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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 18, 1981)
friday, September 18, 1981 f daily nebraskan page 8 Arts & Sciences reviews language requirement By Mary Louise Knapp A possible revision of requirements for the Bachelor of Science degree will be discussed at a meeting of UNL Arts and Sciences faculty Oct. 1, said Tom Bestul, associate dean of the college. Bestul said the faculty will discuss recommendations made by the Task Force on Undergraduate Education. The task force, appointed in 1979, is composed of stu dents and faculty from the College of Arts and Sciences. Larry Lusk, task force chairman, said the group will present the faculty with two optional sets of requirements for the degree. Under the first option Lusk said, students getting a Bachelor of Science degree would take up to six hours of modern languages or "cultural diversity" courses such as the history or literature of another civilization. Thus, stu dents would not be required to take a foreign language un less they had not fulfilled the basic entrance requirements for the college, he said. Entrance requirements for the College of Arts and Sci ences include two years or the equivalent of a foreign lan guage in high school. Possibly exempt Students who had taken more than the required lan guage courses might be exempt from the requirement alto gether, hence the option of 0-6 hours, Lusk said. In addition, students would be required to take 12 hours of humanities and arts, nine hours of history and social sciences, nine hours of natural sciences and six hours of English composition. & The second option is similar to the current require ments for the Bachelor of Arts degree, Lusk said. Under his option, students are required to take from 0-6 hours of a foreign language, nine hours in arts and hu manities with no more than six hours in either departm ment, three semester courses in natural sciences with one lab course, and six hours of a history of civilization course. . . "We have also added a new requirement which is a course on minority or non-Western cultures in the United States " he said Students would also be required to take 50 to 70 hours of courses pertaining to their major or in related subjects, as required by the individual department. Lusk explained that in many departments, the number of hours required for a major are very few, while in other departments the required course load for majors is so heavy that students have no time to take anything else. In order to alleviate this problem, the task force has al so proposed a "concentration" requirement, which func tions somewhat like a minor, under which students would be required to take 18 hours in a subject other than their major. "This gives students an opportunity to study some thing else in depth," he said. Faculty concern Lusk added that there is a great deal of concern among faculty members about the foreign language requirement for the Bachelor of Science degree. "Language has been a hot potato for a long time," he said. Many science students have argued there is no need for them to take foreign languages they will never use, Lusk said. "However, the general faculty sentiment is that langua ges are very important," he said, adding the faculty is usu ally unified in a determination to keep the foreign lan guage requirement. Lusk said UNL has not looked at requirements for a long time and that most colleges around the country were revamping lists of requirements in the various col leges. "Some of these requirements were established ten or twenty years ago," he said. Lusk said the major purpose of the recommendations is to encourage expansion of general education. Historian conducts seminar Hans Mommsen, a German historian touring the United States under the aus pices of the Goethe Institute, will be conducting a two-day seminar Oct. 5 and 6 on German society of the 1920s and 1930s, said Edward Homze, a UNL history professor. Mommsen, uses old newsreels and documentaries to illustrate his material. There will be three sessions, a longer film viewing and a symposium, Homze said. The first session from 10:30 to 1 1:30 a.m. Oct. 5 will focus on German political parties. A 1 :30 to 3 :30 p.m. session will look at German youth dur ing the period. A session on German unemployment will be from 9:30 to 11:30 ajn. followed at 1p.m. by the film viewing. The 2 pjn. symposium will feature Mommsen, Homze, June Levine of the English and Film Studies departments, Mark Cory of the Modern Languages department and Peter Reinkordt of the Modern Languages departemnt. All ses sions will be at the Nebraska Union. A photographic exhibition called "Germany in the 1920s" will be dis played in the union at the time of the seminar and will reamain for two weeks. Homze said this is the first time the photos have been shown in this country, as they have just cleared customs. Study skills courses offered Certain skills are needed to be a college student, including reading, and writing. But what if you've been out of school for a while or have gotten out of-practice while you were in Wyoming punching cows all summer? The Communiversity may be the answer to your problem. "This semester we are offering four courses for primarily returning students who are a little out of practice and want to get back in the swing of things," Chuck Vavlicek, coordinator of the Communivers ity, said. "Freshmen are just as welcome, however." Although the course in study skills started Monday, Vavlicek said there may be room for a couple more students. Dates for other courses in the Science of Efficient Study this semester are : Reading Skills, Oct. 6; Memory Skills, Oct. 19 and Academic Writing Skills, Oct. 27. All courses are from 5 to 7 p.m. for three weeks. Registration is $15. The Division of Continuing Studies has more information. Consciousness subject of philosophy professor talk A University of London professor will give Sept. 25 the Cedric A. Evans Memorial Lecture at UNL. Norman Malcolm, a professor of phil osophy, will lecture on "Consciousness: The Subjective Character of Experience" at 3 p.m. in the Nebraska Union. Shirt I i ji $18.50 I ! 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