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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."