Bono, lead singer of the rock group U2, talks with UNL students at the display of AIDS Names quilts in the Nebraska Union on Dec. 1. The students are, from left, sophomore Andrew Bourgoin, senior Shannon McAnulty and senior Garrett Lierman. Photo by Greg Simmonds/Special to The Scarlet.
	The Gateway Dancers drum out a beat during the E.N. Thompson Forum on World Issues lecture on Dec. 1 at the Lied Center. The event was a stop on a tour called "The Heart of America: Africa's Future and Ours," which brought attention to the severe problem of AIDS in Africa. The event featured speakers Bono, actress Ashley Judd, champion cyclist Lance Armstrong, Dr. Eric Goosby and Agnes Nyamayarwo, a Ugandan nurse and AIDS activist. Free tickets for the event were available Nov. 22 at the Lied Center; all were claimed within 17 minutes. Photo by Greg Simmonds/Special to The Scarlet.
	Rock singer Bono speaks during a press conference Dec. 1 in the Johnny Carson Theater at UNL before participating in the E.N. Thompson Forum on World Issues. Behind him are, from left, cyclist Lance Armstrong, actress Ashley Judd and UNL Chancellor Harvey Perlman. Photo by Richard Wright.

Star-filled Thompson Forum focuses on AIDS in Africa

Student attracted Bono and others to Lincoln

University Communications

It was Nelson Okuku Miruka's perseverance and previous work in Uganda that brought rock star and activist Bono, actress Ashley Judd, champion cyclist Lance Armstrong and others to Lincoln on Dec. 1.

Miruka is president of Save Sub-Saharan Orphans Inc., a nonprofit organization he created to raise money for the millions of children orphaned in Africa, many because of the AIDS crisis. He is a doctoral student in political science at UNL.

A few weeks ago, he was organizing an event in Lincoln to commemorate World AIDS Day, which was Dec. 1, and was trying to find a speaker. He called David Bryden, director of communications for the Global AIDS Alliance in Bethesda, Md.

"I asked him to tell me if someone can come here to speak on World AIDS Day. He said, 'I think Bono is planning a tour, but I don't know which areas,'" Miruka said.

So Miruka e-mailed a schedule of the event as it had been planned to that point to Bryden. Bryden sent the schedule to an organization called DATA, which works to raise awareness about Africa's debts, trade restrictions and the AIDS crisis there. Bono, lead singer of the rock band U2 and an international activist, works with DATA.

DATA requested more information about Miruka and his organization, SSSO. DATA organizers also wanted to know about Miruka's ties to Uganda, including his former role in communications with the president of Uganda, whom Bono had met. Miruka told them about his work in Uganda and in Lincoln with the SSSO.

"Then I heard the news that Bono was coming," he said.

Miruka worked with political science Professor Patrice McMahon to find a location that could hold a large crowd attracted by Bono's appearance. McMahon is on the program committee of the E.N. Thompson Forum on World Issues, which co-sponsored the appearance, and she and Miruka worked with the Lied Center to provide the venue and tickets for Sunday's event.

Miruka said he and his organization thought Bono would be a good reinforcement of the message they have been spreading about the problem of AIDS in Africa.

"Someone like Bono who has seen with his own eyes all the devastation, our communities in Africa wiped out, that is the best voice for this," he said.

"When people are aware of why we are going out there, why we're collecting money (for SSSO), people will help us."

Student-led group helps African orphans

By Emily O'Rourke

Special to the Scarlet

When Nelson Okuku Miruka was 25 years old, two of his sisters died of the AIDS epidemic in Africa.

"My village was swept by AIDS, and graves are everywhere," Miruka said. "The children are the consequence, and they have no way to get out of poverty."

In 1999, Miruka began his doctoral studies in political science at UNL. While studying, he still wanted to assist the people sub-Saharan Africa. So with the help of UNL students and community leaders, Miruka founded a non-profit organization called Save Sub-Saharan Orphans Inc. It focuses on providing education, safety and a healthy lifestyle for orphans in the Sub-Sahara region of Africa. A seven-member board of directors, which includes UNL faculty and students, directs work in Lincoln to advocate and raise money for existing orphanages.

"We have no employed professionals; everything is voluntary. We brought third-world and developed-country students together to work on starting SSSO," Miruka said.

The SSSO organization is unique because it does not focus on one country in Africa. It works in countries most affected by the spread of AIDS in sub-Sahara Africa.

"We concentrate on the rural areas, and we use a community-based effort to support existing orphanages," Miruka said.

