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monday, march 11, 1 974
lincoln, nebraska vol 97, no. 31
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Class cutting fine art for some;
others use skip and miss metho
By Annette Sims
Cutting classes, - though probably r.ot as
exciting as streaking, is one activity that
seems quite common among UNL students.
Twenty out of 20 students interviewed
by the Daily Nebraskan said they had cut
classes. The frequency of skipping ranged
from one class every two weeks to an entire
week of classes every other week.
Several reasons for cutting class were
given:
"It's too much trouble to get out of
bed."
-"The class if boring."
-"Sometimes I just don't feel like
going."
-"I'm sick."
-"I'm lazy."
-"I skipped two classes this morning
because it was raining, and I've got a
hangover."
Most students agreed it is harder to go to
class when it's warm and sunny,
"No one goes to classes when it's nice.
You just can't," said Jo Christensen, senior
journai ism major.
But students who walk more than a mile
to school said it is easier to go to class when
the weather is nice.
"If jt's real cdd and miserable, I can
usually find something else to do," said
Steve Stevens, senior architecture major.
Stevens walks to campus.
.Several students said cutting classes hasff't
affected their grades.' ''
"I don't think I lose out on one thing by
not going," said Terry Rohren, senior social
work major. She said she misses three classes
a week;
Christensen said, "You suffer if you don't
go to major classes. But some classes are like
soap operas you can go a week later and
not miss a thing."
But a few students said skipping classes
did have an effect.
"Skipping is definitely the reason my
grade point average dropped from 3.9 to
3.3," said Bill Leathers, senior chemistry
major.
Some students said they are not choosey
about which classes they skip.
"My skipping is very broad based." said
Bruce Cudly, a political science senior.
Others are more discriminating about the
classes they miss.
"I'm fairly conscientious. I'm a good
Judge of whether I should skip or not' said
Terry Matike, a sophomore sociology major,
"if I know in advance it's going to be
uninteresting, I just don't go."
A guilty conscience for not attending
class doesn't seem to bother many
students-or if it does, it's apparently not a
strong enough motivation for going to class.
"Sometimes I feel kind of guilty about it,
but not guilty enough to go," said Nancy
Draver, senior social work major.
Leathers said he feels guilty "all the
time." "But after I do something else that's
more enjoyable than sitting in class, I dismiss
ft from my mind," he said.
Most of the students said they don't
consider cutting class a waste of money.
"As long as I'm paying tuition, I can do
what I want," Draver said.
Most Of the students said they believed
that teachers expected students to cut class.
"If th?y know it's a required course, they
really don't care, just as long as you make it
to their tests," Christensen said.
Soma students said they skipped mora as
upperclassmen than when they were
freshman; others skipped tes?,
Christensen said it's cool to skip when
you're a freshman. But when you're a senior
and taking classes you want to be taking, it's
no longer cool.
-r Stevens; $sidr '.-however, th'at.'fce ftfdorri
skipped when he was" a freshman. Ha said h'l
was paranoid about skipping because he
came from a small town and had been told
he'd have to work hard at college or he'd
flunk. As a sophomore and junior, he said he
skipped all the timo. Now a senior, he said
he cuts class only occasionally.
All the students interviewed agreed
cutting class can become habit.
"Once you start doing ltf it's hard to get
back into the swing of things," Stevens said.
Bruce Leininger. a junior history major,
said he knows students who have "skipped
themselves right out of school."
Cunningham said it is important to attend
class regularly, but not religiously.
A few students said they would advise
other students to cut classes.
"You need a little spice in college life. If
you can get it by skipping, then you should
do it," Mjlike said.
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Colieges
may alter
budgeting
methods
By fvlark Hoffman
Nebraska's four state colleges might be
on the threshold of adopting the new
budgetary and management procedures
which have made one of those colleges
nationally renowned.
That management system was devised
... r . u . , ty .... . . .
vice president of academic affairs and
planning.
According to Legislative analyst Dick
Burbach, the system has made Kearney
State a national leader in college
management.
Adopting ths system is ona of the
recommendations the Leilature's
Budget Committee will offer whan the
Legislature determines 1374-75 funding
for the four state ccllsgss.
The committea's recommendations
focus on some important issues facing
Nebraska's state colleges, such as
declining enrollment, high dropout rats
and an inadequate formula for
determining state college budgets.
in a report by the Legislative Fiscal
Analyst's Of He, it was noted tha rtate
collets have had e 37 decline in
enrollment from tha fa'! semester of 1S63
to ths fa'l semester of 1973.
By .1832 ths number of high school
graduates will be 13.1 fewer than the
number of 1073 high school graduates,
according to the report.
It also was noted that 47 of its
college freshmen did not coma back for
their sophomore year between 1972 and
1973.
Declining enrollment and the dropout
rate have made the current formula for
determining stats coiiege budgets
inadequate, Burbach said.
That formula is based on student
credit hour production. College
Instructors have to teach a minimum
number of student credit hours
determined by class sizes and the number
of classes taught.
This formula worked when enrollment
was climbing, but it does not when
enrollment drops, Burbach saSd.
Instructors found themselves with smaller
classes and a lower credit hour
production. To boost production, an
instructor would have to teach more
classes snd work more hours than befcrs.
To trmt &3 pmhium creatsd by
lower enrollrntnt, the report's
rscammendatioas Induds a continued
etrc!m?nt bzn$ on tha 1373-74 budget
During that year en evatustbn will take
fi-bce cf each institution's programs. -
The evaluation will requirt each
college to lock st its programs end decide
which are necessary to meet the ner.cfj of
the college's area, then establish program
priorities.
The evaluation also will require
colleges to look Into the problems of
declining enrollment and high dropout
rates.
After the evaluation is completed the
colleges would be ready to adopt Olson's
management sysfam, bufDacn said.
Olson agreed with a simitar
observation mada in tha fiscal office's
report about the present system of
college budget requests. He said ths
traditional method for making budget
requests was to "take what you had last
year and fight like hell to get mxt this
year."
His sytem focuses on "placing
academic decision makers in an
information-rich environment," he said.
A3I information concerning a colfep is
compiled and models are developed from
that information. Then a decision is made
sbout the modal.
The same process would be used to
imMHUtMig Mull )SiW5 liiuissy Viwuiu
needed for -ths programs an individual
college would offer, Olson mid,
Ths state colleges' b'jdjsts will be
doclcW with the Legisteture's overall
budget One official said the state college
section of the budpt should go to the
Legislature within a week.
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