v
Daily
Nebraskan
Editorial Board
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
J. Christopher Hain. Editor, 472-1766
Doug Kouma..v.. Managing Editor
Doug Peters.Opinion Page Editor
Sarah Scalet.Associate News Editor
Matt Waite.Associate News Editor
Michelle Garner.Wire Editor
Jennifer Mapes...Columnist
JOE
MODEM
BretGottschall/DN
Wrong answer
Distribute e-mail service, cost fairly
College isn’t cheap, but maybe the university is.
Instead of living up to the commitment of providing low-cost c
mail to students through “bigred” accounts, UNL is considering
putting off-campus students further in the red by turning over main
tenance of the Huskemet modem pool to a commercial provider.
Bad idea.
The problem isn’t handing the modem pool over to a commercial
entity; it’s not the added financial burden of $10 a month, either.
It’s the way the university plans to distribute the burden — on
off-campus students only.
If the university needs to reinstate a fee for e-mail accounts, fine.
Let everyone who has an account pay a small fee. If the university,
as it now is proposing, intends to charge only off-campus students,
it had better be prepared for the inevitable backlash.
Some might say that off-campus students could just come down
to campus to use the computer labs, thus avoiding the off-campus
charge. If that is seen as a remedy to this situation, we expect the
university to provide enough computer labs to handle the traffic.
That, most likely, would cost more than maintaining the modem
pool.,.
Others might say that students desiring free e-mail services should
just stay on campus. That would be difficult, considering campus
housing already is overcrowded.
Another argument for the charge might be that off-campus stu
dents have the luxury of a computer at home, and that they should
expect to pay for the convenience of accessing e-mail from their
own living rooms.
All of the reasons for charging off-campus students for e-mail
use when on-campus students receive it for nothing are flawed.
Off-campus students pay the same fees and the same tuition as
those students living within the confines of campus. They shouldn’t
be expected to pay more for any service offered by the university.
Let everybody or nobody pay for e-mail services.
Keep the lines open, and keep it fair.
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Staff editorials represent the official
policy of the Fall 1995 Daily Nebras
kan. Policy is set by the Daily Nebras
kan Editorial Board. Editorials do not
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Library nonsense
Required class teaches freshmen very little
This semester, I’m paying $209
to learn how to use Love Library.
For that price I could buy 209
Subway,6-inch meatball subs, but
instead ... I’ll be learning to use the
library.
You sec, $209 is the amount
required for an out-of
state student like myself to pay for
one-credit hour and an “extremely
high quality,” cookbook-bound
“Library 110” textbook.
Not that I had a choice of
whether I wanted 209 meatball subs
or “how to use the library.” Library
110 is a one-credit course required
for all freshman students.
Yet taking the course might have
advantages. Maybe I would make
the most of my money ...
... yeah, or maybe I’d be able to
eat 209 subs in one sitting.
I’ll be straight out: I hate Library
110 more than 3 a.m. phone calls
from a drunk guy who swears my
name is “Jenny.”
My main objections to the course
are that it will not keep freshmen
from “failing” out of school (as
designed), it teaches students very
little about using the library and it
costs students too much.
One of the main reasons for
establishing the course was to keep
freshmen from failing out of school.
The freshmen dropout rate is
somewhere close to 60 percent, and
the administration feels that if
students have better library skills,
they’ll have a better chance of
staying in school.
Let me clear this up right away:
Students are not failing out of
school because they don’t know the
Superintendent of Documents
classification system.
Bert and Ernie are failing out of
school because they went to the
nearest pub with Grover and got so
drunk that they ended up passing oui
on Sesame Street.
Students also are failing because
they haven’t learned good study
skills, because they skip class or
because they never wanted to pass
in the first place.'
Kasey Kerber
“Let me clear this up
right away: Students are
not failing out of school
because they don’t know
the Superintendent of
Documents
classification system. ”
Requiring students to take a
library class is not going to have any
profound impact upon the dropout
rate.
Also, Library 110 teaches
students very little about using the
library. The main reason is that
students have to do little with the
textbook and prove even less of
what they’ve learned.
To pass the class, a student has to
do five assignments and pass a final
with 35 out of 50 questions correct.
The worksheets are easier than
remembering your Social Security
number — I did all five in a half
hour. While I have not yet taken the
test, the mere fact that you need a 70
percent to pass is pathetic. Bert and
Ernie could guess their way to a 70
percent on a multiple-choice test,
and they just learned how to count.
Any student who’s crammed for
a final in five hours can tell you —
the moment after they’ve taken the
test... the knowledge is gone.
Although it has not been scien
tifically proven, I believe all
information from a class is trans
ferred directly to the scan-tron test
sheet by means of No. 2 pencil lead.
Once you turn in the test, you are as
dumb as when you first walked into
that class. .- '*
Lastly, this course is not worth
209 meatball subs. The main reason
is because students have the ability
to pass out of the course by the
second week. They simply pass a
test with 40 out of 50 questions
correct (Bert and Ernie may
struggle, but Grover’s in easy) and
the credit hour is theirs.
Pay no heed to the fact that you
wasted $83.50 (in-state cost w/
textbook) or $209.00 (out-of-stafe
w/textbook) for one credit hour
that won’t even figure into your
GPA.
The question is: Why pay
$83.50-$209.00 to take a test and
get out of the class, when you could
save your money in the first place?
Library 110 should be optional,
not required. If I want to leam how
to use the library, then I’ll take the
course. If I suddenly find the need to
become a librarian, I’ll take comfort
in knowing that good ol’ Library
110 is there. Otherwise, it’ll be
another name in the NRoll schedule
of classes.
If the administration feels that
library skills are something every
freshman must have, fine. Require
students to buy, or better yet, issue
them the cookbook-bound Library
110 textbook.
It thoroughly explains how to do
everything in the library, and when
the student finally needs to use the
library, he or she has the book
handy.
Glancing back, Library 110
makes about as much sense as
swishing down a few Vivarins with
a cup of Nyquil. Its intentions are
good, but its structure and workings
are miserable.
Well, I gotta go now — Bert,
Ernie, Grover and I have 209
meatball subs to work on ...
Kerber is a freshman news-editorial
major and a Daily Nebraskan columnist.
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