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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 7, 1999)
\ EDITOR Josh Funk OPINION EDITOR Mark Baldridge EDITORIAL BOARD Lindsay Young Jessica Fargen Samuel McKewon Cliff Hicks Kimberly Sweet Editorial Policy Unsigned editorials are the opinions of the Fall 1999 Daily Nebraskan. They do not necessarily reflect the views of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. its employees, its student body or the University of Nebraska Board of Regents. A column is solely the opinion df its author. ^ The Board of Regents serves as publisher of the Daily Nebraskan; policy is set by the Daily Nebraskan Editorial Board. The UNL Publications Board, established by the regents, supervises the production of ttie paper. According to policy set by . the regents, responsibility for the editorial content of the newspaper lies solely in the hands of its student employees. * / N/ Our VIEW Too good to be true Stadium is only sweet deal on paper We like sweet deals. And the new proposal regarding a baseball a^d softball complex for Nebraska’s respective teams seems like a pretty sweet deal ... on paper. On paper, the NU baseball and softball teams get brand new ballparks, complete 'with all the amenities. It’s a heck of a recruiting tool, too. On paper, the proposal, which was approved last Friday by the NU Board of Regents 7-0, doesn’t ask for a cent from the UNL students. Instead the $10.6 mil lion the university has to put up will be supplied through private donations, that NU Foundations, the fund-raising arm of UNL, must get. Yep, a sweet deal. On paper. But on the practical side there are prob lems to consider, the same old problems that come up whenever there’s another glut of spending like this one. Spending usually leads to more spending. More facilities beget more facilities. That’s the way competition Works. The Nebraska baseball and softball teams were successful in 1999. For the baseball team, it was the first time in years. The program seems to be moving up •under Dave Van Horn, but, in fairness, it was about the last sports team at UNL that had truly earned new digs, sort of like the Nebraska men’s basketball team didn’t really earn the new HuskerVision boards. But so be it. Clearly, the baseball team needed an upgrade from Buck Beltzer Field. The softball team, while its current facility isn’t the worst, could stand an upgrade, too. The key here is wondering just how many more programs will ask for more money. They, too, could use upgrading. And the football team could always stand to have a little better equipment, even though the team is among the best now. At what point does the spending ever stop? Meanwhile, the academic side of UNL is in the doldrums. Since NU Foundations raises money for all UNL-related issues, time and money will have to be diverted from academic fund-raising to find money .for the complex. And frankly, academics needs all the fund-raising it can get, con sidering recent cutbacks. The baseball and softball stadiums will be built. Of this, there is no doubt. The baseball complex; of course, has to be built, since a Northern League profession al team will play there. Does the spending stop here? Which team is next on the docket? What will it want? And if the spending doesn’t end here, when will it? On paper, a sweet deal doesn’t ask those questions. But that doesn’t mean the questions go away. letter Policy The Daily Nebraskan welcomes brief letters to the editor and guest columns, but does not guarantee their publication. The Daily Nebraskan retains the right to edit or reject any material submitted. Submitted material becomes property of the Daily Nebraskan and cannot be returned. Anonymous submissions will not be published. Those who submit letters must identify themselves by name, year in school, major and/or group affiliation, if any. Submit material to: Daily Nebraskan, 20 Nebraska Union, 1400 R St. Lincoln, NE. 68588-0448. E-mail: letters@unlinfo.unl.edu. Obermeyer’s VIEW WT'S NoT So BAD ■ AT FIRST... BUT I after a whilf, A You CAN RFALLy K^FSEL THE DN LETTERS And Speaking of Tongues... I just finished reading Cliff Hicks’ column entitled “Speaking in Tongues” (DN, Friday) and was com pelled to write. Though I do not agree with all of Mr. Hicks’ positions, I do agree that a review of UNL’s foreign language requirement is in order. While I agree with Mr. Hicks that some working knowledge of a for eign language should continue to be part of the requirements for gradua tion at UNL, I also think UNL should not be teaching entry-level foreign language classes. Students should be required to have a minimum level of institution ally established proficiency in for eign language before they are admit ted and, in most cases, those and any additional requirements should be completed before a student ever sets foot on campus. In recent years, UNL raised its entrance requirements. Entering