Wednesday, february 12, 1975 lincoln, nebraska vol. 98 no. 80
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Advising --'room for change'
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Ken Rader, vice chancellor for student affairs.
UNL power shortage
to pose big problem
By Jim Zalewski
Energy shortages and power production will be greater problems
for UNL in two years, according to Verne Traudt, UNL manager of
utilities.
UNL buys power from the Bureau of Reclamations, a federal
agency that sells power to state and municipal customers, he said.
In addition to the power provided by the bureau, UNL is
committed to generate up to 3,000 kilowatts at peak load of its
own power, he said.
By October 1977, the bureau will supply power to UNL up to a
level determined to be the "peak out" point. Traudt said the
bureau may list as its "peak out" point, any level within one year
previous to the October 1977 date.
Traudt explained that if the bureau peaked out at 16,000
kilowatts in October, 1977, but had produced only 15,000
kilowatts at peak load during April of that year, it could use the
April figure as its "peak out" level.
Penalty rate
After April 1 UNL will pay a penalty rate five times the regular
rate of $1.15 per kilowatt for any power bought from the bureau
in excess of the 3,000 kilowatt limit.
Continued on p. 13.
Editor's note: This is the first of two articles
about the advising system at UNL.
By Lynn Roberts
UNL needs to assess its student advising
systems and the importance of good advising,
according to Ken Bader, vice chancellor for
student affairs.
Advising students is not always a primary goal
and more emphasis needs to be placed on it, he
said.
Although Bader said there are good examples
of advising at the university, he added that many
students are dissatisfied. Bader said he has talked
with "too many students who are dissatisfied
with advising systems to believe there is not a
need for improvement."
What's Phi Beta Kappa?
He cited a student who consulted him last
year who had been invited to join Phi Beta
Kappa, but didn't know what the organization
was. He said the student never had established a
relationship with an adviser to get that kind of
information.
Bader said many students ask him where they
can get job and scholarship recommendations
because they don't know any professors well
enough to ask for one. He said half the students
don't know who their advisers are or haven't
been in touch with them for six months.
A survey conducted by the Council on
Student Life (CSL) in the spring of 1974
revealed advising system inadequacies, said Roy
Arnold, chairman of a task force formed to make
recommendations on improving registration,
which includes advising.
"There was a disturbing frequency of
complaints about advising throughout all the
colleges," Arnold said.
Advisers not available
Most students said their biggest complaint was
that advisers aren't available where they need
them. Other complaints cited were lack of
information, poor advice and the adviser's lackyof
interest, Arnold said.
Bader said the lack of communication
between adviser and student often is as much the
student's fault as it is the adviser's.
No rewards
One problem with advising is that it is not a
part of the reward system, Bader said. Faculty
advancement is often based on teaching quality,
scholastic publications and University service.
Good advising usually is not considered as a great
achievement, he said.
The CSL task force submitted a proposal to
UNL Chancellor James Zumberge in December
which suggested that more emphasis be placed on
advising during a student's first year at UNL and
that more informal advising be used for
upperclassmen.
It also recommended that more recognition be
given for advising, which should be considered
when promotions and raises are given.
Zumberge said he has forwarded the report to
college deans for their consideration and
suggestions.
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UNL power plant
UNL officials may end use of religious cards
Tlie Relieious Preference Card. It's been tucked
away in registration packets for years to supply
campus ministries with information about students.
The card has now become something more, as
administration officials contemplate the removal of
the card from registration materials.
Campus pastors met with Gerald Bowker, director
of academic services, and Ted Pfeifer, director of
registration and records, to discuss alternatives to the
card. Representatives of six of the University's
reiigious organizations attended the meeting.
Bowker described the meeting as an "attempt to
explain our position" to the ministers. He said that a
decision to eliminate the card has not been made, but
that it is one part of an attempt to "streamline" the
registration process by eliminating all materials
except the actual registration form.
Value not questioned
"It's not a question of the value or the use of the
Religious Preference Card, but its relations to the
registration process."
Bowker explained that an evaluation of the
registration process began almost two years ago. He
added that information obtained from a CSL survey
more than a year ago provided the basis for the
"mainly inter-office operation."
Registration officials receive many requests to
include materials in the 20,000 packets distributed to
UNL students each semester," he said. "It's the best
way to reach the students," noted Bowker.
"We're trying to put registration back into
perspective, to make it a single procedure " he added.
Reactions mixed
The reactions of three of the six ministers who
attended were mixed.
Al Norden, pastor at the University Lutheran
Chanel ("Missouri SvnodV thinks that the University
"should certainly recognize that students have a
spiritual dimension" and so have a responsibility to
help students fill that need.
"Where else and how else can we get this
information?" asked Norden. The suggestion that
UNL provide the campus churches with lists of
incoming freshmen during the summer
"oversimplifies the problem," according to Norden. A
list of upper-classmen would be made available within
two weeks of the Semester's start, but Ncrden doubts
the efficiency of such a system.
"It would make life awful tough for us," he said,
noting that the cards have been instrumental in
compiling accurate mailing lists for his parish. "All
the churches use the cards in some way," he added.
Another service
Father Leonard Kalin of the Catholic Student
Center sees the campus ministries as another service
to students and thinks that the preference card is
important to make students aware of the service. He
said he also has a responsibility to the parents of his
parishoners, to keep them informed of the activities
of the Catholic Student Center.
"Over 60 per cent of the people of Nebraska are
churchgoers," said Kalin. "This shows that religion is
a part of most student's lives."
Kalin is eager to have the relationship of the
campus churches and the Univers..y better defined.
Legal question
"This may be a legal question. I'd like to know
where we stand." He commented that if the question
of separation of church and state were to be pushed
to extremes, "the use of Handel's Messiah in the
Music Deoartment miaht have to be eliminated." ,
Alvin Petersen, pastor of the Lutheran Student
Chapel and Center, thinks that the University
administrators "have a right to say what belongs in
the registration materials."
"Registration and Records have been carrying the
freight for us and other services," he said. "The
University has no obligations to us. But we are a part
of the UNL community and any cooperation reflects
the University in a positive way."
Petersen noted that the removal of the Religious
Preference Card would force an intensification "on
our part to alert (student's home) congregations to
send in names of UNL students."
Machine stuffed
The costs of printing the cards are paid for by the
Association of Campus Ministers. The cards are
delivered to the registration and records office, where
machines stuff them into pre-registration packets.
When they are returned, UNL personnel separate the
cards and a member of the minister's association
picks them up.
All information is confidential, and completion of
the card is strictly voluntary.
Bowker denied any connection between last
week's meeting and an AS UN report by Senator Doug
Voegler calling for the elimination of the Religious
Preference Card from registration packets. The
report, compiled after two months of research,
concluded that the inclusion of the cards "evidences a
less than neutral stance by UNL".
But Voegler, a second year law student, finds it
rather coincidental that after "thirty years" of use of
the Religious Preference Card, registration officials
would now decide to eliminate it.
"I feel the report is still valid, since the elimination
of the card is tentative," said Voegler.
