The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current, November 08, 1955, Page Page 2, Image 2
Tuesday, November 8, 1 955 Page 2 -'-v.N Ncbraskan Editorials: TUF HFDDAC1AM I riL iNt-LrxjiN.-vi n Ll Oft 1 i ',.4 . . Ask For Two VJeeh Emms' The Faculty Senate votes this afternoon on one of the most important and significant issues ever to be considered in its legislative cham bersthe one-two week exam controversy. Everyone every legal, voting member of every college should be at today's Senate meeting, not only because this piece of legisla tion directly affects every member of our Uni versity community but because it will affect the integrity of many courses offered here at Ne braska, and, more valuable still, the learning process of the individual. This latter will be accomplished either by the proposed calendar (which allows for one week of finals and the remaining time split into vaca tion and class time) or a possible last-ditch calendar presented from the Senate floor (which would put all the extra time into class time). Extra class time, vacation time or a com bination of both will deprive the student of the opportunity to review and synthesize his course material but at the same time it will give him more material, lecture notes and outside read ing to re fie w and synthesize. The professors, vnuld, from time necessity, be forced to impose a shorter, less comprehen sive final examination though, by virtue of extra class days, they would have more mate rial upon which to test the student. The final exam, by nature of this condensa tion, would do longer be a. final exam in the classical sense of the word a comprehensive review and analysis of the, entire semester's work. It would tend to be instead more of an hour exam, covering the last five or six weeks of work neglecting the valuable device of thor ough review. For example, take the humanities. Can you imagine taking a short answer, objective type test in English, philosophy or history? Yet, be cause of the haste which the instructor must use in grading the papers, the shortened exam and the abbreviated period for review, this type of testing would be the inevitable trend. The purpose and success of exams would also be seriously impaired by the physical and mental strain upon both students and instruc tors, as well as the fact that most professors carrying a normal instructional load simply would not be able to formulate, supervise and grade respectable exams effectively. But through all the arguments, pro and con, lies the one basic question, "Is the one week which will be chopped from the normal period, more valuable to the student in class or vaca tion time or within the present two week exam ination framework?" It hardly seems reasonable that a week of va cation or a week of classes, with perhaps two or three more class meetings, could ever com pensate for or in any way justify the lack of time the student would have to relate his day by day class material into a whole, the burden the individual instructor would have to carry in giving, grading and recording the final grade in one week, the watered-down final examination which would have to be given and the inevitable lessening of standards which would result in many of the colleges, and inevitably in the Uni versity of Nebraska itself. For these reasons, and the fact that the ma jority of students want the present exam system, The Nebraskan urges the Faculty Senate to ac cept the minority report and maintain the pres ent two week period of final examinations. B. B. iYil IVe Want Tis a pity that whenever anything important or the least bit controversial is written or said it is misquoted and misconstrued to the point where its meaning is entirely misunderstood. And though it is a pity, this situation now exists. It exists between the students of the University, by way of Friday's Nebraskan, and much of the good State of Nebraska. Specifically it exists between the students aad the opinions expressed through their paper, and an Omaha daily paper, a paper whose atti tude toward the University ricochets with the winds. An editorial from Omaha rays the students are mad at the administration for "insisting on discipline,"' It continues, saying that "the new policy is reasonable and corrects lax standards of the past." This is all nice, but it is all far from true. Students are sot mad at the enforcement of rules. Neither are they mad at criticism of an off-cokr show, nor at the suspension of students for open rioting, cor at the liquor policy. Nowhere, and at do timebas it been said that students are mad at anybody for insisting on discipline. Neither are students mad at en forcing liquor rules nor suspending students for rioting. No one here is mad at the Chancellor. In fact, if the editorial from The Nebraskan would have been read, it would have been noted that the Chancellor was specifically mentioned. It was said that mis was "not a personal indict mast." Aad this is bonesCy believed by The Kebraskan. Neither are students mad at what the Omaha paper thinks they are. The "observers' of long duration which the Omaha paper cites are failing to observe today with critical and honest eyes. Bat yet the students are mad. As The Nebraskan has said, the students are mad at spedac groups wi&in the administration for hasty decisions. They are mad at certain groups for not tell ing the stodent what is about to happen. They are mad because after all the fuss about the riot and ftH the people expelled