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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (March 2, 1998)
SPORTS Up and over The Nebraska men’s track team won the Big 12 Track Championships in Ames, Iowa, last week end. The NU women placed second. PAGE 8 I_A & E_ Ready to rumble March 2,1998 WCW wrestling made its Lincoln debut Friday, and Daily Nebraskan reporters Jason Hardy and EVERYONE KNOWS It’S WlNDY EJ Sarah Baker were there to witness it. PAGE 7 Cloudy, gusty, high 35. Partly cloudy tonight, low 22. VOL. 97 COVERING THE UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA-LINCOLN SINCE 1901 NO. 113 Happy Birthday, Nebraska Lane Hickenbottom/DN ABOUT 800 fourth graders from around the state gathered in the Capitol Friday to help celebrate Nebraska’s 131st birthday. The | birthday party included awards, a musical history lesson, choir and, of course, birthday cake. PLEASE SEE STORY ON PAGE 3. ^......."^ Post-tenure review OK’d by regents By Brad Davis Senior Reporter The NU Board of Regents unanimously approved a proposal Saturday that aims to ensure tenured pro fessors meet university expectations. Regent Charles Wilson of Lincoln said tenure was not well-understood by most Nebraskans, and by enacting post-tenure reviews, citizens could be assured tenure was not just a “lifetime appointment.” The policy enacted by the regents will begin post tenure review programs at all four NU campuses, none of which previously have used post-tenure review. A post-tenure review will be triggered by a faculty member's request or by an unsatisfactory annual review, which evaluates a professor's performance related to the university’s three missions: teaching, research and service. Regent Nancy O’Brien of Waterloo said for the post-tenure review process to work, annual reviews would have to be comprehensive. Chancellors on all NU campuses, O’Brien said, must develop plans to make sure annual reviews are Please see TENURE on 6 Student input encouraged Party members enjoy personal contacts * By Jessica Fargen Assignment Reporter Chris Linder carries a notebook with an idea page. The second vice presidential can didate for COMMIT said she keeps it with her all the time to jot down stu dents' ideas. She said hearing students' ideas was just one way she and the COM MIT party could help communication increase at the University of Nebraska Lincoln. Along with Sara Russell, COMMITS presidential nominee, and Kelly Hoffschneider, first vice presi dential candidate, Linder said COM MIT could help the university by implementing a campus coalition and communitywide service projects and having a diverse perspective. Russell said COMMIT would organize more service projects, like the all-campus cleanup with the Association of Students of the University of Nebraska and Residence Hall Association after last October's winter storm. Projects like this allow' students PB who do not normally talk to each other to soak up the experience of being with other people, Russell said. More projects joining Lincoln and UNL also would be planned, Russell said, because the two communities are not well-connected. “We do have a vested interest in the community outside of the university," Russell said. But getting John and Jane R. Student to be involved and try new things is always a problem, she said. Picking the right time, making it competitive, going out afterward and making such projects really effective the first time would make it worth while for students, she added. “It needs to be really talked up," Linder said. “Just try it for once, you don't have to come back.” The same would be true for the monthly campus coalition, which would include a dele gate from each campus student organi zation. Russell said the campus coalition would allow students to share problem solving strategies, discuss issues, sense tension on campus and increase co sponsorship of events. “We would throw out an issue and then open it up to how they feel the cli mate is,” Russell said. Linder said the coalition would also put students in a situation to find out about other cultures. “Students are really interested in but are too afraid to go up and ask a stu dent: ‘What is your religion like? What is your country like?’” Linder said. Russell said the coalition would be similar to an open forum with an agen da and possibly would be broken down to smaller groups for a meeting. A large number of students would give a diverse perspective, she said. Vernon Miller, a COMMIT sena torial candidate, agreed. Miller, outgoing president of the University Inter-tribal Exchange, said VISION's proposed president’s cabinet of 30 to 40 student organization presi dents may not be effective because the invitation would not be open to every one in an organization, causing limited feedback. Please see COMMIT on 2 ACADEMIC RIGOR: Professors have final say on academic rigor Editor’s note: This week the Daily Nebraskan will take an in-depth look at one of the hottest issues in UNL curricululm: academic rigor. By Brad Davis Senior Reporter Though recent talk of academic rigor has come mostly from the chan cellor’s office, professors say they’re the people who will actually make the plan fly. Administrators, including UNL Chancellor James Moeser, have con ceded they can only encourage faculty members to-increase the rigor of their courses, but professors themselves must put the plan into action. University of Nebraska-Lincoln English Professor James Ford said dis cussions on campuses across the nation have focused on academic rigor. Even faculty members at presti gious institutions like Princeton University are questioning themselves about challenges they issue to students,> Ford said. He said universities need to take a leading role in increasing standards at & all levels of education. “Perhaps there has been a shift from being most concerned with what students learn to being most concerned with whether or not they were getting a job, and worrying about their GPAs,” Ford said. Ford said he could understand, considering the tight job market, why students were concerned about their GPAs. Sometimes, Ford said, he doesn’t challenge his students to the level he should because he’s worried they’re too busy. “Often my students are so busy - they’re all working - and I worry about their health,” Ford said. Electrical Engineering Professor Ezekiel Bahar said when students work between 30 and 40 hours per week, they can't dedicate the necessary time to their education. Parents, even if they aren't wealthy, should do everything they can to help their children attend college without having to work, Bahar said. Bahar said students should seize the “golden opportunity” of college by Please see RIGOR on 2 Read the Daily Nebraskan on the World WideWeb at http.7 / www.unl.edu/DailyNeb
