ASUN seeks student inptit
for UNL’s Code of Ethics
_:_!_-__
By Kasey Berber
Staff Reporter
The Association of Students of the
University of Nebraska will soon draft
UNL’s first Code of Ethics, but ASUN
President Eric Marintzer wants more
student input first. "
The Code of Ethics was originally
a goal of Chancellor James Moeser,
who later turned the project over to
ASUN.
Intended to bo a document convey
ing goals instead of standards, the Code
of Ethics will be drafted by Marintzer
for approval by ASUN.
Marintzer said he spent last semes
ter gathering ideas and suggestions for
the document.
Marintzer took most information,
however, from meetings with admin
istrators andpcpfessors.
^He how wants students’ voices to
be heard.
“It’s pretty clear that students are
not like administrators, and adminis
trators are not like students,” Marintzer
said. “I need to hear what the students
have to say.”
Although no areas in the Code of
Ethics have been finished, Marintzer
said there were certain ideals that
would probably be included, such as
self-responsibility.
“A lot of times when you go away
to college, you’re not under your par
ents’ watch any longer,” Marintzer
said. “This can sometimes cause prob
lems with responsibility.”
Marintzer said he didn’t know if
some ideals, such as religion, would be
included in the code.
“We don’t want to tell people what
to believe,” he said.
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others conquer addiction
By Jim Goodwin
StaffReporter
Matt Pelcer, an addict, was on the
verge of suicide before deciding he
had to deal with the mental friction
destroying his life.
With his sense of reality gone, and
his family life falling apart, the 51
year-old husband and father of five
knew he needed to re-route his life’s
direction.
“I was sick and tired of being sick
and tired,” the Omaha resident said.
Pelcer voluntary ^becked iptoa
rehabilitation f$mgif|spend»n®
next 37 daysMBSyGiu and
to depro^^^^ppelf of hi
His drue of Choice wasn
nouns a uay, anu uie saury guess on
and on. Whatever you want to imag
ine happens,” Matt Pelcer said.
No jackpot here
According,*) the National Coun
cil on Problem Gambling, 5 to 10
percent of all Americans are compul
sive gamblers and as much as 15 per
cent of casino patrons may have a
problem.
I -■ ■ ■ ■
«
I was sick and tired of being sick and
tired.”
Matt Pelcer
former gambling addict
Sylvia Pelcer said a national short
age in funding for organizations like hers
explained why they didn’t have exact
numbers. The lack of money comes from
a lack of recognition, she said. >
“They didn’t recognize compulsive
gambling as an addiction when my hus
band had problems wfih it,’* Sylvia Pelcer
Said. “It hasn’t been until lately that the
medical profession has.**
Ron Felton, addictions counselor and
director of First Step Recovery Clinic in
Lincoln, said .the lack of recognition
stems from die idea that gamblers can’t
on their respective drag,
wever, the repercussions of their
are s:' y the
drug
ton said the unttNSlyhigh suicide
rate of the childien^c^HPulsave alco
holics — fourJimd&hatSf die general
bestillustrated die chaotic
s left„behind by a gambling addic
n* ’ v ’• ■* * -
“Life is not very happy in a gambling
household,” he said.
While most compulsive gamblers are
high-energy people with above-average
intelligence, an excellent work ethic and
the ability to motivate others, they lack
the ability to control their actions, Felton
said.
That inability and its resultants at the
least equate a gambling addiction to sub
stance abuse, he said.
“If you give an alcoholic $100,000
to feed his addiction, he won’t be able to
spend it all before killing himself,” Felton
said. “If you give a compulsive gambler
$100,000, he’ll have it spent in 20 min
utes. There is no saturation point with a
gambling addiction.”
Making change
Nebraska groups—such as the Ne
braska Council on Compulsive Gam
bling and First Step Recovery Clinic
— dealing with the effects of the dis
ease, compete for the 1 percent of to
tal lottery revenue allocated for them
to provide counseling services for com
pulsive gamblers. It is a provision of
the 1993 state law that enacted the
Nebraska Lottery.
In the fiscal year ending June 30,
19%, the total doled out to such groups
was $204,864, The lottery’s remaining
revenue* $81,802*442, was’divided
among lottery winners and education,
environmental and landfill closure
funds, according io the Nebraska
Lottery’s 1996 annual report.
Felton and the Pelcers agree more
money is needed to combat the problem
to which they’ve devoted their lives.
A legislative bill introduced by
State Sen. Kate Witek of Omaha would
increase the amount given to such
groups from 1 percent to S percent of
the lottery revenue.
The legislation would be beneficial
to those in his and his family’s past situ
ation, Matt Pelcer said.
‘I’m not for or against gambling.
Society just needs to recognize that if
it allows gambling, it must help those
who suffer from the problem,” Matt
Pelcer said.
“We don’t know how many kids
won’t be going to college because Dad
gambled away their college funds at die
boats.”
End-of-semester evaluations help
instructors improve curriculum
EVALUATE from page 3
for more than a popularity trophy
to show to their superiors.
Don Lee, professor, of
agronomy, said he stops whatever
he is doing when he receives his
evaluation packet.
“When the students take tune to
write something, I take a lot of stock
in it,” Lee said “Their comments
are more meaningful to me than to
department chairs or deans."
Lee uses the evaluations to
gauge which teaching techmques
are successful, he said. No one else
—neither administrators nor fellow
faculty — can judge his perfor
mance better than his students, he
said.
“My students are my clients, and
I pay attention to what they say. I’ve ‘
, got to get these comments or I don’t
*
know how I’m doing.”
In Lee’s genetics course, student
comments have led to more hands
on learning, he said. In laboratories,
students genetically alter bacteria
and createinodels of a DNA double
helix.
Lee also gets comments from stu
dents who appreciate the way he sim
plifies genetics concepts, he said.
“I could be the smartest geneti
cist. What matters to them is how
well I can explain it”
John Flowers, professor of psy
chology, said he found the open
ended comments more useful than
the numerical ratings.
He pays special attention to re
curring comments, such as notes
that class moves too fast or too slow,
he said.
Sometimes, he gets both.
“It’s frustrating when we get op
posing comments," he said.
“There’s not just one way to teach
that serves every student."
In that case, Flowers tries to de
sign classes so learning is flexible
for different students’ needs, he
said.
Qther evaluations asked for
more projects and papers, which
Flowers added to his courses, he
said. Students then had more
chances to improve their grades and
to prove what they had learned.
Students in a class Flowers
taught at 8 a.m. asked him to moti
vate them to get out of bed, he said.
The following semester, he added
unannounced quizzes and reward
points for attendance.
When evaluation time came
again, most students said they
learned more because of Flowers’
morning motivation, he said.
