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TUESDAY. JULY 6, 1971
SUMMER NEBRASKAN
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Popular Black Studies Course Dropped Because of a 'Lack of Coordination '
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By Bob Waddell
NU Journalism Student
The first course at the
University of Nebraska
designed specifically toward
black studies has been
dropped.
Popular by enrollment
standards, the course, "Black
Experience in America," was
considered valuable by the five
faculty members and three
students interviewed.
Why is the course being
dropped? What effect will it
have on the black studies
program? How do students
react?
Asked why the course is
being dropped, Lodis Rhodes,
coordinator of African-American
Studies, said it was
primarily a problem of the lack
of cooperation among the
departments involved, English,
sociology and history.
Dr. Leslie C. Duly, associate
professor of history, said,
"Cooperation was a problem if
we are talking about intensive
coordination. It was a problem
not only in selecting the
textbooks but in faculty
listening to each other."
The chairman of the History
Department, Dr. Philip A.
Crowl, who taught most of the
history classes, said, 'The
English department wants a
full course and sociology the
same."
"The biggest problem was
grading," he said. 'The English
department let the students
grade themselvs. Also there was
the administrative problem of
grade averaging."
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Crowl added, "Until this
year, I was happy with the
course, but student interest
was not the same as previous
years."
Charles Peek, who taught
the English section the last two
years, said "Lodis (Rhodes)
and I agree on the general
principle that you can't teach
200 people at a time. The
teacher needs to respond to the
students."
He said the course was
"meant to be interdisciplinary.
Subjects should be related.
This was not done."
Asked about the value of
the course. Dr. John Robinson,
associate dean of the College of
Arts and Sciences expressed
what everyone interviewed
said, that "black studies is a
stop-gap measure." He added
that "ultimately black history
is part of American history.
However, this is long range. At
present the history taught is
white history," he said, "and
there are a whole host of
ethnic groups it is proper to
learn about, hence, black
studies."
Crowl said the course, best
known as 198, was begun in
1 968 in direct response to
black students asking for a
course in black history.
But," Crowl said, "at the
time I didn't have a staff
member with sufficient
background in Negro history to
teach a class in it, nor were
there funds to get a specialist.
So I called on other
departments to share the
load."
The class, then titled "The
Daphne, by Sidney
Torso, by William Zorach
Negro in American Society,"
was divided among English,
history and sociology, each
being responsible for one-third
of the semester.
Crowl said each department
tested and graded the students
on the material it covered.
Crowl was named
coordinator of the three
departments' efforts. He taught
many of the history classes for
the course as well.
The following summary of
the two credit-hour course
appeared in 1969 in the
bulletin of the College of Arts
and Sciences:
"A survey of the history
and contemporary status of the
Negro in American Society and
of literature by and about
American Negroes."
This was followed by a
listing of the subjects covered:
". . . slavery and its
impact on American history,
emancipation and its
consequences, the history of
segregation, the civil rights
movement, the Negro in
contemporary society, the
Negro in American literature."
Then in June 1970, Lodis
Rhodes, instructor in
sociology, was made
coordinator of African-American
Studies. Part of his
responsibility was to assume
coordination of 198. Rhodes
said he assumed teaching duties
for the sociology section as
well.
The following semester the
course name was changed to
"Black Experience in
America."
Another change occurred in
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reading assignments. Dr. Leslie
C. Duly, associate professor of
history, who taught part of the
five-week history section, said
the reading requirement was
reduced from four books to
three.
Rhodes said that for the
same period, the sociology
requirement was cut from
three books to one and that
the English requirement also
was reduced.
A student who took the
course in 1970 before the
changes occurred, John
Votipka, said they tried to
cover too much material. He
said the reading load was too
heavy, adding that the course
"should have been expanded
into three courses."
Votipka also said, 'There
was poor coordination betwen
lecturers in the history
section." He said it resulted
from the number of different
instructors who shared
teaching duties for this one
section.