For any larger project that SSSO takes on, a student member of the organization supervises it and works with members of the community on the project. SSSO's goal is to ensure that the African people do all of the work to assist their villages. Miruka said that this type of community effort by the African people is very important.

Earlier this year, members of SSSO built an extension of a school for orphans in Kigungu, Uganda. Volunteers made bricks out of mud to build the walls of the school, and the entire project lasted a year.

SSSO is also unique because almost 90 percent of donations go directly to the African villages. The organization works directly with the villages by asking what they need and sending money to support them. Overhead costs are nearly nonexistent because SSSO's structure is simple.

"We had ideas and put them together and things are working," Miruka said,

Miruka has been amazed at the national praise the organization has received. Now other major universities are calling Miruka to copy the SSSO program.

"The perception of Nebraska is that nothing of importance can happen here," Miruka said. "But we are competing with what is being done in humanitarian efforts at Harvard and Georgetown."

Miruka said that SSSO is not just helping orphans, but the university also benefits. More than 100 university students are involved in SSSO, and 15 students have worked as interns for SSSO.

"This is the first organization where students have come together to join the international community to educate about AIDS," he said.

Miruka has frequent meetings with students who have ideas on how to raise money for the orphans. Last spring, students used Easter eggs to raise money and volunteered to paint curbs in Lincoln.

The College of Architecture and the College of Journalism and Mass Communications have also provided assistance for SSSO.

Phyllis Larsen, assistant professor of advertising, had her students write pitch letters to be sent to local media about SSSO.

"It's ideal for students to work with organizations that truly need help, and students can see the difference they make," Larsen said.

Architecture Professor Mark Hoistad and his students designed an orphanage that will work with the climate of the region and could be built in phases depending on needs and funds. The design also had to be simple and use the construction systems of the region.

"I wish I could have spent more time on the project," Hoistad said. "The college and profession have a real interest and obligation to contribute to the welfare of the community."

Hoistad said the students also should realize the importance of community service while helping a worthy cause at the same time.

In the future, Miruka plans to return to Africa, establish SSSO headquarters in an African country and use Lincoln as a branch to raise money. A branch would also be set up in New York to work with charity organizations.

"I'm so addicted to it," Miruka said. "I'm saving lives, and our organization is moving."

Emily O'Rourke is an advertising/public relations major from North Platte.

For information For more information about Save Sub-Saharan Orphans, call 472-5994 or 476-3370 or visit <http://www.savetheorphans.org&g t;.

Final budget reductions announced

This e-mail was sent to all faculty and staff at UNL by Chancellor Harvey Perlman on Nov. 20.

The 2002 Special Session of the Legislature required the University of Nebraska system to reduce its budget for the 2002-2003 fiscal year for the third time. On Sept. 10, I made proposals for reducing UNL's budget by $7,513,953. This reduction follows two earlier rounds in which the UNL base budget was reduced by $9.8 million. In accordance with "Procedures to be Invoked for Significant Budget Reallocations and Reductions" these proposals were submitted to the Academic Planning Committee, hearings were held to permit an open discussion of the proposals, and, on Nov. 14, the Academic Planning Committee forwarded to me its final recommendations. I have carefully considered the committee's recommendations as well as many comments and suggestions I received independently. I have had the opportunity to discuss with the members of the APC their thinking that lay behind their recommendations. This report outlines my response to the APC recommendations and announces my final budget decisions.

I first want to thank the members of the APC who gave extraordinary amounts of time and effort to this process. Although I do not accept all of their recommendations, their report is a thoughtful and helpful document that brought a useful perspective to the process. I also want to thank the many citizens of Nebraska, many of whom were angered or disappointed in my recommendations, but who engaged us in constructive dialog. I wish it were possible to respond to each of their concerns in a positive way.

Responses to the APC recommendations:

1. Division of Continuing Studies. Earlier the Academic Planning Committee accepted my recommendations to close the Division of Continuing Studies and reassign the units of that division. This recommendation was accepted by the Board of Regents and is in the final stages of implementation. The APC's letter to me and my response are posted at <http://www.unl.edu/pr/c hancllr/index.shtml>.

2. Learning Centers. The APC endorsed the recommendation to withdraw administrative support for the learning centers in Grand Island and North Platte. I affirm that decision. It should be emphasized that UNL plans to continue to provide distance education courses to both areas as demand justifies.

3. West Central Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory. The APC recommended against closing the diagnostic laboratory in North Platte and the elimination of the veterinarian at the West Central Research and Extension Center. I regret that I cannot fully accept their recommendation.

