Professors fear race a factor in class
■ Unfair evaluations may be
the result of direct or indirect
racism on UNL’s campus, some
instructors say.
By Joshua Gillin
Assignment Reporter
Despite years of education, training and
teaching experience, some UNL professors
think there is one factor beyond their control
when it comes to being evaluated and under
stood by their students - the color of their
skin.
Susan Miller, instructor of history and eth
nic studies, said that while prejudice in evalu
ations is rare, it is a concern. Miller said the
relatively uniform racial makeup of the
University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s student
body makes it difficult for her and other
minority professors to teach their students in a
traditional manner.
“I’m not sure racism is the best way to put
it,” Miller said, “but there is a cultural
homogeny in Nebraska that doesn’t allow for
very many different world views.”
Miller said she has been evaluated several
times at UNL and has experienced several
instances of what she thought to be unfair
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ed view of some evaluations suggests there is
a lack of open communication between teach
ers and students.
As a Seminole Indian, Miller said she might
not always reach her students on a cultural
level. It is a problem reflected in the fact that
there are so few minority professors at the
university and in the state, she said.
“It takes a whole lot of skill to represent
one’s own world view and present it in a man
ner that people unfamiliar with the concepts
will understand,” Miller said.
Cynthia Willis-Esqueda, assistant psycholo
gy professor, said the cultural barrier has
affected evaluations of her performances as
well.
“I know I’ve been evaluated unfairly
because of it,” she said. “I had one student say
I was prejudiced against white males in my
class, but I never even discussed white
males.”
Willis-Esqueda teaches an ethnic studies
course and a graduate course about the psy
chology of racism. She said her Cherokee
background is both a bane and a blessing to
her teaching ability.
Her background may be the reason for an
occasional bad evaluation, she said, but she
also has reached some students in ways she
wouldn’t have been able to otherwise.
“So many students ... write that they loved
the material I presented,” Willis-Esqueda said.
“They said it gave them a new way to look at
the history of the United States and the world
in general.”
Using a minority point of view is important,
other instructors said, but miscommunication
between a white student and a minority pro
fessor is not always an excuse for receiving a
poor evaluation.
Keith Parker, associate professor of sociolo
gy, said claiming racial miscommunication as
a reason for a poor evaluation might not be
the best way to view student-instructor rela
tionships. As director of UNL’s African
American studies program, he said he could
not recall an evaluation he thought to be influ
enced by racial bias.
“(Racism is) not in my daily routine,”
Parker said. “They (professors with com
plaints) may not conduct themselves in a way
that gives them all the rights and privileges
they’re entitled to; I certainly do.”
Associate English Professor Venetria
Patton, in only her second semester teaching
African-American literature at UNL, agreed
with Parker. Patton said so many factors affect
evaluations that it is unwise to single out race
as a subject of debate.
1 can t assume it s my race it 1 get a poor
evaluation,” she said. “One thing I’ve noticed
is that when people see a class about African
American literature, they assume it’s going to
be easy. When it’s an actual course, they get
frustrated.”
Miller and Willis-Esqueda agreed with
Patton’s view, saying similar events had hap
pened in their classes.
“Many students may have been opposed to
my class at first, seeing it as some sort of
requirement,” Willis-Esqueda said. She said
some of the students she was least likely to
expect change from transformed themselves
and saw her class as something positive.
Patton said dealing with student bias has
more to do with students gaining confidence
in their instructors’ abilities than with battling
racism. She said minority professors have to
work harder to gain the approval the “typical
old, white male professor” would probably
receive.
“My experience at the University of
Nebraska has been quite good,” Patton said.
66
Everybody needs to be able to communicate across
cultures, myself included. The world is too small for
isolation
Susan Miller
history and ethnic studies professor
“My main concern is that our university
should be a place for everyone to be comfort
able.”
Miller said part of the problem is her own
difficulty communicating with white students,
who make up 96 percent of the student body.
“I need to develop my own skills at looking
at things cross-culturally,” Miller said.
“Everybody needs to be able to communicate
across cultures, myself included.
“The world is too small for isolation.”
Patton said prejudice in evaluations still
concerns her, however.
“I guess I don’t think it’s always just an
excuse,” she said. “Whenever you’re dealing
with racism, it’s rarely so overt you point to it
and say this was the only factor.”
Phyllis Larsen, UNL director of public rela
tions, said she doesn’t know of any com
plaints among the faculty about unfair evalua
tions. However, she said she is not in a posi
tion to hear about complaints if they are sub
mined privately.