to make the enforcement here at the University look good (that is, make it look good to part-time ob servers) a!l those students who sought re-admission are now back. And even worse, some students seen in the midst of the riot were never questioned, for they were considered "needed" or "assets" to the University. v As the editorial cited points out, these "are serious offenses." The Nebraskan doubts if any student wants these "serious offenses" to go unpunished. But the student does want to know about punishing. He wants to be told that "such and such will happen" before a secret policeman is turned loose on campus. Students must be given credit for being at least partially intelligent. What students want at the University is not a den of iniquity, no matter what the sage com mentators of the student scene now say. Students want to be told the why and where fore. Students want to be taken into the confi dence of the faculty and the administration. And while an attempt at doing this is now being made, students want this attempt fortified. This is not an unreasonable wish. This is cot immature nor is it undemocratic. But this is what the students now wish and what they are mad about. D. F. Afterthoughts Domestic Bliss Recently, a national magazine for the world of housewifery was letting its readers in on the latest recipe designed to melt hard husbands' hearts. The dish in question was peanut-butter grilled corn, and the formula read: "Husk fresh corn; spread ears lightly with peanut butler. Wrap each ear with a bacon slice and fasten with toothpick. Place on grill; grill over glowing coals, turning until done ... about ten minutes. Or let evesyone grill his own ears, using long skewers to do so." It should be a sure thing to win back his waning interest. Student Body Wants Reasons fv-h LI We're getting sick and tired of it. We're getting tired of being treat ed like children by the Administra tion, and we're getting sick of hav ing platitudes and official secre cy pushed off on us as rational ex planations for disciplinary actions. What explanation did Kosmet Klub get for the hasty and prejudice-soaked action taken on their Fall Revue? Most students didn't care for many of the dirty jokes told by the MC at the Fall Revue, My Bootless Cries but most cared less for the cloak-and-dagger treatment given the review of the show. No faculty member on that committee will talk freely of the committee's de liberations to the press; they're sworn to secrecry. The official pronouncement and decision laid blame on the Klub and on the whole student body who suffer from being deprived of one of the most popular features cf the campus for the impru dence of one man. Part of the de cision was based on a several years old probation of Kosmet Klub of which most Klub members were unaware, and about which most of the faculty committee members were ignorant until it was dug out of the books. And finally, many members of this committee mem bers who had insisted on hassling over the Kosmet Klub Spring Show year after year were frankly and openly hostile to the Klub. They admitted as much in some students. Undoubtedly, the administration and the faculty committee felt they had good reasons for axing the Kosmet Klub in this way, but they won't tell us what they are. As was pointed out in a Ne braskan editorial last Friday, this, in the minds of many students, is part of a long chain of events, be ginning with the liquor policy, high lighted by the handling of the Spring Riot, to turn the screws on the students at the University and start treating them as kiddies. We may be seeing ghosts. The point is, however, that we will look for ghosts when we can't see the real state. o affairs, and official secre cy prevents us from doing that. What is the result of such an atti tude? First, there is a sort of breach between the officials and the students one which shouldn't exist, and one which, this student, for one, wishes didn't exist. Secondly, the whole affair is dampening student spirit. Obvious ly, there is not the spirit here that there should be at a large state university. Students are lackadais ical, apathetic. The loss of tradi tions like Prince Kosmet, Nebras ka Sweetheart and the Fall Review will only take away one other source of school spirit for the stu dents. This question of morale and spir it is a nebulous thing, but an im portant one. No matter how many speeches the Chancellor and the football coach make to the alums and the high school principals throughout the state, if the Nebras ka students in those towns come home and tell their high school friends that Nebraska University is dead and too tight, it's going to be difficult to try to get the kind of enrollment a state university wants. And college students are a lot closer to high school students than alums and principals. How can we regain this spirit? By giving the students the feeling that this is, in part, their Univer sity. We're not saying that we should be given license to riot and drink and tell dirty jokes we're as much opposed to those things as the administration; we merely ask that you let us know why you are depriving us of such things as the Fall Revue. You the administration and the faculty do have good rea son, don't you? Students Have Little Voice I f t This afternoon at four in the Love Library auditorium, our Fac ulty Senate will convene to discuss the notorious examination-week question. Let us pray. The exam-week controversy and the recent