Page 4
Daily Nebraskan
Wednesday, December 4, 1985
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Dead! week policy
sluomld proltilbii
-mimisite Hectare
T "Y NL's dead week is not dead enough.
I Like a zombie raised from the grave by mysterious
I evil powers, the week before finals remains unusually
X J active at UNL.
Dead week was designed to be a time for students
to catch up on their work and prepare for finals without the
burden of additional assignments.
UNL's policy, approved by the Faculty Senate in 1983, states
that only laboratory practical examinations, make-up or repeat
examinations and self-paced examinations can be given dur
ing dead week.
Most faculty members honor the policy. But some violate the
principle of the week by cramming remaining information into
the last week of lectures. Thus, students have only a weekend
to digest the new material before final exams.
The current dead week policy should be altered to prohibit
the last-minute introduction of new materials.
To ensure that no new material is introduced, dead week
should be used strictly for review. Attendance should not be
mandatory during the review week, so students who prefer to
study on their own could do so. But students who have ques
tions for instructors could simply ask during the regular class
period, rather than track down the instructor.
Some instructors argue that students would simply use the
optional review week as a vacation, instead of studying. Some
probably would, but they would abuse any dead week policy.
But responsible students would take advantage of the
reviewing and studying time.
UNL probably is not ready for a dead week policy as liberal
as that of Harvard University, which has a "reading period" one
week before finals. No classes are held during that week.
A reading period would work for highly-motivated students.
Unfortunately, unmotivated undergraduates would simply
abuse the time, making it a waste of time for students and
faculty.
To make dead week more effective, UNL officials should
prohibit the introduction of new material during dead week
and require that the time be used as review sessions for
students.
If the faculty senate enacted this dead week policy, UNL
students would be more alive during finals week.
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Unsigned editorials represent official policy of the fall 1985 Daily Nebras
kan. Policy is set by the Daily Nebraskan Editorial Board. Its members are
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Hudler, news editor; Suzanne Teten, campus editor and Lauri Hopple, copy
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content of the newspaper lies solely in the hands of its student editors.
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ALL MATERIAL COPYRIGHT 1ES5 DAILY NS5RASXAN
group who
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DNG'" HM tie teflon coated,
Ma X armor piercing
l'i u flKLUVZ
Orr offers true leadership
By wholesome laws to embank
the sovereign power,
To deepen by restraint, and by
prevention
Of Lawless will to amass and
guide the flood
In its majestic channel, is
man 's task
And the true patriot 's glory!
Samuel Taylor Coleridge,
"Zapoyla" Prelude (1906)
Several years ago Soviet dissident
Alexander Solzhenitsyn bemoaned
the fact that U.S. politicians never
rise much above mediocrity because of
the "dozens of traps" set for any person
who would dare to lead.
X
Jim
Rogers
Some time ago, as I reflected upon
the possible Republican gubernatorial
candidates, Solzshenitsyn's comment
seemed sadly apropos to Nebraska, and
I confessed to a friend my rather lack
luster attitude respecting the upcom
ing race.
I told my friend that my anguish was
compounded by the adamant way the
single bright spot in the campaign
State Treasurer Kay Orr asserted
her reluctance to enter the race. My
attitude is much improved since Orr
announced her candidacy for governor.
Orr's candidacy is one of the most
exciting political developments in Ne
braska in more than a decade.
Given the false praise, self-puffery
and empty platitudes that stagnate the
atmosphere of most political campaigns
(and cause me to glance askance at the
politicians' claims), Orr's candidacy is
a breath of fresh air.
The case for Orr can be summed up
thus: calling, competence and com
munity. Several commentators have observed
that a sense of calling is largely lost in
today's political world. Many candi
dates eagerly seek the power of politi
cal office. This seems to be a particu
larly obvious bane among Nebraska
politicians. Yet Orr is unique.
In a conversation with her last week,
she said that it was "never one (of her)
goals to run for office, never an aspira
tion." Now, although such claims are
often proffered by candidates in a
poorly acted fit of false modesty, it
rings true in Orr's case.
Orr has been deeply involved in
politics for several decades and has
had many chances to pursue political
ambition, yet she did not. Rather, Orr
has moved "up" in the political world,
as it were, by being called into posi
tions of progressively greater responsi
bility. Orr's calling naturally begs that this
question be addressed: Why? The
answer is similarly straight forward.
The reason is extreme competence.
