Ehlers, Huff Win University Kudos

Two UNL employees were recognized with University Kudos Awards at the Jan. 15 meeting of the NU Board of Regents.

Janet Ehlers is assistant director of Career Services. Ehlers is responsible for coordination of the Student Employment and coordination of the Internship Center and Career Services' efforts on behalf of Teachers College, students in teacher education and ongoing placement for these students. Ehlers also works as a career counselor. She has been with the university since 1975.

"She has been a major force behind moving teachers from paper files toward utilization of the 1stPlace system and other web-based services. She has truly been an outstanding example of a caring professional who pushes the envelope of change," said her nominator.

Darla Huff is a Clerical Assistant III in University Services Purchasing. Due to the implementation of the SAP, the software that integrates many of the day-to-day business functions of the university, Huff has provided intensive effort and was instrumental to the successful training and roll-out of the SAP Purchasing Model at UNL. Huff took on extra work while her supervisor was away from her normal duties and received many favorable accolades and recognition from the campus community regarding the implementation and subsequent follow-up.

Her nominator said, "None of this would have possible without her high level of customer service focus, cooperation, patience, and take charge positive attitude."

Troutman Joins NET

Dara L. Troutman has joined the staff at Nebraska Educational Telecommunications as assistant general manager for communications. NET is the parent organization of the Nebraska ETV Network, Nebraska Public Radio Network and EduCable.

Troutman most recently served as assistant vice president for external affairs and director of communications for the University of Nebraska. She is an adjunct professor in the College of Journalism and Mass Communications at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

Her previous government assignments have included press secretary, deputy director of public affairs and emergency management liaison for former Gov. Ben Nelson, and assistant press secretary for Nebraska U.S. Sen. Bob Kerrey.

Troutman gained media experience as a news director, anchor and reporter for KLIN/KEZG/KFGE Radio in Lincoln and at KETV in Omaha.

She holds undergraduate and graduate degrees from UNL.

School of Music Freshman Wins Regional Piano Competition

By Kathe Andersen, Hixson-Lied College of Fine & Performing Arts

Jenny Oliver, a School of Music freshman from Pelican Rapids, Minn., won the West Central Division of the Music Teachers National Association Steinway Collegiate Artist piano competition held at Drake University in Des Moines in January.

Oliver competed against winners from eight other states including the highly competitive states of Missouri and Minnesota. This is the first time a UNL pianist has made it this far, said Paul Barnes, assistant professor and co-chairman of the school' piano department

"I'm excited," Oliver said. "This has been more than four years in the making. I entered in high school and made it to the regionals, but not the national competition."

Oliver will travel to the MTNA National Convention in Minneapolis March 25-29 to compete at the national level. Barnes will also be giving a solo recital at the convention.

"Jenny is one of the most remarkable piano students I've ever had," Barnes said. "She combines a remarkable amount of innate talent with a highly disciplined lifestyle; the end result is extraordinary music making."

Oliver will play in recital at 6:45 p.m. March 8 in Kimball Recital Hall. The performance is free and open to the public.

Oliver began playing the piano when she was almost 7. She also plays the cello and marimba. While she enjoyed playing both the piano and cello, long practice hours forced her to choose between the two.

"Piano was the one I'm best at," she said.

In October, Oliver won the state level of the MTNA Steinway Collegiate Artist Piano Competition before winning the West Central Division level in January, where she was competing against the other eight state winners. At the national competition, Oliver will compete against the other six division winners from around the country.

"I've judged this national competition and the level is truly remarkable," Barnes said. "Jenny will be competing against pianists from Juilliard, Eastman, Indiana-the best music schools in the country. And she'll be competing against master's and doctoral students as well-not bad for a freshman"

"I'm sure the competition will be very, very stiff," Oliver said. "Any national competition will draw strong pianists."

Oliver's 50-minute program for the national competition will include Tchaikovsky's Concerto No. 1, Liszt's Mephisto Waltz, Ravel's Scarbo, Bach's Partita No. 1, and Haydn's Sonata in E-Flat. Leading up to the competition, she is practicing six hours a day.

Her goals, for now, include becoming a concert pianist.

"As for becoming a concert pianist, I love it," she said. "But I don't know if I want to do it the rest of my life with all the traveling and time away from your family. But right now, it sounds like fun.

"I just want to be the best I can be and see where it takes me."

Ramirez Honored by Maxey School

Pupils at Maxey Elementary School in Lincoln honored Marty Ramirez, counseling psychologist, on Jan. 27 with a multicultural banner celebration. The banner, created by Maxey art pupils recognizes the Chicano activist for his lifetime of achievements on behalf of Chicano, Latino and Hispanic people. As a child, Ramirez worked in beet fields in western Nebraska. His parents insisted he and all nine of his siblings study hard and succeed in high school. A wounded and honored Vietnam veteran, Ramirez earned his doctorate in counseling psychology in 1983. He has been a mentor and friend to a number of Chicano students at the university, encouraging them to persevere through obstacles.