A. Diagnostic Laboratory. For reasons that were more fully described when we closed the Scottsbluff diagnostic laboratory, I continue to believe that the animal industry is better served in the long run by focusing limited resources on a single, sophisticated veterinary diagnostic laboratory in Lincoln. I recognize this will not be as convenient for those livestock producers near Scottsbluff and North Platte. However, with overnight delivery and proposed changes in procedures in Lincoln, I believe the Lincoln facility can provide a reasonable level of service statewide.

The APC based its recommendation in part on testimony expressing concern that elimination of the laboratory in North Platte would increase the state's vulnerability to bioterrorism. This would, of course, be a serious concern. However, after examining the issue more thoroughly, I remain skeptical that the absence of the laboratory will have any significant adverse affect in this context. The Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources has prepared a background document that offers more detail on this matter. It is posted on the website.

B. Extension Veterinarian. The APC recommended retention of the extension veterinarian in North Platte. While I continue to believe that diagnostic services can be provided to clients from the laboratory in Lincoln, there is a separate concern about veterinary extension education. Vice Chancellor Owens has developed an alternative plan that would provide extension education to western Nebraska. Although Dr. Steven Ensley, the current veterinarian in North Platte, will be reassigned to Lincoln, the Cooperative Extension Division will reallocate funds within the division to create a veterinary extension educator position either in North Platte, Scottsbluff or at an extension office in western Nebraska. The university's ability to fill this position will depend on the university's budget situation going into the next biennium.

4. South Central Research and Extension Center. The APC, while concurring in the recommendation to convert SCREC from an autonomous center to a research laboratory, recommended that the faculty positions, proposed to be reassigned to Lincoln or another research and extension center, be kept in Clay Center. The consequence of the APC's recommendation would leave the faculty in Clay Center without the secretarial and technical support necessary to successfully conduct their research. I understand that the faculty members regard this diminished support as something that would create a significant risk to their own research and professional advancement. Accordingly I cannot accept the APC's recommendation.

The closure of SCREC was the most difficult decision to make. Vice Chancellor Owens and I both recognize, and deeply regret, the economic consequences to that community. We are also both sensitive to the important and in many ways unique role that the region plays as a producer of irrigated corn and the need for interaction with our faculty. Nonetheless, the reduction in our budget does not permit us to continue to maintain the center as it was without eliminating some other important facility elsewhere. The university will continue to operate a research farm at Clay Center and faculty will continue to conduct their research in the area even though housed in other parts of the state. In addition, the university will take the following steps to provide continuing service to producers in the region:

A. Provision will be made to use technology wherever possible to maintain communications between faculty in Lincoln and producers in the South Central region from extension offices in Clay Center, Hastings, Grand Island, Aurora and Geneva.

B. Telephone conferences and enhanced website activity will be used to provide regional producers with information.

C. Contingent on university funding, a water resources engineer position would be filled in biological systems engineering. This person would have statewide responsibilities with an emphasis on water management needs in the South Central region.

D. Under the direction of the former director of SCREC, a planning effort will be initiated immediately, designed to update the strategic plan of the Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources in light of the budget reductions incurred during this fiscal year. Special attention will be given to exploring how the Cooperate Extension Division can assure continuing service to the south central region. (See the IANR background report on the web for more details.)

5. Termination of tenure-track faculty. One consequence of the closing of the North Platte diagnostic laboratory and the South Central Research and Extension Center was the termination of two tenure-track but untenured faculty. The APC strongly recommended that, regardless of the outcome of the two programs, the faculty members should be retained. The APC expressed concern that the terminations were not consistent with AAUP or university policies, did not involve review by a faculty committee and were not justified on the basis of their quality of work, would have a chilling effect on probationary faculty, and would create concerns by faculty associated with centers and other "programs" not directly within their tenure homes.

First, let me address the definition of "program" for purposes of program eliminations. The definition is found in our own procedures for budget reductions as well as in Executive Memorandum No. 24 issued by President Smith. Both the AAUP policies and the Board of Regents bylaws recognize that both tenured and tenure-track faculty can be terminated if their program is eliminated. I also understand that the broad definition of program holds potential for abuse. I addressed this concern in a letter to the chair of the APC earlier this year and I have put that letter on the website. Notwithstanding these issues, I am clear that both the SCREC and the Diagnostic Laboratory are "programs" within this definition and that certainly these untenured faculty members could be terminated accordingly.

