PAGE 2
THE DAILY IMEBRASKAN
THURSDAY, MARCH 6, 1969
Evaluation and - hiring-firing of University faculty
(UlMlitlMllHlKl
flexing muscles
It is difficult to envision Nebraska students
flexing th muscles of their student body in social
protest
But it is impossible to conceive of them demand
ing an increased part in planning their education.
University of Nebraska students unconcerned
for the most part and unorganized in general
have not even reached out for academic power.
In fact, administrators and faculty (not student
leaders) have too often been the initiators of com
mittees designed to bring together the three
segments of the college community.
THERE IS, HOWEVER, an active and interested
"Jininority of students. They are concerned with what
jthey are learning and critical of how they are
Deing taught.
'Z'l Without the support of the uncoordinated stu
dent body, these people are unable to accomplish
'. something as basic as a Faculty Evaluation Book.
(Insufficient leadertiiiip hurts, too.)
. .". It is time now for these students to enlist
; the help of faculty and administrators who are
.1 interested in improving education at the University.
"'To be sure, the concerned educators are also in
- minority.
BUT A CONCERTED coalition of all those who
"J3eek significance in education be they students,
--instructors or otherwise could be effective in
. Accomplishing the establishment of accurate faculty
vaulation.
rT And once the coalition can accomplish this im
" mediate end, it can extend its consideration to
otner areas.
Edlcenogle
to 13 ft winmf ft
This is Howlin' WoITs
" new album.
He doesn't like it.
He didn't like his electric
guitar at first either.
"Blues singers like John Lee Hooker, Muddy
Waters, Howlin' Wolf and Jimmy Reed keep hanging
around to remind musicians, critics and public
that you can't keep the blues buried, forgotten
and discarded."
Those were the liner notes from the Chess
Records Company album of John Lee Hooker
singing the real folk blues. Interestingly enough,
the Chess Records Company now puts out under
the label of Cadet Concept Records, and they still
publish blues, but the new style of white folks
blues, complete with electric guitar amplification.
HOWLIN WOLF'S new album is one of many
in the genre of old folk blues that have been
revived and electrified to satisfy today's market
The ten songs have the basic roots of blues combin
ed with some of Howlin Wolfs personal philosophy
"Everybody says they don't like the blues, but
you wrong. See, the blues come from way back
and I'm gonna tell you somethin' again, the things
goin on today ain't blues, (i.e. Liberation Blues
Band), it's just a good beat that the people car
ry." The album begins with the old standby "Spoon
ful" to which Howlin' Wolf adds the comment that
electric guitars make some pretty queer sounds.
This is followed by "Tail Dragger" and another
old favorite, "Smokestack Lightning." The latter
of these features mainly work on the electric flute,
by Donald Myrick. Wolfs voce is used mainly
as a fill-in as U is in the next song, "Moanin
at Midnight" with a low wailing chant
-
THE LAST SONG on this side comes closest
to the old saying of "Listen to what he's sayin.' "
"Built for Comfort" must strictly be analyzed for
lyric since its musical qualities are lacking.
According to Ralph Bass, a production engineer
for Chess, "A blues singer has to stretch out.
Each time he sings a particular blues, he may
change lyrics or stretch out differently. The impor
tiiit &ing is listen to what the man has to
say. I don't mean the modern blues singer but
one from the old school, one who accompanied
himself with guitar, harmonica, washboard, or any
other instrument that helped him tell his story."
SIDE TWO STARTS with more wierd elec
trification, an electric sax on a real oldie, "The
Red Rooster." Howlin' Wolf has his heart in it
by this time and he carries it through the rest
of the cuts right up to his little comment before
the final cut of "Back Door Man." This is a six
minute, seventeen second piece in which he really
shows you how to pick the blues, die real folk
blues.
To better understand the essence of the blues,
one should compare and contrast a new sound
record with one of the early folk blues albums.
The differences are easily recognized and may
tend to turn you into a follower of the old school
again.
Pick up on Howlin Wolf and stretch out.
DAILY NEBRASKAN
S-ww4 dan poata paid at lincoln. Neb
lfrt.?t Kail., mzm. Nrwa mM- Bmtacn m-vm.
Sun, iptuia rate are V per aemenier er H pet academic year.