Her experience in politics and govern
ment has manifested the attributes of a
true leader: She is levelheaded, articu
late and realistic, yet deeply commit
ted to a vision of how government can
best serve people.
As Orr indicated, her style is non
"confrontational." Rather she desires
to "focus on a broader approach" to
solve Nebraska's problems. To most
politicians, the long run is irrelevant;
to Orr, it is the criterium of successful
government.
Finally, Orr is committed to the
Nebraska community. George Will wrote
a tribute that fits Orr and her ideals:
"In the best and most mature polities,
what government does is encourage
society to do things through its organic
working. Government can do this by
enhancing, in many ways, the vigor of
those intermediary institutions which
shape, support and inspire individuals,
drawing persons out of the orbits of
individualism and into social relation
ships." Foryears now there has been a death
of Republican leadership in state govern
ment. What leadership that has existed
has been parochial and uninspired. Orr
represents a bold departure from the
party's seemingly endemic mediocrity.
The state can ill afford to overlook the
opportunity to elect a leader with Orr's
capability and vision.
Rogers Is a UNL graduate economics
student and a law student.
Mom's in jail, Dad's in question
A Springfield, III, judge has tossed
a woman into jail for a really
shocking offense trying to pro
tect her own child.
Judge Stuart Shiftman is furious
because the woman didn't obey his
order to let her ex-husband, the child's
father, have weekend visitation rights.
The woman's reason for not obeying
the judge? There are indications
found by a state agency that the
child, 5, may have been sexually mol
ested by her own father.
Mike
Royko
And what makes Judge Shiftman's
jailing of the woman even more bizarre
is that the woman couldn't legally
allow the visitation rights if she wanted
to. The state, in an emergency move,
has taken custody of the child to pro
tect her.
Because a child is involved, I am not
going to use the family's name.
But the story began when the child
was about 1 XA years old, and the couple
was separated but still married. Things
the little girl said made the mother
suspect that her husband might have
been sexually abusing her on the week
ends he had the child.
She called the Illinois Department
of Children and Family Services End
they sent her to a psychologist who
specializes in sex-abuse cases. In inter
viewing the child and testing her, the
psychologist and a hospital found indi
cations of abuse.
At that point, DCFS stepped in.
There wasn't enough evidence for legal
action to be taken against the hus
band, but they got a court order requir
ing a caseworker be present when the
father had weekend visits with the
child.
When this happened, the father soon
stopped seeing the child or contacting
the mother. Eventually, the couple was
divorced. But recently the father went
to court and demanded full custody.
In hearing the custody case, Judge
Shiftman refused to admit testimony
about the possibility of sexual abuse.
He said it was old evidence. And he
ordered that the husband be given
unsupervised costody of the child on
alternate weekends until a hearing was
held on the question of full custody.
It was after this hearing last week
that the sex therapist who had treated
the child decided to contact the
Department of Family Services.
That's when the case took a re
markable legal twist.
DCFS has emergency authority to
take custody of a child for 48 hours if it
believes the child is in danger. And it
can do this without a court hearing.
After the 48 hours, a hearing must be
held. So, on Friday, DCFS exercised
this authority, took custody of the child
and give her to an aunt
Because weekends don't count in
the 48 hours, the child was in the
aunt's custody, under state protection,
when the mother went to Judge Shift
man's court on Monday. And the judge
blew up. Spectators said he had a
"temper tantrum."
He sentenced the mother to three
days in jail without bond for contempt
of court. He also said that if he could,
he would jail the DCFS supervisor and
the psychologist.
Once again, he wouldn't permit
them to testify about the alleged sex
ual abuse.
So now DCFS will go to another
court and get a judge to let them have
custody of the child until a full hearing
on the alleged sex abuse can be held.
But meanwhile, the mother is in the
pokey. And when she gets out of jail
later this week, Judge Shiftman says
he's going to again order her to give the
kid to the father for the weekend. If she
doesn't, she will be back in jail until
she obeys.
The judge refuses to discuss his rul
ing. But, in fairness, I should say some
thing in his behalf: Sure, he put the
mother in jail. And, true, he said he
wished he could toss the DCFS super
visor and the psychologist in jail. But,
hey, at least he didn't say anything
about throwing the kid in jail.
1E35 by the Chicago Tribune
Distributed by Tribune Media Services Inc.
oykd is a Pulitzer Prize-wisudutf colum
nist for the Ckicsgo Tribune.