page 4
daily nebraskan
thursday, february 19, 1975
raiph by ron wheeler
Party labels help define issues
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As the Ides of March grow nearer and nearer, it
is time to anticipate the ASUN Senate campaign,
which already would have begun if filing
deadlines had not been postponed.
The ASUN Senate was indirectly responsible
for delaying the filing date, but they did so for a
, sound reason-so that candidates could continue
to claim campus party affiliation on ballots.
Party affiliation is important because it is a
literal impossibility for a student to get to know
40 or 50 candidates on their own merits. It
usually takes a dedicated and politically minded
student just to find out what the three or four
parties stand for.
And three or four parties are emerging. It may
sound strange that that many groups of people
are banding together to take over the citadels of
the third floor Union ASUN office.
That in itself is somewhat surprising, since it
has been a pretty quiet year for the ASUN
Senate. Not necessarily quiet in terms of Senate
rumblings, but definitely lacking in assertiveness
Tha fnminn QtiiHx nrnnmm
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pro J not always abed of roses
ByNeilKoltz
It all began with the Tower of London. She had seen a
.picture of some American students in London laughing
beside the Tower's famous chopping block in a poster on
the English Dept. bulletin board. The poster announced,
"The Great British Getaway! Study in Europe! Full Cre
dit!" She sent for the forms, she enrolled, she paid her
$4,000 for the semester-a little steep, she thought at the
time-and gotaway.
Back in the United States six months later, the registrar
of her college told her that her getaway gets no cigars
zero credits. She tried to contact the 'firm that ran the
. program and found only a closed, post office box.
Each year about half the 30,000 to 40,000 American
students who study abroad don't check out the programs
in which they enroll with their home school. The results:
promised credit disappears, programs are disbanded on the
eve of the trip and students pay rip-off prices for what
essentially are travel tours with a smattering of academics
thrown in. ,
Although the number of students studying abroad has
declined for several years because of inflation and, in
creased interest in vocational (anti-unemployment) study,
- foreign study still carries a mystiqu. In these uncertain
times, it might be phrased, "See Europe Before Its Gone."
Even if you skirt the disreputable programs, however,
getting credit for foreign, study experience can be dif
ficult. Here are the major options and their pitfalls.
1. The foreign university. You could just cut out all
the middlemen and enroll in a toreign university on your
own. Nice and clean. But the foreign school may not let
you in, and even if it does, your school in the United
States may pretend it doesn't recognize you when you
I'eturn.
To make a long story short, European universities
usually won't accept American students with less than a
junior status. They think that's the equivalent of their
secondary school.
To get backtat them, no American university will give
a foreign student junior status for a secondary school
diploma. A communications breakdown, to be sure.
About the only way to get credit for unsupervised
work at a foreign university is to arrange a block of inde
pendent study courses with set objectives with each
individual department at your school. That may be
difficult, however, since you virtually must know what
you want to learn and what books and resources you'll
: use, before you go in to order to structure the courses for
approval.
If you care more about learning than credit though, go
to a foreign school. Tuition rarely is more than $100 a
, semester. Foreign universities allow students more inde
. pendence and responsibility, a situation like that at some
experimental colleges here. And many schools run a
language and cultural program for foreign students to up
grade their ability to cope with formal university lectures.
Probably the best guide to independent foreign study is
Tliis Way Out: A Guidj to Alternatives to Traditional
College Education in the United States, Europe and the
Third World (EPfDutton, New York, $4.95).
2. United States college-sponsored programs. Because,
it's rough to get credit for independent foricgn study,
most students opt for a junior year or semester abroad
program run by an American college. If your own school
operates the program, you're home (or away, actually)
"free.
But if the program is run by another school, you may
have trouble if (1) you try to take a course pass-no credit,
(2) the field in which you plan to study is not offered at
your home school, or (3) the field is offered at your
school, but the particular course in that field terftr
So you may find your local English Dept. arguing that
a coarse you took on Shakespeare's sonnets from the lead
ing expert at Oxford will not substitute for the reauired
survey course taught by the local long-tenured patriarch.
No, it doesn't make sense. It means that you must bar
gain for almost every credit. Make sure after the deal is
struck Ihat you get your guarantee in writing from each
department from which you want credit.
A good list of college-sponsored programs is contained
in the Whole World Handbook, available for $2.95 from
the Council on International Education Exchange, 777
United Nations Plaza, New York, N.Y. 10017. Other
Council services like the International Student I.D. and
charter flights are detailed in its free phamplet.The 1976
Student Travel Catalog.
Summer and Interim programs are listed in Summer
Study Abroad (Institute of International Education) and
Cooperative Listing of Interim Term Courses (Association
tor Innovation in Higher Education), both of which your
. library should have.