According to the syllabus
issued that semester, there
were five lecturers for the
history section.
Ron Maulsby and Jim Pratt
were enrolled in the course last
semester. Asked about the
reading load, both answered
that it was not too heavy.
However, both agreed the
course should be expanded.
Maulsby, a history major,
said, "It should be one course
in history for a full semester
and the same for the other
two. It goes by too fast."
"But even with little time,"
he said, "it's beneficial to
students who hold myths
toward black America."
He added, however, that the
interdisciplinary nature of the
course detracted from it.
Jim Pratt said, "The
overview of black experience
presented by three
departments was beneficial
because you get more ways of
looking at it."
Pratt's biggest complaint
was size.
"The size prohibited
discussion," he said. "If
discussion groups were held
once a week it would be
good."
He said he enjoyed the
sociology section which was
loosely structured. The history
section was good also, he said
but that "there was no
opportunity for discussion."
The English section, he said,
was too abstract and not easily
understood.
"But over-all, I liked the
course," he said.
Student enrollment
acclaimed 198's popularity.
Last semester more than 2S0
were enrolled in the class.
Next semester there won't
be a class.
Course 198 was the
beginning of black studies at
NU. It was joined in the fall of
1969 by four other courses.
A story in the Lincoln Star
May 2, 1969, reported that
Dean of Faculties Dr. C. Peter
Magrath announced the new
courses and the possibilities of
others to members of the
Afro-American Collegiate
Society (AACS). The story said
that this was one of numerous
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Superstructure on Four, by David Smith
Photos by
NICK PARTSCH
meetings between NU
administrators and AACS
members regarding the black
studies program at NU. The
meetings had begun after a
series of campus
demonstrations during April of
1969, it said.
In the spring of 1970, the
university published a survey
by Magrath, the purpose of
which was "to provide students
with a picture of the
University's overall academic
offerings in the broad area of
ethnic and minority group
intercultural studies."
On August 6, 1970, NU
president Joseph Soshnik
released a six-page "Response
to Concerns of the
Afro-American & Collegiate
Society." In it he said that
"while definite progress has
been made, much more needs
to be accomplished."
Asked abut the present
status of black studies at NU,
Lodis Rhodes said there are
"six or seven classes which
were specifically designed with
this in mind. There is a minor
offered in black studies."
Course 198 was a part of
that minor. So, the immediate
effect of dropping 1 98 is that
"the minor program will be
revamped," Rhodes said.
Duly said that a new course,
Slavery in the 19th Century,
will replace 198 in that
department. But he cited more
that needs to be done.
"Despite the developments
of black studies programs at
institutions," he said, "there
has not been money put into
these programs. The emphasis
ra
has been on raising the
standards. I hope we'll do more
than what we've done in the
past.
One of the responses of
President Soshnik to the AACS
was the goal of black faculty
recruitment in several
departments. One of these
departments was history.
According to the History
Department there are no black
faculty or black graduate level
personnel in the department.
Crowl, when asked about
efforts to recruit blacks as
faculty, said that it was not
"till recent years that there
were many qualified blacks."
He said that with the recent
budget cut hiring was not now
feasible.
"And if a black historian
were available, we might not be
able to interest him in coming
to NU," he said. "He wouldn't
have many fellow blacks, since
Lincoln has little black
population," he said.
Rhodes also commented
that until recent years qualified
blacks were hard to find. But
recruitment of black faculty,
he said, was only one area of .
concern.
"But the real issue," he said,
"is to provide a real education
for the student. I see black
studies as a vehicle to get to
true education, the recognition
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of differences as relative to
making good decisions. And
frankly, the program isn't
doing the job."
Votipka, a journalism
major, pointed out that there is
a major offered at NU in
modern dance. He said, "When
they ascribe enough
importance to modern dance
to have a major in it, then they
should consider the area of
racial and ethnic studies as
important."
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