Pooiianed Monday W4iMMa rhcu-aday tat Friday duria tie tciioal
yaar nit durin vacation.
Editorial Staff
fMHar: Ed Iceamriei Manacini EO'toi Loin GotUrhatki Newa Editor
Jim vtiier; bight Kewt editor Kent Ox'luoa; Editorial AaaUutnt
Inm fcarumer; AmUtu Htm Editor od Wood; Sport editor Mara
Cordaa, Vrtxaakan Stall Wntor -John Dvorak. Jim pederaen, rmle
W BH)r, Stuuu Jtnlnm Bill SmiUwrman, Km Schllchleroeiat Sua
petty. Bun TalouU, Josneiie rrrraa, BachltUr Photograpnera
Ia LariHy, Unda Kennedy Mike Harmaa; Reporter-Photographer
ye A irAin Sollendoria; Copy Editor J.L Schmidt loan wago
Sr, fay ilia Aaaiaava, Dav Plhpi, Kara Hciiwieder. Suaaa Manid.
Business Staff
Bnrtne. Manager R Boyi VnrM Ad Manager Joef Daviai
Prtsdurtiiw Manamsr tUntly irey. Bookkeeper Hon bowtin; Secretary
Janet Boatman. Onifird lean Buer. shrrirtion Manager
t.iMla ( Irfch, Cirrnltlor Manacera R-m Pavelka Rick tVrao, lame
Iwier. AdvertMn Reprewnutivea M-8 Brown. Gary Graluqviat,
Liada Bibiowa. J. L. Schmidt, Char lot ta Walter.
Student demands are soaring for a role in
the hiring and firing of faculty members, but at
present the strongest control students exert over
faculties is through published course critiques, ac
cording to Newsweei.
"Begun at Harvard University as far back as
1924, these course evaluation booklets at first were
usually no more than consumers' aids to finding
"gut" courses, esoteric subjects, and melodramatic
lecturers and at times seemed merely un
dergraduate parodies of professorial quirks. But
in recent years, with the growth of the student
power movement, the course guide has become an
integral part of students' efforts to gain a voice
in decisions about their education."
THE NUMBER of such course evaluation
booklets has risen in proportion to student
restlessness. In 1965, there were less than 50 guides.
This year there are hundreds published by campus
newspapers, student governments, and other
organizations.
The handbooks sometimes exert strong in
fluence on faculty decisions, as is the case with
UCLA's 362-page "Professor Evaluation Survey."
Chemistry professor E. Russel Hardwick, chairman
of the academic committee that recommends all
faculty hiring, firing, and promotion, says that
"when we discuss the promotion of a professor,
a copy of the professor evaluation book sits on
the table."
OF COURSE, FACULTY response is not always
enthusiastic. Martin Duberman, Princeton
historian, sympathizes with student demands, but
says that the majority of his colleagues view the
books as "a joke the course evaluation is just
an elaborate gimmick to give students the illusion
that they have power.
Dartmouth dean Leonard M. Rieser complains
that the critiques play up to a certain type of
professor, "while at other times they are critical
without compassion."
Most faculties are unwilling to allow student
power to exceed a consultant role on tenura
decisions.
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While the University is currently lacking an
adequate evaluation cf its faculty, organized analy
sis of teaching performance is gaining national
stature as a part of student power. In a recent is
sue, Newsweek magazine commented on the topic.
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"The traditional faculty view is that scholars
shouid be judged by their peers. Professors main
tain that students can judge only classroom com
petence; students, they say, do not have the
knowledge to judge competence in scholarship and
research."
"THERE WILL be a very strong tendency by
the faculty to hold onto the hiring prerogative,"
says Sanford Kadish, chairman of faculty ap
pointments at Berkley law school. "Just as physi
cians don't want their standards set by patients,
the faculty doesn't want is standards defined by
students."
. . . . - jii . . ....
6NTl8AASN, WE MOST FACE THE 6fclM PoSSlBlUTY
THAT PACE COt)U BREAKOUT AT AW MOMENT."
GOP wants South support
by Flora Lewis
Washington Despite the grumbling disen
chantment of Southern Republicans with the Nixon
Administration so far, national Republicans are
pressing hard to build up a Southern base. And
they are optimistic.
One major reason is their confidence that
Southern Democrats will rebel if the national
Democratic Party pushes through the reforms
ordered at its Chicago convention. The reforms
banned the unit rule and high-handed methods of
picking delegates.
