Stohs
Continued from Page 1
settle in a bit before noticing the
more meaningful differences.
In Ireland, people don’t sacri
fice theirsocial lives for their work,
the Stohs said, and the pace of life
is more leisurely.
“Work is there,” Joanne said. “It
will get done. Don’t break your
neck over it.”
Life at the university is differ
ent. Students are left more to their
own resources, Mark said, and they
tend to specialize earlier.
“They don’t take as broad of
courses,” he said. “This makes them
better prepared for master’s de
grees, but maybe not better pre
pared for life.”
Joanne said the value students
and faculty put on relations and
networking was greater than in
Wisconsin, where it was “more on
production and less on people.”
Professors have lower teaching
loads and less pressure to publish.
The system also relies on tradi
tion. Students’ grades aren’t com
puterized and involve a bit of fac
ulty “horse trading.” Exams, given
once a year, arc usually all essay.
This worked fine in the Middle
Ages when classes were relatively
small, the Stohs said, but it’s a prob
lem now that universities are “mass
educating.”
“When you have essay exams
for between 375 and 400 students,
how can you do justice?” Joanne
said.
Mark tried to introduce multiple
choice exams last spring, he said,
and the students got angry.
“It was changing tradition,” he
said. “They’ve been doing things
this way for more than 100 years.
It’s just a matter of getting used to
them.”
There is also less emphasis on
rules, Mark said, which dates back
-
"They don’t take as
broad of cou rses. This
makes them better
1 prepared for master’s
degrees, but maybe not
better prepared for
life”
MARK SUMS
UNL graduate living in Dublin
to when the Irish were ruled by
English law.
“It’sthe Irish reaction tothepast
when the British made a lot of rules,”
he said. “They’ve learned to get
around the rules without breaking
them.”
Outside of academics, Irish stu
dents have interests similar to their
Nebraskan counterparts.
“Sports arc very big with the
whole population,” Mark said.
“When there’s a big soccer match,
they almost shut down the school.”
Just when the Stohs have ad
justed to Ireland, they will soon be
served with another dose of Ameri
can culture.
The Stohs will continue their
nomadic nature in August, when
Mark starts a job at California State
University in Fullerton. They have
the option of returning to UCD,
though.
“You leam something from the
European approach,” Joanne said.
“You’re not just a machine turning
out products.”
But the familiar patter of the
drizzling Irish rain promisesa pleas
ant change in Fullerton.
“Weather-wise,” Mark said,
“California will be nice.”
Programofferedworidwide
Students attend classes without leaving home
By Todd Anderson
Start Reporter ' ’ • . v, .
Cindy Haas never has to worry about
making it to her administrative finance
course on time.
Site turns in homework on com
puter and works on group assignments
using a special program called Lotus
Notes Distributed Education.
Her classmates are at computers
across the nation and the world —
some as far away as Guam.
Haas, who is workingtoward a doc
torate of education administration, is
enrolled in the University of Nebraska
Lincoln Teachers College distributive
education program, which offers
courses taught by professors in Lin
coln and one professor in Australia.
The program, in its third semester,
offers credit for graduate-level courses
to students who would have difficul
ties attending class.
Paul Carlson, associate vice chan
cellor for business and finance at UN L,
completed a virtual university course
last semester.
“There was no way I could have
been going to class with the schedule I
had,” he said.
Haas said the greatest benefit of the
program was its freedom.
“It was wonderful,” she said. “You
can work when you have time.”
Space constraints also arc allevi
ated, since students can work from
their home computers.
Alan Seagrcn, the instructor of the
finance course, said with distributive
education, the responsibility for learn
ing is shifted onto the learner.
The instructor’s role is to facilitate
the learning process, he said. Each
student is required to give input and to
respond to other students’ input.
Students al so can send notes to other
students in the virtual cafeteria.
“It’s a good opportunity to get to
know other students better,” Carlson
said.
Haas said students also learned
about each other from posted personal
biographies and personal examples
used in topic discussions.
Each student is required to keep a
journal to record progress in the course
and in the program, Seagrcn said.
After completing each academic
year with the program, students arc
required to attend a summer session on
campus. East summer, several students
from Guam attended their first session
after the first semester of the program.
During the summer sessions, stu
dents attend doctoral seminars and
study different research tools, Seagren
said.
Students enroltecf in the program
pay regular tuition prices to receive
credit through the Division of Con
tinuing Studies, Seagren said. Students
in the virtual university program must
pay for the software disks in addition
to a special distance education fee, he
said.
