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.
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