Perlman shows other side at home
PERLMAN from page 1
referring to the chancellor’s hon
orary with a laugh
"That didn’t work out”
He’d attend football games
and took spring break trips to
Tfexas and Mexico.
All in all, his college career was
typical, he said.
But the below-average stu
dent got a turnaround when he
met his future wife on a blind date
in his junior year of college.
Said Susan: “He was not going
to class, not buying his books, but
he was getting by because he was
so smart”
Harvey liked to listen to bag
pipe music, which was something
that made him stick out to Susan,
she said.
“Hes always been interesting
and pretty eccentric,” she said.
After they met, Harvey would
conveniently show up at the
library when Susan was there.
“I’d either have to watch her
study or read myself,” he said.
But after Perlman starting
cracking the books and going to
classes, his grades began to rise.
It’s a good thing because when
he entered law school, there was
n't much time to play around.
Anyone was admitted, but up
to 25 percent of students who
enrolled flunked out
Void of lofty goals to become
the next Perry Mason, Perlman
enrolled in law school to avoid
being drafted in the Vietnam War,
Susan said.
And when Perlman met the
law college dean, he was told he
wasn't law school material.
Perlman surpassed the dean’s
expectations, though, and even
tually became dean of the NU
College of Law in 1983, where he
served until 1998.
The law school dean who
doubted Perlman would succeed
ended up eating his words in
more ways than one.
The dean’s son married
Perlman’s daughter, Anne, who
recently gave birth to a son, Will.
“(Will’s) got a law dean as a
grandfather on each side,” Susan
said. “Poor guy.”
M
Perlman has won favor with
both students and administra
tors.
Joan Leitzel, former senior
vice chancellor for academic
affairs, worked with Perlman
while he was dean of the law col
lege.
Leitzel is president of the
Courtesy photo
Chancellor Harvey Perlman poses with his cat, Coco, a 12-year-old tabby with finicky eating habits. Perlman was featured with his
cat in a national newspaper of higher education.
University of New Hampshire in
Durham.
Leitzel served as interim
chancellor when former UNL
Chancellor Graham Spanier left to
become president of Penn State
University in State College, Pa.
Perlman stepped up as acting
senior vice chancellor for aca
demic affairs, working alongside
Leitzel, she said.
At work, Perlman is task-ori
ented and analytical, Leitzel said.
"He's a very straightforward
person, and he's skilled at argu
ing,” she said. “You ought tohave
your ducks in line when you're
talking to him.”
But Perlman’s sense of humor
helped him handle conflicts and
difficult situations, Leitzel said.
Perlman was die right choice
for UNLs next chancellor, Leitzel
said.
"He’s very student-con
cerned,” she said. "He’s easy to
work with and is a good partner.”
***
In any given week, Perlman is
featured in newspapers where he
talks about academic prioritiza
tion, tuition, recruitment,
bioethics and salaries, among
other topics.
But last week, the more
human side of Perlman was
shown in The Chronicle for
Higher Education, a newspaper
for college and university faculty
members and administrators.
Perlman and his cat, Coco,
were featured in Friday’s edition
in a section on college and univer
sity leaders and their pets.
In the paper, Perlman
described his 12-year-old cat as a
pet who throws up her food
whenever possible.
Coco is fed one or two bits of
cat food 27 times a day.
Perlman also said Coco is
"particularly agile at throwing up
on a new piece of furniture; she
can spot those as we bring diem
into the house.”
***
On a Pepsi-sponsored cam
pus, Perlman chooses to drink
neither Pepsi nor Coke.
Rather, he said his favorite
daytime beverage is bottled water.
And when the sun goes down,
it’s beer, but not any cheap
domestic beer.
Perlman goes for imported
beers. Red Tbil Ale was the brew in
the fridge Wednesday night,
Susan said.
“He’s picky about his beer, but
he has one every night,” she said.
***
Although he makes decisions
for the future of the university
every day, Perlman is still indeci
sive about what he wants to da
He doesn’t want to retire as
chancellor, though he’s made a
commitment to remain at the
post as long as he’s wanted and is
in good health. Rather, he’d like to
step down and teach at the law
college as long as he can.
But he doesn't have a time
frame for when this will all hap
pen.
For Perlman, it's one-day-at
a-time, and he can’t emphasize
enough that he’s not a planner.
“There’s a John Lennon quote
that says, life is what happens to
you when you’re too busy making
other plans,'" he said.
“I like that"
ABCs of grading relearned
CHIDES from page 1
“I think the idea of a B+
should still be the same whether
the points change or not,” she
said.
Vala said he thought keeping
the Honors Program standard
so high could make enthusiastic
students bitter and affect stu
dent recruitment
Choate said he didn't think
students would be discouraged
from applying to the Honors
Program.
“The people that tend to
seek out die additional work...
are usually the people that pri
oritize their academic life over
their social life and find formal
barriers to be rather easy chal
lenges to overcome,” Choate
said.
Charlyne Berens, an assis
tant journalism professor, said
the honors students she teaches
are all hard-working students
who take their studies seriously.
"I don’t know how this would
affect them,” she said.
"Everyone I’ve had here has
done excellent work. I don’t
anticipate that it would be a
problem.”
Berens said she probably
wouldn’t change her grading
methods to be more lenient to
honors students. As it is now,
she said, she grades students
based on their ability to meet
class standards.
“Most of the time, I don't pay
that much attention to who’s an
honors student in my class,” she
said.
Choate said the real chal
lenges in the Honors Program
come Math the major projects
students have to complete in
their junior and senior years,
and by that time, students in the
program have been narrowed
down to those “who have met
both the criteria and have the
internal drive” to succeed in the
program.
Patrice Berger, director of
the Honors Program, and Karen
Lyons, assistant director of the
Honors Program, could not be
reached for comment on
Wednesday.
Earl Hawkey, director of reg
istration and records, said the
decision on whether the Honors
Program grade standards would
be lowered rested with the pro
gram’s administrators.
As it is, Hawkey said, there is
no way to tell how the grading
scale change will affect student
GPAs.
After the first semester
change is implemented,
Hawkey said, then data could be
gathered as to how the new scale
affected students’ grade point
averages.
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Ban on research
affects vaccines
RESEARCH from pagel
To survive, patients who
needed the banned medicines
and treatments would have to
cross Nebraska’s borders to get
them, he said.
“If this law had been in place
55 years ago, we and our chil
dren would have had to travel to
another state to receive the
polio vaccine,” Maurer said.
Peterson's new findings sur
faced in the midst of an intense
debate over fetal tissue research
that began last year.
Currently, the bill is stuck in
the Judiciary Committee
because it doesn’t have enough
support to advance or enough
opposition to get killed.
Sen. Matt Connealy of
Decatur holds a key vote in the
near evenly divided committee.
I . ™————
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Experiences program will be recognized at the Chancellor’s
Leadership Recognition Ceremony on April 10, 2001, 5:30 pm
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from 5:30-6:30 with the recognition ceremony following at 6:45.
Deadline: Essential Experiences recognition requirements due
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Connealy, who has said he's
against abortion, has voted
against advancing the bill because
he said the bill doesn't directly
affect abortions in Nebraska.
“This isn't about abortions,"
he said.
Instead, Connealy said, the
bill is about doing the “right
thing” for the health of
Nebraskans.
Sen. Dwite Pedersen of
Elkhom, who wrote the bill, has
said he will probably request
that Legislature pull the bill out
of committee through a vote of
the entire body.
Maurer said no matter what
the senators do, they need to
give the new findings a close
look before debating die bill.
“I would hope they would
look at this material very care
fully,” he said.
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