page 4
daily nebraskan
monday, december 4, 1978
opinioneditorial
Series gives students look at NU Board of Regents
The Daily Nebraskan has under
taken an in-depth look at the NU
Board of Regents. Many weeks
of research have gone into the series
of articles on the Regents which
begin today and will run consecu
tively. The Regents are a body of eight
men established by the Nebraska
Constitution. Regents are elected by
voters in their district for six year
terms. Their duties and powers are
prescribed by state law.
Both the Nebraska Constitution
and the University of Nebraska by
laws say the regents shall receive
no compensation for their service,
but that they may be reimbursed
for their actual expenses in per
forming regental duties.
In 1974, the voters of the state
approved a constitutional amend
ment to allow the student body
presidents of three NU campuses
to serve as non-voting student
regents. The student regents are:
Ken Marienau, UNL; Paul Hoffman,
UNO and Rod Anderson, the Medi
cal Center.
The Daily Nebraskan series will
also include a look at the student
regents.
The student regents attend month
ly meeting of the board, present
information to the board and offer
their opinions, but have no statutory
or constitutional power.
The board has the responsibility
of governing all operations of the
university, according to an opinion
by the Nebraska Supreme Court in
1977. The Nebraska Legislature has
the final say over how much state
money the university will receive,
but the regents decide how state
money and all other funds allocated
to the university will be spent.
The board approves all appoint
ments to the university, all purchases
and sales of land, all new construc
tion and controls all university oper
ations, either directly or indirectly.
The NU bylaws say there may be
no conflict between the private
interests of a member of the board
and his official duties, and that they
should have no substantial financial
or personal interest in business trans
actions of the university.
The series on the NU Board of
Regents should give readers an in
sight to the men serving on the
board.
Survey of teaching methods leaves students high, dry
At most educational institutions, at
tempts to discover what the consumer, i.e.,
the student, desires are like rain in western
Nebraska: we never get enough, and what
little we get always falls in the wrong place.
And so it was last week when students
received a chance to voice their views of
teaching methods used at UNL. A survey
distributed by Ned Hedges, Vice-Chancellor
fc Academic Affairs asked students
how often their teachers used various
teaching methods, such as straight lec
tures, class discussions and individualized
instruction, as well as how often each
method should be used ideally.
But despite the welcome smell of rain,
once again students were left high and dry.
It wasn't that the questions were difficult
to decipher. The problem was not what the
survey asked: rather, it was what the survey
did not ask.
For example, if given a choice between
an interesting, informative lecture and a
dull, boring discussion group, most stu
dents would probably choose the former,
not because it was a lecture, but because it
was good.
Unfortunately, the survey never made
that distinction, apparently assuming that
all teachers are equally knowledgeable in
their field and have an eqaul concern for
their students.
Obviously, then, we needn't be
concerned about raising salaries to attract
better teachers, nor about teacher evalua
tions, since all we have to do is convince
them to change their method of instruction.
Poppycock.
I've had question-and-answer type
classes where the biggest question was
when class would be over; I've also had
teachers who ask a question in such a way
that the student gave a better answer than
he thought he could.
And wliile straight lectures are usually
monotonous (one of my professors once
spent an hour reading a magazine article
to us), other teachers can sometimes hold
my interest so well that I'm too rapt to
take notes.
michael gibson
So how could I answer the survey? How
could I compare an outstanding teacher's
questioning tactics with a teacher whose
idea of stimulating discussion in a senior
level class was asking who was president
during the Great Depression0
It was all immaterial to the computer, I
guess, whether a teacher was more interes
ted in how much his students learned or
how many articles he had published.
It didn't care if he was an expert in his
subject or just another example of how
those who can't do, teach.
And. most importantly, it wasn't inter
ested in whether a teacher used the
teaching method best suited to him and
used it as well as he could in order to help
his students learn and mature.
Of course, there are surveys that ask
such questions. They're called teacher eval
uation surveys, and UNL policy requires
each student to fill one out in every course
he takes.
But the results of those evaluations are
known only to the teacher and his depart
ment chairman, and they can take the eval
uations or leave them.
And because those results are not pub
licized, students can't find out which tea
chers to take and which to avoid. Nor can
they determine the reason why some tea
chers are paid more than others, or why
some are given tenure and some aren't.
