Mora MOV A program:
learning innovation
NOVA...Lincoln volunteer Nancy Brickson gets instructions from Dr. Ronald Love,
director of child guidance center.
r IVJ 1 A l
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 3,
ECubiceli seeks responsiveness
by Randy Beam
Terry Kubicek says it may
sound like "soap box oratory,"
but making a government
responsive to the people
partially hinges on the people
asking responsbile questions
about what its doing. And he's
asked two questions during the
last few months.
A "quirk of fate" led to his
first query, Kubicek said, and
resulted in a four-month
endeavor to add a student
representative to the newly
established National Higher
by Peter Benchley
Newsweek Feature Service
Of all the holidays observed
nationally, none approaches
the psychological and
sociological significance of
Labor Day.
Christmas is primarily a
religious and family occasion -a
time for the devout to pay
homage and for the less devout
to indulge themselves and their
offspring.
NEW YEAR's-except for its
obvious chronological
significance-heralds no change
from season to season but
rather provides an excuse for a
momentary escape from the
mid-winter blues.
Easter is a time to dress up
and-for those who choose to
do so-to go to church. The
glorious Fourth is nothing
more than a long weekend and
a chance for politicians and
patriots to holster
constituencies and consciences.
But when Labor Day rolls
around, America undergoes a
profound change. The first
X ...... V Jlk
1971
LINCOLN, NEBRASKA VOL. 95, NO. 2
Education Foundation. The
UNL senior's participation in a
Lincoln conference on higher
education last year prompted
him to read studies by
President Nixon's Newman
Commission on higher
education.
After inquiring on how the
report was to be used, Kubicek
learned of a Congressional bill
calling for establishment of the
national foundation.
"It dawned on me as I was
reading the material that there
was no provision for student
representation (on the
foundation," Kubicek said. His
Monday in September marks
the unofficial, but universally
accepted, end of summer. Any
warm day thereafter is referred
to as a blessing of "Indian
summer."
Monday. September 6 is
Labor Day. Classes will not be
held on the Lincoln campuses.
The Daily Nebraskan will not
publish, but will resume
publication. Tuesday.
SCHOOLS USUALLY
BEGIN after Labor Day.
Summer rentals usually end
with Labor Day. Vacationers
return to work. Housewives
pack away their summer
wardrobes. City restaurants
begin to stay open on
weekends, and the social
season begins. Drinkers
switch-as if tickled by some
primal urge-from gin and tonic
to Scotch and water.
"We seem to have come to
accept Labor Day as a signal to
shift gears," says one New
York social scientist. "It's sort
J-
photo by Gail Fold
interest in education reforms
had caused him to order copies
of the working draft of both
the U.S. Senate and House
legislation. The bills also failed
to provide for student
representation.
Some 20 letters to bill
sponsors and members of the
Nebraska Congressional
delegation resulted in Sen.
Jacob Javits (R-N.Y.), ranking
minority member of the Labor
and Public Welfare Committee,
amending the proposal, which
was approved recently along
Turn to page 7.
of like the impulse that drives
birds to migrate. We never
question; we just react."
Peter J. McGuire, the
unionist who first proposed the
creation of a day "which shall
be labor's" in 1882, had no
such lofty intent when he
suggested that the holiday fall
on the first Monday in
September.
RATHER. HE THOUGHT
that date simply "would come
at the most pleasant season of
the year, nearly midway
between the Fourth of July
and Thanksgiving, and would
fill a wide gap in the
chronology of legal holidays."
IN HIS DAY. McGuire had
good reason to shout a bit. The
1880s still knew sweatshops
and child labor, insufferably
long hours at ridiculously low
pay under disgracefully
inhumane conditions.
By 1 900, 1 8 years after the
first official observance of
Labor Day, most of the states
had agreed to recognize the
holiday and everyone still
thought it was a splendid idea.
NOWADAYS, HOWEVER
by Vicki Pulos
This week 32 volunteers for NOVA (Nebraska Opportunities
for Volunteers in Action) are in the field-working with the
recreation center in Niobrara, helping Santee Sioux Indians adapt
to new government housing, dealing with legal problems of low
income families, working with the emotionally disturbed at the
Regional Center.
