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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 9, 1971)
Fmp universitv beams worK by Carol Strasser This is the third article of a four-part series on educational reform channels available to UNL students. Today's segment deals with Nebraska Free University and the proposed American Studies Program. The Nebraska Free University was organized four years ago by students to enact . innovation within the' Universit of Nebraska. In May, 1970, during the anti-war sit-in at the Military and Naval Science Building, one of the student demands was that Free U classes should receive one hour of University academic credit. TODAY there is some question whether Free U has outlived its usefulness. Questionnaires distributed to students by the Free U staff showed that many didn't know what Free U is and those who did thought it should redirect its objectives. Free U coordinator Chris Harper said this means "moving into the existing system rather than acting apart." Free U has to begin offering the option of credit for its courses, because "it's the only way the course system for Free U can exist." FREE U offers courses in areas of interest not included in the UNL curriculum, and students receive no credit hours for the classes. This semester's 40-course OSLY FIVE MISL Tf S MOBILE HOME COMMUNITY IN THE MIDWEST. Svtmmtng pool. lirHi aboard, and playground. landscaped avonva and lawn OH-street porfctna Bawlwl community wcmiton cantor Wall aqwpped laundry Ooaa to snapping, and oniy two nxrmur from downiom r acccrwc crncf Mttv"ot 14MWaatl (462) 47V47S3 and Qi V 432 iNjg SArJTACLAUS THE NUMBER ONE I Ubuyshss QFTSHERE WHY MOT fH 9-9 DAILY curriculum is taught primarily by student leaders in small, informal groups. Next semester Free U will offer courses under the 199-independent study system, and students will have the option of taking these courses for credit, Harper said. Some of the courses Free U will offer next semester are worthy of credit hours, Harper said, so the Free U staff lined up professors who would sponsor the courses under the independent study system. IN THE 199-independent system, a student may pursue a topic outside the regular curriculum for one to five hours credit. Free U will coordinate the discipline, faculty adviser and course offering, Harper said. All the student has to do is register. The adviser will be supplied a list of all students in Free U taking his course under independent study. Faculty members have been very receptive to the plan, Harper said, and the Free U staff has found it extremely easy to organize the program. FREE U will introduce a certain amount of red tape by requiring that all students register for the courses in Free (Loon bill. . . Continued from page 1. -The fee for dropping a course be eliminated. -The $5 fee for lost LD. cards be dropped to the replacement fee cost of SI. -The proposed application fee ($10 for instate students and $25 for outstate) be eliminated or counted towards the first tuition payment. -Academic Services investigate the possiblity of a pro-rated tuition plan which would mean smaller payments through the semester. -The late payment, of the registration service fee be dropped in favor of extending the deadline three weeks. If the student doesn't respond, he will be removed from the rolls and assessed a fee if he wishes reinstatement. The report stated: "The committee found that many of the problems involving fines were caused by lack of communication between the individual and the respective departments." The Senate also approved a proposed outline for a Central Advising System in the College of Arts and Sciences. The proposal, drawn up by UNL student Chris Harper, will be given to the ASUN Legislature Liaison Committee lobbying for student interests at the legislature's budget hearings. "There's a small chance there will be some allocation for this," Harper said. He has talked with people in the Legislature and governor's office, as well as the dean of Arts and Sciences, and they have been receptive to the idea, Harper added. The pilot program would require all freshmen and sophomores with majors in the college to see an advisor before preregistration each semester. The system would include five full-time advisers and four part-time students, with extra person el during the three-week preregistration period. The central advising system would remove some of the burden from individual faculty members who often don't know ifnormation outside their discipline, according to the proposal. The purpose of the new system would be to provide students and non-faculty members an identifiable advising center where information about alternate education programs would be available and advisors could identify common problems of students. The technicalities of the system aren't important, Harper said. It's the concept that they're trying to get the Legislature to accept. ' fafc or US' W iS&Ll,irX "H 4 If H'.'4 I yoOj A r? - U h "' 1 J! " i jwM&L. f --l-71" f S a,4L i tt42"D - ' ' .: k u -J j 475-2474 U. Registration is necessary because instructors sponsoring 199 courses have set a maximum limit of 12 students in each class, and registration will give the Free U staff a record of those participating, Harper said. Registration, scheduled for East Campus and the residence hall, insures a means for the EDUCATIONAL REFORM 1 staff to answer students' questions about the program. Students who sign up for the 199 courses don't have to take them for credit hours, Harper said. And