But special costs are offset because
on-campus student fees are waived, he
said.
Additions to the software program,
such as an e-mail function and an
advising opportunity, arc being ex
plored, Seagren said.
As for now, both Haas and Carlson
said it was a great way to obtain credit
for graduate-level courses.
“It’s the wave of the future,” Haas
said. “So many people are wanting to
continue their education but have limi
tations because of their families or
careers.”
East Campus to add parking meters
By Melanie Brandert
Senior Editor
When students return to campus
after spring break, they may find new
parking meters on East Campus.
Parking Manager Tad McDowell
said Landscape Services started in
stalling meter poles Tuesday. The
warm weather allowed the department
to begin work early, he said.
Don Hinds, operations manager for
Landscape Services, said employees
finished installing20 poles Tuesday in
the Area 20 lot south of the Animal
Science building and in the Area 6/10
lot behind the Ruth Staples Lab.
Employees will put in the rest of the
poles Wednesday, and Parking Ser
vices will attach the meter heads next
week, he said.
Twenty meters will be installed at
the far north end of the Area 6 lot, and
10 will be placed in the northwest
corner of the Area 20 lot.
The Parking Advisory Committee
approved the addition of 30 meters on
East Campus in November. ASUN
senators recommended the new meters
to the committee in October, citing
student concern about inadequate park
ing on East Campus.
McDowell, who proposed the loca
tions, said the meters would be ready
to use in about two weeks, weather
permitting.
After the meters are installed, 10
Area 20 parking spaces will be con
verted from residence hall stalls ahd
placed just south of the meters. Even
though 15 spaces originally were des
ignated in the proposal, McDowell
said he would like to start out with 10
first.
“After adding 20 meter stalls, 15
would be pushing it,” McDowell said.
“If we could add some more later, we
would be more than happy to do it.”
McDowell said he was concerned
about increased traffic with the few
number of commuter stalls, however.
“If you have 10 stalls and 50 people
trying to park, it creates more of a
problem than a solution,” he said.
Power Mac' 7200/90
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you’ll be surfing on the Net faster
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PowerBook* 5300c m/100
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1
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I know what you’re
Hr thinking. What does a fish know,
Y right? Well, I may not know much, but I do keep
my ears open. Like just the other day. I overheard a
couple of students talking. Found out that Apple is offering
incredibly low campus prices on Macintosh' computers. Found
out that a Mac' is a really easy way to get up and running
the Internet. I even found out that more students are
using a Mac to share ideas on the Internet than any
For more information visit us on the Internet at http://hed. info.apple, com/ H
Buy a Mac' before you pack.
The Information Services Computer Shop*
501 Building - 501N. 10th Street, University of Nebraska, 472-5787,
Monday-Friday 8 a.m. to 5 p.m, Thesday until 6 p.m.
Students, faculty and staff status must meet Information Services Computer Shop educational purchase qualifications. University ID required to order and purchase.
http://compshop.unl.edu/pub/compshop.htm
So payment of principal or interest trill be required for 90 days on the deferred Apple Computer Loan offer. Interest accruing during Ibis 90-day period trill be added to the principal and will bear interest which uill be included in the repayment schedule. The monthly payment quoted above is an estimate based on
a total loan amount of $1,646.81 which includes a sample purchase price of $1,548for the Power Macintosh 7200/90 system sboun above. The total loan amount also includes a 6.0% loan origination fee. Interest is variable based on the Commercial Paper Rate plus a spread of635%. Tor example, the month of
January 1996bad an interest rate of 12.19% uilb an annual percentage rate (APR) of 1)97% Monthly payment for the total loan amount described above would be $2830. Monthly payment and APR shown assumes no deferment ofprincipal and does not include state or local sales tax. Monthly
payments may vary depending on actual computer system prices, total loan amounts, state and local sales taxes, and a change in the monthly variable interest rate. Prequalification expedites the loan process, but does not guarantee final loan approval. Subsequent acceptable verification
documents must be received before your loan is approved. Offers shown above expire May 15,1996. See your campus storefor details about the Apple Computer Loan. ©1996Apple Computer, Inc. AH rights resened. Apple, the Apple logo, LaserWriter, Macintosh, Performa, PouerBook and StyleWriter are registered trade
marks ofApple Computer, htc Mac and Power Mac are trademarks ofApple Computer. Inc PowerPC is a trademark of International Business Machines Corporation, used under license therefrom. All Macintosh computers are designed to be accessible to individuals uilb disability, lb learn more (VS only), call 800
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2