His banner in the Maxey Gallery of Famous Nebraskans hangs with others such as Willa Cather, Ponca Chief Standing Bear and Susan LaFlesche Picotte, the first Native American woman physician.

At the celebration, Ramirez told the children to continue to pursue their dreams, to value education and to refuse to believe in the word "can't."

Tractor Test Lab's Larsen Dies at 91

A memorial service will begin at 1 p.m. Feb. 12 at Warren United Methodist Church, 44th and Orchard streets, for Lester F. Larsen. Larsen directed the Nebraska Tractor Test Laboratory on East Campus from 1946 until his retirement in 1975. He died Feb. 2 at the age of 91.

Larsen earned his bachelor's degree in agricultural engineering from the University of Nebraska (1932) and worked for International Harvester until 1937 when he returned to NU for graduate work. He earned master's degrees in agricultural engineering and mechanical engineering (1939), then was a member of the faculty at South Dakota State University from 1939 until 1943.

He returned to NU as an extension engineer before heading the Tractor Test Lab.

Larsen was author of 43 technical articles, concerned primarily with tractor performance measurements. He annually published the Nebraska Tractor Test Booklet, and is perhaps best known for his reference book "Farm Tractors, 1950-1975," published by the American Society of Agricultural Engineers.

Larsen was recognized by Gamma Sigma Delta, an Agricultural Honorary, Sigma Tau and Tau Beta Pi, Engineering Honoraries, and Alpha Epsilon. His most prestigious award was the Cyrus Hall McCormick Gold Medal from the ASAE in 1976.

Since retirement in 1975, Larsen devoted much of his time to the development of a museum to recognize the key developments in the evolution of the agricultural tractor. In 1998 the museum was formally dedicated as the Lester F. Larsen Tractor Test and Power Museum.

Memorials are suggested to the Lester F. Larsen Tractor Test and Power Museum through the NU Foundation.

Seaburg Named National Engineering Society Fellow

Paul Seaburg, associate dean of the College of Engineering and Technology, has been named a fellow of the American Society of Civil Engineers. Designation as a fellow is the second-highest recognition that civil engineers can receive from their peers, after "honorary member" designation.

To be eligible for elevation to fellow, a society member must be a legally registered engineer or land surveyor, and have had responsibility spanning at least 10 years in the grade of member. The member may be elevated if he or she has had responsible charge of important industrial business, construction, educational, editorial, research, or engineering society activity, requiring the knowledge and background gained from engineering training and experience.

Seaburg earned his Ph.D. in civil engineering at the University of Wisconsin. Formerly department head and professor at Pennsylvania State University, he has served as associate dean on the Omaha campus of the College of Engineering and Technology since 1996.

Press Lands NEA Grant for Translation Program

The National Endowment for the Arts will award the University of Nebraska Press $45,000 in fiscal year 2000 to support publication of international fiction and literary nonfiction. Nebraska's grant is one of the largest in the field of literature. Scheduled translations include Éric Chevillard's On the Ceiling, Mohammed Dib's The Savage Night, Robert Walser's The Robber, and Angela Bianchini's The Edge of Europe.

The translation program at the University of Nebraska Press focuses on European authors - primarily French, German and Spanish - as well as Latin American writers. More recent emphasis has been given to postcolonial writers such as Patrick Chamoiseau. Many of Nebraska's translated works appear in the following series: French Modernist Library, Latin American Women Writers, European Women Writers, and Jewish Writing in the Contemporary World.

The program of publishing international fiction and literary nonfiction at the University of Nebraska Press has garnered much notice in recent years. Describing the commitment by the press to publishing Creole writer Patrick Chamoiseau, a reviewer wrote in The Seattle Times, the "University of Nebraska Press deserves kudos for following through with an author who merits the best of treatments."

Rapoport Heads Search Committee for Arts & Sciences Dean

Nancy Rapoport, dean of the law college, has been named chair of a search committee to find a new dean of the College of Arts & Sciences. Brian Foster, current dean, has resigned to take the post of provost at the University of New Mexico. Linda Pratt, professor of English, has been named interim dean.

Other members of the search committee are: Robert Audi, Charles J. Mach Distinguished Professor, philosophy; David Berkowitz, associate professor, chemistry; Daniel Bernstein, professor, psychology; Amy Burnett, associate professor, history; Patricia Draper, professor and chair, anthropology; Vicki Geiser, graduate student, biological sciences; David Howe, assistant dean for business and finance, arts and sciences; John Janovy, Paula and D.B. Varner Distinguished Professor, biological sciences; Lyn Kathlene, associate professor, political science; Roger Kirby, professor and chair, physics and astronomy; Parthasarathi Lahiri, professor, mathematics and statistics; James Linderholm, president, HWS Consulting Group Inc.; Jason Mashek, undergraduate student, English and political science; John Orr, associate professor, mathematics and statistics; Venetria Patton, assistant professor, English and ethnic studies, and coordinator, African and African American Studies; Marcela Raffaelli, associate professor, psychology and ethnic studies, and coordinator, Latin American and Latino Studies.