EDITOR
Erin Gibson
OPINION
EDITOR
Cliff Hicks
EDITORIAL
BOARD
Nancy Christensen
Brad Davis
Sam McKewon
Jeff Randall
Bret Schulte
Our
VIEW
Somebody
pinch us
$125 million gift
is an unexpected boon
This gift really got us.
As students at a Nebraska public universi
ty, we are used to writing about scratching for
money, not about accepting an Ivy League
type windfall.
In past years, we have simultaneously cov
ered news about a state surplus and about NU
President Dennis Smith begging legislators
for a decent share of state funds.
We have covered annual tuition increases
and $30 raises in student fees so the university
can afford to update technology on campus.
We also have reported that some alumni
will spend millions on Memorial Stadium
skyboxes before they donate money to Love
Library.
But today is different.
Today, we cover news about how our cam
pus may use a $125 million endowment for
academics and academic buildings.
It’s an endowment from a University of
Nebraska alumna who cared enough about
students to allocate a quarter of her estate to
furthering their education after her death,
when she could no longer reap rewards of
good press.
Her gift won’t enhance any corporation’s
image or change the brand of our beverages.
Nor will it pass over existing academic
departments to build swanky new buildings
and programs in Omaha.
Instead, the interest that accrues should
knock two items off the NU wish list for its
flagship campus.
It will beef up chemical engineering here
in Lincoln, where most full-time NU students
choose to study, and should build a new wing
onto Walter Scott Engineering Center.
It also could build a new wing of Love
Library, the often-neglected heart of under
graduate study and research. The gift promis
es technology upgrades for all NU libraries.
Regents and central administrators will
get 12.5 percent of the interest to enhance their
own facilities and functions. As students, we
would rather see that amount used to update
and renovate classrooms and laboratories, but
we’re pleased that another 12.5 percent or
more will go to UNL academic programs
each year.
Some peril does exist with a gift of this
magnitude: The Legislature might cite its
great sum to help justify state funding cuts in
the future.
Therefore, it’s essential to spend the
endowment’s interest on only the most perti
nent academic matters, and the university
must loudly disclose exactly how it spends
each dollar.
Despite our cautions, the very idea of a
$125 million endowment to this public uni
versity hits us like an icy cold cola at the first
home football game.
It’s nice. It’s unbelievably nice.
And unlike that gameday drink, students a
century from now still will reap its rewards.
Editorial Pallcy
Unsigned editorials are the opinions of
the Spring 1998 Daily Nebraskan. They
do not necessarily reflect the views of the
University of Nebraska-Lincoln, its
employees, its student body or the
University of Nebraska Board of Regents.
A column is solely the opinion of its author.
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the Daily Nebraskan Editorial Board. The
UNL Publications Board, established by
the regents, supervises the production
of the paper. According to policy set by
the regents, responsibility for the editorial
content of the newspaper lies solely in
the hands of its student employees.
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Mook’s
VIEW
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Ivory tower no more
Important changes make UNL less comfortable
ERIN GIBSON is a senior
news-editorial major and
Daily Nebraskan editor in
chief.
Welcome to campus.
Don’t get comfortable.
Not because the university hopes
to see a good portion of students fail
and return home within the semester.
On the contrary, it has increased
admissions standards so freshmen
are better prepared to succeed.
The reason no person on campus
is free to rest in relative comfort and
relaxation is simple: This is no
longer a comfortable and relaxing
place.
By nature, it shouldn’t be.
A university exists for change
and seeks to challenge and expand
minds, not to foster complacency.
But change at UNL this year
means more than eliminating the
inflated grades and the easy classes
that could make an average student
feel downright comfy.
i ne term cnange mis year
accompanies a long-term vision of a
grander university, and it will benefit
the next generation of Comhuskers.
Today’s generation of faculty and
students, however, must sacrifice
and embrace change.
It’s a formidable task. Plenty of
change exists.
Any casual observer can note the
most obvious symbol of change on
campus: construction.
It riddles campus’ most-used
structures with unfinished space and
tom-up sidewalks. It’s rotten for now,
but good for later.
Cosmetic changes aside, the uni
versity’s funding, academic and
research priorities have changed
along with goals for the prestige of
the entire university.
