Salary Improvement No. 1 Priority

Despite Budgetary Challenges, Goals Unchanged

TO: UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA-LINCOLN FACULTY AND STAFF

FROM: JAMES MOESER, CHANCELLOR

Iwant to take this opportunity to bring to your attention some serious budgetary issues that we and the other campuses of the university system will face as we move into a new fiscal biennium starting July 1, 1999. I want you to have the basic facts and as much understanding as possible as to the circumstances that we face.

Let me say at the outset that, while we have some painful adjustments to make, the university is not in crisis. Indeed, there is much to encourage us. We have presented as our number one priority the improvement of our faculty and staff salaries. The Regents have made salary increases their top priority, and the early signs are that the legislature will appropriate something close to the Regents' request for salary increases. That is very good news. We should be able to offer merit-based increases in the coming years that will exceed the average 3 percent increases of the past several years, allowing us to begin the process of catching up with and even surpassing our peers.

(I have never been comfortable with the idea of reaching only for the mid-point of our peers. The mid-point does not represent an aspiration or a vision. Even in the context of short-term objectives, we should not lose sight of our long-term goals and aspirations for NU.)

The disappointing news is that the appropriation likely to come out of the legislature falls far short of the Regents' total request. The total of new funds for the university system for the coming year from the legislature (based on the current recommendations of the Appropriations Committee) plus an anticipated 4 percent tuition increase will be $19.8 million. The total funding requirement for the university system for 1999-2000 is $24.5 million. That leaves an initial funding gap of $4.7 million next year for the NU system.

The system is also carrying an additional $2.6 million tuition revenue shortfall as a result of enrollments which have been lower than the projections on which the budgets have been built for this year and several preceding years. The system has up to now been able to cover these mounting deficits with available cash. However, that is no longer possible.

The net result of this set of circumstances is an unavoidable adjustment in the university system budget for each year of the coming biennium. To ease the burden on each of the campuses for next year, Central Administration has worked out a plan to spread these budgetary adjustments out over a four year period beginning July 1. The assessment to the Lincoln campus will be approximately $2.7 million per year.

Prior to this assessment from Central Administration, working with the Council of Deans, we had already identified some UNL-specific funding requirements that were not addressed in the Regents' request. These include funding for information technology (instructional technology, support for Internet 2, Lotus Notes, and basic infrastructure); additional support for engineering faculty in Omaha, as mandated by the Board of Regents-approved business plan; graduate student assistant medical benefits; a deficit in our scholarship fund; and support for diversity.

Since we do not at this time know the exact amount of the legislative appropriation, we are dealing with a certain level of uncertainty. Therefore, I have asked the deans and vice chancellors to prepare budgets with reductions at two levels, 2.6 and 3.2 percent. The larger level is designed to accommodate what we believe to be the lowest possible likely appropriation.

We will work hard to find better ways to bring about a rational and orderly reduction of the university budget, of which more than 80 percent is people. Reason would tell us that the preferable course to take would be to eliminate some programs or services altogether, rather than peel away layers of the onion and damage every area. It is unfortunate that the processes now in place for such vertical cuts are both cumbersome and daunting, and virtually unusable in the time we have available. Nevertheless, I am confident that programmatic and institutional priorities will, to the greatest extent possible, drive budget decisions.

Please let me try to anticipate some of the response that this information is bound to evoke. First, I think it is essential that we avoid falling into a mode of negative reactivity, to assume that the university is in decline and we can do nothing to stop it. That is not the case.

While what we face is difficult, we do have a way out, and a way up. The simple fact is that we have a campus infrastructure designed to support a student population of about 25,000 students and a current student body of about 22,000. Our numbers are down in part because of new admission standards (though our first-year enrollments were back up this year and will continue to trend upwards). More serious is the decline in graduate enrollments.

What can we do? First, we shall invest in our Admissions Office to intensify our recruitment of out-of-state and international students. While the number of Nebraska high school students will increase only slightly in the next few years, many other states will see significant increases. We can increase our enrollments dramatically, in my opinion, growing our enrollments back to the numbers we had three and four years ago. The new revenues that are generated by enrollment growth should be allocated to the academic units that produced the growth.

Second, we can look for ways to create efficiencies to save money. For example a faculty member last week presented to me a proposal for a way to reduce utility costs by 20 percent. I have shared this idea with our Facilities Management staff, who find it very attractive. A 20 percent reduction in utility costs could save us $2 million per year.

I want to encourage other faculty and staff to help us find ways to economize, or to generate new sources of revenue that can offset reductions, and we need to find a way to recognize and reward those efforts.

Third, we continue to enjoy the strongest private support in the history of the university. Alumni and friends are contributing millions of dollars targeted to enhance specifically identified areas of academic quality, creating endowed chairs, scholarships and fellowships, and constructing marvelous new facilities. These are the financial building blocks of a great university.

