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X L#1 O ^ P | Classified...........Page 10
November 30, 1987 University of Nebraska-Lincoln Vol. 87 No. 65
Retiring faculty will leave UNL in a bind
30 percent of instructors will be gone by year 2000; new teachers hard to find
Editor s note: I his is the first
story in a three-part series focusing
on the problems and future of col
lege faculty members.
By Eric Paulak
Staff Reporter
By the year 2000 about 30 percent
of the University of Nebraska
Lincoln’s faculty members will reach
retirement age, leaving UNL to look
for new faculty members in a shrinking
marketplace in which they are no
longer competitive.
The Teachers College will be hit
hardest by this trend. According to a
UNL self-study, 60 out of 132 faculty
members in the Teachers College will
reach age 65 in the next 13 years.
James O’Hanlon, dean of the
Teachers College, said the college
already is having problems with retire
ments.
This year, six faculty members
went into partial retirement, which
gave the teachers a smaller workload,
but does not allow for hiring new
people to make up for the lost work.
Some positions were consolidated, but
students didn’t get all the classes they
wanted because of a lack of funds,
O’Hanlon said.
The College of Arts and Sciences
also will suffer a serious blow. About
130 out of 451 faculty members will
reach retirement age by the year 2000.
Thirteen faculty members retired in
the past two years.
G.G. Meisels, dean of the College
of Arts and Sciences, said that because
of retirements and faculty members
leaving for other jobs, the college has
47 positions open. The college is
trying to fill some positions, but is
having difficulty because of the low
salaries at UNL, he said.
Meisels attributes the large number
of upcoming retirements to the enroll
ment boom in American colleges dur
ing the early 1960s. Because more
students were in college, more instruc
tors were needed. These instructors
will reach retirement age in the next 10
to 15 years.
Robert Furgason, vice chancellor
l
for academic affairs, said that because
of a current trend of fewer people
faculty is going to get smaller, This
will drive up the cost for faculty, he
said.
UNL’s faculty salaries are already
$4,000 to $6,000 below those of simi
lar land-grant universities, and unless
the salaries are increased drastically,
UNL will not be i umpetitive and the
quality of education will slip, Fur
gason said.
Karen Craig, dean of the College of
Home Economics, said that college
already has gone through the retire
ment problem. The college had five
retirements in two years and expects
only 14 in the next 13 years.
Two positions in the College of
Home Economics were eliminated
because of retirements, two were con
solidated, and all departments were
cut by 10 percent, Craig said.
“We arc going to be so tight this
year that we will just squeak by,”Craig
said.
Craig, who taught at Purdue Uni
versity tw o years ago, said Purdue had
problems with retirements, but be
cause of annual salary increases, the
college didn’t have problems filling
vacant positions.
Jim Lewis, Faculty Senate presi
dent, said one way the faculty is trying
to alleviate the problem is by speaking
to citizen groups and legislators.
Furgason said the key to solving the
retirement problem is to get more
money for UNL.
“Universities will become more
competitive,” Furgason said, “and the
ones with the money will win.”
—i
Dave Hansen/Daily Nebraskan
Verlyn Dodge leads Karen Neal, her daughter Amy and Neil Shafer on a
cross-country ski tour through Pioneers Park Sunday afternoon.
Snow blankets city in holiday spirit
By Christine Anderson
Senior Hditor
Christmas lights, snowmen, slick roads and
icc drifted in with the season's first snow.
Lincoln received 5.3 inches of snow during
the Thanksgiving weekend.
Driving conditions became ha/ardous for
travelers in centra!, northeast and southeast
areas of the state, accord ing to reports compiled
by the National Weather Service in Lincoln.
However, snow plows cleared most areas
throughout the weekend. And highways arc
back to “winter driving conditions’’— roads
covered with 25 percent or less snow, according
to Nebraska State Patrol reports.
Officials reported that Interstate HO was a
sheet of icc from Kearney to Omaha over the
weekend.
Weather reports said roads running east and
west were the worst because northern winds
caused blowing and drifting snow.
Three traffic deaths were reported in Nc
braska during the weekend. The number of
traffic accidents was unavailable.
But the snow also brought Christmas spirit
to the area.
Snowmen popped up in many yards, and
Christmas lights beamed patterns in windows
during evening hours.