UNL administrators no longer
feel content to lead the little
Midwestern school with the big foot
ball team. They have decided the
university must contend nationally in
research and academics.
Administrators are accomplish- /
ing this by fashioning new jewels for
UNL’s crown called areas of excel
lence, which they hope will draw top
scholars and research grants.
While “areas of excellence”
sounds positively charming, much of
the process is dastardly, and it direct
ly effects both faculty and students.
The push to move funding from
dusty old programs to shining new
ones is championed by Chancellor
James Moeser. His vision is noble,
but support wanes when talk arises
about how he ripped 4 percent of all
departments’ budgets from their
hands during the past two years.
The $6.9 million collected was
reallocated to a list of priority pro
grams and initiatives including dis
tance education, plant science and a
humanities research center. A couple
million of that went to recruiting top
students, recruiting a more diverse
faculty and student body and updat
ing campus technology.
It all sounds like a giant boon to
students now on campus. On paper,
we’re brighter and more culturally
diverse than ever. Funding is in the
right places to continue that trend,
and we could soon reap the benefits
of these changes.
Or will we?
This summer, Karen Griess of
the Lincoln Journal Star wrote a sig
nificant report on low faculty morale
on campus. The faculty interviewed
cited reallocation of binding as a
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It seems financial uncertainty -
the No. 1 cause of marital stress - is
obliterating the historically rocky
relationship between faculty and
administration. Faculty members
feel powerless against the realloca
tion and feel it is dictated by admin
istrators. In other words, they feel
powerless in the face of change.
Not only is reallocation change,
it’s the worst kind of change. It’s
ongoing, and it toys with pocket
books.
It freed up money for programs
that should improve UNL’s overall
quality in the ftiture.
But for now, faculty morale
remains low, and many faculty mem
bers could carry their low morale
into the classroom, whether they
intend to or not. As a result, the qual
ity of students’ classroom experi
ences will suffer this year.
Low faculty morale also could
cause more minority faculty mem
bers to leave campus, where feeling
welcome and comfortable is a daily
struggle without campuswide moral*
problems. Each time a minority fac
ulty member leaves campus this
year, students’ overall quality of edu
cation will sustain a blow, because
we will have considered fewer per
spectives in our course work.
Another change, which began
more than a year ago, is Chancellor
Moeser’s push for greater academic
rigor. It’s a complicated push, when
faculty evaluations depend upon stu
dents’ course evaluations, and stu
dents typically give low ratings to
difficult courses.
The push means confusion and a
bit of resentment from faculty mem
bers who believe they already teach
rigorous, engaging courses. Again,
this confusion could spill over into
the classroom with negative results
in the short run.
No matter how smart students
look on paper this year or how UNL
showcases new programs financed
through budget reallocation, the ben
efits of sweeping academic and
financial changes will not arrive
quickly.
We will not reap any significant
benefits soon.
Instead, we must wait an unpre
dictable number of years until
changes mature into greater institu
tional prestige, until a higher caliber
of students converge with a faculty
teaching more rigorous material and
until folks get used to a new UNL.
And just when students, faculty
and administrators start to feel a lit
tle more comfortable around here ...
Just when their self-image starts
to improve with their national pres
tige ...
They again must relinquish com
fort and face the only thing that has
n’t changed: public opinion in their
own backyard.
The Nebraska public likes the
NU football team, but they mistrust
the rest of the institution and view it
as an enigma akin to a “tax-and
spend” Congress and Social
Security.
Many Nebraskans still call UNL
an “ivory tower,” a term adopted in
1911 that means a secluded place of
learning marked by an escapist atti
tude and disregard for practical mat
ters.
But UNL’s ivory tower fell years
ago. It crumbled with increased pub
lic scrutiny, accountability and pres
sure to develop and fund programs
that serve all state citizens, not just
those attending one small, central
ized campus.
In other words, those who came
here looking for an escape from
; work or home, for a job with tenure
or for a simple diploma - they have
no place here anymore.
At each turn, university members
will find a new challenge. It is an
exciting time to study and work on
this campus, but it is no longer a
comfortable time.
If we keep striving to improve
our campus and its image, it never
will be.
