Students say learning should replace grades
Minority teachers '
are also needed
By Jeff Zeleny
Senior Reporter_j___
Too much emphasis is placed
on grades and lest scores in
school, a Nebraska Wesleyan
University student told a National
Educational Goals Panel that met in
the Nebraska Union Tuesday.
“We really need to change the
focus to learning,” Charles Lieske, a
NWU political science and commu
nication major, said.
About 25 students from the Uni
versity of Nebraska-Lincoln, NWU,
Union College, Southeast Commu
nity College and Lincoln Pius X High
School offered similar suggestions to
panel members Nebraska Gov. Ben
Nelson, Colorado Gov. Roy Romcr
and Carol Rasco, chief domestic ad
viser to President Clinton.
Romcr said he agreed that grades
played too heavily in education. He
compared education to his pilot train
ing and said experience was a bigger
part of education.
“No one was concerned about
grades,” he said. “The pilots’ license
was the important thing.”
College admittance revolves com
pletely around grades and competi
tion, which doesn’t necessarily help
the students, he said.
“Grades become the object,” he
said. “I ’ ve got to put my brother down
inordcr to get in—society should not
be that way.”
Rasco said competition could still
exist without hurting the students edu
cationally.
“There can still be that competi
-«■ .
There can still be that competition without having
to see who gets so many A's and so many B's.
—Fiasco
President Clinton's Chief domestic adviser
■ ■ ' ' ' fti -
lion without having to see who gels so
many A’s and so many B’s,” she said.
Nelson also said testing was looked
at too much in higher education. One
reason is because it is an easy, yet not
always effective, way to gauge where
students stand academically.
W V
“We know how to measure test
scores,” Nelson said, “Are we teach
ing people to be good citizens or to get
good grades?”
See NELSON on 6
Neighbors glad
to see downfall
of Cherry Hut
By Andrea Kaser
Staff Reporter
he time has come for the Cherry Hut’s
last hurrah.
The party hall at 421 W. Dawes
Ave., a common sight for student parties, will
be tom to the ground by the end of the month,
its new owner said.
“When it happens, the neighbors will all
cheer and the students will all cry,’’ said Bill
Kennedy, a homebuilder who bought the land.
One neighbor is cheering already. Ted
Koperski,33l W. Dawes Ave.,said the newsof
the doomed Cherry Hut made his day.
“It’s been a big pain in the neck,” Koperski
said.
He said he had been left to clean up after the
partygoers for the 12 years he had lived in his
- home.
They would leave beer bottles and other
litter in his yard, he said.
“If sagood riddance, because underage kids
were drinking in there,” Koperski said.
White the neighbors look forward to the
demolition, students arc trying to find alterna
tive sites to party off campus.
Andy O’Connor, a member of Alpha Tau
Omega Fraternity, said the Cherry Hut was a
good place to have parties where two or more
houses converged.
His house had more parties there than in
bars, he said. But now his fraternity has little
chance of finding a comparable site.
“All of a sudden, it’s ‘boom’ — they close it
down, then it’s back to the bar scene,“O’Connor
said.
Although O'Connor said he didn't condone
underage drinking, freshmen like himself and
sophomores were shut out of the bars and
„ wouldn’t be able to celebrate with their
uppcrclass friends on occasions such as pinning
ceremonies.
But the ne w owner said the sale wasn ’ t a ploy
against students having a good lime.
“I’m trying to build houses for families,^and
that (partying) has nothing to do with it,” he
said.
Kennedy is always looking for places to
build houses, he said, and after seeing the
empty lots across from the Cherry Hut, he
thought he would make an offer to its owner,
Tommy Jelsma, who also owns the Royal Grove
Nile Club.
Jelsma said the hall was the original Royal
Grove, opened by his grandmother in the early
1930s after the end of Prohibition. The building
is old and decrepit, and the roof is sagging, he
said.
Jelsma said the Cherry Hut wasn’t making
. enough Phoney, and he wanted to save himself
from the expenses of lawn care and real estate
taxes.
