pegs 8
thureday, november8, 1979
daily nebrsskan
Non-traditional students appreciate college
By Diane Andersen
Assertiveness is essential for the survival of non
traditional students on the UNL campus, said three
students Wednesday in the Women Speak series sponsored
by Students Y.
"I'm ambitious, assertive and aggressive," said Pat
Rhodes, 27, a senior in psychology who moved to
Nebraska in 1978 from Philadelphia to continue her collee
college education.
"I'm paying for this (her education), and I want to get
something out of it,' she said.
Rhodes, Diane Myers, 34, and Delores Simpson
Kirkland, 28, said many UNL professors don't expect
student response and may be hostile when they received
it. They said teacher's assistants are often overbearing or
are undergraduates who don't know what they are doing.
Rhodes said most young (traditional) students who
come to UNL right out of high school simply spend time
in class and work for a good grade. -
'There's a game to getting through this place," she
said. But Rhodes added that she has the freedom at UNL
to act as she pleases and no one will notice.
THIS IS SO dynamic," Rhodes said. "You can learn
in a very active way if you want to. I would never have
appreciated this education seven years ago," she said.
Rhodes worked as a critical care nurse for 10 years
before retuning to school, a job she called "very
confining" and a "subordinate type of role."
Myers, an educational administration major, came to
UNL despite a $17,000 salary as the director of services
for the Lincoln Action Group and a son, 17, whom she
said she is trying to convince to finish high school.
"It (UNL) is quite a challenge," Myers said. "I would
feel a lot more at ease if I was working."
Myers said her second husband has been supportive of
her educational efforts, but she has faced some problems,
including being "hit on" by men who think she is
younger, receiving grades she thought were unfair and
Ginzburg
Continued from Page 1
He said the SALT II agreement "represents a danger
for the United States, but maybe Americans like danger."
As a student of American-Soviet relations, Ginzburg
said he knows the Soviet Union has never fully carried out
a bilateral agreement with the U.S.
"It (an agreement) is only carried out to the point
where it benefits the Soviet Union to do so," he said,
Soviet foreign relations and defense spending are gear
ed toward war, he said, but he added he didn't know if
the country would ever use nuclear weapons against
another nation.
"The Soviet Union isn't preparing for war, it's carrying
out war already," Ginzburg said. "Do you really think the
war in Angola was carried out by Angolans, or the war in
Ethiopia was carried out by Ethiopians? They were
carried out by Angolan hands, but when there weren't
enough hands, the Russians sent in the Cubans."
Ginzburg called himself a "retired Soviet dissident" be
cause he no longer risks his life by protesting. Thousands in
the Soviet Union take such risks, he said, as evidenced by
the 10,000 political prisoners in prison camps. Other
thousands risk their jobs by signing letters of dissent.
Yet dissenters have hope, mixed with cynicism. When
he was with fellow dissidents in the Soviet Union, he
sometimes would "drink a toast to our hopeless cause,"
Ginzburg said.
. He said he didn't expect any lifting of human rights re
strictions after Community Party Chairman Leonid
Brezhnev dies.
"In my opinion, the party chairman was dead a long
time ago," Ginzburg said. "That is to say, he collapsed
physically and intellectually a long time ago. Therefore,
there must exist some political presence behind him."
"So after Brezhnez is gone, they can find another
puppet to take his place," he said, nervously tapping his
cigarette.
Ginzburg's $4,000 speaking fee was paid by student
fees, with the consent of the chancellor, -according to
Tony Warner, advisor to the University Program Council.
un-rtnrvratiVA nrofeSSOTS.
'I've had to periodically wrap my legs with ace band,
ages," Myers said, in order to keep up with the younger
students running from one end of the campus to the
other.
She also said it is hard for non -traditional students to
And a place that is comfortable to relax and talk with
students with common interests.
"I'm probably the only student on campus that comes
to class every day," she said, adding that it is hard for her
to understand attitudes of some traditional students who
destroy UNL property or set bulletin boards on fire.
"YOU STUDENTS SHOULD have some sense of
pride," Myers said, comparing students to tenants who
will soon be leaving an apartment and don't care what
happens to it.
Kirkland, who is working on her doctoral degree in
school psychology, said she is a non -traditional student in
several ways. She is a woman doctoral candidate, black,
from New York City, and has a baby daughter and a hus
band. ;
. When Kirkland came to UNL in 1975 and found she
didn't have an assistantship, she said she "sat on the chair
, man's neck for about a week" until she got one.
Perseverance has been her pattern since high school,
when she said a counselor told her to go to etiquette
school instead of college. Kirkland said every step of her
education has been discouraged by others, but she has
kept on going.
'They wanted to make me into a mold that I was not,"
she said. "Counselors, women and minorities were at the
bottom of the barrel."
Kirkland also said women who go after doctoral
degrees are considered aggressive, while men who do the
same thing are admired,
. "Aggressive to me is beating somebody up," Kirkland
said. "And I hardly do that."
Kirkland, a full-time counselor for Multi-Cultural
Affairs, said support for non-tradtional students at UNL is
minimal. The three women said support groups for older
students would be benefiicial.
The women said younger students often ask them for
advice, as if older students are automatically wiser in all
areas.
"Registration used to just drive me nuts," Myers said.
But the women said coming back to school after
working and living in the "real" world has been good for
them.
Rhodes said she has a nine -year-old daughter whom she
will encourage "to get out and experience life" before
college, based on her experience.
"Mini"'. m tun
Smoking
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Continued from Page 1
Because of the hazards of smoking, the
health center does offer smoking clinics,
Bare said.
If the student health center can get six
people to agree on .a time to meet, they
will help the students quit smoking. He
said the class meets for five days and costs
$10. The students get $2 back each day
the
great
amertcan
smokeout
they attend the meetings. The program is
financed by students who stop attending
meetings..
Bare said the group uses positive rein
forcement instead of scare tactics to quit
smoking. He said the students plan strate
gies one day at a time and try to determine
with teach student why he smokes.
The health center also will give free
x-rays of lungs to student smokers.
The effects of the poisons in every
cigarette are reversable and if the student
does quite smoking his lungs should be
normal in about six months, Bare said.
Bare said he doesn't ever expect cigar
ette's to be declared an illegal drug.
"The law has trouble protecting people
from themselves," he said. "To put strong
controls on cigarettes would only start
underground sales and probably have an
even worse effect,"
The only control Bare said he would
like to see is to stop subsidizing the $80
million given each year to tobacco farmers.
Call Coors
for Pick Up
474-6600
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