freshmen must have achieved a cer tain level of proficiency in English, math and science through their I respective high schools or from some other educational source in order to be admitted. The idea for this was to help raise the level of academic rigor, improve retention rates and elevate the overall quality of students attending UNL. Clearly, that has begun to be achieved and has resulted in fewer remedial classes because students who di<d not meet the minimum stan dards have either gone to institutions with less stringent entrance require ments or to community colleges to improve their skills. However, the modern languages department continues to be forced to teach students who come to 101 for eign language classes with little or no prior understanding of the language they are trying to learn. Granted, many incoming fresh men do take some or all of then- for eign language requirements bdfore they get to UNL, and they should be applauded for doing so. However, there are great numbers of students who must muddle through once they get to campus. For the most part, these students have no desire to learn die language, and it has been proven that the later in life one tries, the more difficult lan guages are to learn. As a result, get ting through the foreign language requirement becomes a frustrating chore. Students soon learn that understanding the language is not important, getting out with your sani ty and maybe 16 hours of “C” is. This is not a condemnation of the modern languages department. In fact, I have great respect for these people because they are forced to teach section after section of students who, for the most part, are frustrated, angry and looking for a way to end the misery. The instructors in the department are caught in a classic paradox: They can never truly teach the kind of pro ficiency that would allow one to capably converse in another language in 16 credit hours, yet, because of the requirement, they must keep up the pretense that they can. These instructors should be teaching students who have chosen foreign language as a major or minor, or those who truly wish to expand their skills in another language. May I make a few suggestions: 1: Establish some minimum level of language proficiency as terms for admission and strongly encourage in coming freshmen to fulfill all the for eign language requirements before they come to campus. If these students fulfill their requirements through an acceptable agency (high school, community col lege, etc.) they should be exempt from taking the foreign language placement exam and need not take any additional foreign language classes as terms of graduation. 2: Partner/contract with the com munity college system to provide entry level foreign language educa tion to high school and college stu dents. In general, community col leges can do this for less money and with more efficiency, while maintain ing a high quality of instruction. In the long run, resources in the modem languages department would be freed to spend on motivated stu dents and provide additional support for graduate students, faculty and facilities. 3: With minimum entrance requirements met, lower the number of credit hours to fulfill the foreign language requirement from 16 to 10 and make it a requirement for every student at UNL. Currently, some majors do not require a foreign lan guage to graduate. This will standard ize the terms of graduation across campus and make up for any lost rev enue due to the loss of billable credit hours. 4: Place more emphasis on teach ing practical skills and cultural understanding. What’s more impor tant for most students? The ability to discuss complex concepts in six Spanish verb tenses or the ability to ask where they can get a meal in one? J. E. Buchanan arts & sciences, 1997 More ‘Tongues’ Talk I am writing to comment on the article about foreign language studies by Cliff Hicks. I could not agree more. I am a transfer student from the University of Nebraska at Kearney, coming here for more technical classes offered in my major, geography. Instead of being able to take a full load of these classes, which would be beneficial to my career, I am stuck wasting some of my precious credits, and money, on this foreign language requirement. I work full time and go to school full time, so my time is very limited. Therefore my foreign language class always gets shoved to the side so I can concentrate on the classes that mean something to me. These are the class es I should be taking and paying for. I understand that UNL wants to get their two years out of me, and that’s not what bothers me. Let me take two years of classes that I am going to use. Two semesters of this foreign lan guage requirement is plenty. My graduation has been bumped up one year as a result of this. Thank you for letting me get this of my chest. It has been pissing me off for three semesters now. Jarod Skrivanek senior geography 1 V 4/