aU the 199 CijHPUJOOAImmL 'mtmmmmmt within I courses will be operating under the pass-fail grading system. COURSES IN the 199 system include El Movemento (Chicano studies), probably under sociology 199; Critical Thinking and Critical Writing, under English 199; Modern Poetry, under English 199; Ecological Problems, under Zoology 199; North American Indian, under English 199 and Education in the 21st Century and possibly the Free School Movement, both under History and Philosophy of Education 199. Free U also is offering Alienation and the Youth Culture, English 183c, a regularly scheduled course. Offered through the extension division, the course must have 15 students signed up by Jan. 12, Harper said. Second semester courses begin Feb. 21-25. There will probably be fewer courses offered, Harper said, since the staff would like to devote more time to classes that will interest a minimum of 6-1 0 people. ONE OF THE purposes of the Free U is to initiate courses in subjects not emphasized in the UNL curriculum in the hope that the need will be recognized and the courses included in the regular University curriculum. This is the goal behind the Free U course on American Indian studies, which will continue next semester, and a course on Chicano Studies to be offered next semester, Harper said. A Free U initiated course, Women in Contemporary Society, has Leen incorporated into the University curricu lum. In addition to sponsoring j American studies lets students design major A faculty-student group is working on a proposal to establish an American Studies Program which would give each student the responsibility to design his own major program. THE PROGRAM is defined as the study of the social and cultural processes of American society, past and present. . A "faculty movement" for the program began last spring because of "an awareness of a greater need for interdisciplinary study in American problems," said Norman Hosteller, chairman of the American Studies Program Executive Committee. . The committee of nine faculty requested student representatives from the Arts and Sciences College Advisory Board, Teachers College Advisory Board and ASUN, Hosteller said. THE PROPOSAL has been sent to the Arts and Sciences . Curriculum Committee for approval, said Alan Peterson, ASUN representative on the executive committee. If the Curriculum Committee approves the proposal, it then must be approved by the Arts and Sciences faculty. The executive committee will request that a major in an American Studies Program be established in Teachers College, Peterson said. If the program is approved, it will be in effect next fall, he added. Although plans are tentative, Peterson said the committee is considering a program in which the student would choose his topic and courses for the major. Students in the program would graduate with a BA in American Studies. THE STUDENT could concentrate in ethnic studies, American political or social structures, regional studies, period studies or any other field where no single discipline could provide adequate depth. Since the structure culdn't be defined in advance for every student, the committee it planning to create a relatively open curriculum, Hostetler said. The committee is considering a program which would require agreement between a student and faculty member on the curriculum, Peterson said. INSTEAD OF thinking solely in terms of credit hours, the committee is thinking more in terms of competency as a qualification for a major, Peterson continued, A senior student would have a substantial project, such as a research paper, to demonstrate his competency. An important possibility of the program is that a student could take a double major in American Studies and another discipline such a history or sociology, Peterson said. A student with a major in American Studies would have to complete the requirements oi bis college, Hostetler said. However, the program would provide "a structure to deal with and explore problems in a way the current structure doesn't permit. ystern the teach-in on prison reform, the Free U has sponsored the Lincoln Free Theater in the Nebraska Union for its benefit performance for the Lincoln Free School, Harper said. S ECOND semester course descriptions possibly will be published in a tabloid newspaper, Harper said. The staff ' expects to have about 5,000 copies printed. The newspaper will also contain information about abortion counseling, drug help lines and day-care centers, he added. As has been noticed by ASUN, there is a lack of interest among students in educational reform, Harper said. The Free U staff began the semester with about 17 people and has decreased in number to six. Free U coordinators Harper and Bill Lock were appointed by ASUN. FREE U fulfills some purpose for some students in its curriculum, Harper said, but the question is whether there are enough students to justify the effort. The free university idea grew in an age of idealism, when students questioned whether an alternate institution could replace the existing institution, Harper explained. "The realization of most people is that it can't happen," he continued, and they're directing their action to reform within the institution itself." THIS IS the direction in which UNL's Free U is moving. Although it began as an alternate structure to the University, Free U now will direct its efforts to work within the University system to obtain credit hours for its courses. Tomorrow: advisory boards. PAGE 2 THE DAILY NEBRASKAN THURSDAY, DECEMBER 9, 1971
