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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 5, 1980)
ft ' friday, december 5, 1980 lincoln, nebraska vol. 105, no. 72 Two UNL colleges toughen scholastic standards By Jim Faddis Two more colleges at UNL-the College of Architec ture and the School of Journalism-are instituting tougher scholastic standards that will have to be met by students. These two colleges will join the College of Business Administration and the College of Engineering and Tech nology in requiring higher scholastic levels than the uni versity in general. The College of Architecture, starting next semester, will require that students have at least a 2.6 grade point average before they can start their junior year at the college. Freshmen will have to graduate in the upper half of their high school class and have an ACT test score of at least 2 1 or a SAT score of 970 before being allowed in the college. The tougher academic requirements are being set to keep the high quality of instruction at the college , College of Architecture Dean Cecil Steward said. "We don't have enough faculty or facilities to keep ad mitting an unlimited number of students and maintain the quality of instruction," Steward said. Limited space Steward said the college doesn't have the money to hire more instructors and that design studio space is already limited. "We had to decide whether it is less fair to students to allow an unlimited number of students to the college while reducing the quality of the college, or to limit en rollment and keep the same quality," he said. Steward said he would like to see the architecture en rollment stabilize at about 450 students. He said it might take a few years to get it at that level because present enrollment is 517 and has been increasing at about 10 percent a year. A grade point average is not an "absolute indicator" of how good of a professional architect a student will be, but it is the only measure available, Steward said. "In any field where creativity is important, like archi tecture, a grade point average is not that important," he said. "But architecture does have a degree of science and math that needs to be-known." A grade point average also is not a good predictor of how good a journalist a student will be, Wilma Crumley, associate dean of the School of Journalism, said. "Sometimes it takes a year and a half for a student to get settled in at the university and find something they're interested in," Crumley said. "So the grades those first years might be a bad indicator." More liberal arts The School of Journalism is considering having a student met a certain competency level in English. This might be done by requiring that students get a certain grade in freshmen English courses. Also, the school may require students to take more liberal arts classes outside of journalism. A committee is still working on the new requirements and they will probably go into effect next fall, Crumley said. She said English competancy may not be a good pre dictor of journalistic ability either. "It may take a Solomon committee to figure out what new requirements we should have," Crumley said. The problem is that the school has "more student de mands than faculty to handle them and there is no money to hire additional faculty," she said. The new standards are a "budget-stretching move," Crumley said, and added, "if you keep trying to stretch faculty, you reduce the quality of education." The School of Journalism also has some accrediting qualifications that a large number of students makes it hard to meet, Crumley said. One qualification is that there be a ratio of 15 students or less to one instructor in laboratory classes. Another is that journalism students take a 4-1 ratio of liberal arts classes to journalism classes. Since 1978, The College of Business Administration has required that students have a 2.5 grade point average Chicano leader sees racial group le saviors ofsocie as possi By Ward Wright Triplett III "We are presently labeled us a threat to this society. It could be though, that we are the eventual saviors of it." Such is part of Rudolfo "Corky" Gonzales' apprai sal of the National Chicano Movement, of which he is rec ognized as one of the top leaders. Gonzales addressed an audience of about 200 Thursday night at the Union Ball room in the last of his three speeches during his stay in Lincoln. "We are one of the most unique racial groups in this country, because we are not immigrants, and we did not come to America, as much as America has come to us," Gonzales said. The movement's main purpose is to dispel the double standards of justice, employment and social order that Chicanos see existing in American society today, he said. Although there has been improvement in Chicano em ployment and other areas, Gonzales said he felt it was necessary to ensure people that this is not enough. "Over the past 10 years, there has been some pacifi cation taking place, but we should recognize that if our population is doubling by the next 20 years, these are very minimal success figures. We can not sit back and be satisfied with this." Gonzales brought up several topics during the evening, which began w ith a Spanish rendition of the song, "I Shall Not Be Moved." Among the concerns Gonzales addressed were urban renewal in large cities that takes over ghettos and barrios, international human rights, Chieano's losing professional leadership and the recent government swing to a right wing view. "It has been said that