“We feel it’s probably time to get the build
ing tom down," Jelsma said. However, he said
he was aware that students would miss the
building.
“Quite a few students will have a lot of good
memories there,” he said.
A fraternity will have the last party there
Saturday, Jelsma said, and the property offi
cially changes hands Monday. Kennedy said he
planned to clear the building that week.
The price is not yet public record, and
Kennedy declined to say how much he paid for
the property. Kennedy plansto build 16moder
ately-priccd houses, he said.
KMey Timpen«y/DN
Ken Dewey, a meterology professor at UNL, uses his weather-chasing as
an educational tool. “I am literally living my field of study," he said.
Storm chaser
Weather keeps professor running
By Steve Smith
Senior Editor
Ken Dewey is a weather weenie.
No.no, it’sOK. He doesn’t mind
the title. In fact, he gave it to him
self.
A weather weenie, the UNL geography
professor and department co-chairman said,
is someone who loves to
follow severe weather to
decipher how it works
and what it can do.
“Webelongtoa‘quasi
support group’ of weather
weenies,” he said. “Offi
cially, so it sounds good,
we call ourselves storm
chasers.”
Dewey and fellow storm chasers travel
all over the country in search of violent
storms and wild geographic occurrences,
such as mudslides or floods.
He’s raced after tornadoes and thunder
storms. He’s studied the effects Hurricane
Hugo had on Puerto Rico.
He’s even been to Atlanta to sec a bliz
zard, Arizona to witness flash flooding and
California to check out a massive mudslide.
He’s worked as a consultant for the
Weather Channel and recently had the op
portunity to tour the cable television station.
Yep. He’s seen just about every natural
and weather event known to man.
And it’s all in the name of education.
Unlike some weather weenies, who
Dewey says chase after hurricanes and tor
nadoes for a personal high, the professor
passes on his experiences chasing severe
storms and bizarre geographical occurrences
to others — namely, his geography, clima
tology and meteorology students at UNL.
Fair sponsors
working to stir
earth awareness
Eco-fair to educate using
bands, speakers, displays
By Doug Kouma
Staff Reporter
Environmental awareness will take center
stage Thursday as several UNL organi
zations observe Earth Day 1993 at an
“eco-fair” around Broyhill Fountain.
“It’s an educational blitz,” said Dave Regan,
director of the University of Ncbraska-Lincoln
Environmental Resource Center. “Education is
a year-round thing, but this is a time when you
can get everybody all at once to start talking
about something in a more coordinated way.”
_44_
If you don't take care of where
you live, someday you might
not have a place to live.
—Wray
Ecology Now treasurer
W V
The fair is sponsored by Ecology Now and
the ERC. The theme is “Stand Up for What You
Stand On,” and the fair will feature special
displays, guest speakers and entertainment from
9 a.m. to 9 p.m.
Gov. Ben Nelson will speak on environmen
tal issues affecting Nebraska at 10:30 a.m.,
while Glen Schumann, assistant director of
UNL Housing, will speak on residence hall
conservation programs at 7:30 p.m.
If it rains, both presentations will be moved
to the Nebraskan Union Ballroom.
Exhibits featuring an electric car, high-effi
ciency light and a solar motor will be displayed
from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Other organizations that will have exhibits
include Ecology Now, the UNL Wildlife Club
and the Nebraska Vegetarian Society.
Local bands — the Yardapes, Tadpole
Paddy wack and the Penguins of Destruction —
will play from 3:30 to 7 pjn.
m
Galen Wray, treasurer of Ecology Now and
an organizer of the fair, said he thought it was
important for people to take part in the events.
“Ifyou don ’ t take care of where you live,” he
said, “someday you might not have a place to
live.”
He stressed that young people in particular
should be concerned about the environment.
“I think it’s important for college students to
be involved because they are old enough to take
responsibility for their actions, and they arc
young enough to have a stake in it," Wray said.
'‘Basically, they are protecting their future.”
In addition to the fair on campus, Wray said,
an “Earth Track” hike will take place at Chet
Ager Nature Center in Pioneers Park from 6 to
7:30 p.m.
