Hoffmann to Head Arts & Sciences

By Tom Simons, Public Relations

Richard J. "Dick" Hoffmann, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at the State University of New York at Albany, has been named dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at UNL.

Pending approval by the NU board of regents, Hoffmann will begin his term Feb. 1. He replaces Brian Foster, who left in the spring to become vice president and provost at the University of New Mexico. Linda Pratt, chair of the English department, is the interim dean of Arts and Sciences.

"I'm delighted that Dick Hoffmann has agreed to be our next dean of Arts and Sciences. It's a very important hire for us," said David Brinkerhoff, acting senior vice chancellor for academic affairs.

"Bringing in a strong leader like Dick is very important for the future of the college. He brings to the table the experience and skills necessary for the kinds of things we need to move forward on, issues that are important to the college - and issues, I might add, that have continued to be advanced under the very able leadership of Linda Pratt."

Hoffmann, who has been dean of Arts and Sciences at SUNY-Albany since 1998, said he was attracted to Nebraska by the quality of UNL's academic programs and the commitment of the state of Nebraska to the university.

"I understand the land-grant mission and I know about universities like this after spending 18 years on the faculty and as an administrator at Iowa State," Hoffmann said. "This is sort of like the University of Iowa and Iowa State rolled into one in the sense that the humanities and social sciences were strong at the University of Iowa, and Iowa State was the science- and technology-oriented institution. The fuller array of programs in Arts and Sciences here is appealing to me."

A biologist, Hoffmann earned his bachelor's degree in 1969 with high honors at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Va., and his master's (1971) and doctorate (1974) at Stanford University. After a year as postdoctoral scholar at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, he began his academic career in 1976 as an assistant professor of biological sciences at the University of Pittsburgh.

He moved on to Iowa State University in 1980 as associate professor of zoology and genetics, and was promoted to professor in 1987. In his 18 years at ISU, Hoffmann served as associate dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences from 1993 to 1997 and interim dean of the college in 1997-98. In the 1989-90 academic year, he was a visiting scholar at the University of Michigan on a Mid-career Fellowship from the National Science Foundation.

A fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science since 1990, Hoffmann is well-known for his work on the genetics of adaptation. His research has been supported continually by outside funds, primarily from the National Science Foundation.

"One of the things I have to offer is experience in the collaboration between agriculture and arts and sciences programs from my work in the administration at Iowa State," Hoffmann said. "It's clear that the university needs more interaction than it currently has between those groups of faculty. The issues that the Life Sciences Task Force report raises about an integrated curriculum and so on are all important issues to be raised and to be dealt with head-on if Nebraska is going to be the kind of university that it wants to be. I was very interested in the appointment of John Owens as vice chancellor for the Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources. I regard that appointment as critical not only to the success of the institute, but also the College of Arts and Sciences."

Hoffmann said his and Owens' paths have not crossed previously, although ironically they had offices in the same building at Iowa State, only at different time periods. Owens, who takes over as IANR vice chancellor and vice president Jan. 1, was at ISU from 1971 to 1975.

4 to Interview for Fine & Performing Arts Deanship

Four candidates for dean of the Hixson-Lied College of Fine and Performing Arts will have on-campus interviews. The interview dates will be determined in late October or early November.

David Orr Belcher, dean of the College of Arts and Letters at Southwest Missouri State University in Springfield; Giacomo M. Oliva, professor and director of the School of Music at the University of Florida at Gainesville; Kathleen Rountree, associate dean of the College of Music and Dramatic Arts at Louisiana State University at Baton Rouge; and Raymond Tymas-Jones, dean of the College of Fine and Performing Arts at Ohio University in Athens will interview for the position.

UNL seeks a replacement for Richard Durst, who resigned in the summer to become dean of the College of Art and Architecture at Pennsylvania State University. Lawrence Mallett, director of the School of Music, is interim dean of the Hixson-Lied College of Fine and Performing Arts.

Belcher has been at Southwest Missouri State since 1988 and has been dean of the College of Arts and Letters since 1994. He earned his bachelor of music degree magna cum laude in piano performance at Furman University in Greenville, S.C. (1979), his master of music in piano performance at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor (1981) and his D.M.A. in piano performance and literature at the Eastman School of Music at the University of Rochester, N.Y., (1989). He joined the SMS faculty as an assistant professor, was promoted to associate professor in 1993 and professor in 1998. He served one year as assistant dean of the college before becoming dean. He has performed solo or in concert in much of the United States, plus Canada, Austria and Switzerland, and this month is scheduled to play in a chamber recital at the Chopin Academy of Music in Warsaw, Poland.

