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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 21, 1972)
cbilu mheihiL monday, february 21 , 1972 lincoln, nebraska vol. 95, no. 72 r - ; ; ; r ; - Regents maintain status quo on coed visitation OM AH A Althouah students voiced an anv rhannn in mini uicitatinn ramilatinn haiH nf -ru.. uiwflnfl-Aitnougn students voiced an overwhelming "yes," parents delivered a solid "no" to a proposed liberalized coed visitation policy, according to results of a survey made public at Saturday's special meeting of the NU Board of Regents in Omaha. The visitation policy would have allowed students to have guests of the opposite sex in their living unit rooms for a six-hour period each day. It also would have provided separate residence halls for students not wanting coed visitation and would have required minor students to get parental permission before they could. live in a unit operating under the proposed policy. Regents Saturday accepted the survey results, but took other action on a coed visitation pol icy. Parents responded 2,696 (62.7 per cent) against the proposal to 1,612 (37.3 per cent) for it. Students favored the measure 3,563 (84.8 per cent) to 638 (15.2 per cent). - The survey followed a recommendation made by NU President D. B. Varner at the November board meeting. Varner suggested at that time that a survey of parental opinion be taken, and if 50 per cent or more of those responding approved the visitation modifications, the Regents should adopt them. Board Chairman Ed Schwartzkopf, contacted Sunday, said he didn't think the board would initiate any change in coed visitation regulations because of what the surveys indicated about parents attitudes on coed visitation. "Students will have to come up with a plan parents will buy," he said. , When the student-regent-administration committee was commissioned to look into changing coed visitation regulations, Schwartzkopf said the agreement was to move toward modifying the rules only if parents favored it. If not, he said, the policy was to be left as is. He said the results indicated one of two things to him: either what students were telling him about their parents' attitudes was not accurate, or what parents were telling their sons and daughters about their views was not true. In other business, the board accepted a preliminary five-year master plan for Unversity development and appointed a new chancellor for the Medical Center. Dr. Robert D. Sparks now dean of the College of Medicine at Tulane University in New Orleans, will succeed former Chancellor Dr. Cecil Wittson, who retired Feb. 1. Dr. Harry McFadden is currently interim chancellor for the Medical Center. The five-year plan, which Varner said he expects the Regents to act on in May after faculty, students and citizens offer modifications, delineates six specif ic University objectives. They are: 1) improved teaching through better evaluation of teaching and a clearer understanding of the systems of rewards for excellence in teaching. 2) better understanding of the learning process, hopefully finding more efficient ways to transmit knowledge. The report proposes to allocate a small portion of the yearly instruction budget (the plan proposes one-half per cent for 1972 increasing to one per cent for 1973) for product research. 3) strengthen graduate programs, possibly eliminating as many as 10 of the 43 graduate programs now in operation. 4) reviewing curriculum and academic organization, aimed at either "justifying or eliminating every college, school, course, division or department" as well as determining the most effective ways to meet educational goals. 5) equality of resource allocations to alleviate the historical "financial malnutrition" at UNO, and opting for financial equality among undergraduate programs on the UNO and UNL campuses. 6) enforcing a regents policy against discrimination, especially sexual discrimination. Varner emphasized that the master planVyas only temporary and is to be used only for discussion purposes. He said it "will undoubtedly be changed as the days go by." t " Regent Ed Schwartzkopf . . .argues with a student over coed visitation policies during an address to the Organizing Conference of the Nebraska Youth Caucus Saturday night. See story on page 2. ' " " " r-T T"?r- w -. ' Visitation sessions lead to Zumberge meeting by Michael (OJ.) Nelson Staff members from the offices of Student Affairs and Housing met Sunday with a group of student assistants (SAS) Residence Hall Association (RHA) officials and ASUN officers to discuss students' desires for a more liberalized coed visitation policy. The staff members decided to ask for a meeting with UNL Chancellor James Zumberge Thursday night to discuss student concern over the probable defeat of a proposed new policy by the Board of Regents. The Sunday meeting was the third of a series held this weekend. At the first meeting, held Saturday, Interim Dean of Student Affairs Ely Meyerson announced the results of a poll of the parents of students living in University housing. The poll, taken earlier in the year, asked for the parents' opinion of possible liberalization of present RHA visitation policy. Results of the poll overwhelmingly against the new policy, indicates a likely defeat of that policy at the next Board of Regents meeting in two weeks. Following the announcement, SA's and Residence Hall directors met separately and passed resolutions calling the present RHA policy "legally and physically unenforcable." The SA's also said "the minimum alternative (policy) we will accept is the policy as proposed for September 1972." The SA's resolutions were then presented to the Housing and Student Affairs staffs. At the Sunday meeting, students reluctantly agreed to the meeting with Zumberge. RHA Housing Committee Chairman, M ike Gutowski said, "The meeting will be held more for the Chancellor's benefit than our own. We know what we want. We won't be bogged down with meetings." The SA's announced at the Sunday meeting that they will enforce the present policy strictly.. "We'll go to your meeting," one said, "but for the next two weeks we'll enforce the present policy to the letter. When students see the way its supposed to be they'll be very angry." Throughout thi three meetings mass visitation in violation of the present polciy was threatened. One student asked: "How can the Regents tell us how to live? Most o them have never been inside a dorm." Jim Kudrna, an SA at Harper Hall, said that the Harper government had asked the Regents to come to UNL and spend some time in the residence hall. "Only one said he would be willing to. The don't really care about us," he said. Interim Dean of Student Affairs, Ely Meyerson, urged the students to be "rational." Meyerson said the regents 1 are acting under an earlier agreement with the Council on Student Life. The Council had agreed to let the results of the parental poll determine the passage of the new policy. One student said the Omaha World Herald had purposely managed the news in order to influence the poll-taking parents. She said the paper had played up issues that would help defeat the proposal, such as a recent rape in a campus dormitory and an article by NU Regent Robert Prokop which listed reasons why thy policy should not be passed. Some Panhellenic and. Inter-Fraternity Council (IFC) representatives also met Sunday to discuss possible support for the dormitories from the Greek system. The representatives said they could not speak for their houses and would meet later after they had compiled a consensus of opinion. Abel Hall SA Mike Healey urged the IFC to sign a statement admitting that Greek men had been involved in illegal visitation on a regular basis, ' ASUN President, Steve Fowler asked Greeks to support the dormitories. "You must realize," he said, "there is a larger issue at stake: student self-determination. All students are in this together." Healey said dorm residents ad taken into account the possible reaction of the Unicameral and the state. "We've tried and gotten nowhere," he said. "The Regents aren't concerned with us. They're only worried about what will damage them politically. The SA's just can't continue td enforce this policy."