' 3. Private agency-sponsored programs. You'll have to
play the cautious consumer if you want to use One of
these programs, since the rip-off potential is great and
credit is problematic. Once you have the glossy catalog in
hand, check for the following:
-Does the school or agency have a legally incorporated
home office in the United States that can be held liable
for swindles? Check that local Secretary of state's office
(corporation division) for the firm's corporate status and
the Better Business Bureau for outstanding complaints.
-Does the catalog give full information on the course
of instruction,vquality of faculty members and sites avail
able? Are you housed in an American ghetto or with
foreign families? Are all the French professors imported
from Alabama?
-Does the catalog provide full information on tuition
and fees and provide for a fair and equitable refund
policy? Are there any hidden costs?
If the school is eligible for,the federal Guaranteed Stu
dent Loan Program, it must give you the above informa
tion under new regulations issued last year.
In addition, ask the school for a list of past participants
whom you can question and a list of colleges which have
accepted credit for its programs.
Even it you are not dealing with a private group, ask
for a full breakdown of tuition ar.d fees. In some cases,
professors who have organized study abroad programs
have taken on an extra stipend on the side, for instance,
selling round-trip air fare to students for $600 which thev
bought for $300.
By the way, if you suspect that the program may be
running a charter flight that will leave you at the gate
check with the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) Consumer
Hotline, (202-382-6031).
4. Financial aid addendum. Yes, money does change
the picture. To continue to receive federal Basic Grants
Work-Study, Supplementary Grants of National Direct
Student Loans, you must be enrolled at an institution
here while you are abroad.
You can, however, use Guaranteed Student Loans at
many foreign universities and private schools abroad, even
if you are not enrolled anywhere in the United States Ask
the school you are considering for its eligibility number
under the Guaranteed Student Loan Program and check it
with your State Guarantee Agency.
You can find out where that is either by calling the de
partment of education in your state or by writing the
Office of Guaranteed Student Loans, U.S. Office of Edu
cation, 400 Maryland Ave., SW, Washington, D C 202Q"
A good bibliography of private financial aid sources for
study abroad, Scholarships and Fellowships for Foreign
Studv, is available free from the Institute of International
Education, 809 United Nations Plaza, New York, N.Y.
(CopyriyM CmUmp Prs Sirvtew)
and creativity on the part of both senators and
executives.
There are no magic solutions, there never have
been. As the campaign warms up, students should
be wary of anyone who promises instant remedies
and an uncluttered student Utopian view.
Students also might look out for candidates
who say they don't have a platform because they
don't want to make false promises. There
probably is no candidate who has ever delivered
on all his campaign pledges. Yet platforms serve
to give some insight into the priorities and
thoughtfulness of the people who are asking for a
vote.
At any rate, with a few parties in the contest,
the elections may be more lively than last year. It
perhaps would not be too much to expect to have
some clearly defined issues, some real leadership
during the campaign and some meaningful
contact with trie voters.
1
Students still may wonder why they should
bother to get excited for the campaign, even a
lively one. Political realities being what they are,
student government does wield some power, does ,
make some waves from the Senate to the NU
Board of Regents meeting table.
And the student regent seat should be
recognized as more than a high chair.
Vince Boucher
letters to
the editor
Schwa rtkopf's values deplored
Regent Schwartzkopf s persistent pleading that "some
one give me a benefit of having liquor in the dorms"
smacks of a blind commitment to the principle of a tech
nological society. ,
Notwithstanding the fact that costbenefit appraoches
to life turn my stomach, Regent Schwartzkopf has the op
tion to live a costbenefit life if he so chooses. '
But Regent Schwartzkopf does not have the option to
impose his way of life on the students who are more con
cerned with the primary reinforcements of life necessary
to establish a social identity.
It i$ the costbenefit (objective) approach to life which
causes us to switch from valuing an individual because he
or she is a human being to valuing an individual because
he or she is a social complaint, a reproductive but dis
pensible object.
Society has all sorts of ways to protect itself from
socially deviant individuals, but what does an individual
have to protect him or herself from a humanly deviant
government? .
Human beings were not designated to live costbenefit
lives. Will someone please inform Regent Schwartzkopf of
this fact?
John H. Fischer
Film out-of-focus
On Wednesday, Feb. 11,1 viewed Barry Lyndon at the
Cinema I Theater. The image was consistently out-of-focus,
and both projector's caters were dirty, causing the
top left edge of the film to be constantly obscured. After
paying $2.50 to see a film which relies on visual elements
to a great degree, I can only relate my disgust that so little
students going to see the film are greeted with the same
conditions, they should complain to the management. I
have no idea if this carelessness was caused by the pro
jectionists' strike now going on, and I don't really care. In
competency, for whatever reason, should be condemned.
JohnMcMasters
