Massengale agrees with report
By Tabitha Hiner
Senior Reporter
A proposal to raise admissions stan
dards at UNL as recommended in a
report to the Nebraska Legislature
deserves careful study, NU President
elect Martin Massengale told the NU
Board of Regents Saturday.
Changing admissions standards may
be “timely and appropriate,” Massen
gale said.
The report was issued Nov. 20 by
the consulting Finn Widmayer and
Associates of Chicago to the LB247
study committee The committee was
set up by the Nebraska Legislature to
conduct a comprehensive study of
higher education.
The admissions proposal and other
changes suggested in the report should
be examined to preserve the balance
among institutions, Massengale said.
Duplication among institutions
could arise with the development of
liberal arts curriculum on community
college campuses, Massengale said,
if the programs were similar to those
offered at state colleges and universi
ties.
If requirements at UNL are raised,
Massengale said, a higher level of
competence will be expected in class
work, and transfer between institu
tions could be difficult.
Yet transferability between state
institutions is suggested in the report,
Massengale said.
James McShane, president of the
Academic Senate, said UNL already
is considered “moderately selective”
and that if admissions standards are
changed, the changes should be made
with “extraordinary care.”
“It does not seem to me that UNL
belongs in the category of selective
admissions standards with Harvard
and Stanford,” McShane said.
Officials: Label doesn’t apply to UNL.
by iaDitna Miner
Senior Reporter
Although a report from the Na
tional Endowment for the Humani
ties suggests American educational
institutions arc tyrannical machines,
officials say that’s not the case at the
University of Nehraska-Lincoln.
Ellen Baird, associate vice chan
cellor for academ ic affairs, and James
O’Hanlon, dean of the Teachers Col
lege, said UNL does not have the
problems mentioned in the report,
“Tyrannical Machines: A Report on
Educational Practices Gone Wrong
and Our Best Hopes for Setting Them
Right.”
The report, recently issued by NEH
Chairman Lynne Cheney, said insti
tutions need to create alternative ways
to train and reward teachers and to
measure students’ academic ability.
Jerry Martin, assistant NEH chair
man for programs and policy, said,
“A lot of educational practices do not
work, and there is widespread agree
ment tnat they don t work.
While Martin said teachers need
to be educated with fewer theory
related classes and more practical
instruction, O’Hanlon said the divef
sdy of students in schools requires
teachers to have more theory classes
to understand those students’ diffi
culties.
Students have different language
skills, home backgrounds and mental
and physical abi lities, O’ Hanlon said.
“Too often, critics like her (Ch
eney) think about what it’s like to
teach the able students,” O’Hanlon
said.
Also in the report was a recom
mendation that professors be awarded
more for their teaching abilities.
“The question is, ‘If a person is an
outstanding researcher and a poor or
mediocre teacher, can he get ten
ure?’” Martin said. “The official line
is that they are both counted.”
Baird said UNL professors are not
evaluated on oneaspectsuch as leach
ing. They are evaluated by their teach
mg, research and service work com
bined, she said.
“If a faculty member is 90 percent
research and 10 percent teaching, then
it is possible, but not a foregone con
clusion,” that the teacher could get
tenure, Baird said.
To better measure students’ aca
demic ability, the report suggested,
tests such as the American College
Test and the Scholastic Aptitude Test
should be replaced.
One replacement would be the
National Assessment of Educational
Process, Martin said, which exam
ines students on mathematics, litera
ture, history, geography and biology.
Martin said such tests would give
colleges an idea of whether high school
students had learned basic things like
the year ChristopherColumbus sailed
to America.
Baird said she didn’t think there
were any perfect tests, but that the
ACT and SAT were among the effec
tive measures of college ability.
Budget
Continued from Page 1
“Then, as the legislative session
goes along, we can get a better idea of
what particular packages are possible
for the University of Nebraska,” he
said.
Phil Gosch, University of Ncbraska
Lincoln student regent, also supported
the delay
“If Ben Nelson is interested in
tightening the purse strings, then we
need to work with him,” he said.
While regents postponed voting
on budget issues, they did approve a
$300,000 request to help Kearney State
College’s transition into the NU sys
tem. KSC will become the University
of Nebraska at Kearney on July 1,
1991.
The funds will create a computer
communications network between the
Kearney campus and the NU main
processor. Additional staff, as well as
other administrative transition costs,
will be financed.
The regents also approved a $3.5
million addition to the UNK budget
request over the next three years.
The funds would go to such areas
as additional faculty members, in
structional equipment, the library, the 1
physical plant and retirement bene
fits.
In other aciion, the Board of Re
gents voted to approve the following:
• The establishment of a Center
for Sustainable Agricultural Systems
at the Institute of Agriculture and
Natural Resources at UNL. The cen
ter will help meet goals of existing
units within IANR and provide people
and resources to promote efficient
farming and ranching systems.
• The creation of a Center for
Rural Community Revitalization and
Development which will help rural
communities. The center will help
the communities gather information,
develop human resources and mobi
lize financial resources.
UNL official has faith
in staff pension funds
By David Burchell
Staff Reporter
Despite criticism that the perform
ance of university employees’ pen
sion funds may slide, a UNL official
said he has faith in them.
Gregory Clayton, director of in
surance and benefits, said the two
largest pension companies — the
Teachers Insurance and Annuity
Association and the College Retire
ment Equities Fund — have experi
ence handling retirement money.
“They’ve been in the pension
business a long time,’’ he said.
A recent article in Barron’s, a
weekly financial paper, criticized
TIAA-CREF, which handles UNL and
other universities’ retirement money,
and questioned whether the funds will
continue to perform well despite
changes in the economy.
Clayton said he can’t predict
whether lhe funds’ performance will
be better or worse in the next two
years.
“I don’t think anyone can tell you
that,’’ he said.
Although the depressed economy
has weakened the performance of
university pension funds, Clayton said,
similar funds also are down.
Faculty and staff members who
have been employed by the univer
sity for more than two years, work
half-time or more and are at least 26
years old are eligible to participate in
the pension plans.
Investors in the funds have their
choice between TIAA, a fund de
pendent on the interest rate for its
performance, and CREF, a stock fund
that follows the Standard and Poor
Index, a list of 500 companies’ stock
performances that is used as a bench
mark for pension fund performance.
Barron’s also criticized TIAA
CREF for not allowing the transferal
of dollars from TIAA into CREF.
Clayton said the reason for the
restriction is the long term nature of
the stock fund. If investors were al
lowed to transfer funds, he said, the
investments would have to be based
on short-term returns.
New money contributed to a fund,
however, can be redirected each month,
he said.
Clayton said there are no figures
for the total amountof money handled
for UNL employees by TIAA-CREF.
Each employee has his or her own
account with the pension fund com
pany, he said, so statistics for the
entire institution are net readily avail
able.
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