available at the shop,
which will open in late October.
Parking Services’ offices will move
from 1941Y Street to the garage Sept 29.
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