Oliva has been professor and director of the School of Music at Florida since 1992. After studying at the Chatham Square Music School in New York City, he earned his bachelor's degree cum laude (1971) in music education and his master's degree (1975) in applied music (piano) at Montclair (N.J.) State College and his Ed.D. in music education (1980) at New York University. He taught in high schools in New Jersey for 13 years before becoming assistant professor and head of the department of music at Mississippi State University in Starkville. He remained head of the Mississippi State music department while rising to associate professor in 1986 and professor in 1992. At Florida, he guided the development and implementation of a five-year strategic plan for the improvement of facilities, the revision and expansion of curricula, the recruitment of new faculty and the overall enhancement of the School of Music's image in Florida and the southeastern United States. He negotiated the establishment of new full-time faculty lines in choral music, music history, strings and piano, and developed a successful proposal for the implementation this fall of a new Ph.D. degree in music.

Rountree has been at Louisiana State since 1989 and associate dean of LSU's College of Music and Dramatic Arts since 1995. She earned her bachelor of music degree at East Carolina University in Greenville (1973), her master of music degree at Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville (1977) and her doctor of music degree at Florida State University in Tallahassee (1985). She began her academic career as an instructor at Appalachian State University in Boone, N.C., from 1974 to 1977, then went to Moorhead (Minn.) State University for three years as an assistant professor. She joined the LSU faculty as an assistant professor and was promoted to associate professor in 1993 and professor in 1998. A pianist, she has performed throughout the United States and overseas, including invited performances for the U.S. ambassador to Hong Kong in 1991 and at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music in 1987. She was a fellow of the American Council on Education at Ohio University in 1999-2000 and received a Distinguished Alumna Award from East Carolina this year. She is vice president of the Music Teachers National Association.

Tymas-Jones has been dean of the College of Fine Arts at Ohio U. since 1998. He earned his bachelor of music degree magna cum laude in voice performance at Howard University in Washington, D.C. (1977), and his master of music (1979) in choral conducting and voice performance and his Ph.D. (1988) in performance practice-voice at Washington University in St. Louis. He began his academic career as a lecturer at Washington U. in 1980, then went to Buffalo State College (now the State University of New York at Buffalo) as an instructor in 1983. Tymas-Jones was promoted to assistant professor in 1988 and to associate professor in 1989. He served as associate dean/assistant to the dean of the College of Arts and Humanities from 1990 until 1993, when he moved on to the University of Northern Iowa in Cedar Falls as associate professor and director of the School of Music. He was promoted to professor in 1997. A tenor, Tymas-Jones has performed as featured soloist with the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, the St. Louis Orchestra and others.

Offices Merger Expedites Research Management

The Office of Research Management is the new name for a merger of two familiar offices on campus: the Research Grants and Contracts Office and the Office of Sponsored Programs-Finance.

Responsibility for the Sponsored Programs-Finance Office was recently transferred from Business and Finance to the Office of Research to provide one-stop research management services.

"This change reflects the commitment of the Office of Research to enhancing customer service to faculty and staff, from the inception of a proposal idea through the processing of the award to the completion of the project," said Don Helmuth, interim vice chancellor for research.

The new Office of Research Management has two divisions, Pre-award Development and Post-Award Administration. Pre-Award Development, formerly the Research Grants and Contracts Office, offers funding searches and weekly funding announcements, and is responsible for review of proposal budgets and compliance issues, institutional approval of budgets, proposal submittal and award processing.

Post-Award Administration, formerly the Office of Sponsored Programs-Finance, is responsible for administration of the university's sponsored projects, which includes grants and contracts in the areas of research, instruction and public service. Post-award staff establish project budgets in the university's financial management system, invoice project sponsors and close out projects. They are also responsible for reporting, financial compliance and for aspects of the annual audit related to external funding.

"The new name reflects that pre- and post-award services are now fully integrated with a common vision, which will result in better business practices, , increased sharing of information and, ultimately, greater efficiency," said Mike Zeleny, director of research finance and operations.

