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Officials to stamp ‘fight-ending’ agreement
ny victoria \yoite
Staff Repoiter
An inter-local agreement between
the city of Lincoln and the University
of Nebraska-Lincoln dial will be
signed Friday represents the end of
fighting over the Malone neighbor
hood boundary, two UNL officials
said.
John Goebel, vice chancellor for
business and finance, said there’s
been lengthy discussion over the
years to bring the city and the univer
sity to agreement.
Kim Todd, a campus landscape
architect, said for a long time UNL
was as “the bad guy” in the Malone
dispute. The Malone neighborhood
felt that UNL was trying to “gobble
up” all their land, Todd said.
Work on developing a long-term
boundary began with the Northeast
Radial Reuse Task Force, which
oversees the Malone neighborhood.
UNL also developed a plan tor
coping with the land, she said.
“The problem with the other plan
was that it was two plans,” Todd said.
UNL and Lincoln both have the
right of eminent domain over their
properties, “so we have to agree,”
Todd said.
Goebel said the problem was a lack
of clarity with regard to the bounda
ries.
“You have to remember that the
university had set its boundaries a
long time ago and so had the city,”
Goebel said.
There hadn’t been sufficient dia
logue between the two, Goebel said.
Fourteen months ago, the Malone
Redevelopment Study Committee
was formed, which was made up of
two representatives of the city, the
university, the Malone Neighborhood
Association and the Malone Center.
Goebel was one of the university’s
representatives.
Although the plan s development i
took longer than intended, what re- .
suited is a plan that will work because
all parties involved had a part in the
decision-making, Todd said.
“The fighting is over,” she said.
“The animosity and hard feelings are
over.” j
“There will no longer be those j
decisions made without the knowl
edge of the other,” with this plan, she
said.
Goebel said this is a good plan
because of the “excellent mixture” of
people who worked on it, even though
he said it took a long time to get the
issues resolved.
“It was a genuine consensus,” j
Goebel said.
The plan has two parts: a land-use
plan and an implementation plan.
The MaloncCenterand manor will
remain on the block they are on now,
See MALONE on 3
I j
workshops attack communication harriers
Connie Sheehan/Daily Nebraskan
Lu
By Deanne Nelson
Staff Reporter
Foreign teaching assistants and University
of Nebraska-Lincoln students must look to
each other and themselves beforeall communi
cation barriers can be destroyed, according to
several UNL T.A.’s.
“We can learn from each other,” said Ling
Lu, a Chinese T. A. in the department of chem
istry.
Now foreign T.A.’s have another way to
learn. They can attend one of four three-week
summer workshops at UNL. These workshops
concentrate on various language, cultural and
teaching barriers, said Robert Furgason, vice
chancellor for academic affairs.
The language barrier begins overseas
when foreign students take English language
classes that do not emphasize actual speaking
said Gholam Mirafzal, another T.A. in the
chemistry department and a native of Iran.
The workshops can help these foreigners by
tparhinir ihom American <dano and arronK 1.11
said. When students in China learn English, she
said, they are taught by British-accented in
structors, making it difficult for them to under
stand Americans when they come to the U.S.
“The first time I heard someone say 'It’s
cool,’ I didn’t know what that meant,’’ she said.
Mirafzal said that even though students cite
language barriers as the biggest hindrance to
learning, barriers are usually caused by differ
ent customs and backgrounds.
“Workshops with instruction on American
culture and teaching methods, which many
foreigners have no idea about, can be very
helpful,’’ Mirafzal said.
f,Some T.A.’s have problems in adjusting to
American customs, but they have to acknowl
edge that this can be educational for both
themselves and for the students,” Mirafzal said.
This learning can also be two-fold in relation
to the class. Lu said that in her lab teaching she
listens to the students and their corrections of
her English. She uses “their way” the next time,
she said.
These problems and others can also be
remedied, orat least lessened, Mirafzal said, by
T.A.’s actions. If these foreign students would
“interact and socialize outside of class,” then
these barriers would fall as their English and
awareness of American culture improved from
interaction.
Mirafzal, recipient of the 1987-88 Distin
guished Teaching Award for Teaching Assis
tants of the College of Arts and Sciences,
stressed that it is not all the foreign T.A.’s fault,
either.
“Sometimes when students aren’t perform
ing well, they blame the T.A.,'’ he said.
Mirafzal said T.A. shyness is a big factor in
, blocking communication, especially in recita
tions where T.A.’s speak to the class for long
periods of lime.
Candidates to be T.A.’s must pass a spoken
language test that serves two purposes.
“The spoken test is good because it shows if
they don’t have a good command of the lan
guage and if they would be shy in the class
room,” he said.
If T.A.’s conquer their shyness, they can
make students feel comfortable and increase
communication, Mirafzal said.
“If you show the students you’re willing to
teach in and out of class, then they will be
willing to learn,” Mirafzal said.
He said one of his main goals as a T. A. is to
“bring the students who are academically down
up again.”
“These are the students I give the most
attention to, and they are the ones who give me
the most appreciation and experience,” he said.
Furgason said studentscan also reap rewards
See T.A. on 3
Connie Sheehan/Dally Nebraskan
Mirafzal
