UNL grading system challenged
By Brian Sharp
Senior Reporter
The current grading policy at the
University of Nebraska-Lincoln is
unhealthy, the faculty senate presi
dent said this weekend.
And some members of the NU
Board of Regents are concerned stu
dents may be suffering under a policy
mi QEI*Etn£ that devaluates the
NU nCUCNIO university diploma.
Members of the
board’s Academic
Affairs Committee
discussed the policy
Saturday.
Fred Choobineh
said in a telephone
interview Saturday
that more than 3 0 percent of the grades.
awarded at UNL each year were A’s
or A-pluses.
The result, he said, is that a 3.5
GPA doesn’t pull the same weight
coming from UNL as it does from the
University of Purdue or Iowa State
University.
“Recruiters (for graduate schools)
recognize that perhaps our grade point
averages are a little bit higher than
other institutions,” he said.
For example, he said, a UNL grade
point average of 3.5 is equivalent to a
3.1 at Iowa State.
Choobineh delivered that message
to the Academic Affairs Committee
Friday. The issue was raised by Re
gent Charles Wilson of Lincoln after
faculty senates on the Omaha and
Kearney campuses voted to add mi
nus grades to their current grading
policy and UNL rejected the proposal.
Those actions resulted in an appar
ent fracture of a university-wide grad
ing policy.
Faculty senate presidents from
Omaha and Kearney also spoke at the
meeting and maintained their com
mitments to minus grades.
Regent Chuck Hassebrook of
Walthill said Saturday he wasn’t con
vinced the current policy needed
changing, but added that if GPAs were
being inflated, the value of degrees
was being deflated.
Choobineh said the ills of the cur
rent system and inflated GPAs were
not a result of the policy. The real
problem, he said, is the people using
the policy.
“It really doesn’t make any differ
ence what grading system we use,”
Choobineh said. “If we use it appro
priately, it’s going to work.”
James Ford, an associate profes
sor of English, has brought the issue
of minus grades before the faculty
senate for the past two years. The
proposal was rejected both times.
But now, he said, increasing atten
tion is being paid to the fact that
UNL’s policy is unhealthy, as
Choobineh described it.
Ford said the vice chancellors for
academic and student affairs were
going over the grading issue and track
ing departmental trends. Discussions
also have been held about forming a
committee to study UNL grading
policy, he said.
The academic climate at UNL is
such that grades arc being awarded on
effort rather than achievement, Ford
“It really doesn't make
any difference what
grading system we use.
If we use it
appropriately, it's going
to work."
■
FRED CHOOBINEH
Faculty senate president
said. Evaluating student work is not
taken seriously, he said.
Wilsdh said the board’s only role
would be to review thccurrent policy
and recommend possible action. The
board’s main interest is to make sure
any policy adopted allows for easy
student transfer among campuses and
that it satisfies the faculty and stu
dents.
Choobineh said the faculty presi
dents still were negotiating, and UNK
and UNO were waiting to see if they
can bring UNL back into the fold.
That is unlikely, he said.
Instead, Choobineh said, they
should define the translation of grades
into linguistic terms, such as excel
lent, good and poor.
Over the years, he said, definitions
have changed. And now, he said,
they’re not only different outside of
the university but within the NU sys
tem.
* Landscape weathers
unpredictable spring
By Paula Lavigne
Senior Reporter
Although April showers bring
May flowers, March snows don’t
do them much good.
Blooming daffodils, tulips, yel
low forsythia and other signs of
spring on campus may be put on
hold after this week.
The National Weather Service
predicted rain mixed with flurries
and temperatures in the 50s for
southeast Nebraska today. But
Tuesday through Thursday calls for
lows from 10 to 20 and highs from
25 to 35.
Above-normal temperatures in
February made plants and trees
bloom early, more than three months
before Nebraska’s last freeze date
in the middle of May.
But Nebraska’s unpredictable
spring weather is a factor that
Wilbur Dasenbrock, director of
Landscape Services at the Univer
sity of Nebraska-Lincoln, has to
contend with every year.
Dasenbrock said temperatures
below 20 could damage or destroy
early-season flowers such as daffo
dils, lenten roses, tulips, pasque
flowers and magnolia, as well as
witch hazel, redbud trees and for
sythia bushes.
“What nature hands you, you
have to deal with,” he said.
Although the flowers and blos
soms would be damaged, he said,
the plants would be able to survive.
But there are never any guaran
tees.
“Then there are those surprises
when we do get wiped out,” he said.