Laws will have to be changed in 28 out of
the 50 states to meet the new standards for picking
delegates. Democratic National Chairman Fred
Harris asked Republican National Chairman Ray
Bliss over a month ago to make it a bipartisan
effort. Many of the state legislatures are Republican
controlled, and besides mat would take the partisan
stigma off reform bills.
Maris never got an answer from Bliss and
now he's waiting for one from Bliss' successor,
Maryland Rep. Rogers Morton. The Republicans
are inclined to enjoy the Democrats' dilemma
insist on reform and infuriate the South or dawdle
and infuriate the liberals.
.
THE FIRST PLACE the new rules have been
applied was in a special convention in Tennessee to
pick a candidate for the 8th Congressional district.
Rep. Robert A. Everett (D.) died and an election is
scheduled for March 25.
After a long, steamy hassle, the Democrats
picked Ed Jones. But an independent, a Negro
and a Walla ceite will also probably run and split
the vote. The Republicans, who couldn't even nut
up a candidate last year, used the unit rule and
quietly chose a bright young state legislator,
Leonard Dunavant, who is called one of the "new
breed." They expect him to do a good bit better
than the 25 the last Republican candidate got
in 1966.
Some local Democrats were delighted with their
show. State Rep. Tommy Powell, a Memphis labor
leader, said afterwards of the free-for-all conven
tion, "This has done more good than anything
I can remember. We got beat but we got a chance
to come and have our say. It was fair, at least.
This has never happened before."
BUT TILVT ISN'T likely to be the majority re
action, and all the less the further south the new
rules travel. In Mississippi, which hasn't gone forme
national Democratic candidate since 1948, a state
headquarters has been opened for the new
Mississippi Democratic Party recognized in Chi
cago. The state chairman, Charles Evers, and the
national committeeman, Dr. Aaron Henry, are
blacks. The national commiteewoman, Mrs.
Patricia Derian, is white and white liberals like
Hodding Carter are prominent. But the national
leadership doesn't hide its fears that most white
Mississippians will, as they put it, "drift away."
Black registration has gone up dramtically in
the South, especially Mississippi where 59.8 of
those eligible were on the rolls in 1968, compared
to 6.7 in 1964. But not many voted.
And many state legislators are switching to
the Republican side.
At this point, it is precisely state and local
officials that the Republicans are after in the South,
in hopes of building not just a volatile, rebellious
segregation party that is embarrassing elsewhere
but an entrenched organization.
HALF A DOZEN prominent Georgia state figures
switched to the Republicans last summer. Eight
to ten are teetering in Louisiana. Expert Republican
head-counters expect solid gains in state and local
elections in Florida and Virginia this year, and
good news for their side in Georgia, South Carolina,
and Texas.
The complaints from Southern state chairmen
about Health Education and Welfare Secrttary
Robert Finch, who is pushing school desegregation
laws, don't worry the national professionals too
much.
"We don't want the whole Wallace crowd to
move over," one said. "We want people who are
ready to cammit themselves to the Republican Party
at all levels, from alderman up." They are getting
some, what the Democrats tick off as the "country
club set."
Four who made the switch have good federal
jobs now: Postmaster General Winton Blount af
Alabama, Undersecretary of Agriculture Paul
Campbell of Georgia. Assistant Attorney General
Will Wilson of Texas, White House special counsel
Harry Dent of South Carolina. And Texas'
Republican Senator John Tower got his man in
to head the Small Business Administration, over
Sen. Dirksen's choice.
Renub'icans may hold the line on schools, but
they aren't giving up the South.
lc) 199, Newaday, Inc.
Some professors, however, believe that the
faculty should be open to student criticism.
According to Berkeley sociology professor
William Kornhauser, "The faculty, in its resistance
to educational innovation, is emerging as the most
conservative body on campus. The faculty operates
as a guild; it is primarily interested in protecting
its own interests. Soon the students will have to
wage thefr battles against the faculty rather than
the administration."
STUDENTS WORKING on evaluation guides
encounter problems in addition to faculty opposi
tion. Some guides, such as the University of
Wisconsin's "Course and Teacher Evaluation," are
"little better than a computer print-out of the scaled
responses of students to questionnaires about
courses and faculty.