“It’s nothing that’s ever come up in any
chancellor’s cabinet meeting that I’ve ever
been in,” Larsen said.
A1 Kilgore, associate vice chancellor for
academic affairs, said the problem has never
been brought to his attention, either.
“We have not received anything in the way
of a complaint in this office, as far as I know,”
Kilgore said. He said he is not sure if such a
complaint would even come to his office,
although it would be a logical place to file.
Larsen said measuring complaints of preju
dice would be difficult not only for the uni
versity but for the individual departments that
give the evaluations.
“Evaluations are required to be done, but
there are no standard forms,” she said.
“Evaluations are customized on a departmen
tal level. We don’t know anyone who’s done
effective work on complaints people may have
about evaluations.”
But Thomas Sanchez and Cheryl Applegate,
both graduate students in sociology, last fall
gave a presentation at the National
Association for Ethnic Studies in La Crosse,
Wis., dealing with racial issues in the class
room. Sanchez said group discussions after
their presentation, which included a segment
on biased evaluations, uncovered a nation
wide concern among minority professors
about prejudiced student reactions.
“This is a problem that’s been present for
the past 20 or 30 years,” Sanchez said. “It’s
kind of discouraging that... minorities are
still having to face these problems.”
He said his findings, based on personal
experience and outside accounts, showed a
general lack of understanding between white
students and minority instructors.
“Students are defensive about the material,
so they take their hostility out on the instruc
tor,” Sanchez said. He said students especially
feel defensive if the course is about race rela
tions or ethnic studies.
“The general feeling would be, ‘Of course
you’re going to teach about racism; you have
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need to find a way to fairly separate minori
ties’ evaluations in those instances so we can
find that misdirected animosity.”
Willis-Esqueda said she is not surprised by
Sanchez’s and Applegate’s study. She said that
while she has been a victim of biased evalua
tions, she has to keep in perspective the real
reason for such occurrences.
“Much of the time, (miscommunication)
can be a problem because students feel threat
ened by the information and the unfamiliarity
of the person presenting it,” she said. “I have
to tell all my students ... ‘Leave your cultural
group membership at the door.’
“If they stop thinking of themselves in
terms of group membership - as a European
American male, for example - they are able to
see their interrelationships with other people
and places.”
This article was originally published
April 4,1997 in The Journalist.
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Commuter permits
are almost sold out
PERMITS from page 3
administration technician Sherryl
Chamberlain said the 4,300 green
20 permits were sold out and
names were being put on a wait
ing list.
Less than 20 green 21 permits
remained, she said, and an unlim
ited amount of purple perimeter
and blue permits were available.
Parking services manager Tad
McDowell said students left with
out a permit can look to the new
parking garage, which opens
Sept. 2.
“One reason the parking
garage was built was to help us,
meet the unmet demand for park
ing permits,” McDowell said.
On Sept. 2, students can put
their names on a waiting list for
yellow tag reserved spots,
Chamberlain said.
Parking services is a self
funded department and does not
receive any money from the uni
versity.
McDowell said that last year
parking services acquired
$489,000 from citations, $1.5
million from permit sales,
$180,000 from meters and
$190,000 from special event
parking.
The revenue the department
makes pays for the StarTran Bus
agreement, on-campus bus transit
service, electricity to light lots,
parking lot maintenance and sev
eral other things, McDowell said.
Parking services is responsi
ble for 145 parking lots on and
off campus. In these lots there are
a total of 13,700 stalls.
Of those, McDowell said,
8,500 are for students and 5,200
are for faculty and staff. In those
8,500 student stalls, 6,500 are on
campus permits, 1,000 are
perimeter permits, 400 are meters
and 600 are in the new parking
garage, he said.
There are five types of park
ing permits, purple, green 20,
green 21, yellow, and blue. Nine
month permits are $27 for purple
perimeter lots, $72 for blue and
green and $225 for yellow
reserved lots.
If students need to order a per
mit they can do so at Kimball
Recital Hall today and Friday
from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., Saturday
from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., Monday
and Tuesday from 7:30 a.m to
4:30 p.m. and after Tuesday at the
parking services from 7:30 a.m.
to 4:30 p.m.
McDowell said they sell
16,000 permits each year, which
is 2,300 more spots than they
have.
“If you don’t oversell parking
in a campus setting, you will have
50 percent of the parking empty
on a daily basis,” McDowell said.
“Plus you will have 4,000 people
who are angry because they see
the empty spots.”
