About 100 new UNL students sad their parents
participate each day in a summer orientation pro-rain
designed to answer questions and ease anxieties about
entering a college environment, according to Mary Dean,
orientation director.
New-student orientation began last week and is
Kbedated each Tuesday through Saturday through July
10. High school graduates and transfer students who have
enrolled at UNL, and their parents are sent orientation
invitations.
Fourteen UNL student hosts were selected earlier this
year from about 250 applicants. Hosts were selected on the
basis cf their involvement in campus activities, their
knowledge cf UNL, their leadership slZiks and their
personality. Dean said.
The hosts present cini-sessians, answer questkas,
discuss concerns, conduct campus tours, take students
through advising and drop and add to try to present an
accurate picture of UNL life, according to hosts Steve
Upton and Chakameh HoblbL
Besides asking about campus life, touring UNL and
dining at Harper Hall cafeteria daring their day on
campus, orientation participants attend three mini
sessions conducted by student hosts.
Mini-sessions, each a 15-minute presentation, include
financial planning, student activities, university services;
living alternatives and student academic programs.
Several, student hosts agreed that the questions
students and parents have reflect their concerns about the
university environment.
"Students' questions are generally about academics,
housing, classrooms, and what's going on around campus,"
Upton said.
' t Expressed fey else ,
"Some students are impressed by the size of Hamilton
HalTs lecture room and the inside of residence halls. Some
rumors are passed that dormitories are not too great," said
host Earl Singh.
MA girl asked me where she could keep her horse when
she came to Lincoln," said host Jim Carlson. "Someone had
the same question last year, so we should be able to find an
answer for her."
Parents, however, express greater concern about
alcohol and drug problems on campus, as well as campus
security.
"Lessening parents anxieties also gives a new student
' more cosfSdesee." Singh said. "Dining at a dormitory
cafeteria helps ease their worries about their children not
eating well, and both parents and students seem relieved
to know that there are smaller classrooms also.
Singh, who has been a student host for two years, said
orientation exposes new students to the university
environment and he'ps them to see that UNL's
23,003-student campus isn't as awesome as it might seem."
Students who participate in orientation are generally a
little more confident than students who don't because they -come
in contact with the university earlier, said Barb
Berry, orientation secretary.
Dean: Typewriting
most usable skill
Since more students enroll in typing than in any other
business education course, it is important that typing be
taught well, according to Lawrence Erickson.
Erkksoa is assistant dean of graduate studies in
education at the University cf California in Los Angelas..
He was a featured speaker at the 17th Annual Summer
Conference on Business Education last week at UNL.
Erkksoa illustrated techniques cf typewriting teaching
to an audience cf high school business education teachers.
He illustrated teaching methods which he said over a
semester result in typing of more than ICO words a minute.
"What the teacher does is the most important thing in a
typing classroom." Erickson sold. "Typing is mere than a
- condition-response process." '
Many teachers preach, 1 want you to do this." or
impeach their students with, "you're a failure." he soli.
Teaching attitudes such as this, along with parental
pressures, are hindrances to developing typing skills,
Frickron said.
"Important things to keep in mind when teaching how to
typewrite are position, purpose, practice and goals." he
soli.
"For too krg a time, teachers have been putting
cmpharis ca. things that aren't important. It's stupid to
insist that students put their feet exactly where- the book
says to," fca said, "because no one types with their feet."
-. Typing teachers should not grade papers w&kout the -student
playing some part in evaluating what he has
produced. Erkksoa said. The student karas better by
being actively involved ia the karning process, by having
aa ktsntka to kara and by understanding how to ksra, he
Lacing bis talk with humor. Erkksoa said if fcrmil
education, except for the teaching cf usab'e skills, was
eliminated, typing teachers would be the only instructors
remaining by 20C0 A J).
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Student host Luann Tichy, far left, takes parents of new UNL students on a campus tour. Photo by Mare&i Synovec
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