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
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