NetSraiskan
James Moore, an assistant professor of history, says he feels close to his students, and he takes a casual approach
to teaching.
Dream weaver
Professor’s pledge to live life seeps into teachings
By Jill OBrien
Staff Reporter ___ _
Every weekday morning, while still
lying in bed, James Moore asks
himself what he wants to do.
Moore, an assistant professor of history
who lives in Omaha, said his answer was al
ways the same.
“I want to drive to Lincoln and leach my
kids.”
For Moore, known as
“Doc" by his students,
teaching is an obsession
and a love. The gleam in
his brown eyes and genu
ine smile reflect that
passion.
A 1967 graduate of
the University ofNcbraska-Lincoln, Moore
works with five of the professors who once
instructed him. He admitted that he had a
hard lime — and still docs — addressing
those colleagues on a first-name basis.
“It’s truly a fascinating experience to
come back to your old school,” Moore said.
Before accepting his non-tenured appoint
ment at UNL, Moore said, he spent about 20
years teaching at Hofstra University, in
Hempstead, N.Y.; Polytechnic Institute in
Brooklyn, N.Y.; and Southampton College,
in Southampton, N.Y.
He returned to Nebraska when his mother
became ill, and last year started teaching
part lime at UNL. This year, he teaches full
time.
Moore has been to the West Coast, and
he has taught bridge and golf on cruise
ships. He has lived in Great Britain and
France and, recently, he visited Russia.
Now, Moore spends most of his time
teaching and advising students.
Except for his desk loaded with paper
work, an ashtray, telephone and colTcc maker,
his office is bleak. Boxes of unpacked files
and books stare longingly at the empty metal
shelves. His bare green walls cry out to
display the myriad leaching awards he has
received.
After Moore lit a Benson and Hedges
cigarette, he leaned back in his chair and
talked about leaching.
“The first rule of thumb on being a good
teacher is to know the audience,” he said.
Moore became the faculty adviser to the
UNL chapter of Della Tau Della fraternity,
he said, to learn more about his audience,
his “Dells,” and his students.
When he teaches students, Moore said,
he sits in front of his class and thinks aloud.
“The kids like to watch me go through a
thought process,” he said. “I don’t like to
lecture and lecture.
“1 vc always been very, very close to the
kids,” he said.
Moore’s students know that if they have
a problem, they can come to him, he said.
Recently, two students dropped by his
office for help on planning a trip to New
York.
Moore warned them to “stick to groups.
. . stay in mid-town Manhattan at night.
Don’t take the subway — walk.”
He relates to students and speaks their
language — the language of a friend..
“One of the things I try to do is to get my
students to dream a bit,” he said.
Moore said students should not feel they
must go through the life trap often pre
scribed by parents and students.
“You really can dream,” he tells his
students. “And yes, it’s going to be scary,
and yes, you’re going to think up a million
reasons why you shouldn ’t do this, but if it’s
your dream, do it.”
More lhan once, his students have heard
him quote, “There arc no problems, only
opportunities.”
He attributes his enthusiasm and positive
outlook partially to his grandfather, “a man
who always believed in the possible and
refused to be negative,” Moore said.
His own philosophy — “Life should be
lived”— enabled Moore to witness history
firsthand, particularly during the 1960s, he
said.
He recounts frightening stories about his
involvement in the Civil Rights movement,
when he participated in marches and voter
registration projects in the South.
But Moore was involved in more lhan
civil rights.
In 1967, Moore said he realized from a
historian’s viewpoint that the Vietnam War
was wrong, so he joined Students for a
Democratic Society.
In 1968, he was at the Democratic Con
vention in Miami Beach, Fla., when the
riots started.
“The fabled ’60s really ended in ’69,” he
said.
“My kids always ask me about Wood
stock,” he said, “and I was there.”
Woodstock was actually a funeral, he
said — a farewell to the ’60s and to the
dreams that had accompanied that decade.
Efforts to end the war had failed, he said.
The vision of civil rights as a non-violent
appeal to the better nature of while pooplc
also had failed, he said.
