Math failure rate leads
to changes in curriculum
By Todd Neeley
Staff Reporter
The curriculum in UNL’s Department of
Mathematics and Statistics will be getting a
face lift in 1991 in an attempt to decrease
students’ math failure rate, an official said.
Jim Lewis, department chair, said the cur
riculum would be changed due to a seemingly
high number of students dropping out of math
or getting low grades.
“We weren’t satisfied students were meet
ing success” in math classes, he said. Lewis
said he did not know exact numbers, but he said
the failure rate was high enough to merit the
changes.
These are the curriculum changes:
• Math 90C, the non-credit intermediate
algebra class equivalent to three credit hours,
will become Math 95C, a non-credit class
equivalent to four credit hours. Non-credit classes
are for students who have trouble learning
math and have requirement deficiencies enter
ing college. Grades earned do not count toward
their grade point average or number of credit
hours for graduation.
• Math 100 and 101 will combine to form
Math 101, which will be a semester-long three
credit-hour course in algebra instead of two
quarter-long courses. To take Math 101, stu
dents will be required to have two years of high
school algebra instead of three semesters.
• Math 103, a semester-long five-credit
hour class, combines Math 100 and Math 102.
Math 103, trigonometry and college algebra,
will be for students with strong math back
grounds, Lewis said. After taking Math 103
students will be able to take Math 106, engi
neering calculus. Math 102 still will exist as a
two-credit-hour trigonometry course.
• Math 100A will be a three-credit-hour
intermediate algebra class designed to remove
entrance deficiencies for students who do not
have credit for second-year high school alge
bra. This course does not count toward gradu
ation.
Lewis said the changes, which arc to be
implemented in the spring of 1991, were ap
proved Friday by a university wide curriculum
committee. Faculty committees from the mathe
matics and statistics department and the Col
lege of Arts and Sciences also approved the
changes, he said.
Curriculum last was changed in 1972 in pre
calculus math classes at the University of
Nebraska-Lincoln.
Lewis said the math department at UNL
“has been slow to act” and that many univer
sities have been changing their math curricu
lums.
Lewis said he wasn’t sure how many sec
tions of the new courses would be available.
In the future, he said, the math department
will have to continue to ‘ ‘discover and respond
to demands” of students needing to take math
classes when determining the number of sec
tions.
mprifikn_1
UCl’s Parham will speak at UNL on Thursday
Thomas Parham, director of the Career Planning and Placement Center at the University
of California-Irvinc, will speak at 2 p.m. Thursday in the Centennial Room of the Nebraska
Union.
Parham is a speaker for the 1990-91 Minority Graduate Symposium Scries sponsored by
the Office of Graduate Studies, the Department of Educational Psychology and the
University Counseling Center.
Parham currently serves as president of the Association for Multicultural Counseling
and Development. He also is an active member of the Association of Black Psychologists,
the American Psychological Association and the American Association for Counseling and
Development.
A reception honoring Parham will be at 1:30 p.m. Friday in the Culture Center, 333
Park
Continued from Page 1
The move would not be as unsettling if more
classrooms, facilities or parking were added to
the university, Knudson said.
“We arc definitely not happy with our busi
ness being taken down for a park,” he said.
Kelly Chcrmok, bookkeeper at Taco Inn’s
general office, said the business has no plans on
when or where it will move.
Jean Aigncr, executive dean of Interna
tional Affairs, said her office in the Institute for
International Studies, 1237 R St., will remain
in its location for a few years and has not found
another location on campus.
Todd said that although the beginning date
for construction is not decided, the park is
scheduled to be built in phases.
Phase I of the park will include a small
paved plaza wired for sound for performers and
small ensembles, Todd said. The plaza will be
surrounded by a fountain that will serve as a
scaling wall. Raised planters will contain trees,
flowers and shrubs.
Also included in Phase I is a roofed structure
that will be located on the south side of the
Temple Building.
Phase II of the park plan will include the
area where the businesses arc located. This
area of the park will be an open “passive
space,” Todd said. There also will be some re
configuration of the Temple Building’s load
ing dock area, she said.
Goebel said one of the main reasons for the
park is to provide a link with downtown Lin
coln.
“The intention is to have a very attractive
garden into our campus,” he said.
Electoral
Continued from Page 1
(student) group, they are not going to have the
same questions.”
But if the elections were cut in half, all
important issues wouldn’t be voiced, he said.
Vitek said the change to six debates was
made ‘‘to provide opportunities for students to
hear the issues, but maintain the level that is
helpful to student candidates in being a full
time student.”
Fclker agreed that six debates is a good
number to give students enough time for school,
yet allow the issues to be heard.
In other action, the commission added a
provision for the removal of its members through
the student court for “egregarious violations”
of members’ rules of conduct.
The conduct rules were amended to include
a provision that commission members cannot
openly take a stand on any issue before student
voters. Under conduct rules, commission
members also cannot be a candidate or openly
support a candidate or student election group.
.Also, members must sign a notarized oath of
office.
Vitek said any student could have taken a
commission members’ actions before the stu
dent court before the provision was added.
“This is putting in writing what is pos
sible,” he said.
Reserves
Continued from Page 1
copies of iheir orders showing ship-oul dales.
Student reservists also can meet with Sch
wartzkopf to adjust their financial aid awards
and find out what they can do about housing,
books and even football tickets, she said.
Schwartzkopf said she expects the number
of student reservists contacting her to rise as
more reserve units are called up.
“There were a lot of students who were on
drill just this weekend, and they got the word
that they may go any time,” she said. “One
student told me he was told to be prepared to
leave within 48 hours anytime within the next
six months.”
Stiegeit, a UNL graduate student, said she
hopes to graduate in December despite the
setback.
Some students in Stiegcrt’s unit who have
classes requiring daily attendance such as physics,
foreign languages or math have to withdraw,
she said. But because the unitonly will be gone
two weeks, Sticgcrt and some others will be
able to complete the semester by making up
missed homework,
“My professors have all been wonderful,”
Sticgcrt said. “I have been working with them
to make up the work or do it ahead of time.”
Schwart/.kopf said most of the students she
has talked to have accepted activation with few
complaints. ,
“I don’t know if I’d be able to get my life in
order in 24 hours,” she said. “Some students
are upset about the timing because they’re into
the semester . . . and it’s affecting their aca
demic progress."
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