Some trees, such as the magno
lia, have one chance to bloom, he
said, and if they freeze, it’s “wait
until next year.”
The university combats late frost
by planting a variety of flowers,
trees and bushes so there always are
backups, Dasenbrock said.
He said irises, roses, chrysan
themums, late lilacs and other pe
rennial flowers that bloom in late
spring, summer or fall were safe
from frost damage.
Dasenbrock said his department
didn’t have the manpower or re
sources to cover all the plants on
campus to protect them from frost
damage.
“We rely on common sense and
planting things that survive the Ne
braska climate.”
Planting a variety of vegetation
helps ward off the effects of dam
aging temperatures, drought, hail
and wind.
“As many things attack plants as
people,” he said. “You get colds,
pneumonia — you name it. The
same thing is true in the plant king
dom.”
Williams
Continued from Page 1
were responsible for their compensa
tion, he said. Last week’s stay sent the
case back to the county courts for an
evidentiary hearing. Federal officials
have since expressed reluctance in
continuingtopay Williams’ legal fees,
i The county has a public? defender
for that purpose, but Williams has
previously raised a conflict-of-inter
est issue in that a former employee
from that office was a witness for the
prosecution.
Lacey, who participated in theorigi
nal prosecution of Williams, said no
decision had been reached as of late
Friday. District Court Judge Donald
Endacott will set the hearing date for
Williams. Endacott was out of the
office Friday, and Lacey said he was
not yet prepared to ask Endacott for
the hearing.
Richard Shugrue, a Creighton Uni
versity law professor, said the issue
that resulted in the execution stay was
“hardly a technicality, at least at this
stage of the game.”
At 10:01 last Wednesday morning,
before a room packed with reporters
and photographers, a stay of execu
tion was lifted by the Board of Par
dons.
i uc meeting grew tense alter sec
retary of State Scott Moore, the only
member arguing for a hearing, charged
the governor and attorney general with
being involved in “an ongoing battle
to see who can be the toughest.”
The three-member panel voted
unanimously, however, to deny Will
iams’ request for a hearing, which had
resulted in a stay being issued Tues
day evening. A representative from
the penitentiary then told the board
the execution could be carried out in
three hours.
Moments later, the Nebraska Su
preme Court stayed the execution in
definitely.
The stay came after the court re
ceived a statement from Barbara
Boyce, a juror in Williams’ trial. A
jury is instructed to avoid the media,
to not discuss the case and to not take
notes during trial. Boyce stated that
she focused on what was said during
the trial and made notes, including the
specifics of times and places, when
she was alone.
Boyce stated that she used maps at
home to verify “how plausible it would
be that a man undo' the influence of
drugs and/or alcohol could have ex
ecuted the flight path he did.”
Williams had left Lincoln after
committing the murders and traveled
to Cherokee County, Iowa; St. Paul,
; Minn.; and Chicago before returning
to Lincoln, where he was arrested.
“I felt that I could not accept the
plea of guilty by reason of insanity....
I presented this thinking to the other
members of the jury ... (and) did ex
plain the specifics of how far apart
thes&locations were.”
No such maps or information were
presented in the courtroom by either
side. After the verdict, Williams’ law
"Had this been known
17years ago, it clearly
would have been a
legitimate basis for
appeal. ”
■
RICHARD 8HUQRUE
Creighton University law profes
sor
yers tried to interview the jurors,
Shugrue said, but they refused.
“Had this been known 17 years
ago, it clearly would have been a le
gitimate basis for appeal,” he said.
Shugrue said the court would de
cide if the information influenced the
jurors and if it helped determine their
decision. The problem, he said, is that
not all the jurors can be located, and
there is a question of how reliable
their testimony is 17 years later, given
the obvious pressure on their answers.
In the meantime, he said, Lacey
will be under extreme political pres
sure to not appear as if he is negotiat
ing with the defense.
Lacey said he had not talked to
Boyce as of Friday but was interview
ing the other jurors.
“Jury misconduct strikes directly
at the integrity of due process,”
Shugrue said. “It’s a very interesting
legal problem. This whole procedure
proves to us once again that no sys
tem, including the criminal justice
system, is perfect.”
No matter what the decision, both
sides could appeal all the way to the
U.S. Supreme Court, Shugrue said. If
a mistrial is declared, a new trial would
most likely result and Williams would
remain in prison.
If he is acquitted of all charges, he
would then be extradited to Iowa for a
rape and murder he allegedly commit
ted there the day after the Lincoln
murders, Powers said. _
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