March 6, 2003

Budget proposals to go public March 10

This e-mail was sent by Chancellor Harvey Perlman to all faculty and staff on Feb. 28.

Dear Colleagues:

I thought I should begin again a series of communications to keep you informed about the situation with our budget and the procedures we intend to utilize to respond to any reduction that may be imposed. It is particularly disheartening to focus again on reductions when so much is going well across the university. The recent recognition of our math department by Carnegie, the very interesting plans for the summer creative writing workshop, the continued success on achieving federal grants and earmarks, the increase in applications with clear evidence that we are positioned to keep more of Nebraska's young people at home, and so many other achievements, large and small, make it imperative that we work hard and smart to sustain our momentum, even as we respond to these new budget challenges. As I have said in other venues, it will take the best from all of us to get this done.

The current challenge is in many ways staggering. The governor's recommendation would require UNL to reduce its base budget by $21 million. The Appropriations Committee, in its current recommendation, has restored some funds and if approved would reduce our target to about $15 million. And of course, the state continues to face a shortfall so that nothing will be certain until late May or early June. Our contractual obligations make it very difficult to reduce budgets instantly and so we will face again both the challenge of a base budget reduction as well as cash flowing whatever reduction we receive. As you know from some of the painful cuts we were forced to take last year, there are no easy reductions left to make. Anything and everything I propose will be felt across the campus, will adversely affect some valuable programs, and more significantly, some valuable colleagues. We will search for creative and humane ways to moderate the blow. I remain committed to the overriding principle that reductions must be done in such a way as to preserve, to the degree we can, a strong, vital university for the state of Nebraska.

The time for announcing some reductions fast approaches. President Smith wants to make some early announcements on or before March 10, when he appears before the Appropriations Committee. Accordingly, I will be making public some of my proposals on that date. Additional proposals will be made on or around April 1. My intention is to give the Legislature some understanding of what reductions of the magnitude being discussed will have on its university. A final round of proposals, if necessary, will come after June 2 when the Legislature adjourns.

Again, these next few weeks will not be the most pleasant or constructive times many of us have spent at this university. I will certainly remain open to your comments and criticisms and ideas as we move through this. We also cannot forget that we will still have students who deserve our best efforts in and outside the classrooms, research obligations for which we will be held accountable, and clients, throughout Nebraska, who need our best advice as they struggle with a difficult economic situation made more agonizing by the drought and a possible war. The curse of "living in interesting times" is fully upon us.

You may be thinking I have lost my mind in seeking to purchase the Textron property during these difficult times. We can never lose sight of the fact that there will be a university here when this economic nightmare is over, and we must continue to look to the future. The Textron property is the only land I can see in the foreseeable future that would be available to this campus for its space needs. We are running out of land for buildings, for parking, for recreation and to acquire from 14 to 20 acres adjacent to the campus is an opportunity we must not let pass by. Fortunately, we have funds available for the purchase that are restricted and could not be used to reduce our other budget problems. We have some funds available from the Antelope Valley Project that must be used to replace land lost to that project, and we have some major donors who are prepared to provide us with funds specifically to acquire the property. I know this could not be worse timing for a variety of reasons, but I felt I had to act to protect our long-term interests.

I also wanted to make quick mention of the recent Big Red Road Show that our Office of Admissions hosted at the Civic Auditorium in Omaha (on Feb. 23). On a cold, snowy day, nearly 1,500 prospective students and their families turned out to see, and interact with, more than 70 displays and demonstrations from our departments throughout the UNL campus. It is critically important that we improve our recruitment of Omaha students, and events like this demonstrate what working together we can accomplish. Many thanks to all of the faculty and staff who went the extra mile to make this such a great success, and to Alan Cerveny and his staff for their successful efforts in bringing the UNL message to the Omaha metro area.

Thanks, as always, to the many of you who continue to offer your support and to all of you who continue to work, in the most trying of circumstances, on behalf of the constituents we serve.

Harvey

Timothy Bray, left, and Ryan Baker, UNL agricultural engineering students, work on their senior project as part of an advanced design class for agricultural engineering and biological systems engineering students. The wheelchair, which they dubbed The Transformer, allows users to stand or lower themselves to the ground using battery or manual power. IANR Photo.

