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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 12, 2000)
| |1\TT "I ^ A weekly look at I 3 J. X ^ 3 Uv ^ a toPic important to us UNL’s ranking fluctuates too much The most frequent mantra of the univer sity administration lately has been that of academic rigor. Bouncing back and forth between being a second- or third-tier univer sity should be disconcerting: the ranking of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln affects how much the degree is worth. And UNL is NOT the Harvard of the Midwest. We could argue that the rankings are insignificant, that there are intangibles that cannot be measured with pure numbers. If this is true, then Nebraska’s ranking is meaningless and should be ignored. However, for those of us who desire to have a degree worth more than something out of a proverbial Cracker Jack box, the minimum ACT score of 20 - providing you were so inept that being in the top HALF of your Nebraskan high school graduating class was beyond you. “Pathetic” is too weak a word to describe UNL’s admissions policy. But the standard is more of an effect than a cause. The best stu dents just don’t come here because there are better schools that they can get into. UNL has only three options: continue to focus on student retention, increase admis sion standards or fail students who don’t perform up to reasonable standards. Continuing to focus on student retention will only turn UNL into a four-year commu nity college. Since there is apparently a God-given right for Nebraskans to come to UNL, regardless of ability, we can’t increase admission standards, either. We have only one method to enhance UNL’s reputation: fail students who don’t perform. What effect will failing students have on UNL? First, we get to keep their money. Let students stay here as long as they want, pro vided they pay for it. UNL should not feel obligated to give out undergraduate degrees simply because a student serves his or her running oy ua News is of para mount impor tance. Academic reputation and student retention are the two largest factors used by US News to rank schools. Unfortunately, high student UNL should not feel obligated to give out undergraduate degrees simply because a student serves his or her time. time, railing stu dents, though, would only result in the fir ing of the adminis tration who sought to increase stan dards. Parents, being the voters they are, would revolt; refus ing to believe that their sons or daugh ters could possibly fail college. retention and a good academic reputation Additionally, UNL can’t fail students are mutually exclusive events at UNL. Many because of minimum GPA requirements, students either don’t perform well or FEEL Enacted by many businesses - it would they don’t perform well in their classes (a only make UNL students unemployable, major factor for leaving the University). Because of the extreme incompetence, In order to retain these students, we must many human resources departments use a come to the inevitable conclusion that class- student’s GPA as the primary factor in deter room standards must be lowered. mining intellectual ability. Balderdash! What answers exist? Listing the average Let us assume that academic course ACT scores vs. grades received for every work at UNL is of the proper level of diffi- course offered at UNL would be a good culty. With only a 47% graduation rate and a Start. 76% freshman retention rate (both are the The public would be able to identify the worst rates among second-tier schools), worst departments and affect changes something is clearly wrong with the student through political pressure, population’s ability to produce college-level Listing the percentages of each letter course work. grade given along with the corresponding All of the top twenty schools had their mean ACT score would give employers an 25th percentile SAT scores higher than 1230 idea of the difficulty of courses. (give or take a 27.5 on the ACT) when UNL’s We simply cannot become a first-tier 75th percentile scores weren’t that high. school overnight. The public, faculty and, Obviously, the student quality at UNL is most importantly, students, must recognize below that of even mediocre schools. Part of that college is intended to be a time of leam the problem is that UNL only requires a ing, not merely a four-year jail term/party. Brian Coon is a doctoral student in engineering and a Daily Nebraskan columnist Putting the teach in teacher “That’s a really good class, as long as you have Professor X. If you take that class, make sure you don’t take it with Professor Y. Oh, I had to drop' it; I just couldn’t stand the teacher!” These are statements heard daily here at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, particularly around registration time. Everyone seems to have an opinion regarding past teachers and almost always are willing to share opinions with anyone who will listen. I know that I am always happy to sing the praises of my “good” teachers and to warn oth ers about the flaws of the “bad” teachers with whom I have had contact. This is partially to help my friends avoid facing the same problems I have had. But I suspect I also am trying to enact some small revenge on those professors who I feel have done me wrong. Many students do not feel that course evalu ations actually accomplish anything. So these students feel the only option is to spout off to the entire campus about what these professors have done to upset them. A common perception among students is that quality of teaching is simply not a high priority among administrators and department chair men. Because UNL is extremely focused on research, students often feel left out and neglect ed. Many people start to believe that as long pro fessors keep up with their research, how capable they are of actually teaching students is not a crucial issue. This often leads to resentment and even hostility in students who feel as though they are being ignored by not only the profes sors, but by the university as a whole. What seems to be missing from many profes sors at UNL is a genuine caring and enthusiasm for the students. Most of the time the professors who are liked by their students are those who display some level of interest in their students’ educational progress, if not also in their person al lives. These professors have put forth that lit tle extra bit of effort to try to connect with the students and to show that they are valued. Some very basic ways of doing this are learn ing students’ names and asking questions about students’ majors and career goals. This is fairly easy