49
fiiiMiirn
hAnnnw
JUiUUUAJ
son
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 10, 1971 LINCOLN, NEBRASKA VOL. 95, NO. 53
CSL to study student health
by Carol Strasser
A special committee formed
Thursday by the Council on
Student Life will make a
detailed study of the
University Health Center which
could result in a new governing
structure for the Center.
The committee will consider
the possibility of establishing an
all-University governing board
for the Center with input
from all segments of the
University community.
An ASUN resolution asked
that the Council investigate the
possibility of an alternate
governing structure for the
Health Center which would
provide a formal channel for
student input. Students, as
well as faculty and staff have
only an advisory role in the
Center's decision-making
process.
Council member Ely
Meyerson said the study
involves duplication of a
! " Ik
system-wide study of the
University of Nebraska's health
centers by Regents Robert
Prokop and Robert Koefoot,
both medical doctors.
CSL member Mike Berns,
who helped write the charge
for the committee, said a
committee of students and
University staff might come up
with different conclusions than
a committee of Regents. It was
agreed that the committee
should make use of
information obtained in the
Regents' study.
The committee of three
students, one faculty or
administrative representative,
one representative from the
University's staff and one
Health Center representative
will be chosen by Thursday.
Included in the committee's
study will be a detailed
breakdown of the Center's
services, breakdown of costs of
services to members of the
University community, current
extent and possible expansion
of services and the
organizational arrangement of
the Center.
The committee will report
back to CSL March 1.
The Council moved to
accept some of the
recommendations of its
committee investigating
student fees. The Council will
send to the chancellor its
recommendations that the
term "mandatory student fee"
be changed to "activities
services fee" and that a
classification of payments
required of students be
included in University
publications.
The classification, as
suggested by UNL Comptroller
Carl Yost, divides payments
into tuition, mandatory fees,
special fees and fines and
penalties.
Special fees include those
Turn to page 9.
r TK r 1 V - . I
" L,ku im
1 .
' 1 i'kVL-&
McHardy. . ."a whole chunk of history has been ignored."
McHardy: black isolation a myth
by H.J. Cummins
Pan-Africanism, black concern for blacks
wherever they are in the world, is a
historical as well as contemporary fact, Abba
Cecile McHardy told an audience of about 30
professors, graduate and undergraduate
students Thursday afternoon.
The African-American Studies Program guest
said early records challenge the "popularly held
opinion of isolation of the African."
McHardy, smiling and joking frequently, said
the intercontinentalism of blacks, long ago, is
"a whole chunk of history that has been
ignored."
"Early records show Africans were always
advanced people," McHardy said, who served
early European explorers as interpretors,
guides, mariners, and mercenaries, while some
blacks were being enslaved.
"The use of free African merchant vessels
was 'phenomenal," in the "triangular (Europe,
Africa, North America) trade route" in which
the buying and selling of slaves was one of the
three trade steps.
French revolutionaries under LaFayette who
fought with freedom-seeking North Americans,
and British mercenaries who fought against
them, both used Africans, McHardy said.
What she called British "Blackguards" served
as "agents of the colonial authority," she
continued, likening them to contemporary
black policemen who exploit ghetto blacks.
France, Spain, England, Holland and
Portugal used African troops extensively from
the colonization of the New World and Africa,
throughout the two world wars and the French
participation in Vietnam, she said.
Cimarrons, "free colonies of blacks all over
the Americas," had agreements with the
European powers to leave them alone, McHardy
said, but most of the agreements included
stipulations for the blacks to serve, at least for a
time, in the major power's army.
This "long reputation of being quite credible
soldiers" has given Africans an experience of a
much wider world than just their continent, she
said.
But throughout their travels, the Jamaican
native said, "there was continuous contact back
and forth year after dreadful year," between
Africans all over the world, so all knewwhat
was happening to blacks "in all territories."
She said she believed "a record of flight was
the principle type of black resistance."
Slaves of Europeans returning home from
colonies would flee their servitude in
Continental countries which didn't sanction
slavery, she said.
Many escaped slaves returned home, she said,
"to form movements, often to insure political
and social advantages," for their people.
McHardy said a current problem is that
fewer educated Africans return to their homes,
because relative incomes and physical comforts
in Africa don't compare with those in more
advanced nations.
"Africans studying abroad are shown
another reality that is really a fantasy, and they
feel deprived," she maintained. .
She said she wished major powers would
quit trying to force their unsuccessful cultures
on African nations and "allow us to develop
our own original ways."
African nations are being "seduced by the
ambitions and lifestyles of western educators,"
she said. McHardy is a lecturer in Third World
Studies at Vermont's Goddard College.
Professors disagree
on value of research
by Linda Larson
"Publish or perish" is a
common expression. But how
important is it for UNL
professors?
