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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 27, 1975)
Wednesday, august 27, 1975 daily nebraskan page 3 1 r"V Information center to open Ely Meyerson, dean of Student Development Photo by Lis Burd By Terri WiSLson A personal touch and information at one's fingertips are the goals of the Campus Assistance Center, which opened second semester. According to Ely Meyerson, UNL's dean of student development, the idea for the center came from UNL students and student affairs staffers who heard about similar centers on other campuses. The three-year-old idea saw committee studies and filed reports on the three-year-old plan were ignored because of lack of funds. But last year, new funding ideas "made the project feasible," Meyerson said. Meyerson also said the Nebraska Union TV lounge will be relocated and its expanded and remodeled site will house the glass-enclosed center. After completion over interim, the center will start operation in February on an $11,000 to $12,000 annual budget. Reliable and personalized Because of the large and often "impersonal university community," campus information sometimes varies, Meyerson said. But he foresees the student -staffed center as a reliable and personalized student source. Since the center will tape current information, it will act as a "rumor control," he said. Center staff members will refer students directly to needed sources. By incorporating a "sophisticated telephone system," and HELP line employes who will man a tape library, a student will be able to call or come in to request a 3-3 Ms minute tape on anything from campus news to academic subjects. Meyerson said that the center, which is set up mainly to aid students, will be a coordinating point for Redcoats, a campus touring organization, and also will serve as an information booth to campus visitors. Without shuffling Carol Lou, newly hired director of the Campus Assistance Center, said her goal is to help make the center personal and to make it a place where students and others can find the right information, "without being shuffled to window number three." Lou, a graduate student in educational psychology and specializing in counseling and student personnel, just finished a job as coordinator for foreign student orientation. Religious studies minor now offered ; endowment from Cotner College provides professor's salary The UNL College of Arts and Sciences has recognized religion as a legitimate area of scholarship and is offering a minor in religious studies this semester. The development of a religious studies program has been planned since 1972-73. John Yost, program director, said. He met with interested faculty members who formed an ad hoc committee when there was a prospect of receiving an endowment from the Cotnei School of Religion. After invesiigation, the committee decided that a program could be developed even without the funds. Cotner College made an endowment of almost $250,000 to the University of Nebraska foundation, which will provide money yearly for a professor. Members of the Arts and Sciences faculty approved the Religious studies program in a meeting last April. i Yost's specialty is western religious history, with emphasis on medieval and early modern periods. He has a PhD. in history from Duke University and a B.D. in theology from Harvard Divinity School. Search begun. Yost said a search has begun for the Cotner Professorship of Religion and said he hopes a selection is made by the end of this semester. This would permit classes which the new professor will teach in the fall of 1976 to be included in the class catalog printed in the spring. The Nebraska School of Religion (Cotner) will no longer exist after the 1975-76 year. But, the Cotner name will continue with the name of the professorship. Yost said the Cotner Professor Search Committee is looking for a person who will .not necessarily direct the program, but who will be trained in biblical studies, (including Greek , and Hebrew), who is competent in world religions and who has a background he an bring to teaching religion in a secular state university. Although the Cotner professor will probably not be able to teach until next fall, the program was offered this fall for students interested in earning a minor. Yost said he hopes classes applying toward the minor can be grouped in one section of the spring 1976 course catalog allowing students to see the variety, of classes available. Minor offered Students may meet requirements for the minor by completing 18 hours from a group of 27 courses offered in nine departments. The individual's minor program must also be approved by the chief adviser and be representative of two. departments. A brochure available through Yost or the Nebraska School of Religion (Cotner) lists the classes needed for meeting requirements and explains some aspects of the program. The classes will allow students to study religion in a thorough, critical, objective and comparative fashion as they would study other subjects-, Yost said. The courses are not intended to shape the beliefs of students or to spread the beliefs of any one sect or denomination, he said. Separate department Yost said he doubts that a department or religion ever will be developed at NU and said he is not in favor of it. He said religion should not be a separate department because it overlaps in too manv areas. : Before the program was offered, students could earn majors in religion through Integrated studies programs. Yost said he now advises 12 students under integrated studies in one of the two religion areas: "Religion in Culture" and "Religion in Society." All of these students plan to do advance work in the field of religion, he said. er&rome Nebraska's QUALITY Department Stores Bsan Bag It! We make your living a little lovelier easier and care-frcc with (irnighing3 for your dorm room or apartment....at . affordable prices. Shop our Furniture departments, 6th floor Lincoln Center; Lower Level Gateway, Shop thursday 10-9 both stores . .1036"P" rtu II 475-8114 jfat 4BGSk V 4r frsesr-tt Ulan-Cat. 10-0 '