I recognize that any termination of faculty will cause other faculty concern, just as the termination of staff have caused considerable anxiety among our remaining staff. I wish I could eliminate this anxiety but it is created, unfortunately, by the times in which we find ourselves. Because the decision was based on program elimination, it is difficult to see a clear role for a faculty committee to assess the quality of their work. I am prepared to assume that both professors were productive faculty members.

Nonetheless, I have decided to withdraw the termination of both Professor Ensley and Professor Stack. We had anticipated that Professor Ensley would be offered a non-tenure track, lower-paying, existing vacant position in the diagnostic laboratory in Lincoln where his toxicology skills would be valuable. Since that recommendation was made, Vice Chancellor Owens and his staff have developed plans to restructure research activities to extension education activities at the Great Plains Veterinary Education Center at Clay Center, which not only enhances the veterinary extension services but also frees funds to provide a tenure track position for Professor Ensley.

Professor Stack will be reassigned to Lincoln in the plant pathology department. As the only plant pathologist working on corn diseases, his expertise is important to providing a basis for statewide extension activities in this area of importance to Nebraska. He will be placed on a tenure leading line and will be eligible for tenure consideration in the ordinary course. His position will be temporarily funded with salary savings and permanently funded by the next vacancy in the plant pathology department.

I can assure the university community that all of us in the administration are pleased that we were able to find ways to utilize (and pay for) the talents and expertise that these faculty members represent and avoid the termination of untenured faculty.

6. Nebraska Council for Economic Education. The APC recommended that some portion of the funding for the council be continued in order to keep this important program functioning. The council is partially funded by state dollars, by a small contribution of the Nebraska Department of Education, and by contributions from the private sector. During the process of exploring both the APC recommendation and suggestions received from the private sector, it appeared that a careful review of the structure and expenditures of the council might create opportunities for its continuation and enhancement with less investment of state resources. Accordingly, I am holding this reduction in abeyance to permit this review to occur and for alternatives to surface. Any potential continuing UNL contribution will be contingent on the university's budget experience during the next biennium.

7. Recycling Program. A significant portion of the reduction in the Division of Business and Finance resulted in eliminating custodial office pick-up of recyclable paper. University policy is that custodians pick up trash once per week and recyclable paper once per week. The proposed reduction would eliminate the recyclable pick-up. The university recycling program, however, would continue, and it was hoped that university personnel would bring their recyclables to a site at each building. The APC asked that we consider alternatives. While affirming the reduction, the Division of Business and Finance is prepared to give the residents of each building the option of how to allocate the once-per-week pick-up. Some buildings may opt to alternate trash and recyclable pick-ups.

8. Other recommendations. The APC endorsed the remaining proposed reductions in Business and Finance, Student Affairs, Academic Affairs and the Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources. I affirm those reductions.

None of these decisions came easily. They all impact adversely the university, and, in my view, the state of Nebraska. They represent our efforts to find the least worst alternative, consistent with our priorities. Our priorities are clear: to protect the future of the state of Nebraska by creating a university that will retain the state's young people and will attract young people from elsewhere; to contribute to the future economic prosperity of Nebraska and its quality of life by enhancing our research and creative activity and by using our educational resources to serve the people throughout Nebraska. It should be clear, however, that the university cannot continue business as usual and still reduce its budget by more than $16 million.

We have, in this process, lost valuable employees whose lives have been tragically disrupted. We also have been forced to disappoint many friends and supporters of the university who depended on the services we can no longer provide. We have done our best to minimize the damage, but damage has been done. It bears repeating that this was not of our choosing. We continue to believe the future of this state depends on a strong university and that further erosion of our budget will do incalculable damage, not only to the university, but to the long-term prospects for the state of Nebraska.

Settlement funds CBA professor

A new business-ethics professorship at the College of Business Administration has been endowed by a settlement to the state of Nebraska.

Gov. Mike Johanns announced the endowment Dec. 3. The professorship is possible because of a settlement by the investment-banking firm Merrill Lynch.

Merrill Lynch has awarded Nebraska $500,000 in this settlement after an investigation of improper activities between Merrill Lynch's research departments and investment banking divisions. Most of that money, $400,000, will fund the CBA professorship. The remaining $100,000 will be placed in the Nebraska Department of Banking and Finance's securities fund to promote education and awareness for Nebraska investors.

Merrill Lynch is paying about $100 million in the settlement to 48 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico.

"It's my sincere hope that the funds presented today - the result of a settlement with a company that violated the public's trust - will promote and foster the paramount importance of ethics in business activity and relationships," Johanns said.