Engineering classes solve real problems

By Sandi Alswager, IANR News and Publishing

From solving health care problems to slowing creek bank erosion, some aspiring engineers at UNL get first-hand experience finding solutions to real-world problems.

Each semester as part of an advanced design class in agricultural engineering and biological systems engineering, senior students are required to solve an engineering design problem by working with faculty consultants and industry clients.

"We are able to work with the real world," said Ronald Scheer, a biological systems engineering major from Omaha. "You get out and work with a real client and hear different viewpoints."

Glenn Hoffman, head of the biological systems engineering department, team-teaches the class with David Jones, associate professor of biological systems engineering.

Students work as practicing engineers, interacting with their clients and consultants. In return, their clients get solutions. A few projects have even been patented.

Ryan Baker, an agricultural engineering major from Homer, and Timothy Bray, an agricultural engineering major from Great Britain, designed a wheelchair that would allow the user to stand or lower himself to the ground using battery or manual power.

Similar wheelchairs already on the market don't offer such flexibility and movement with both manual and battery power. Bray said a battery-powered chair could lose power and end up leaving a person on the ground. If a manual option also was available, the user could move himself back up to the sitting position.

Bray, who uses a wheelchair, knows how hard it is to pick something off the ground.

"It's hard to move around in a workshop environment. You need to get up and down," Bray said.

It's also healthy for wheelchair users to stand because it's good to have pressure on their joints, he said.

"A standing wheelchair allows you to at least access some things," Bray said. Although many places are being made handicap accessible, "you can't expect everything to change."

Teams were not required to build a prototype, but Bray and Baker are hands-on learners and thought it would help them.

"We probably doubled the expected time to spend on the project by making a prototype, but we are satisfied with what we're doing so far," Baker said.

Bray and Baker still need to work on the functionality of their project, which they dubbed The Transformer, to make it lighter and steer more safely. Bray will present the project at a national competition at the University of Georgia. Their client was Pegler Home Health Care Products Inc. of Lincoln.

Biological systems engineering majors Andrew Nickel, John Callen and Nicholas Barber of Lincoln found their project through Dr. David Voigt, director of burn research at the St. Elizabeth Regional Burn and Wound Care Center in Lincoln.

The group worked on a pressure-distributing pillow for burn patients. Regular pillows can cause bed sores on people with head burns. Their pillow design alters pressure to the head and allows blood flow to the skin, Nickel said.

Other research examples include a biological systems engineering project where students worked with rats to see if vibrating their bones would promote faster healing for broken bones. In another study, biological systems engineering students worked on a Sand Creek stabilization project, which will reduce erosion along the creek's bank near Dorchester.

Regents OK room-and-board rate increases

University communications

The NU Board of Regents approved increases on room-and-board rates for UNL students during its March 1 meeting.

According to the Board of Regents agenda, the proposed rates will generate the income needed to cover obligations and enhancements planned through the 2007-08 year.

The rates for 2003-04 and 2004-05 will increase 6.75 percent over the current rates for students on the 19-meal room-and-board plan. For the 2005-06, 2006-07, and 2007-08 years, the rates are a 5.5 percent increase for students on the 19-meal plan.

The new rates will only affect new residents in those years. About 34 percent of the student expected to live in the residence halls next year will be returning students who will not be affected by these increases because of the incentive plan adopted in 1993-94 to encourage upperclass students to live on campus. Under that plan, students who move into residence halls lock in their room-and-board rates for each academic year, unless a significant enhancement is provided on the residence hall.

The regents also were provided with spring 2003 enrollment figures for the four NU campuses. Spring enrollment at UNL rose from 2002 to 2003 by 0.8 percent. Enrollment in spring 2003 was 21,449; enrollment in spring 2002 was 21,289.

The regents approved an agreement between students at the UNL Energy Systems Lab and the Omaha Public Power District to allow faculty and students to conduct research in the fields of renewable energy and energy efficiency with OPPD. Students will research fuel-cell technology, solar energy, building design and control technology and conservation technology to study ways to save energy and develop more efficient buildings. The agreement will be in effect through Feb. 28, 2007.