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' VOL. 99 COVERING THE UNIVERSITY OF nn-uiii wuii oiiivu uui
SPORTS
Inside out
Eric Crouch looks to avenge last season’s loss to
Texas Saturday with newfound confidence and
leadership. PAGE 10
A&E
Millennial Revelry
In the dance work “The Descent Beckons,” Susan
Marshall and Company explore the darkness of
the past and brightness of the future. PAGE 13
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October 2211999
Little
Mostly sunny, high 63. C ight, low 28.
. ' / k
By Kimberly Sweet
Senior staff writer
Only 70 days remain before the
clocks strike midnight and the new mil
lennium begins.
As Jan. 1,2000, draws closer, mem
bers of the university community are
beginning the final stages of prepara
tion for the possible strike of the Y2K
| bug.
As of late September, 77 percent of
the colleges and departments at the
I University of Nebraska-Lincoln had
| carried out plans of making their
offices and systems Y2K-compliant,
said Gary Aerts, the campus coordina
tor for UNUs Year 2000 efforts.
Thirty-nine percent of the systems,
which include services like NRoll and
s the Degree Audit System, reported
doing the same.
Each college and department’s sta
tus in dealing with Y2K issues is listed
on UNL’s Web site at
www.urd.edu/year2k
Those who have completed and are
ready to face Y2K are marked with a
gold star.
“We have 77 percent that are gold
starred,” Aerts said. “At this point, we
i
should be at 99 percent.”
More than 200 departments and
systems must be examined to ensure
the university is prepared to go through
this year’s unique calendar change.
One hundred and thirty faculty and
staff members make up the Year 2000
task force. Each one is responsible for
making sure his or her assigned depart
ments are prepared for Y2K.
There are explanations for the cur
rent level of preparedness, Aerts said.
Many departments are ready but have
not filed the paperwork to update their
statuses on the Web site.
Other departments have moved
ahead with contingency planning,
preparing themselves to deal with the
consequences of Y2K rather than sim
ply trying to prevent them, Aerts said.
“We have shifted away from status
reporting to contingency planning,”
Aerts said. “This is similar to what
many industries are doing.”
The central administration at the
University of Nebraska began antici
pating Y2K in 1997. The state of
Nebraska began aggressive efforts at
that same time to make its systems
Y2K-compliant. Aerts said large
Please see Y2K on 6
University celebrates
Cedar Point’s history
By Michelle Starr
Staff writer
Twenty-five years ago, the
University of Nebraska bought
land that at one time was home to a
Girl Scout camp.
The land was transformed into
the Cedar Point Biological
Research Station and has evolved
into a top-notch classroom and
research facility, said UNL profes
sor John Janovy.
The 25th anniversary of the
University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s
Cedar Point Biological Station,
eight miles north of Ogallala, was
celebrated Thursday evening at die
Wick Alumni Center.
Faculty, staff, friends and some
students were invited to honor the
service and experiences of five of
the facilities’ former directors at
the only field station in Nebraska.
Janovy, UNL professor and
former Cedar Point director, has
been involved at the station since
its beginning.
The former Girl Scout camp
was purchased in 1975 by the
University of Nebraska
Foundation and transformed into a
leading research and academic
facility, serving about 1,500 stu
dents to date, Janovy said.
«
Everything that a
student could
require, they are
living it. Everything
is at theirfingertips.”
MahyBatierson
Cedar Point associate director
Over the years, Janovy has
noticed significant changes in
facilities and research projects at
the station.
“I think the student projects, be
it class projects or graduate pro
jects, are more sophisticated than
before,” Janovy said.
Some of the progress in
research projects has come from an
increase in knowledge about the
plants or animals being researched,
Janovy said.
Each year, students from
Nebraska and surrounding states
use the station’s 695 acres as a
classroom and research facility,
said Alan Kamil, Cedar Point
Please see CEDAR on 6
A balancing act
tton sits of a new parkins flarao®* The garage, at 12th and Q streets, will have a university art gallery inside.
' 'acing a teacher shortage
Computer industry luring teachers from universities.
ByEricRineer
Staff writer
While the computer industry con
tinues to provide a plethora of job
opportunities for computer science
majors, many universities are finding it
more difficult to lure Ph.D. students to
die academic world
The result is a nationwide shortage
of Ph.D. students applying for teaching
positions at major institutions and uni
versities.
Higher salaries are the No. 1 reason,
for professors who are saying goodbye
to universities for better wages, said
Charles Riedesel, chief undergraduate
adviser for the University of Nebraska
Lincoln computer science and engi
neering department.
“We’ve been struggling to try to get
professors to come here,” said Riedesel,
who said the income of a computer job
was difficult for many to turn down.
Riedesel estimated computer sci
ence graduates would receive a $45,000
salary at their first jobs. The salary for a
Ph.D. student in UNUs computer sci
ence department is $11,500.
“It’s a very common thing around
the country,” Riedesel said “We’re hav
ing a hard time trying to recruit people
right now. They’re all going to industry.”
Dennis Dunn, director of academic
affairs in the Pennsylvania State
University computer science and engi
neering department, said his depart
ment was experiencing similar prob
lems.
“It happens,” Dunn said. “There’s
been quite a turnover in faculty.”
While UNL and Penn State are
beginning to see faculty members leave
their computer departments, they are
also dealing with undergraduate popu
lations that are continuing to increase.
The undergraduate enrollment in
Penn State’s computer science and engi
neering department is about 200 stu
dents, Dunn said. Within the past few
years, the undergraduate numbers have
increased about 10-12 percent.
In 1996-97, the number of comput
er science majors at UNL was 254,
according to the computer science
department. The number climbed to
304 in 1997-98, and in 1999-2000 there
were 322 computer science majors.
The number of computer engineer
ing majors increased from 176 in 1996
97 to 225 in 1997-98. In 1999-2000,
there are 273 computer engineering
majors at UNL.
Scott Dakins, assistant to the chair
man at the University of Washington,
said the computer science and engineer
ing department there received more
than 350 applications a year for teach
ing positions.
However, Dakins said, many appli
cants eventually drop out after they find
jobs in the computer industry.
What is more common, he said, is
professors at the University of
Washington leaving their tenure-track
positions to teach at higher-paying insti
tutions or universities.
The University of Washington
could not match the salaries of many
private institutions, he said, because the
university is a state-owned school.
Though Ph.D. students often look
for corporate jobs after they graduate,
sometimes they will find it more diffi
cult to land jobs, Dunn said.
The reason, he said, is that Ph-D. stu
dents are more research-oriented, while
corporate employees are usually not.
Students who had received bache
lors or masters degrees, Dunn said, usu
ally had easier times finding jobs.
“I think there’s a real dearth of peo
ple in that area,” he said.
Dakins said Ph.D. students that
wanted to teach instead of bolting for
the big bucks in die industry had some
advantages. Doing research and inter
acting with students was something
most jobs could not offer, he said.
However, Dakins said he didn’t
blame any student or professor who
decided to leave their teaching positions
for industry jobs.
“If you don’t love teaching, it’s defi
nitely not the life.”
Read the Daily Nebraskan on the World Wide Web at dailyneb.com
••
We ’re having a hard time trying to recruit
people right now. They ’re all going to industry.”
Charles Riedesel
chief UNL computer science and engineering undergraduate adviser