this country will be the first that through democracy will become fascist. There has been a right wing coup without guns, and apathy about it could lead to a police state." Gonzales said it has been a priority of the Chicano movement to install a progressive nationalism in its people, and not a conservative one like the Nazi's, or a naive one. which would say "if he is a Chicano. even if he is a crook, he's all right." However, a family tie that does exist here is what Gonzales said he felt keeps the Chicano movement from fates like that of the Indians, and also sets it free from self-destruction. "The American system teaches us to be individualists and competive, which is a means to destroy identification. "But when Chicanos have these family ties stretching all across this nation and internationally, it is hard to find the head or tail to stop it. "The antagonism here is between cultures, and the family to tribe to nation tie is one that is hard to break," he said. Young people he said, although stygmatized by securi ty, are very important to the movement, and are gaining confidence in it because "when they have a problem, we're there." Gonzales was also critical of the American govern ment's apparent favoritism of right wing leaders. "We are looking at some very shady characters in our government when they can clasp hands with people like Samoza, and the deposed Shah who were killers and oppressors," Gonzales said. "But none of our doors were kicked down out of soci ety's generosity; we had to do it ourselves. We have an obligation to the downtrodden people of the world, and now we must maintain a nified concern for our present, past and future status ii this country, and decide if we should ally ourselves w h lie right wing regimes that support oppression, or lb mi alliance with those who favor humanity. "Life is a struggle, a struggle for liberty, but that doesn't come from a dream, it comes from only a life long struggle." after their first two years, before they are allowed to con tinue in the college. Requirement backfired The requirement reduced enrollment the first year, but has backfired lately, Arthur Kraft, associate dean said. "Since we've had the grade point average requirement, the college has become attractive to more students and we're getting more of the high quality students," Kraft said. This year enrollment increased by 234 students to an all-time high of 2,817. Because enrollment is still increas ing, the college is considering raising the grade point aver age requirement to 3.0, Kraft said. The decision to raise the requirement will be made this spring, he said. This year, 247 students were not allowed to take business classes because they did not meet the requirement, Kraft said. A shortage of faculty has forced the College of Engin eering and Technology to limit what students are allowed in certain classes, Interim Assistant Dean Alfred Witte said. There are 1 1 unfilled faculty positions in the college. Students are allowed in upper level classes based on their grade point average, not on who registers first, Witte said. Witte said the college has had trouble getting faculty members because engineers can make more in private in dustry than in teaching. The scholastic requirements by the different colleges do not conflict with UNL's open admissions policy, Al Papik, director of admissions and advising, said. Independent colleges have the right to set requirements for certain programs, Papik said. He said there is a danger that some colleges will be come elitist, but colleges are being forced to do something because of lack of money. "If it has a snowball effect and other colleges start doing it, there could be a problem," Papik said. I - y i ..r ; -v Corky Gonzales Daily Nebraskan Photo State treasurer seeks proper heirs By Mary Kempkes Lots of people dream of discovering a long-lost uncle who, with no living survivors, bequeaths them his entire estate. That would be nice. One day a pauper, the next an heir. For some Nebraskans, this is no dream. Since the passage of a 1969 law, about $500,000 worth of property and money is made custody of the state every year while State Treasurer Frank Marsh tries to find the owner. The state goes to great lengths to find proper heirs of "lost" materials and has fair success, he said. Last year, the state found owners for about $270,000 in property. The treasurer's office publishes a list of property along with scant information about the deceased -scant to avoid the chance of im posters applying for the money. These lists are then published monthly or occasionally by 30 radio and television stations and a number of print publications, such as Lincoln's "Around Town." In addi tion to publishing the list. Marsh said, the office also places ads in newspapers where an heir is suspected to live. Marsh is supplied with names and property by agen cies banks, utility companies, insurance agents and corporations-required by law to notify the treasurer after seven years without contact from a client. The treasurer's office usually receives the property in the forms of abandoned checking and savings accounts, uncashed travelers checks, utility deposits, contents of safety deposit boxes and insurance proceeds. The treasurer's office takes all property, sells it and puts it in the Nebraska Education Fund. Money from the sale of materials is never spent no matter how long the state holds it. Instead, it is kept in the fund and the interest goes to schools, but not to any state agencies. Continued on Page 3