Kosmet Klub censorship may be two totally independent is sues, but they have several inter esting elements in common. Both actions were apparently taken in undignified haste; both involve faculty versus students; and both indicate not only the power of our faculty and adminis tration, but also the helplessness of the student body. When I speak of the faculty, I do not mean those men who are conscientiously concerned about the opinions and welfare of their students, but rather, the vocal mi nority and the lazy or intimidated multitude who are willing to be led like sheep. When I speak of the student body, I mean students, not vegeta bles or beery-eyed freshmen. And when I say we are helpless, I mean just that. We can rant and rave and wail, rationalize and argue and complain in our little newspaper until our readers are thoroughly aware that "some thing's up." We can whip- up petitions and conduct polls and ask embarras sing questions which we know will never be answered. We can carry on crusades from now until Dooms day. To what avail? To this avail: the fatherly (or big brotherly) high command pats us on the head and says, "You're nice kids; now let Papa take care of you." Or it just pats us on the head. There are places in which stu dents' opinions are respected and influential. Why not at the Univer sity of Nebraska? In other insti tutions of higher learning, students at least have recourse to some well-defined and effective channel of protest. Where is ours? This University is an oligarchy, not a democracy. Given a little more time for politics, and a few more group and individual decapi- Given 'em Ell tations, and we could probably evolve a first class dictatorship. If we ever had any voice in uni. versity policy, any freedom, we're certainly losing it fast. If we want any we'd better grab it now, while we are still aware of the existence of such "goodies." Or shall w wait for Santa Claus? Letterip Mistake Explained To The Editor: In your Nov. 4 issue you quote me as having said in last week's Student Council meeting: "The Faculty Senate will have our opin ions when they meet Nov. 8; it is their decision then." This part of the quotation is, essentially, what I reported. But the remainder of the quote, "there is no alternative short of riot," is taken from an offhand joking remark that I made as I was sitting down. This remark was meant as a joke and was laughed at by the Council. It was not an ex hortation to riot; it was merely a joke taken out of context. I hope this statement will clear up any erroneous opinions that might have been made on the basis of your story. Sincerely, Marvin Breslow (Editor's note: The Nebraskan recognizes the error made in its reporting of Breslow's remark and wishes to extend its apologies to Breslow and the Council.) -Th wmmt mmm: TM m mm Mini araH ta tmm "OutttoM" merit. 1MM fcT MlW ll'H HHIlt- mm reat lii Mi l, later' mrorM i im irr A4Lua Iiiwmw, Pin e Challenge- Bin, I would kc to take this cp paitMixy to applaud the effort gwt are making, through your series, toward a ersScaiaoa of what are so often (as yea pat & "detached pellets" of knowledge derived from las tory, science, economics, fct cratnrc and so on. Kf friend, E. 1L Forster, caed, as the thematic stale Best lor las fine nc3, 'How ard End, the phrase, "Or-ly connect. . . ., and I agree trita Iron, sad with yea. that It is precisely this lack of connects," or of a sense of the relevancies cf thirds. which most distinguishes the mind of our age. We make brilliant advances in a hun dred fields of knowledge, tut we tpsix generally fail to re late these advances to one an other and to organize them around central philosophic principles. Had I the time to write a piece for you, I think I might devote it to an exploration cf this theme. I might point to the great blessings which can come to mankind from the de velopment cf atomic energy, from the harnessing of the son's energy, from auioma ftoo in our industrial processes but TA point cut too that there are great dangers in S3ca things. Our techn&Jojy eaa become our caster; never before has the danger of this been so great. Not only is Caere the ob vious danger that atomic en ergy, used for war, wul de stroy the world. There is also the subtle but perhaps equal danger that all these great advances, being considered as ends rather than means, may create a society in which the individual personality is sadly diminished, each man becom ing a mere factor in an eco nomic equatica. The blessing can be real ized, the dangers avoided, only through such efforts a you seem to be making, ef forts to develop whole minds and a profound integrity cf spirits. AD LAI E. STEVENSON The Nebraskan ITJTT-rXTE TXAiS OLD lLsaAer: Asvsctsie OUtUte press XsterceUesiato Press !Lc?rceJfihr; XatfsvU A vertfslsg: Service, laws, pee sted Pc&ISs&ed at: mm 24. Stalest CnSea It A & CErfwitty Kebra&a LTw.'a, Kebrat& ffuwr am aeWrt fwar, mtmrnH ar EDITOXIAL ST AIT .b ii Kwar . tn tmmt ... ....................... - tttw Bat C-m On. Bwlw tnf SUrr Laritw ftwttM- a- imm. km vammam ml ffe t'ltwuMv it n V fort t mmmmm P f mm Snn k IKwWl. m V.i..a.i unmet mm mmmmmtm vwm Vmn Mmt AC tmm , ...... ma Svii wtm ti Anvi Wrt. f n Aj ner. itwtrm BwOrr. t-mrta Mwr. THfdt, twMl fnm, tmM Smtifv. Dartta. Himm W. Marr raO-M. jMftta fwnrtt. NaiMt ITWCwa. r Momma. Martf Km4 nc fua. 4n ! Liavte LT. Tnmt. AtSrt rmmmmmmm, Um4m R-v. fn Tssrar, 1mm Km. Mart maa tmner ft in. 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