Our budgetary challenges will test our character as an institution. We can shrink back into a fog of negativity and roll with the successive punches of budget cuts, or we can resolve to find ways to be more efficient, more resourceful, and ultimately, better than we have ever been before. We can only do that by working together, using our creativity and imagination, not only to solve our immediate problems, but also to use all the resources that we have.

The cynic would say that it is utter folly to aspire to greatness while we are cutting the budget. My response is that our vision must exceed the grasp of the immediate. I do not mean to trivialize or minimize the difficulty that we shall face in the next few months and years. As we move through this daunting process, I hope that our conversations will focus not just on the stress of our immediate situation, but that we will draw together to consider the core values of the institution - and indeed the core values of individual units - those things which we hold most dear and must protect at all costs.

In a very real sense the people of Nebraska have granted us temporary custody of their university. This is true for all of us, whether we are in our first year or our thirtieth year at NU. At some point, each of us will hand our baton of responsibility off to another who will then carry it further.

Our job is to do all that we can with the resources that we are given. Our goal should be to continue to build the university so that when the time for the hand-off comes, we can say with some sense of pride, that it was better than when we started. With grit and determination in times far worse than these, our predecessors built a great university.

Let us do no less.

SUNNY YELLOW DAFFODILS brighten the walkway south of the Canfield Administration Building. The early bloomers were greeted by unusually warm late-March temperatures, with highs generally in the 70s.

Coalition Questions Need For Bottle Club Targeted at Students

By Carol Ash, University Health Center

The University of Nebraska-Lincoln and the NU Directions Campus-Community Coalition have raised concerns about a proposal to open a "bottle club" in downtown Lincoln.

The proposed club which specifically targets NU students will allow its members to consume their own alcohol on the premises between the hours of 10 p.m. and 6 a.m., Thursdays through Saturdays. It would not sell, serve or dispense alcohol.

"It's unfortunate that a business of this nature is proposed at a time when the campus and the community are working so closely to reduce alcohol-related problems among NU students," said Chancellor James Moeser.

High-risk drinking among students is one of the most serious public health problems confronting university and college students across the nation. Studies show students who drink alcohol in high-risk amounts, such as drinking to get drunk, report a higher incidence of academic failure, unplanned sexual activity, injury, driving after drinking and legal difficulties.

Concerns focus on a petition submitted by a downtown Lincoln business owner. The petition calls for a declaratory ruling from the Nebraska Liquor Control Commission whether such an establishment would need a liquor license to operate. Without a license, the management would be able to circumvent the hours of operation required by state law, and the administrative, criminal and financial liability assumed by traditional liquor licensees.

Research also shows a relationship between higher drinking rates among college students and the number of liquor outlets operating within one mile of a campus. Approximately 114 bars and restaurants with liquor licenses are located within a mile of the NU city campus border. Seventy-five percent of these establishments are concentrated in an area immediately south of campus. Studies show highly competitive environments of this nature lead to high-risk promotions and marketing practices designed to entice students into high-risk drinking situations.

"We need to change not only the campus culture, but the culture around the campus in our community," Moeser said.

This year NU was awarded a $700,000 grant through A Matter of Degree, a national initiative of the American Medical Association and Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to reduce high-risk drinking on college campuses. Known as NU Directions, the Lincoln campus-community coalition is one of 10 across the country that are part of A Matter of Degree. The NU Directions coalition is made up of students, staff, faculty, alumni, parents, business owners, law enforcement officers, legislators and public health advocates.

The coalition is in the final stages of developing a strategic plan to improve the campus and community culture relative to high-risk drinking. Goals include minimizing the incidence of serving alcohol to intoxicated patrons and reducing high-risk marketing and promotion practices.

"This proposed bottle club creates a variety of health, safety and financial implications for our students and our community," said Tom Casady, co-chairperson of the coalition and police chief of Lincoln. "If students or others in our community are allowed to drink in an all-night bottle club we're concerned about who will be monitoring alcohol consumption, what impact will the club have on the workload of the police department and other community resources such as Detox, and what will happen when club members attempt to drive home during the Friday morning commute."

The city is taking proactive steps at closing the loophole by drafting an ordinance, which will be reviewed by the City Council.

Honors Convocation to Convene April 9

By Robert Sheldon, Public Relations

Twenty University of Nebraska-Lincoln faculty members will receive awards for outstanding teaching, student advising or service, and more than 3,000 students will be recognized for outstanding scholarship at the 70th annual All-University Honors Convocation at 3:30 p.m. April 9 in the Coliseum. The event is free and open to the public.