to do in small classes, but a professor who really wanted to could make a connection with students in larger classes as well. Professors could try sharing their own personal informa tion, which would help students to feel more Tony Cacioppo is a senior secondary et a Daily Nebrai comfortable coming to office hours and asking questions in class. I have had many professors whose names 1 never knew because they did not even bother to introduce themselves. This certainly did not lead me to believe that these professors had any inter est in me as a student, or even as a person. Taking the steps to show caring to students is something that comes naturally to most teach ers, which may explain where the problem is. Almost none of the people standing up and lec turing in front of classrooms here at UNL is a teacher. These people are scholars and acade mics who usually have little or no training in how to teach. In order to teach at any other level, from kindergarten through high school, one must go through an intense process of learning how to teach. He or she must take class after class, cov ering topics as diverse as educational theory and how to deal with difficult students. Then the potential teacher must go through a semester of student teaching to prove that he or she is capa ble of effectively leading a classroom. But no such regulation exists for teaching at the collegiate level. There is no clear-cut training or schooling a person must go through to become a professor at UNL or at any other uni versity in this country. It seems that all a person needs to do is be extremely knowledgeable in his or her particular field and to regularly conduct research and publish the findings. The result of this lack of training is apparent: Many of our classrooms are led by people who are simply not truly capable of, nor fully interested in, doing so. The best professor I have had the pleasure of working with in college possessed several quali ties that led to her success. She is an English pro fessor here at UNL, but she worked for a few — years as a high school teacher in the Lincoln Public Schools. Working in that atmosphere was essential to her becoming the motivating, encouraging, inspiring teacher my classmates and I found at the head of our classroom, helping us to progress further than we had ever thought we could. It was her training and experience in the education field, along with her passion for work ing with students, that made her a truly great teacher. I would guess that almost all students at UNL could name similarly truly excellent professors who teach. To these teachers, those who are willing to put forth that small amount of extra effort to become true teachers rather than mere academic figures, my fellow students and I thank you. You show interest in us, encourage us to work hard and are truly happy to see us suc ceed. It is this caring that makes the difference and helps us to achieve our goals. I hope you can help encourage your colleagues and show them this type of investment in students will pay off in the fiiture. iglish and Spanish education major and >kan columnist Literary greats not given enough exposure There are things that comfort us; cer tain actions and images that are “right” in our minds. These things range from watching a sleeping cat in the sunshine to hearing a Frank Sinatra record while reading the paper. Flannel shirts, the itchy kind, are definitely a “right thing.” I have recently been able to read much of the “suggest ed material” for my old high school classes, and the “feeling of rightness” was prevalent in much of what I read. The first time through, I hated it. The words of Salinger, Golding and Fitzgerald made me resentful in the years long past when my English teach ers made up quizzes about the readings. I hated being made to read something I had little interest in. I would rather read some Asimov or King. I read for pleasure, losing myself in the worlds and dreamscapes of other men and women. I enjoy reading and to be forced to read “good literature” made me almost froth at the mouth with rage. I had a 20th Century Fiction class last semester - one I enjoyed heartily. I had a few private conversations with the stu dents in the class, drawing analogies to “Pride and Prejudice,” “Jane Eyre,” “Wuthering Heights,” “1984” and “A Brave New World,” but was met with some blank stares. I was appdlled that these good people, all very intelligent students, had not read Austen, Bronte, Orwell or Huxley. I was shocked at the idea that my high school did a pretty good job in the English department. I am left with a predicament. The peo ple I resented in high school who fol lowed a certain curriculum and made sure we read certain books had good intentions. I know I would eventually get around to Huxley, Bronte and Austen, but on my own, later in life. I would probably read them when I was, say, 50, balding with a pot belly and nervously chain smoking in my basement. How do I reconcile this philosophy, something I believe in theory but not in practice now that I have the harvest in hand? More power to high schools is my answer. I want every kid in high school, in junior high, even in primary, to be read ing as soon as possible the classics and the greats in the Romance period. I would extend the curriculum to include “The Stand,” “1984,” the first three books in the “Wheel of Time” and sev eral more. Even though I hated being forced to do it, I enjoy these things more so now. Even though it may feel wrong to force someone to do something, such as reading Dickens, Twain, Tolkien or Tolstoy, these will incorporate culture into their characters and they become better people for it. I know kids from my high school who now work in factories, in diners and even Carnival cruise ships who would be able to discuss the merits of “Lord of the Flies” and “Jane Eyre.” Remember what I was saying about “feelings of right?” Well, there is some thing wrong to me in trying to talk about a subject without Twain coloring the conversation or light shadings of the felicitous Austen. I still love watching my cat in the sun shine, and I love reading, but I think about all the agonizing faces from my past as they trudged through Shakespeare. I think about the terror the boot-wear ing, tobacco-chewing cowboys had etched on their faces, the banal looks of the cheerleaders, the “I don’t care” looks from the stoners. I think about the people from my past, and I think about these “right books” in a world full of wrong. That makes me smile because these people were given the right touch. Silas DeBoer is an English major and a Daily Nebraskan columnist.
