nor.
Veathcr:
Partly cloudy and humid today. Winds
southwesterly 15-25 mph with a high
of 80. Partly cloudy tonight with a 20
percent chance of thunderstorms and
a low of 62. Sunny and warmer on
Wednesday with a high near 84.
Barb BrandaOaily Nebraskan
September 17, 1985
Knowledge, aMlity give
By Milli King
and
Jen Deselms
Staff Reporters
Teachers' Assistants, bot'n graduate
and undergraduate, "pass the test"
with faculty and students in terms of
credibility, teaching ability and relia
bility, according to interviews with
university officials.
"Graduate assistants very often get
better teacher evaluations than profes
sors," said Toni Santmire, educational
psychology department chairman. In
her department, she said, graduate'
teaching assistants as a group were
more understanding of student con
cerns, devoted more time to students
and were more accessible to students
than some faculty members.
In the psychology department,
teachers' , assistants tend to get as
favorable evaluations as faculty
members, said Herbert Howe, depart-
ment chairman,
Twenty-five undergraduates serve as
TA's in Psych 181. Selection is based on
their performance in class and a per
sonal interview,-Howe said.
Students who do well in the course
and communciate well are encouraged
to apply for TA positions, which involve
Assistant professor Tom Rinkevich, center, picks up his lunch box after he collided with Scott
Fleck, left, Monday morning on 14th Street in front of the Men's P.E. Building. Eastern
Ambulance Paramedic Roger Green, right, assisted.
Professor, student collide on bikes
From Staff Reports
A UNL professor was injured Mon
day morning when his bicycle and a
bicycle ridden by a UNL student
' collided near the Men's Physical
Education Building.
Police said Thomas ' Rinkevich,
44, collided in the intersection of
north 14th and W streets with a
P.O. Pears add
'sandy' beer garden
Arts and Entertainment, page 9
.v
1 think a TA helps. They're younger and
better.'
answering questions over the reading
material and grading multiple-choice
and essay exams.
The course is popular enough to
keep the TA program running, Howe
said.
If a student disagrees with a TA's
decision, appeals may be made; first, to
an "on-call" TA then to a graduate
assistant and finally to Howe.
"We work hard to keep reliability in
the program, Howe said.
Based on performance
The speech department has 15 grad
uate teaching assistants, who are
reviewed on the basis of academic
potential, teaching performance and
professional involvement, said James
Klumpp, speech communication
department chairman.
"I think a lot is made about the
teaching quality of GTA's." he said.
"Our GTA's do an excellent job of
teaching."
Excess enrollment has turned away
between 500 and 600 students this
bicycle ridden by Scott Fleck, 18,
who lives in Harper Hall. Rinkevich,
-an assistant classics professor, was
treated and released at Bryan Mem
orial Hospital. Fleck was not injured.
Damage was estimated at $25 to
one bicycle and $100 to the other.
Lt. Alan Soukup of the Lincoln
Police Department said Rinkevich
and Fleck apparently did not see
- - - v, -y j
v t ' "t
IS
JB .,m
any
O CX
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
semester, he said. Without teachers'
assistants, Klumpp said, the depart-
ment would turn away another 1,500.
"I'm very comfortable about the
quality of teaching going on," he said.
Students interviewed tend to agree,
"I think a TA helps," Jeff Benne,
accounting major said. "They're younger
and can relate to me better."
Benne said his Finance 361 TA "knows
what he's talking about."
"He's really down to earth," Benne
said. "He jokes with us in class."
For Jennifer Johnson, TA's provide
more personal attention.
"He (her Bio Ethics 103 TA) could
pinpoint where I was right or wrong" in
answering test essay Questions, eraded
by both the professor and the TA, said
Johnson, an education major.
He made comments on my test,"
Johnson said. "The professor just made
general comments in class.
Some students, however, are skepti-"
cal about the knowledge of TA's.
"Sometimes you wonder if they know
what they're talking about," said Lisa
Mark DavisDaily Nebraskan
each other before colliding. The
accident showed that traffic acci
dents do not always involve auto
mobiles, he said.
"Just because you're riding a
bicycle doesn't mean you shouldn't
be observant of other traffic, whether
a bicycle or a semitruck."
No charges have been filed re
garding the accident, Soukup said.
If
r i lit
J7
TA9 erediMMity
can relate to me
Jeff Denne, student
Jobes, a social work major.
"You can tell when they re not exper-
ienced," she said.