Twenty-four seniors will be honored as Chancellor's Scholars for earning A's on all of their graded work at the university and at all other post-secondary institutions they attended during their undergraduate careers. Another 385 seniors will be honored as Superior Scholars for being in the upper 3 percent of their colleges, or for being on the honors list since their matriculation as freshmen. An additional 2, 840 freshmen, sophomores, juniors and seniors will be honored as High Scholars for having cumulative grade-point averages of 3.6 or higher.

A new award, the Donald R. and Mary Lee Swanson Award for Teaching Excellence, will be presented at the convocation. David Wilson, associate professor of curriculum and instruction, will be the first recipient of the Swanson Award, which carries a $10,000 cash award. The award is funded by the Swansons through the University of Nebraska Foundation.

Other faculty members also will receive awards. Stephen M. Buhler, associate professor of English, and Paul B. Kelter, associate professor of chemistry,will be named to the Academy of Distinguished Teachers. Each will have a $1,000 stipend permanently added to his base salary as long as they remain members of the faculty. Both also were elected to the NU Academy of Distinguished Teachers. In addition, Buhler and Kelter will be recognized for receiving Outstanding Teaching and Instructional Ceativity Awards from the University of Nebraska system. NU central administration will honor them at a separate event during the spring semester.

John Bailey, professor of music,will receive the Annis Chaikin Sorensen Award for distinguished teaching in the humanities. He will receive a $1,500 cash award, provided by the Sorensen family.

The following faculty members will receive Distinguished Teaching Awards from their colleges. Each recipient will receive a $1,000 cash award, provided by the Nebraska Legislature.

John Bailey, professor of music; Amy N. Burnett, professor of history; Daryl Frazell, associate professor of journalism; Amy M. Goodburn, assistant professor of English; Lawrence G. Harshman, asssistant professor of biological sciences; Paul Kelter, associate professor of chemistry; Donald Lee, associate professor of agronomy; Nancy Lewis, associate professor of nutritional science and dietetics; Richard J. Meyer, associate professor of curriculum and instruction; Dan Nettleton, assistant professor of mathematics and statistics; Terence Sebora, associate professor of management; L. James Walter, associate professor of curriculum and instruction; and David A. Woodman, lecturer in biological sciences.

Gordon S. Woodward, associate professor of mathematics and statistics, will receive the Student Foundation/Builders Award for Outstanding Advising. He will receive a $1,500 cash award, provided by the University of Nebraska Foundation.

Carol Thayer of Hastings, professor, extension specialist and program coordinator for the South Central Research and Extension Center at College Park in Grand Island, will receive the Distinguished Educational Service Award. She will receive a $1,500 cash award, provided by the University of Nebraska Foundation.

Jay B. Fitzgerald, associate professor of horticulture, will receive the Chancellor's Exemplary Service to Students Award. He will receive a $1,000 cash award, provided by the University of Nebraska Foundation.

Paul A. Olson, Foundation professor of English,will receive the George Howard-Louise Pound Award for exceptional contributions through teaching, research, public service and administration. He will receive a reproduction of a landscape painting by Keith Jacobshagen, professor of art at NU.

John Emmett Kirshman, chair of the economics department from 1934 until his death in 1945, will receive the Doc Elliott Award presented by the NU Alumni Association.

For-Profit CLASS.com Offers On-Line High School

By Peg Strain, Public Relations

CLASS.com, a private, for-profit company offering on-line high school courses has been launched by the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. The effort is founded upon Nebraska's 90 years of expertise in distance education and its growing reputation as a developer and provider of Web-based, Internet-delivered education.

CLASS.com, incorporated in 1998, operates under a nine-member board of directors. Donald Helmuth, associate vice chancellor for research at the university, is interim president. Helmuth recently announced the opening of a search for a permanent president.

"The company's core Web-based products will be its student-centered educational environment that can provide a variety of content tailored to individual customers, including high school districts, individuals, and corporations," Helmuth said. "CLASS.com will be capitalized through product sales and investment by venture capitalists."

By 2001, CLASS.com will offer 55 self-directed Web-based courses developed by the Division of Continuing Studies at NU. The division's Independent Study High School enrolls 623 students in 20 Internet-delivered classes. This diploma-granting high school is the only university-based, fully accredited high school in the nation.

"CLASS.com will offer engaging, effective, interactive, and accredited high school courses via the Internet. These courses can help a high school expand its offerings and will also overcome barriers of time, distance, or isolation that prevent some students from attending traditional classes," Helmuth said.

Helmuth said continued pressure for school budget cuts and reductions in the per-unit cost of instruction make this venture an attractive Internet marketing opportunity. These courses can be tailored to accommodate student needs at about one-third the cost of traditional education. The on-line courses provide advantages for school districts that cannot afford to hire teachers highly specialized in disciplines such as languages, physics and chemistry.

CLASS.com's purpose is not only to accelerate the marketing of on-line courses, but also to provide a funding stream to position the University of Nebraska as a major provider of collegiate-level Internet-delivered education.