NOVA is a federally funded social action program, the first of
its kind. Over 100 students from the three NU campuses will
receive 30 credit hours for one year spent in volunteer
community service thanks to a grant from ACTION the new
federal agency which coordinates the Peace Corps, Vista and
other service programs.
ONE OF THE greatest outcomes of this project could be that
students planning to be teachers, social workers or psychologists
will be "more compassionate, tolerant and understanding because
they have had this type of experience," said Gene Harding, NU
NOVA director.
"They will be able to understand the problems of living in a
black or Indian community because of their experiences in these
communities."
Students will be paid $190 a month subsistence wages as
NOVA volunteers, plus $30-540 a month in services and a
possible stipend after their year is completed, Harding said.
THE NOVA STAFF letters were sent to all juniors explaining
the program. By mid-August 75 people had applied. After
preliminary and secondary screenings and some withdrawals, 32
students remained. The volunteers had five days of pre-training
and one week in the field.
They will return to Lincoln for two more weeks of
individualized training before going permanently to the field.
There are still 18 slots available in the Lincoln branch of the
program. Harding will interview interested students today in the
Hall of Youth at the Nebraska Center for Continuing Education,
33rd and Holdrege.
Harding said volunteers were offered their choice of 100
service opportunities throughout Nebraska. Response from
communities had been good, but they are saying, "We need help.
We don't want just big hearts, we want skillful hands," Harding
reported.
A TYPICAL SCHEDULE and credit breakdown for a NOVA
volunteer tutoring Indian children on a reservation for example,
might include: three hours of anthropology for the knowledge he
will gain in Indian culture; three hours of sociology for dealing
with problems of minority groups; three hours in elementary
education; and three hours in political science for working with
government agencies and the community.
Harding said the 12-monlh time period was the minimum time
necessary for effective action. Often it might take three to four
months before anything happens.
Volunteers will be in day-to-day contact with a community
supervisor and will have weekly or bi-weekly sessions with faculty
members involved in the program, but also teaching regular
classes. Full-time NOVA administrators, Harding and Mike
Zangari, will also reach the students.
There are eight such part-time faculty members on the Lincoln
campuses who will hopefully provide direct input from the
departments to the volunteers and vice versa.
Volunteers may choose to be graded by passfail or letter
grades although Harding acknowledged the difficulty of assigning
letter grades to a field experience.
THE NOVA PROGRAM is the first among nine university
programs scheduled to be funded by Action.
"We hope to have another group of 30-50 students enter the
field in February," said Harding. He added that the program is
based on the premise that it will continue for three to four years
at minimum. "It will take at least that long before results will be
visible," he said.
anyone who tries to attach the
original significance to Labor
Day is bound to immerse
himself in unpleasant
controversy. Labor's
opponents think it has already
been too well- rewarded and is
the cause of much of the
country's economic ills. Labor
leaders, on the other hand, see
the movement as split,
maligned and victimized by
government and big business.
Enrollments tlckot squeeze
Increased student
enrollment at the University of
Nebraska, which surpassed
figures received by the NU
athletic department, may ma' e
it impossible for hundreds of
new students to receive
football tickets for the 1971
season.
According to ticket manager
Jim Pittenger, the athletic
department was informed that
there would be approximately
1.000 new students at the
university this fall. The athletic
department then put aside
McGuire's resolution called
for the holiday to "show the
strength and esprit de corps of
the trade and labor
organizations." And, curiously,
this Labor Day may see a
renewal of esprit de corps
though not in the benign way
McGuire imagined. There is,
instead, a unanimity of
displeasure among labor leaders
about the President's new
economic policy.
enough tickets to accomodate
these new students.
"Our figures show that 87
per cent of the students at
Nebraska buy football tickets,"
said Pittenger. "So we worked
on that percentage for figuring
how many extra tickets would
be needed this fall."
But figures released by the
University Wednesday showed
that there are nearly 800 new
students which had not been
anticipated.
The ticket office now has a
waiting list for students to sign
who still desire tickets.
