NU stands by $20 increase , By Brad Davis Senior Reporter Although some ticket holders have complained about the $20 increase in student season football tickets, the NU Ticket Office said the added revenue was necessary. University of Nebraska Ticket Office Manager John Anderson said football season ticket prices were increased to allow the Athletic Department to make improvements in its programs and facilities. The ticket prices, which Anderson said have remained unchanged since 1995, increased by $20 for students - totaling $ 107.50 for six home games. Tickets were $73 in 1994, before they were increased to $87.50 in 1995, where they stayed until this year. “Obviously, we’re not just doing it for spite,” Anderson said. “If we had a pitiful football team it wouldn’t make sense, but the demand is there, so you can charge a little bit more.” Anderson said ticket prices were raised not arbitrarily but to complete construction projects including water proofing Memorial Stadium, fixing the Bob Devaney Sports Center’s aging roof, building a new bowling office and adding two new varsity sports - both women’s bowling and rifle. The sky boxes that will be con structed at Memorial Stadium, along with the other west stadium projects, will not be financed by the price increase, Anderson said. New restrooms and added conces sion stands will be improvements paid for by the near $3.50-per-game price increase for students. Some schools around the country have pricing structures similar to NU’s, while others incorporate football tickets into student fees. Jeff Andress, a ticket office worker at the University of Florida, said student season tickets at UF cost $36. He said about 20,000 tickets out of about 83,000 seats were allotted for stu dents, compared to NU’s 8,000 seats out of about 76,000 seats. Florida students pay part of their student fees to the UF athletic depart ment, which keeps prices low, Andress said. Prices for student tickets at some of the nation’s other top programs vary: The University of Washington charges $60; Penn State, $90; Michigan, $84; Oklahoma, $125. The University ofTennessee doesn’t charge students for tickets, but a part of its $140 student fees goes to its athletic department. Anderson said adding football tick et prices to student fees at UNL would be much more controversial than the price increase. “That would be way more revenue then if we just charged die students who go to the games,” he said. To remain on the cutting edge among athletic programs nationwide, Anderson said, ticket prices had to increase because there are few other ways to add to the Athletic Department’s revenue. “We hope people would recognize that we are reinvesting in our program and continuing to strive to stay on top in every aspect of athletics,” Anderson , said. Jason Adams, a UNL freshman, said he thought the increase wasn’t “that ( bad.” He said prices increase with everything, so he expected it with foot ball, as well. | “They’re still quite a bit lower than ] regular prices, so that’s good,” Adams said. 1 But Clay Ehlers, a UNL junior, said the increase “bites,” although he still plans to buy season tickets. C “We pay to go to school there, and I we pay all of our student fees and all of I our tuition,” Ehlers said, “but increasing I prices again is kind of financially strain- i ing. i “But I gotta see the game,” he said. \ And that kind of fan loyalty is what \ Anderson is counting on to make this \ increase successful. \ “We’re not trying to price anyone j out of the market,” he said. “I’m sure it , does affect some people, but I would , think for the majority of people, it t shouldn’t really put a dent into their < ticket budget.” Tickets go on sale March 16-20, during the student ticket lottery, at which time they can also purchase $6 spring game and national championship celebration tickets. Anderson said he is confident demand will exceed the sup ply, even with the increase. “We have a great schedule and the best product in the country,” Anderson said. “We feel the product is worth the $107.50 the students are paying.” CFA will recommend fee increase By Jessica Fargen Assignment Reporter The Committee for Fees Allocation said Tuesday it will recommend to ASUN a student fee increase of $33 per student each semester next year. The increase would send student fees up to $240 a semester. Twenty dollars of that increase is to pay back bonds taken out fund union renovations. The remaining $ 13 was determined by three factors: CFA’s budget recom mendations, administrative salaries and benefits, and the money needed to offset a decrease in enrollment. The student fee increase recom mendation was the culmination of a month of meetings dealing with the sub I-—> j—j—i-t-*■-. mitted budgets from: the Daily Nebraskan, ASUN, the University Programming Council and UPC/Lied Center for Performing Arts, the University Health Center, Campus Recreation Center and the union. CFA has reduced nearly half of those requested budgets in an effort to keep student fees low because the $20 would automatically be tacked on. ■ The union requested a 9 percent increase, which CFA cut back to about 3.5 percent ■UPC Programming asked for an 8 percent increase and got about 2. ■ The Daily Nebraskan asked for 8 percent and received 6 percent. ■ ASUN and UPC/Lied each received requested amounts, the health center requested no increase. A standard 3 percent increase was added in for I administrative salaries and benefits. And because 1,060 fewer students were enrolled in fall of 1997 than in fall of 1996, a conversion ratio was factored in to make up for less money generated from student fees. Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs James Griesen said the decreased enrollment required that either student fees had to increase or expenditures had to decrease. ASUN will vote on the budgets March 4 and its decision will be for warded to Chancellor James Moeser, who can override ASUN. The NU Board of Regents will conduct the final budget vote April 4. 3 Diversity In History Editor’s note: Each day during Black History Month, the Daily Nebraskan will tell the story of a minority who made an important contribution in 7% America's history. ^ Because, at age 10, he began working as a migrant farm worker when his family lost its small Arizona ^ farm during the Great Depression; Because he began organizing Community Service Organization chapters and Hispanic voter registration drives and battling racial and economic discrimination against Chicano residents; Because he served as the national director of CSO •bsIb® in the late 1950s and early 1960s, and then founded ^3 the National Farm Workers Association; Qgi • Because, in 1965, he led the successful five-year grape strike and boycott that rallied millions behind the cause of improving wages and conditions for immigrant farm workers, and almost a decade later, he called for a worldwide grape boycott honored by about 17 million American adults; C* • Because, when the California farm labor board ceased to enforce labor laws in 1984, he called another grape boycott and four years later fasted for 36 days to protest the pesticide poisoning of grape workers and their children; Because President Bill Clinton awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor in the United States, posthumously in 1994; Cesar E. Chavez (1927-1993) is known as a hero who founded the first successful farm workers’ union *^5^ in the United States, which improved the working conditions of poor, immigrant farm workers and # expanded civil rights for people of all cultures. -\ Be a Founding Father '5— University of Nebraska-Lincoln // PiKaf®£ 1 l«T1 \ \ V J \ \ ' d \ \\\\wv / Scholars* C$ader^ AtMetfes*|Bentiemen For more information please contact Ted Rowe or Clint Bartman at (402) 436-7295 or e-mail at CBart1868@aol.com ^ J Convenience store robbed Two men used a wooden shovel handle to rob the Gas ’N Shop, 1140 N. 48th St., at 4:30 a.m. Tuesday. The men, wearing pale blue hooded pullovers and ski masks, threatened the clerk with the shovel handle and took some cash and ciga rettes, Lincoln Police Capt. A1 Wagner said. The clerk described the men as 5 foot-9, thin and Hispanic. Police are looking at a surveillance video for clues. 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