Residential learning
One of the merits of Centennial College,
as nearly any of its members will attest, is
the opportunity it affords students to have a
learning experience in the place they live and
with the same people. Furthermore, the Uni
versity seems proud enough of Centennial
College, at least enough to devote a goodly
part of one issue of Alumnus magazine to
it. It is somewhat surprising then, that the
University would balk at the idea of spread
ing this educational concept to other living
units on campus.
I refer, to the attempt by the Interfra
ternity Council to arrange for freshmen En
glish classes to be held in Greek houses. The
original proposal by IFC last semester was
for the English department to set aside four
sections of English 2 for Greek freshmen to
be determined by the IFC and Panhellenic.
The idea was half-heartedly accepted by the
English department and the result has been
the establishment of a half-hearted program.
Admittedly there were, and still are, a
good many problems. Dudley Bailey, English
chairman, questioned the legality of holding
University classes in private facilities and
also the convenience for the staff of teaching
outside a regular classroom. Scheduling was
also a problem. Unless the class was held at
7:30 a.m. or 4:30 p.m. too few students from
the same Greek house could fit the class
into their schedules. (The sections were to be
filled half by a fraternity and half by a so
rority). But if the English department ques
tioned these difficulties, they apparently also
questioned the merit of the proposal. It would
seem that a greater effort by both IFC and
the English department to clear up the prob
lems might have resulted in a better program.
As it stands, the classes are being held in
Andrews Hall and are made up of a cross
section of University freshmen.
The concept of residence learning is too
good to be limited to Centennial College.
The concept should either be spread in the
form of many such residential colleges or
transferred, to existing living units wherever
possible both in dorms and Greek houses.
What is more, when the Greek element of
the University, so long devoid of scholastic
or intellectual ideas, finally suggests some
thing of merit, they shouldn't be discouraged.
The University should carefully review the
possibility of setting up a system by which
living units can arrange for classes to be
taught in their facilities not just in English
but in many subjects.
In the mean time, a little research and
work by IFC and the English department ,
could probably solve the problems which sur
round the English classes that were to be
held in houses, and arrange for a better pro
gram for next semester. Dr. Bailey has said
that the English department is not opposed
to the idea of residential learning. He has also
said that the English department does not
have a closed mind on this proposal. I would
hope that statement is accurate and can be
applied to the rest of the University as well.
IMJU
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Jim Pedersen
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In the
by STEVE TIWALD
Unfortunately, part of the
column I wrote last week was
deleted. Because of these
changes the tone of the column
was significantly different than
I intended.
Although ASUN Senate is
now going through an identity
crisis, questioning its purpose
and structure, the need for
student participation in the
governing of the university is
unquestionable.
Nebraska University's
Student in the Academic Com
munity document tells us that
the purpose of the University is
"to provide opportunity for
human and intellectual
development in the service of
society."
THE UNIVERSITY should
promote "conditions conducive
to the personal and intellectual
development of students" and
enhance "the development of
responsible individualism."
If the University's Board of
Regents, Administration and
faculty propose to carry out
this mandate, what they are
talking about is student power.
The validity of student power
has been recognized at many,
colleges and universities. To
varying degrees it Is being ex
ercised by students and ac
cepted by administrations.
AN EXAMINATION of the
concept of student power
reveals that it has an educa
tional premise, the notion that
people learn through living,
through the process of in
tegrating their thoughts with
their actions, through testing
their values against those of a
community, through a capacity
to act.
Growth is not the ability to
accept what the past has
created. Student power is a
medium through which people
THE DAILY NEBRASKAN
W, IT LOOKS PEACEFUL. ANO 5Af
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integrate their own experience
with a slice of the past which
seems appropriate.
The principle that applies is
very American democracy.
He who must obey the rule
should make it.
ED SCHWARTZ, former
president of the National Stu
dent Association, and many
others have discussed the ap
plication of this principle in
relation to students. They have
said (as far back as 1967) that
students should make the rules
governing dormitory hours,
boy-girl visitation, student
unions, student fees, organiza
tions, newspapers and the like.
Faculty and administrators
should advise attempt to
persuade, even. Yet the student
should bear the burden of
choice. They should demand
the burden.
Students and faculty should
co-decide curricular policy.
Students, faculty and ad
ministration should co-decide
admissions policy, overall
university policy affecting the
community, even areas like
university investments.
STUDENT POWER brings
change in the relationships
between groups within the
university. It renders irrele
vant the power of factions
outside a unlverstiy who im
pose external standards on an
internal community Regents,
alumni.
Most students don't want
power. They are too tired, too
DAILY NEBRASKAN
Sacond class postage paid at Lincoln, Nb. -I.!k.?
?".',: ?l,or ra-W. 472-J5M, Newt 471 25W.
lUbJ? u10" raf'" mr" u pr " or M per year.
Published Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday during
the cnool yur except during vacations and exam period.
tTs'CsarvfcJ !",toll9l, Pr"' National Educational Adver
7h? J?'," "br,,,n udanf publication, Independent of
nt BovVrnmant0 "b"" ""'""o. tacTand
Address: Dally Nebraskan
34 Nebraska Union
University of Nebraska
Lincoln, Nebraska Mjoj
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 1970
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scared or too acquiescent to
fight for it. That, too, is a stu
dent decision. Those with
potential power may choose to
ignore it even those who
have decided not to decide have
made a decision.
Yet, abdication of
responsibility, or transferral of
authority to other people in
hibits individual and collective
growth. Students who accept
other people's decisions have
diluted their desire to question,
to test themselves, to become
through being. They create
walls between their classroom
material and their lives,
between their inner and outer
selves. Acquiescence is boring,
even humiliating. Education
should be neither.
STUDENTS WHO ignore
student power ignore
themselves. They are safe,
respectable, but emasculated.
Ultimately, they can be
dangerous. Later In life, they
wield power in the way in
which it was wielded upon
them without any standard
to govern it save that of power.
The standard of the
university should encourage a
democratic temperament, not
an authoritarian elite. Student
power is not the elimination of
authority; it is the development
of a democratic standard of
authority.
The purposes of the
university and of student power
are one and the same
educational and should be
regarded as such.
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