Officials differ over new UNL program
A
Some say graduate guarantee
inappropriate, unnecessary
By Susie Arth
Senior Reporter
Employers may give UNL Chancellor
Graham Spanicr a pal on the back for
his guarantee of graduates, but other
Big Eight administrators are giving him mixed
reviews.
Eddie Smith, associate dean of the Univer
sity of Oklahoma’s Graduate College, said he
did not think the guarantee was appropriate.
An education should instill in students the
desire for further education, Smith said, not
training for specific jobs.
“We’re not a Big Mac university,” he said.
“We don’t teach students how to cook ham
burgers.”
The guarantee is impractical because of the
statistics on how often college graduates change
careers, Smith said.
“A college education is only the beginning
of a life-long learning process.”
Oklahoma, he said, tries to prepare its stu
dents with the skills they need to adapt to
different jobs.
Smith said he thought Spanier made the
guarantee to combat a widespread belief that
universities were failing their students in work
force training.
John Fairman, assistant vice president of
University Relations at Kansas Stale Univer
sity, said he thought Spanier’s guarantee was
consistent with the theory behind the entire
university system.
UNL’s guarantee will project an image of
academic excellence to employers, he said,
and job recruiters may sec it as an incentive to
come to UNL to look for guaranteed employ
ees.
“(UNL) is showing that it is providing prepa
ration to make students viable and valuable
employees,” he said.
KSU has never considered making a similar
guarantee, he said, because employers in the
area have always expressed satisfaction with
graduates.
“It’s an excellent idea,” he said. “It just has
not arisen as an issue here.”
Natalca Watkins, director of communica
tions at Oklahoma State University, said OSU
offered a similar guarantee for students in
technical branches.
See GUARANTEE on 8
Graduates’ skills ‘guaranteed’
to future employers by Spanier
By Susie Arth
Senior Reporter
The University of Nebraska Lincoln’s
Guarantee Program will improve the
university’s image and attract more job
recruiters, an official said.
Mike Mulnix, director of the Office of Pub
lic Relations, said the guarantee of graduates
issued by the UNL ChanccllorGraham Spanicr
would only improve the school’s status.
In a press conference last week, Spanicr
guaranteed employers that UNL students would
have all the basic skills for their specific job. If
students do not, the university will pay for them
to make up for any deficiencies.
Mulnix said he thought the guarantee would
improve UNL’s image among employers.
The timing of the guarantee corresponds
with tight economic limes and a decrease in the
number of job recruiters coming to the UNL
Career Planning and Placement Center to find
employees. The number of job recruiters has
been falling over the past few years, he said.
“It’s not a public relations gimmick,” Mulnix
said. “It’s an attempt to try to increase the
number of recruiters coming to this campus.”
The idea, he said, did not stem from com
plaints coming from employers. Mulnix said
he had heard only minor complaints about a
few UNL graduates.
Mulnix said he did not expect the guarantee
to lead to an increase in employers’ com
plaints.
If employers do complain, Mulnix said, the
students would not necessarily return to UNL
to make up for the deficiency. Instead, students
could lake classes through Continuing Studies
and satellite technology.
“We won’t fly somebody in to take a course
at UNL,” he said. “We’ll send the course to
them.”
The publicity the guarantee has brought to
the university has been positive so far, he said,
and he wouldn’t be surprised if UNL started a
trend that spreads to universities across the
country.
“(Spanicr’s) willingness to propose stand
ing behind our students shows he has confi
dence in this institution,” Mulnix said. “It will
help our image as a place of quality education.”
Kiley Timperley/DN
Traipsing trunks
Children watch the elephants march past Tuesday morning as the Grand Animal Walk ol The Greatest Show on Earth winds
its way from Burlington yard to Persning Auditorium for the Ringiing Bros, and Bamum & Bailey Circus.
‘Freshman’
falls out
of favor
By Susie Arth
Senior Reporter
A UNL official said she
wouldn’t be surprised if the
university got rid of its “fresh
man” class some day.
Peg Blake, assistant vice chancel
lor for student affairs at UNL, said
Nebraska Wesleyan University had
changed the term “freshman” to “first
year student,"and similar discussions
have been arising at the University of
Ncbraska-Lincoln.
Colocn Gowcn, assistant vice presi
dent for university relations at NWU,
said the university decided to change
the term “freshman” to “first-year
student” in its magazines, newsletters
and brochures to avoid sexist lan
guage.
The College of St. Mary in Omaha
stopped using the term last year.
Blake said she was unaware of any
official movement to do the same at
UNL.
But many professors and adminis
trators have made efforts to quit using
the word “freshman” and have found
alternate ways to refer to first-year
students, she said.
“It wouldn’t surprise me if the
; Official says Andrew’s storms staying south
By Keri Brabec
Start Reporter
Hurricane Andrew was the most
powerful and destructive slorm
to hit Florida in more than 70
vears, but its force won’t send storms
Nebraska’s direction.
Many times when a slorm as
powerful as Hurricane Andrew strikes,
even the weather in distant areas,
such as Nebraska, can be affected, a
National Weather Service spokesman
said.
But Hurricane Andrew should have
no effect on Nebraska weather, the
spokesman said.
“We may have some showers dur
ing Wednesday and Wednesday night,
but this is not associated with the
hurricane in any way,” he said.
It is hard to predict whether a storm
or hurricane will affect distant areas,
the weather service spokesman said.
Tropical Storm Lester, for example,
caused a great deal of precipitation in
Nebraska, he said.
Most of the moisture from Hurri
cane Andrew will fall along a front
that moved through southeast Nebraska
Monday evening, the National Weather
Service reported. The front will be
located near the Tennessee Valley
and the Appalachian Mountains by
the time the hurricane causes any
precipitation along the front.
Fifteen people died and more than
50,000 were left homeless after Hur
ricane Andrew struck southern Flor
ida Monday, according to The Asso
ciated Press.
Along with 168 mph wind gusts,
the storm brought $15 billion to $20
billion worth of damage to the state.
Hurricane Andrew was moving
across the Gulf of Mexico toward
Louisiana Tuesday.
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AP