Staffs such as Dartmouth's "Course Guide"
are undergoing re-evaluation to make
themselves more understanding of faculty problems
and sentiments.
"Some students are moving beyond course,
reviews to more direct methods of influencing'
teaching; the Stanford student government has
hired Britain's Joan Robinson, a 66-year-old Marx
ian economist, to teach spring quarter. Says Stan
ford economics chairman Lorie Tarshis, 'She pro
bacy wouldn't have come if we had asked her.
I think she was tickled to be asked by the student.'
But even without such action, students have other
ways of influencing the selection of faculty. 'The
students', says Donald Reich, Oberlin's dean of
arts and sciences, 'vote with their feet.' "
(to CmJ Mimmi
The first segment of History 198 (or Sociology
198 or English 198, whichever you prefer) has come
to a close. Participating instructors from the history
department can relax for the rest of the semester
and listen to their colleagues- from the other
departments attempt to lecture on "The Negro
in American Society" to the faceless multitude
crammed into Love Auditorium.
There are inherent difficulties in teaching 350
persons the history of the black man in America
in only nine one-hour lectures. And even those
few hours were not always put to the best use.
Professor Sherman's lecture on slavery in Latin
America was one of the finest presented: it was
also the least relevant. Other lectures flopped not
because of the material but because of the lec
turers; Professor Duly's flippancy and Professor
Rose's endless nervous pacing on stage did injustice
to their topics.
ON THE BRIGHTER side were the concise
lectures of Professors Rawley and Braeman
treating the crucial issue of the course the
black man's struggle for equality. Dr. Crowl, in
his excellent introductory lecture, freely voiced his
own opinions concerning racial problems; his col
leagues would have done well to follow suit.
Reading for the course is heavy but generally
worthwhile. (One book never arrived at the
bookstores and had to be dropped from the agenda.)
The department is to be congratulated for having
an essay exam rather than the expected multiple
guess epic.
If the curriculum for the history segment left
a few things to be desired, the students enrolled
left more. Most of the students are genuinely con
cerned about the plight of black Americans and
many signed up for optional, non-credit discussion
sessions on course material. But a large segment
of the class seemed to become disillusioned when
they realized that the course was not just a carefree
excursion, a "slumming" lark, and that some hard
work was required on their parts.
WITH MORE and more students skipping, seats
are no longer at a premium as they were the
first few days of class. But no matter where I.
sit during lectures, the ever-present chatter about
FAC's and lavaliering is inescapable.
(Can't you just hear them when they return
home to Arthur or Ord or west Omaha? "Oh,
I took this course in Negro hisory and I know
all about it!" Mention Frederick Douglass to them
six months from now and they'll probably ask
what house he's in.)
Hopefully, the past five weeks have been the
start of a solid program concerning the black man's
role in society. The course is aimed at enlightening
white students and that is as it should be.
However, the fact that the University is cur
rently unequipped to offer a good black studies
program is no reason for not planning such a
program for the future.
There is a real and crucial need for both an
expansion of the current course and a black studies
program to make college more relevant and
worthwhile for the University's ever-increasing
number of black students.
Campus opinion . . .
Infant deaths
Dear Editor:
Perhaps the VISTA representative's statistic
was misquoted or misinterpreted by vour staff
writer (February 28, Hyde Part artide" wS
counudle.'11111 PerCCnt f Mnti ' ta
rv,,?lnant "lality for the United States is
about 2.4 percent for all infants, and about 4.0
percent for non-white infants, if you talk in percen-
in nSrfJ316' usualIy expressed
any Public Health 012 student knows, I hope) and
2L!!rS,y be wherethe misinterpretation resulted,
hlfJXSZ?1 mfant mrtality rate has not
been near 28-1,000 since 1950.
in rX6 ?UbU5 h!?,lth has h2d me successes
v. : i f a1 and chlId health Programs, there is
yet a longer way to go. Can we add quality as
well as quantity to our extended life expectancy?
Sincerely yours,
Carl J. Peter
Asst. Professor
in Public Health
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I The Daily Nebraskan is solely a stu- 1
dent-operated newspaper independent I
of editorial control by student govern-
ment, administration and faculty. The 1
npinkn expressed on this page is that I
of the Nehrnskan's editorial page staff. 1
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