Mike Warren's shot of NU goalie Karina LeBlanc took first prize.

Student Wins Top Photo Award from SPJ

Mike Warren, a UNL post-graduate student, won top honors recently for a sports photograph in the student division of the Society of Professional Journalists Mark of Excellence contest.

The photo, which ran on the front page of the Daily Nebraskan in November 1999, shows NU soccer goalie Karina LeBlanc trying to block a Notre Dame penalty kick during the NCAA quarterfinals. The kick hit the goalpost and bounced out. Notre Dame later won the game on penalty kicks.

Warren is a graduate of Delaware Valley Regional High School in Frenchtown, N.J., and entered UNL in 1995. He started working for the Daily Nebraskan when he was a sophomore.

His parents own a camera shop in Flemington, N.J., which Warren credits as prompting his interest in photography.

Warren said the winning photo was made with a Canon 1N RS, with a 300mm lens and 800 speed Fuji film.

"I had no idea it would look like this, " he said, "or that I even had the photo when I took it. It wasn't until I came out of the darkroom and put the film on the light table. I remember seeing the image and thinking 'Please let it be sharp. Please let it be sharp.'"

It was sharp and Warren won both the regional and national SPJ sports photo contests.

Hornung and Parker Receive Universitywide Kudos

Cindy Hornung and Howard Parker received the University Kudos Award at the Sept. 29 meeting of the NU Regents.

Hornung (at left) is a staff assistant with Institutional Research and Planning. She provides data packets for all UNL Academic Program Reviews and works with academic departments to validate who teaches each course and the enrollments that are credited to each section. Hornung conducts and responds to many surveys, working with members of the AAU Data Exchange and assists in processing federal reports that are required of the University. She also assembles base data for much of the department's electronic fact book.

"Quiet excellence best describes the manner in which she serves the University. Her work ethic is exemplary," said her nominator.

Parker (at right) is director of planning and construction with Facilities Management and Planning. He has been credited with overhauling project administration at UNL, resulting in greater efficiencies in project management. The latest change is the use of a design-build process for the parking garage project, shortening the time for design and construction and providing the maximum number of stalls for the budget allowed. In addition, the project at Love Library is using construction manager at-risk, and allowing complicated activities to be accomplished within the terms of one contract - reducing the cost and time of multiple contracts.

"Projects are not only staying on schedule and within budget, but are also proceeding with speed and quality not previously possible," said his nominator.

Young, Kathlene Are Faculty Associates

By Scott Franzen, Public Relations Intern

Linda Young, professor of biometry, and Lyn Kathlene, associate professor of political science, have been named faculty associates to the chancellor. Young will work in the Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources with Darrell Nelson, dean and director of the Agricultural Research Division, and Edna McBreen, interim IANR vice chancellor, on issues related to research funding. Kathlene will be working in the office of the Senior Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs with David Brinkerhoff, acting senior vice chancellor.

Both appointments were effective in August and continue until May 2001.

The faculty associate to the chancellor appointments was a program started by Chancellor Graham Spanier.

"It gives faculty members the opportunity to learn about university administration, become involved in special project and get outside their departments," Brinkerhoff said.

Kathlene will be looking at the vice chancellor's response to the Life Sciences Task Force. She is assembling a committee to help rethink how the teaching and research of the life sciences at the university could be better integrated. The committee will also evaluate the life sciences in the College of Arts and Sciences and the Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources and look at possible collaborations.

Kathlene will also head a committee that is taking on a three-year project of evaluating of faculty roles in institutions. They will conduct focus groups of faculty members and assess their lives to get an idea of what contemporary faculty life is like.

National research studies of faculty roles and lives have indicated high levels of stress under the current bureaucratic system, she said. The evaluation will determine whether the current institutional structure is beneficial or not to faculty. It will also work towards decreasing inter-disciplinary barriers that deter cooperative teaching and research, which produce more comprehensive results, she said.

Throughout the duration of her appointment Kathlene will continue to teach with a lower course load.

Young is focusing her work on the increasing dependency on outside funding for research. While learning the administrative process by attending meetings with vice chancellors, deans and other administrators, she is also gathering information from other faculty within the institute about the issue of gaining funding for research and is assembling it for analysis.

Young will be looking at the competition between high-profile research and other research that benefits the citizenry of Nebraska. How the institute and university can maintain its land-grant mission to provide Nebraska with the research it needs along with high-profile research without creating an environment of have and have nots is an important part of her project. One of the questions she hopes to address is how a balance of support for all research can be achieved within the institute and the university.

Working towards integrated research and collaborations between programs and removing interfering barriers is essential if the university is realize its funding potential, she said.

Extension Educator, DCS Department Honored for Contributions to People of Color

An individual and an organization received the Chancellor's Commission on the Status of People of Color's Outstanding Contribution to the Status of People of Color Award 2000.

This year's recipients are Nancy Lang, extension educator from Thurston County, and the Department of Academic Conferences and Professional Programs within the Division of Continuing Studies for its ongoing conference "People of Color in Predominantly White Institutions."

Lang is part of a team that includes Janet Nielsen, an extension assistant since 1996; Susan Strahm, who was an extension educator from 1992 to 1996; Jason McCauley, a project director since 1998; and Vickie Greve, Northeast Research and Extension Center and Youth Specialist.

Lang has been extension educator in Thurston County for 19 years; she has been the primary educator since 1985, when the agricultural educator position was lost to a budget cut. Thurston County is unique in that it was established as an Indian Reservation. The Winnebago Reservation lies in the northern section of the county, the Omaha Reservation in the southern section. The county's population is about 48 percent Native American.

In 1986, just nine Native American youth and no Native American adult leaders were involved in 4-H in Thurston County. In 1999, there were 597 youth and five adult leaders. Cooperative Extension in Thurston County has hired 14 Native Americans in three different grant programs; 15 Native Americans have been elected or appointed to the County's Extension Board, County 4-H Council or USDA Reservation Grant Advisory Committee. Two Native American grant directors with earned UNL degrees have been hired as has a summer intern from UNL.

Lang and her colleagues have worked hard through a number of sustained outreach programs to create a collaborative and committed community in their county. Leadership training programs, nutrition education programs, after-school programs and other opportunities have enriched Thurston County.

The People of Color conference, now in its fifth year, is considered to be the premier conference of its kind in the county. It provides participants with an interdisciplinary forum for sharing perspectives on topics affecting higher education and the community.

Wayne Babchuk, program specialist in the Division of Continuing Studies with the Department of Academic Conference and Professional Programs, is the program coordinator. M. Colleen Jones, assistant professor of management, and Elizabeth Carranza-Rodriguez, educational specialist in the office of Multicultural Affairs, are the conference co-chairs. Ths year's conference, "Building Diversity in the University and the Community" is scheduled for Oct. 27-28.

In its four-year history, the conference has attracted nationally known scholars and speakers such as Harry Edwards, Derrick Bell, Blandina Cardenas-Ramirez, Ella Edmondson Bell, Quinard Taylor, Carlos Muñoz Jr., Lena Wright Myers, Molly Tovar and Wayne Powell.

This conference has affected the UNL campus deeply and positively. Over the four years, 43 people associated with the University of Nebraska have held advisory council positions for the conference. This year, 18 UNL units, the NU President's office, Southeast Community College and the Nebraska state Department of Education are co-sponsors.