Editorial
I Daily
■Nebraskan
Amy HdwrariwfldBnr, 47i-l7t6
LoeKcod. editorial Rote Editor
Jam Kin, Momgi*f Editor
Brandon Luomii, Associate Nem Editor
Brian Svebodc, Coitemist .
Bob Notion, Cmfnwniiif
Jerry Guenther, Senior Reporter
Ted and Wally’s mourned
What a shame that we can no
longer enjoy Ted & Wally’s ice
cream in Lincoln. This August the
local ice cream parlor was forced to
close foe several reasons, not the least
of which was financial.
You see, when Ted and Dean
(Wally) first opened their store on
12th street, business was incredible.
Thev bad a marketable product and
the location was very accommodat
ing.
However, this soon changed as the
urtversky, in its infamous wisdom,
required die business to move from
te building a few years back. The
masoning was that Uiey decided to
reevaluate the use of the space on
UNL property
Of course, the building still stands
todty. same mtwojtap ago, except
without two Srefwfe businesses
operating in k. Whew they moved to
feted about a two- thirds profit loss.
Many factors can be ounbutod to
this, including: saturation by sev
eral other ice cream/yogurt store;, a
poorer location, ana lack of availr
able parkings White not ail the
blame is the university's, it Is sail
apparent that they contributed Id the
demise of an original and very suc
cessful operation.
By the way, you can still or joy
Ted A Wally’s ice cream ft liwr
Omaha store m the Old Market.
Anyway, thanks Ted and Dsm lor
serving die public in more ways
than one. First, by creating a version
of ice cream that in rated in the top
250 in thecouatry. and secondly, by
showing the quectkmibte business
operations that ao an around here at
ourUNL.
Keelan Kaiser
former Ted A Wally's eibfSye*
Too few students ask questions
Action should be taken to end fear of professors’ retaliation
Have you ever heard a student
challenge a professor in
class? When a professor
makes a statement with which you
disagree, do you take issue with the
point or simply let it slide by?
Ltd weak, one of my nrofceeers
made some bold statements about iife
and society in daas. One of his con
tentions was that we arc all living out
the script of a movie with which we
identify. He gave a number of ex
amples sad showed how we could see
many people living out movies.
One bold student in our class did
something our professor said had
never been done to him: He put the
professor on the spot and asked him to
explain what movie he lived in and
why. After our professor got over his
initial shock, he gave usa very inter
esting and insightful answer. What
struck me was not his answer, but the
£Kt that no student had put him on the
spot before.
This particular professor dm been
teaching here for quite some time and
yet no one had ever asked him 4o
personalty verify his contention.
Another student in our class said that
he figured someone would have
asked the ptofessor that question.
Feriiaps we all figure someone else is
asking the lough questions. But if we
aren't, who is?
Far too often students are passive
observers rather than active partici
pants. Every day professors and
graduate students tell us their truths
of the universe and we write them
down, rarely questioning or asking
them to prove what they say.
The big question is why? Why
don't we challenge our professors?
The answers are probably wide and
varied, but 1 think there are a few
general ones which might be tree.
Perhaps we just really don’t care.
we re afraid of the conse
quences of raising a stink, or perhaps
we just don’t think it’s our place to
Cffffjkw these ututhon(ics ••
dcs*t die. Every one of us is readied
110 trike chases we just don't want to
take. Obviously we're not going to
spend allow time dealing with these,
but we should take a stand on those
issues, and classes, we care about
Few of us stand up to our profes
sor, perhaps because we't* afraid of
the consequence*. After all. it's our
professor who give ns grades and
do any
safer for us to just sit there and taka
what they say, regurgitate it on a test,
get oar good grade, and be on oar
merry way. ! can remember many
times when I disagreed with a profes
sor but didn't say anything because I
feared questioning him or her would
endanger my grade.
We live with a grade guillotine
above our heads and it is preventing
us from making professors prove
their contentions to ensure us that
they know what they're talking
about We sit passively and accept,
rather than question and decide. Per
haps this is a misguided perception
Maybe our professors wouldn’t hurt
us for challenging them. But there is
s perception that they would, or at
least a tear that they might And re
gardless of what is real, we live in a
world dominated by perceptions and
fears.
•t ^ Am
It all comes down to who works for
whom. Typically we see professors
as being “in charge" of us. But is this
right? We pay, through tuition, and
our parents pay, through taxes, die
salaries of our teachers. They are
employees of the state of Nebraska
and we are the people of this state. In
other words, they work for us.
But it rarely seems that way, does
it? We don't seem to act like employ*
ers and our professors don’t treat us as
such. I’m reminded of a specific inci
dent of professorial arrogance which
infuriated me last year. I was shown a
course syllabus dial a student had
received from a professor. On the
bottom of the syllabus this conde
scending, self-inflating professor had
typed. This is a bitch of a course.
Drop now and avoid the rush." Can
you believe that? Is this the attitude
which should be held by a state em
ployee who is hired to serve us?
Or for a couple of other example*:
A student recently told me that she
had a teacher's assistant who showed
up to teach a review session drunk.
Another student told me his professor
caw to class drunk. In the “m|
world," if any of us had an employee
show up ic work drunk, werd fk»
them.
& less extreme, but more fre
quent, cues, wev© all had professors
show up less than prepared foraclass.
And we’ve all bad professors make
contentions which may not be true or
they probably couldn’t prove if ques
tioned* Professor* certainly penalize
us when we are unprepared or when
we can’t verify our conclusions. Why
should it be any different for them?
It's time we re-evaluate roles, and
realize dial incidences such as these
show cases of instructors willfully
neglecting their duties to serve the
students and facilitate learning in this
sane.
Obviously we can’t fire our pro
fessors and die relationship is a
slightly different employcr/em
picyee situation. Certainly professors
roust control classroom situations
and they must evaluate the work of
students. Perhaps it's actually more
of an eropioycr/emptoyer relation
ship. They art employed to teach and
we are employed to learn, and we
evaluate each other. But it’s up to us
to mate sure they are doing their jobs.
Even if this mates sense and it’s
something we want to do, we still
have the rear of retaliation from fac
ulty. Perhaps some action could be
taken to remove this fern. I am quite
confident that people like Jim
McShane, faculty senate president;
James Grieseu, vice chancellor for
student affairs; and Robert Furgason,
vice chancellor for academic affairs,
want students to feel like they are
getting the moat out of their classes.
I’m sure they also would want to
ensure that. UreL faculty are doing a
good job.
Maybe they can come up with
some action or at least some state
mem to assure students that reporting
drunken professors or challenging
questionable ones won't be allowed
to hurt our grades. Maybe such a
policy already axis*, but if it does we
need to know about Hand be encour
aged to follow ft. .
When instructors neglect their
duties, we SoSdbesareroe people
who can fire them know about the
problem. And they better be willing
to listen. We need to do leas question
ing in our minds and more question
ing in our classrooms. After all. the
quality of education we receive is
directly dependent on the quality of
teaching done by our professore.
When they don't do their job well,
we're the ones who lose. So let's
make sure we don't lose.
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" ■Hr Hirtrarti ratoiwttt