Luthans Named to Academy of Management Hall of Fame

Fred Luthans, George Holmes Distinguished Professor of Management, was named a charter member of the Academy of Management Hall of Fame at its August meeting in Toronto. The honor was conferred because Luthans is among the "Top 5" in number of articles published in the academy's journals. The academy consists of more than 12,000 management professors from all universities in the United States and most of the world. Luthans is one of only five management professors with more than 20 articles written or co-written in Academy Journals. The Academy of Management Journal and Academy of Management Review are considered the most prestigious publications reporting basic management research and theory development. Luthans was elected president of the Academy of Management in 1986 and in 1997 he received the academy's Outstanding Management Educator Award.

Architecture Students and Faculty Study Curtis

Students and faculty from the UNL department of architecture worked in Curtis, Neb., from Oct. 14 to 17 as part of a graduate "Community Design Workshop" course. While in Curtis they stayed in homes, met with community members and made a detailed survey of the historic town center.

The focus of the project was: 1) to document the conditions of Curtis and address opportunities for reasonable modifications of the downtown streetscape; 2) consider the design qualities of specific properties (storefronts) in Curtis; 3) and to propose ideas for the development of civic structures such as a visitor's center or a public space.

The Department of Architecture's Curtis Team is made up of 12 students in the 5th and 6th year of the professional architecture program. The team is made up of students from all parts of the world; from a native of Curtis to students from Palmer, Grand Island, Hastings, Omaha, Beijing, China, and Hannover, Germany.

The Design CoOp is an ongoing part of the Department of Architecture's community support and outreach efforts. The Design CoOp primarily contracts with Nebraska Lied Main Street to provide design consultations in 13 communities across Nebraska such as McCook, Ogallala, and Gothenburg, but welcomes the opportunity to consult with other Nebraska communities.

For more information, contact Brian Rex at 472-0718.

J.D. Edwards Students Design Software for Italian Company

Representatives of an Italian information technology company visited Oct. 18-21 to meet with a group UNL students who are developing software for the company as a class project.

The project for Flextel S.P.A.is a technology transfer of university research to a commercial product that will be marketed in Europe and the United States, said Steve Goddard, assistant professor of computer science and engineering.

Graduate students in the design studio class of the J.D. Edwards Honors Program in Computer Science and Management will develop networking software to run on Flextel hardware.

During the four-day visit, Maurizio Molina and Antonio Marchisio of Flextel S.P.A. met with the UNL team to review the students' design documents. They also reviewed contracts and toured UNL's Advanced Network and Distributed Experimental Systems (ANDES) Laboratory.

Flextel S.P.A. is a startup company dedicated to creating solutions to let information flow on computer networks easily and seamlessly, according to its Web site <http://www.flextel.it>.

The research in the ANDES lab and the development of software for Flextel is expected to yield several UNL and joint UNL/Flextel patents for various networking and server clustering technologies, Goddard said.

Other projects to be started by the design studio class are for Phillips Electronics, MetaLogic Inc., UNL Nebraska Performance Model, and Nebraska Network for Children and Families at UNL's Center on Children, Families and the Law.

Varner Hall's 2000 Service Awards Program Nov. 2

NU President L.Dennis Smith will host Central Administration's annual Service Award program at 10 a.m. Nov. 2 in the Varner Hall Board Room.

The following individuals will be honored for their years of service with the university. (Listed by name, years of service and unit.)

• Nadyne Beideck, 35 years, vice president for business & finance
• Josephine Hamilton, 30 years, Computing Services
• Steven Hall, 25 years, Computing Services
• Pamela Hanson, 15 years, executive vice president & provost
• Christy Horn, 15 years, vice president & general counsel and vice president for business & finance
• Lee Jones, 15 years, executive vice president & provost
• Judy Joy, 15 years, computing services
• William Pyle, 15 years, computing services
• Joseph Rowson, 15 years, vice president for external affairs
• David Popelka, 10 years, computing services
• Russell Williams, 10 years, computing services
• Conrad Castaneda, 5 years, computing services
• Carl Johnson, 5 years, computing services
• Bruce Jones, 5 years, computing services
• Dayna Souza, 5 years, computing services
• Walter Weir, 5 years, vice president for external affairs