Campus Visits Set for April

Four Candidates to Interview for HRFS Deanship

By Kim Hachiya, Public Relations

Four candidates for the dean of the College of Human Resources and Family Sciences will be interviewed on campus in April. Two are internal and two are external to the university.

The candidates are Shirley Baugher, chair and professor of family and consumer sciences at Nebraska; Brenda Joyce Smitherman Cherry, dean of the College of Nursing at the University of Massachusetts-Boston; Rita Kean, professor and chair of textiles, clothing and design at Nebraska; and Janis Van Buren, chair and professor of human sciences in the College of Agriculture and Human Sciences at Texas A&M University in Kingsville.

Baugher's on-campus interviews will be April 6 and 7. She will meet with faculty from the college from 2:30-3:45 p.m. April 7 in room 121 of the Home Economics Building. A public reception with members of the college faculty, staff, students, alumni and members of the Chancellor's Commissions on the Status of People of Color and the Chancellor's Commission on the Status of Women will occur from 4-5 p.m. in 104 Home Economics.

Cherry will be on campus April 21 and 22. Kean's on-campus interviews will occur April 13 and 14. Van Buren's on-campus interviews will be conducted April 15 and 16. Faculty meetings and receptions for these individuals will be announced soon.

Baugher has held her present position since 1992, coming to Nebraska from the U.S. Department of Agriculture where she was a deputy administrator in the Extension Service. She has previously taught at the University of Minnesota (where she was assistant dean and assistant director of extension programs and coordinated international programs in the College of Human Ecology), the University of Missouri-Columbia and Webster University in St. Louis. She earned her Ph.D. in home economics education in 1982 from the University of Missouri and her master's (1971) and bachelor's (1970) degrees from Northeast Missouri State University (now Truman State University). A family scientist, her recent research has focused on interracial families and youth. She is the 1999 nominee from the Nebraska Association of Family and Consumer Sciences for the National Leader Award conferred by the American Association of Family and Consumer Sciences (decision April, 1999).

Cherry has held her present position at the University of Massachusetts-Boston since 1988. Previous positions included acting director of nursing at Roxbury Community College in Massachusetts; associate dean of nursing and director of undergraduate nursing at George Mason University; assistant professor of nursing at Midland College in Fremont, Neb.; and work as a nurse with the U.S. Army Nurse Corps. Cherry earned her bachelor of science in nursing in 1968 from North Carolina A&T State University in Greensboro; her master's in nursing in 1977 from the University of Nebraska Medical Center and a Ph.D. in adult education from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Teachers College in 1981. She completed the Management Development Program in the Institute for Educational Management at Harvard University in 1990. Recent publications include an article in press for the Journal of Nursing Education. She has made numerous recent presentations on recruitment and retention of minorities in the nursing profession and received the 1997 Excellence in Practice Award from the New England Regional Black Nurses Association.

Kean has been associated with Nebraska since 1973 when she became a graduate teaching assistant. In 1980, she became an instructor in the textiles, clothing and design department and has held various ranks, including assistant professor (1984-89), associate professor (1984-96) and full professor (1996-present). She has been department chair since 1991. Kean earned her bachelor's degree in 1971 at the State University of New York-Buffalo and her master's (1975) and doctoral (1984) degrees from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. In 1997-98, she was an American Council on Education fellow at the University of Kansas where she presented at the annual Gender Colloquium at the KU Hall Center for the Humanities. Her scholarly activities include research on home-based and retail businesses in rural settings. She currently is a member of a team of scientists from 17 universities who are studying family businesses and their interactions with business spheres.

Van Buren has held her current position at Texas A&M-Kingsville since 1996. Previous positions include associate professor and assistant dean of the College of Human Environmental Sciences at the University of Missouri-Columbia (1991-96), assistant professor of education at Purdue University (1986-91) and assistant professor at Northeast Missouri State University (now Truman State University). She earned her bachelor's, master's (1979) and doctoral (1981) degrees from Iowa State University, all in the area of family and consumer sciences education. Much of her recent research has focused on curricular reform in family and consumer science education. She is the national vice chair of Kappa Omicron Nu and will assume the chair in 2000-2001 and has held leadership positions in the National Association of Teacher Educators of Family and Consumer Sciences and the American Vocational Association.

The candidates were chosen through a national search conducted by a committee appointed by the Senior Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs and the Vice Chancellor for the Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources. The college has extensive research and outreach components that lie within the purview of IANR.

Karen Craig is retiring as dean.

CHRFS Dean Candidates

• Shirley Baugher - University of Nebraska-Lincoln
• Brenda Joyce Smitherman Cherry - University of Massachusetts-Boston
• Rita Kean, NU - University of Nebraska-Lincoln
• Janis Van Buren - Texas A&M University-Kingsville