Four professors and a dean
interviewed ThursJay agreed
that keeping up-to-date in
one's field is vital to good
instruction. They said research
is important but disagreed
somewhat on how important it
is to good teaching.
ARTHUR Bruce Winter,
political science professor, said
professors teaching elementary
French, basic accounting and
many other lower level courses
could be good teachers and go
through their entire careers
without ever doing research.
The fundamental concepts
are mapped out in these areas,
he said, adding that the only
thing these professors could
research is teaching techniques.
But Winter said in political
science, history and sociology,
which are constantly in a state
of flux, research is an essential
part of instruction."
"WHERE THE discipline is
altered by current events you
have to do research to keep
up-to-date," he said. "In the
higher echelons of all fields
there . are lots of areas for
research."
Some professors have a time
problem, Winter said. But if
they don't have time to
research, a means must be
devised to get the latest
information to them, he
added.
Research could interfere
with teaching but it doesn't
have to, Winter said.
"THE DESIRED end is
, balance. You can't say 'do
research' and expect results,"
he said. "The professor must
be motivated."
Melvin D. George, dean of
the College of Arts and
Sciences, said research and
publication are important.
"We assume that students
want the most intellectually
alive teachers we have," he
said. "As a general rule,
research strengthens teaching.
"A HEALTHY balance
must be reached between
teaching and research."
The same students who say
some professor would do a
better job if he did less
research complain about the
teacher who uses the same .
notes each semester, George
said.
C harles W. Mignon,
associate English professor,
said research is equally
important for all professors.
"THERE MAY be more
pressure at the undergraduate
level, to be aware of
developments in teaching
techniques," he said.
A professor teaching lower
level courses may need a
knowledge of more fields, such
as psychology and the history
of learning, according to
Mignon.
He said promotion and
tenure in the English
department depend on
teaching, research and service.
A promotion requires evidence
of outstanding performance in
one of these categories or a
good record in all three, he
said.
"I FEEL MY first obligation
to the University is to be a
good teacher," Mignon said.
"My own interest in this
direction. At the same time
nobody has ever suggested that
remaining intellectually active,
usually associated with
research, is not necessary for
good teaching performance.
"You can't stand with what
you had when you started,"
Mignon said. "And publishing
is still the major way a man can
move from one institution to
another."
Richard K. Boohar,
associate zoology professor,
said in his case research isn't a
criteria for promotion.
HE SAID that he was hired
to enhance a teaching program,
and that "the University has
lived up to this."
Boohar said he was recently
promoted in spite of pressure
on UNL for research and a
tight money situation.
Research is good but it isn't
necessarily vital to being a
good teacher, according to
Boohar.
Researching would "only
give me ulcers," he said. "I
don't want it as a basis for my
paycheck."
"BUT THERE are no
circumstances where it is
permissible not to stay
up-to-date in your area and still
be a good teacher," he said. "It
is an obligation."
Research is said to supply
the motivation to keep up,
according to Boohar. He says,
however, that a good teacher
will keep up at any cost.
"If I could do research one
day a week without the
administrative bother of
getting funds I'd leap into the
laboratory," Boohar said. The
essence of a scientist is to be
"eternally nosey," he added.
THE PERSON who doesn't
have the itch to find out
something new in his field
can't be a good teacher,
according to Boohar.
"It helps to be able to
implement the itch" but what's
important is if the professor
has it or not, Boohar said.
Mignon , mentioned that
professors have private reasons
for wanting to publish, such as
wanting to get the attention of
colleagues.
PUBLISHING can help or
hurt you, he said, because what
you publish will be
professionally judged.
Dorothy Zimmerman,
assistant English professor,
agreed that research is
important as a contribution to
good teaching.
"It is important to keep
mentally alert," she said.
Activities
during "interim"
University, of
Nebraska-Lincoln students will
be able , -to participate
in a wide variety of classes for
credit during the interim
period between semesters, Dec.
24 - Jan. 17, according to
Earl Green, head of class
programs with the UNL
Extension Division.
During the period, seven
tour courses, 15 campus
courses, and a reading course
will be offered for credit. "A
student who wishes to apply
himself can earn up to three
hours credit during the interim
period," . Green said.
Five tour classes will go to
England Dec. 26-Jan. 17 for
study there. Two of the groups
will study drama in London
and receive credit in English
courses. One group will
participate in a workshop on
English education for credit in
Educational Administration.
Another will study
comparative politics for credit
in Political Science, while a
fifth group will study the
"Development and Philosophy
of English Architecture."
Another tour class will go to
Turn to page 8.
I i-lUl-l,IL(l.ll IU, I n i I
ill. wr-iw i lnwiru
i rvj w
