Nebraska Wesleyan University - Plainsman Yearbook (Lincoln, NE)

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f ®- DR. CLAUDE J. SHIKK By C. SHARP Claude J. Shirk, A.M., M. S. D., M. S., Ph. D., who has headed the Biology department since 1913, came to ' esleyan as professor of botany in that year. Since 1919 he has been professor of biology. Dr. Shirk, whose name is listed in the Journal of Am- erican Men of Science, is a Fellow of the American .Association for Advance- ment of Science. With a year of high school and two short terms in an academy, Claude Shirk fulfilled his college entrance requirements. Then, between 1896 and 1902, he earned the degrees of A. R., M. S D., and A. M, from : IcPherson College, jNIcPherson, Kansas, with only one year of resident work, hav- ing taken the rest by correspondence, two and a half years of which was done while Shirk and his brother worked on a great alfalfa ranch in the Pecos valley in New Mexico. 360 Credit Hours When he began work at Chicago University for his Ph. D., Professor Shirk had 360 hours of college credit. For that degree, he worked nine quar- ters at Chicago, which work was transferred to the University of Ne- braska where he completed his doctor ' s thesis in 1924 on the salt marsh plants of the Lincoln marshes. Mrs. Laona Underkofler, A. B. with distinction, 1931, A. M. 1936, both de- grees from Wesleyan, has been an instructor in biology since 1931. Irs. Underkofler, through her per- sonal contact with students in the laboratories, helps them to make the transition between high school and college. She interprets the complex terminology of the courses, reduces hazy ideas to facts, and gives the some- times bewildered pre-meds tangible knowledge with which to work. Biology Mrs. Underkofler ' s sons, Harlan and Galen, have graduated from Wesleyan. For five years, she was housemother for the Delta Omega Phi fraternity. Most prc-meds come here as stu- dents, and never get over it. — Arthur Iiachman, biology lab assistant. Every year ten or fifteen freshmen enter the pre-medical training course in the pious hope of becoming doc- tors. Half of them survive to be junior or third-year students, eligible to enter graduate medical school. No group of students hits the ball any harder than these. With few excep- tions, a good pre-med student gets little glory on the campus. His social life is limited, and the vast amount of study and laboratory work he does wins no schoolwide acclaim. There is not time enough in the days for all the labs he must take. There are times when a pre-med has no classes, but he never has a vacation. Learn to organize — to interpret the literature. — Dr. Shirk. The 1,725 biology volumes in the library are twelve-hour books, in which frequent and wide readings are as- signed. Eighty-one current biological science magazines are available, with complete files of 30 of them. The Walter Shopbell fund, 200 dollars con- tributed annually by an alumnus who visits Wesleyan with his camera every spring, aids much in keeping up the magazines. Well Equipped Some ten thousand dollars worth of equipment is owned by the depart- ment. The expensive Auzoux anatomi- cal model of the human body, life size, and dissectible into the important units of musculature and organs, is used by anatomy students, pre-meds, and nurses. Last year, the University of Ne- braska opened its premedical honorary society, Theta Nu, to Wesleyan stu- dents. Membership, based on high scholastic standing, is limited to thirty, with elections held to replace stu- dents entering graduate college. From Wesleyan, Warner Nelson and Nlerle Mahr were elected. Nu- led, society of all pre-med students at State, is also open to Wesleyan students. KI.AINK mtdWN. si f Brynn licispifMl, ,nt tlii ' iiiicnisi-.ipo in liMi ' tiTinliisiy l:ib.