The weekend after Thanksgiving is one of
the best times for Christmas tree sales, said
Dale Riekcnbcrg, manager of Campbell’s
Nurseries & Garden Centers Inc., 2342 S. 40th
St.
The store sold about 100 trees over the
weekend.
Employees had to remove snow from most
of the 500 to 600 trees in the lot, Riekenberg
said.
However, snowy conditions are expected to
end in the Lincoln area within the next few
days.
Temperatures will reach the 30s Tuesday
and 40s Thursday. Snow is not forecast for early
in the week.
Serious business
Evaluations aren’t unheard
By Randy Lyons
Staff Reporter
As students fill out teaching evaluations
at the end of the semester, they can take heart
that they won’t just be relieving anger on
paper.
Student evaluations are looked at care
fully and taken seriously, university offi
cials said.
Although the student evaluations arc
only one factor used in an overall instructor
evaluation, they are important in determin
ing tenure, promotion and pay raises.
Jim Walter, chairman of the department
of curriculum and instruction, said instruc
tors in the Teachers College are reviewed
annually. While teaching performance is
most important, an instructor is also re
viewed on such things as service to the
University of Nebraska-Lincoln and the
community, and in-class presentations, he
said.
While the evaluations arc important to
the instructors’ reviews, Walter said, they
also reflect upon the course and let instruc
tors know where they stand.
OUIIIC IIISUUllUI Sill IIIC I I dlllCIS V UIIC^C
also make videotapes of their classes to help
them judge their performance, he said.
Walter said he would like to see data
collected from students at different times of
the semester instead of just the end.
“There may be a positive bias at the end
of the semester because there is generally a
positive feeling after the class is finished,”
Walter said. “In the middle of the course,
students’ feelings arc based on how they’re
feeling at the lime and may be a little more
valid.
He said the evaluations completed by
students are effective only if used properly
and if the information is collected systemati
cally.
The system has positive and negative
consequences, Walter said. He said he has
seen some faculty members leave and some
who hav en’t achieved tenure because of the
overall evaluation process. But most have
done very well, he said.
S tephen S. H i lliard, assoc late dean of the
College of Arts and Sciences, said the evalu
ations certainly have an impact. He said the
evaluations usually only get to him when the
instructor is considered for promotion and
tenure.
If the instructor is doing unsatisfactory
work, is consistently evaluated poorly by
entire classes and show s no sign of improve
ment, the possibility of job termination
emerges, Hilliard said.
“I’ve seen il happen,” he said. “If il gets 1
that bad, it usually doesn’t get to the dean’s 1
office because it is handled by the depart- 1
ment.”
Most department chairs intervene by
working with the instructor and by encour
aging steps to improve, he said. If there is a
problem, most instructors will take il upon
themselves to improve, he said.
All instructors are usually required to
take part in the evaluations, Hilliard said. If
an instructor refused, he or she could be
fired, he said, or may suffer in merit pay.
For some instructors, evaluations aren’t
too important because their main duties may
involve research instead of teaching, he
said.
Harvey Perlman, dean of the College of
Law, said the studentevaluations are invalu
able to him because they allow him to see
trends and student reactions.
“If an instructor is terribly good or bad,
we hear about it quickly from students,’’
Perlman said. “We’re a close community
out here.’’
Perlman said he usually ignores the ex
tremes and looks at the average evaluation
of the class.
“Good teaching involves taking risks,”
he said. “There is a good chance that you’ll
offend a few and enlighten a few.”
Although the student evaluations are
invaluable, Perlman said, they are not en
tirely accurate. He said he has known great
instructors who haven’t always received
terrific evaluations.
Larry J. Walklin, chairman of the broad
casting department in the College of Jour
nalism, said he has always had a positive
approach to the evaluations. He said the
evaluations give good feedback to the in
structors and prov ide good ideas for upgrad
ing the course.
Walklin said he has never seen an instruc
tor removed. The evaluations he secs arc
amazingly good, he said.
“Wonderful teaching is the norm, and it’s
fun to see an instructor who stands out even
more and exceeds ex|)ectations,” he said.
Anonymity of students filling out the
evaluations is an important aspect of the
process because it allows them to be honest,
officials said.
Officials also stressed that even though
the actual evaluations are seen by the in
structors after final grades have been turned
in, the anonymity of the forms protects the
student in future classes taken with the same
instructor.
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