monday, february 2, 1981
lincoln, nebraska vol. 106, no. 16
ousing office seeks triple-room policy options
H
By Ken Merlin
University Housing Director Doug Zateclika is search
ing for a workable triple-room policy in the UNL resi
dence halls.
Zateclika came from the University of Michigan in
1 978 "whore they were tripling 6,000 students." he said.
At the time, UNL residence halls were just beginning to
overflow.
Tripling is assigning three students to a double room
temporarily or converting a double room to a permanent
triple
"We'd reached the point where the 'inn' was full," he
said. Temporary beds were set up in the TV lounges and
Abel basement "bunkroom."
Tighty-two women signed the first triple contracts in
the fall of 1978. In the fall of 1979. 285 students, includ
ing 96 men, lived in temporary beds, many in TV lounges
without windows, desks or closets.
"That's a hell of a way to introduce anybody to their
first college experience," Zateclika said, "and 1 won't do
it any more."
Housing has the responsibility to make the best of a
had situation, lie said. Because UNL is a state institution,
parents are right to expect the university will have a place
for students to stay the first year.
"We're going to have to over-assign because it's consis
tent with the concept of university service."
List fall the housing office converted the "penthouses"
of Harper-Schramm-Smith and Abel-Sandoz complexes,
large end rooms formerly reserved for upperclass students,
into 282 triples, half of w hich are reserved temporarily for
incoming fresh men .
Zateclika says he sympathizes with the upperclass stu
dents returning to the halls who argue, "We stayed with
you two years for a chance to move into an end room and
now you turn it into a triple."
"It was the single biggest argument when I was pushing
triples," he said, "I appreciate what they're saying."
Returning students last fall had the option of choosing
one of the six end rooms on each floor converted to
triples and pay a lower housing fee if they could find a
third roommate. Otherwise, the rooms were assigned to
three freshmen or sophomores, according to Dick
McKinnon, assistant director of residential housing.
Smith Hall was allowed to experiment with a third op
tion suggested by Mickie Fraizer-Koontz. residence
director of the all-female hall, he said.
Fraizer-Koontz found former roommates who were
willing to triple with a freshman temporarily to get an end
room assignment. A temporary triple converts to a double
when the freshman is reassigned.
Breaking down temporary triples can be "a very pain
ful, sometimes tearful process for some of these folks,"
she said.
This option is more fair to returning students and did
not result in the two-against-one situation most feared,
she said.
None of the seven triples with upper class-freshman
roommates required counseling, she said.
"At their very, very best, triples are very difficult living
arrangements. We are forced by (budget) constraints to
assign students to triples. It takes a staff very well equip
ped to cope with them," Fraizer-Koontz said.
"I don't know what the policy will be for assignments
and breakdowns," 7jtechka said.
Some decision will be made before The Good Life
(residence hall publication) goes to print next month, he
said.
The booklet contains a schedule for housing fees in
cluding triples which will increase 9 percent if approved
by the NU Board of Regents Feb. 21 .
This 9 percent is based on 70 percent of the triples
reverting (breaking down) to doubles by the second
semester.
The options given to returning students will depend on
what strategy the housing staff selects to achieve the
breakdown goal.
Zateclika said that while he hasn't reached closure on
the triple policy, he "anticipates that there will be an ex
pansion of the Smith experiment. "
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Photo by Mark Billingsley
The boardwalks of New Jersey came alive in Ames, Iowa when Bruce Springsteen brought his music to town.
For a review of the concert, see page 6.
ASUN senator opposes
laboratory fee proposal
Photo by Jon Natvt?
We don't need three groundhogs to tell us we'll be under winter's shadow for an
other six weeks. Snowy sidewalks and cold temperatures are sign enough.
By Mary Louise Knapp
A recent proposal to require students
to pay laboratory fees is being opposed
by ASUN until more information is made
available, an ASUN senator said.
A Task Force on Laboratory Fees de
veloped the proposal at the request of the
NU Board of Regents.
Dan Wedekind, first vice-presidential
candidate of the SURF (Students United
for Responsible Education) party, said that
the proposal left many vital questions un
answered and did not give students an op
portunity to investigate it.
Students need to be involved in tha im
plementation of lab fees, because they will
bear the cost, he said.
In the proposal, the task force defined
a laboratory as "an organized exposure to
the physical tools and activities of a dis
cipline and direct experience with the use
of those tools," and a laboratory as "a
charge made to students to underwrite, in
part, the consumable supplies and servic
es." The Task Force also presented three
models for enforcing lab fees.
Under the first model, one standard lab
oratory fee would be assessed to all under
graduate students, regardless of whether
they were taking lab classes.
The second model would charge one
standard fee to any student taking one or
more laboratory classes in a given semes
ter. Under the third model, specific fees
would be established on the basis of cost
of materials used and the costs of provid
ing the laboratory. The charge would be
assessed to students enrolled in each spec
ific lab course.
The Task Force recommended that the
third plan be used, and that the repons
ibility for setting fees be delegated to the
chancellors on each campus.
The proposal recommends that lab fees
be assessed at the time of registration.
Wedekind said that the proposal did
not fully explain what could be defined
as "consumable supplies and services."
He said other unanswered questions in
clude how cost-effective the lab fees are
under the various models, what pro
visions will be made to insure that various
departments use similar methods of setting
lab fees, what provisions will be made to
account for the proper use of lab fees, and
what financial effect lab fees will have on
students.