Jobes said she didn't think it was
fair having a TA grade her essay exams
in philosophy class.
"It's just their opinion," she said.
At the same time, she said, "it's eas
ier talking to him (her philosophy TA)
because he's more able to accept what
students say.
"He doesn't always have philosophi-
cal points to throw back," she said,
Language barriers also may produce
ineffective teaching assistants.
"The Iranian students, I couldn't
understand," said Doug Murphy, refer
ing to GTA's in Math 107 and Econom
ics 245 and 211.
"The grad students I had, that I
could understand, did a . god job," he
said.
"I understand they couldn't afford to
hire profs for every section," said
Murphy, an accounting major.
Efforts were made to break the lan
guage barrier during the 1983-84 school
year when a "Test of Spoken English"
was instituted at UNL by former Grad
uate Studies Dean Henry Holtzclaw.
The test, which is given world-wide,
required students to orally complete
sentences, describe objects and syn-
Bell tower weathers
'Singing Silo' days
By Karen Shoemaker
Staff Reporter
Classes are out and students rush
along crowded sidewalks. Suddenly,
chimes begin and strains of "Close to
You" waft across campus. Some stu
dents smile. Others cringe. Most ignore.
The chimes come from Mueller Tower,
the 84-foot limestone structure stand
ing between Morrill and Bessey halls.
The tower's carillon plays one or two
taped selections at 25 minutes past the
days between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m., said
cal Plant. The chimes also play on
weekends.
Most of the musical selections are
taped, but the carillon also can be
played manually, Schrader said. It has
x IrovhnorH cimil-jr in tViot ef a niann
On football Saturdays, a carilloneur
plays the music, he said.
The taped songs are chosen by
employees of the UNL Physical Plant.
The department also is responsible for
the tower's uDkeeD.
The selections include dod. classi
cal, semi-classical, patriotic and non
denominational Christmas carols,
Schrader said.
"We try to select songs that are
acceptable to everyone," he said. "I'm
not sure that's possible but that's what
we try to do."
The "Singing Silo," a nickname for
Softball team wins
Husker invitational
Sports, page 11
Vol. 85 No. 16
3
1 thesize information to present a class,
said James Ford, an English professor
who administers the test.
Ford said 78 percent of the student s
world-wide who take the test don't
a pass. At UNL, only 40 percent of the
students are successful, Ford said. To
be a teaching assistant at UNL, Ford
said, foreign students must score at
least 230 out of 300 on the test. The
required score is hard to achieve.
"It's higher than at Princeton," he
said, where students are only required
to score 220. , .
262 GTA's and TA's
During the fall semester of 1984-85,
UNL had a full-time equivalent of 1,202
faculty members and 262 GTA's and
TA's. William Todd, 'data base manager
of Institutional Research and Plan
ning, said the number is not a head
count but a measurement of faculty,
GTA's and TA's calculated by the hours
worked. Todd said the numbers have
not changed in the last 3 or four years.
Teaching assistants are paid differ
ently in each department. GTA's in the
educational psychology department are
paid $4,400 a year, Santmire said.
Speech Communications GTA's received
between $4,750 and $5,500 a year,
Klumpp said. Associate Dean of Engi
neering and Technology, Lyle Young
said engineering GTA's earn starting
pay of $7,500 a year.
The use of GTA's is "part of our
Please see ASSISTANTS on 6
the tower coined not altogether affec
tionately by the summer of 1949 Daily
Nebraskan staff, was made possible by
an endowment from Ralph Mueller,
class of 1898.
The tower was designed by George
Kuska Jr. while he was a UNL architec
ture undergradutate.
The tower was the subject of con
troversy during its construction.
Daily Nebraskan editorials questi
oned the desirability of a carillon tower
. CamDus
But the Daily Nebraskan later changed
its tune. On the eve of the towei s dedi
cation at the 1949 Homecoming cerem
onies, the Daily Nebraskan reversed its
stand in a statement that lauded the
beautiful landmark and thanked the
benefactor who made it possible,
The tower was again the subject of
controversy about five years ago, said
Larry Andrews, assistant executive vice
president and provost. Several faculty
members complained that the tower's
music interrupted classes, bui omers
said they enjoyed the music and wanted
it to continue.
A committee was set up to decide on
a mutually acceptable schedule for the
tower's music, Andrews said. After one
meeting the committee decided on the
present schedule, "which seems to
satisfy everyone," he said.