One final note: last week I ran into an
English teacher I had as a freshman. In my
estimate, she's probably the third best
teacher I've had at UNL. In her nine years
here, she has finished third three times in a
student vote for best professor in Arts and
Sciences: her teacher evaluations, as far as
I can determine, are phenomenal.
Perhaps it was just coincidence, but the
same day I filled out the survey on
teaching methods and so did my part to
ward helping the administration improve
the quality of UNL's education, she told
me she wasn't being rehired.
1 wonder if I'll ever see a survey about
that.
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As a matter of comment about the com
ing Orange Bowl game, the selection of
OkJahoma as an opponent for Nebraska
stinks. Comments about the selection of
Oklahoma down this way indicate that the
selection is the most asinine they have
known. Wouldn't selection of most any
team of another section be much better?
Maybe some approve it because they
think the game will be a play-off for the
Big Eight championship. I'd say beating
Oklahoma once a season is enough. The
Selection Committee shouldn't be surpris
ed if only a few Nebraskans show up for
the game.
I noticed in the local paper that Rick
Burns in his extremely fine performance in
the Missouri game of two weeks ago had a
rushing yardage of 225 yards, and that it
was thought that this broke the rushing
yardage record for a Cornhusker for a
single game.
This belief does not agree with a
clipping I have which states that Glenn
Presnell in the Missouri game of 1927 rush
ed for 299 yards in 46 attempts. I recall
that in one game, I believe it was in the
Syracuse, he rushed for 256 yards. His
average per game, as I recall, was 181 yards
rushing, which gave him the higher rush
ing yardage in the nation that year
I noticed that the last "Husker" ;otball
guide gave outstanding rushing yardage
records of several Cornhusker players, but
there was no mention of Presnell's avoids.
Maybe they do not in tend to include
records of two-way plaers. or their
records are not complete.
With a continuation of Nebraska's fine
football tradition. I am,
Wm. H. Buckhannan
Terrible crime
On Tuesday, Nov. 28, a terrible crime
was committed on city campus. While a
grad student was using the restroom on the
first floor of Andrews Hall, someone stole
his biggest tool used tor studying his tape
recorder.
The reason the recorder was so import
ant to this student, was because this stu
dent is blind. While all of us can use cheap
notebooks and pens to take notes, this stu
dent has to use an $85 machine because of
his lack of sight.
The part that bothers me most about
this incident is that the person who stole
the recorder had to know that the owner
was blind. When the student went to wash
his hands, he found his briefcase open on
the sink with his recorder gone. The thief
took the recorder and left everything else
in the case. Why didn't the theif just pick
up the case and walk off with it instead of
searching through it? I think he did it
knowing he had time to net away because
the student couldn't see what he was
doing.
I think this action was committed by a
totally sick person with no morals. The
idea of taking a necessary item from a per
son who doesn't have the same gift God
gave us just makes me sick.
Although the police have been notified,
little hope remains in getting it back.
I just hope when the person who stole
it uses it, he can try to think of the stu
dent who now has no way to efficiently
study like you and I.
Kevin Horn
Freshman
Arts & Sciences major
Car stuck
Last Tuesday, Nov. 28th, my car was
stuck on a sheet of ice, in that Area 3 park
ing lot not-so-fondly known as "the North
40." This is the lot just south and east of
the 17th and Holdrege intersection, for
those of you unfamiliar with its many
terrors. Two gentlemen from the
University Grounds office (north of the
parking lot) were most kind and helpfui in
freeing my vehicle- by manual labor, no
less. I regret that I do not remember their
names. I would like to take this opportun
ity to publicly thank them again. Without
their help. I might still be sitting there.
"The Girl in the White Toyota"
Display despicable
I was very disturbed by the Arab stu
dent display in the Student Union on
Thursday, Nov. 30th. Admittedly, the Pale
stinian condition is despicable. The trade
off in the Middle East must not be the
exchange of Arab and Israeli lives, but this
is exactly what these violent sorts of
activity involve!
The Palestinian question will not be
solved by violent means. Israel will not be
pushed into the ocean by hostile neighbors.
Instead, what is needed is a long-lasting
understanding that all people need and
deserve peace and a decent living environ
ment. Only when the Palestinians prove them
selves to be reasonable, peaceable neigh
bors will this problem ever find its solut
ion. I find it difficult to accept that our
otherwise intelligent Arab students could
see this as anything but a struggle of two
peoples to survive and that as a world com
munity it is our responsibility to insure
that all cultures survive and strive for peace
and harmony.
K. Bloom, student