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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (March 15, 1995)
! '■ • •' , 4 D^lilv Pw ^ I//I I I V ^ f Vednesday ^ooxjooxtxjxxsxxooxooxxtxxooxooxxtxxooxixsxx I % I I ^ Nebraska swimmer I KmmmJk B ^ W ^ ^ * Jk V B gunning for record, page 9 I I I ^^B I I Arts & Entertainment -L 1 V/^yX iALyX lAAX X nlfva« u^oal^lo pldy ill UIML, DaSC 1 ^ «i«*»«««mutti««»«m«i COVERING THE UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA SINCE 1901 VOL. 94 NO. 124 --- ; __ March 15, 1995 Minus grading system downed after debate By Brian Sharp Senior Reporter A proposal that would have brought minus grades to UNL suf fered a “decisive defeat” Tuesday before the Aca demic Senate. The hearing room emptied shortly after the decision as stu dent government president Andrew Loudon declared, “The issue is over.” The 40-28 vote came after more than an hour of debate and several motions that would have delayed a decision to a later date. Senators ap peared restless at times and annoyed with the barrage of motions and ques tions being voted on as the debate wound down. The minus proposal would have increased the number of grade cat egories at the University of Nebraska Lincoln from its nine-point system. Current policy assigns only letter grades and pluses. James Ford, an associate English professor who proposed the motion, said minus grades would be a small start, but a definite improvement, to UNL academics. The motion received a last-minute revision before Tuesday’s meeting, allowing for cooperation with Kearney and Omaha campuses in deciding policy. Both campuses re cently approved minus grades. That would prove to be a point of controversy later in the debate, as some senators didn’t want to approve a motion with details to be decided later. Senators in favor of minus grades labeled the current scale bizarre and a “half-system.” Several senators ar gued that the resulting “grade infla tion” was a disservice to students. George Wolf, associate English professor, said the only real argu ment had been that UNL would stand alone in the NU system by adopting a minus policy. Now that argument is gone, he said. But Leo Chouinard, an associate mathematics professor, said he had yet to hear a good reason to revamp the current system. , “I don’t see that there is a consen sus (among faculty),” he said. “I don’t see a reason for changing. And I don’t see where anything UNO and UNK does frankly has anything to do with what we should be doing.” Gargi Sodowsky, an educational psychology professor, said the cur rent system was not used completely - or adequately anyway. Given that, she said, there was no reason to add more categories. “Just a year ago, this motion failed,” Sodowsky said. “I don’t un derstand why we brought it back again.” The vote may have provided a decisive answer for some, but after the meeting, Ford did not rule out reviving the issue again next year. UNL legacies making marks of their own By J. Christopher Hain Senior Reporter — Sara Broyhill has always felt attached to the UNL campus. She has a photo of herself and her sister, Ann, at the ages of seven and eight sitting on the UNL fountain with which she shares her name. Broyhill said that while she was growing up in Dakota City, it was almost a given that she would attend the University of Nebraska-Lin cotn. Now she is a freshman at UNL and her sister, Ann, is a sophomore. Her father and grandfather attended UNL, as did her aunt Lynn Diann Broyhill. Lynn Broyhill was involved in numerous campus activities at UNL from 1963 to 1966. She was vice president of Pi Beta Phi sorority. She was an Aksarben countess. And she even could fly a plane. But on Sept. 8,1966, on her way to pick up a gown for the Aksarben ball, she was killed in a car accident. She was 21 years old. The fountain north of the union was constructed as a memorial. Now, whenever Sara Broyhill passes the fountain or is met by one of the numerous people who knew her aunt, it fills her campus experience with the reminder of an aunt she never knew, she said. “I can’t begin to tell you the number of people who have come up to me and said *1 knew your aunt, she was great,”’ site said. But more often than not, Broyhill said, when people first meet her, the first thing they ask is how she is connected with the fountain. Broyhill has begun to step out of the shadow of her aunt’s legacy at UNL and establish her own record of involvement on campus. Last week, she was elected to the ASUN sciences advisory board for the College of Arts and Sciences. She also is a member of the chancellor’s leadership class. Broyhill said she would like people to say the same things about her as have been said about her aunt. bne was so well-liked for her values and her goals,” she said. “It would be nice to keep going where she left off.”But Broyhill is not the only recently elected ASUN representative sharing her name with a figure from UNL’s past. Nelle Cochrane Woods was elected last week as an ASUN graduate senator. If that name sounds familiar, it’s because the build ing that houses the Department of Art and Art i History is named after Woods’ great-great- i grandmother of the same name. ( Woods grew up in Lincoln and received her t undergraduate degree in advertising. Now she £ is in the graduate museum studies program in the College of Arts and Sciences. 1 Woods, who is from Lincoln, said her great- £ great-grandmother ’ s legacy didn’t have a large 1 influence on her decision of where to go to 1 school, but her family’s history of involve- 1 ment with the arts swayed her toward museum studies at UNL. i _ .... GarikParmale/DN Sara Broyhill sits on the fountain named after her aunt, Lynn Broyhill, Tuesday afternoon. Broyhill was recently elected to an ASUN advising committee. The Woods’ great-great-grandmother en olled in drawing and painting classes in the Ichool of Fine Arts in 1889. She was active on ampus and was involved in the selection of he official colors of the university — scarlet nd cream. She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts de cree in 1893. She was involved in several harities and was a sustaining member of the Nebraska Art Association for 21 years — all he way to the time of her death at age 80 in 950. In 1955, the Woods Charitable Fund was set ip in her name. And four years later, a gift from the fund made possible the construction of the building that eventually bore her name. Both women said their names frequently turned heads when roll was called in classes. But Broyhill and Woods said they also would like to turn heads in student govern ment. Broyhill said that as an ASUN representa tive, she hoped to bring student concerns to die attention of faculty members. She said she especially wanted to work toward centralizing See BROYHILL on 6 / - ■ Spanier to' discuss job prospect at Penn State By J. Christopher Hain Senior Reporter and Jeff Zeieny KfitoF Chancellor Graham Spanier will meet to day with top UNL administrators to discuss his future at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, the Daily Nebraskan learned Tuesday. UNL officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said Spanier planned to discuss his involvement in the presidential search at Pennsylvania State University to members of his cabinet. Spanier also will attend a previously sched uled meeting today with UNL deans and direc tors, where he is likely to be questioned about the Penn State presidency. Sources said Spanier could tell his cabinet that he is a finalist for the president of Penn State, which has 22 campuses with 69,000 students. Penn State President Joab Thomas plans to retire Aug. 31. A list of 10 to 15 names was forwarded in January from the search commit tee to the selection committee, comprised of university trustees. See SPANIER on 6 Regent bill gets held up once again By John Fulwider Staff Reporter ~~ An amendment to a bill that would allow the governor to appoint the NU Board of Regents was killed twice in the Legislature’s Education Committee Tuesday. And once again, the committee didn’t ad vance the bill to the floor. When the committee adjourned Tuesday, LR29CA, or amendments * to it, had been discussed 15 times. Sen. Ray Janssen of Nickerson introduced the amendment to LR29CA that would have made five Board of Regents positions elected and three appointed. The. amendment would have phased in a new board structure in a series of steps. After less than 10 minutes of discussion, the amendment fell one vote short of the five it needed. But it was later brought again by Janssen and again failed, 5-2. The elected regents’ districts would have followed the current Public Service Commis See REGENTS on 6