“1 still gel misty thinking about Martin
Luther King,” he said quietly, closing the
’60s chapter of his life.
Controversy
not only reason
for resignation,
NU coach says
By Thomas Clouse
Senior Editor
y Huppcrt, who spent the last 16
:ars as the Nebraska women’s swim
ing coach, announced his resignation
Wednesday following a year of controversy.
Earlier in the swimming season, Huppcrt
was accused of sexually harassing some of the
team members, Nebraska Athletic Director Bob
Dcvancy said in a KETV interview Nov. 6,
1991.
Dcvancy was unavailable for comment
Wednesday.
Michelle Butcher, a junior swimmer from
Alpine, Calif., said the controversy had an
adverse effect on the team.
“The team split up and there was a lot of
personal feelings between team members,’
Butcher said. “It was a hard year to gel through
and it showed in the Big Eight meet.”
The Huskcrs, who were the defending con
ference champions, were beaten by Kansas
741-586.
Butcher said the controversy made it hard to
focus on the season.
She said an investigation last fall proved
five allegations of sexual harassment were
true, but Huppcrt remained as coach.
“People looked at (the investigation) as a
charge against the team,” she said. “It wasn’t
See HUPPERT on 3
Osborne says
fair coverage
is important
By Sean Green
Senior Reporter
Nebraska football coach Tom Osborne
told a group of UNL journalism stu
dents and professors Wednesday that
he appreciated reporters who were accurate,
courteous and wrote balanced stories.
In a speech containing several anecdotes
and personal experiences, Osborne also spoke
about good and bad reporting, his dealings with
the media and coverage of UNL student An
drew Scott Baldwin’s alleged assault of a Lin
coin woman and a police officer Jan. 18.
He said there was a difference between a
reporter accurately quoting sources and a re
porter making sure sources arc credible.
Osborne also said he was opposed to report
ers using anonymous sources, especially in
controversial stories where an individual’s
reputation was at stake.
See OSBORNE on 2
Panel calls for reforms in education
By Jeremy Fitzpatrick
Semor Reporter _
Structural changes must be made
in colleges and universities to
improve the retention of mi
nority students, a panel of higher
education officials said Wednesday.
The panel was presented by Cox,
Matthews and Associates, Inc., pub
lishers of “Black Issues in Higher
Education," as a live telecast. The
University of Ncbraska-Lincoln’s
Affirmative Aclion/Equal Opportu
nity Office sponsored the teleconfer
ence in the Nebraska Union.
Uri Trcisman, a mathematics pro
fessor at the University of Texas and
Educators say minority retention
should be priority for colleges
director of the Dana Center for Mathe
matics and Science Education at the
University of Caliiomia-Bcrkelcy, said
col leges and uni vcrsilies m usl change
their methods of retaining minority
students.
“In higher education now, I think
we need radically new reform pro
grams ... “ he said.
Donna Shalala, chancellor of the
University of Wisconsin, said it was
critical for an entire university to get
involved in recruiting and retaining
minority students.
“It’s (necessary) that the entire
institution has to change its attitude,”
she said.
Shalala said universities needed to
adjust to the needs of students, rather
than telling them they should adjust
to the institution.
Trcisman agreed that universities
needed to make retention programs
part of the whole institution rather
than just one office.
“Instead of having tutors out there
in some building, have them in the
classroom ... “ he said.
Treisman said the way to disem
power minority students was to iso
late them from other students. To
prevent this isolationism, he said,
universities should create programs
aimed at creating a new environment
for the whole university.
Donald Phelps, chancellor of the
Los Angeles Community College
District, said colleges needed to find
permanent solutions to the problem
of minority recruitment and rctain
ment.
“lt*s important that we quit trying
See REFORM on 2
UNL’s Playboy models auto
graph photos. Page 3
Lincoln High 68510. Page 5
Nebraska rolls over Kansas
State. Page 13
Wto 2
Opinion 4
Sports 7
A & E 9
Classifieds 11