Workers assemble the large transparent tent for the Kauffman Center dedication ceremony.

Kauffman Center Dedication Activities April 20

By David Fitzgibbon, Public Relations

The University of Nebraska-Lincoln will dedicate the $14.7 million Esther L. Kauffman Academic Residential Center at 1 p.m. April 20. The event marks the completion of a unique building that will be home to a new academic program aimed at producing leaders and innovators in the technology industry.

The three-story, 80,770 square foot Kauffman Center combines, in one building, student living quarters and academic space for the J.D. Edwards Honors Program in Computer Science and Management. The upper floors house 58 residential suites with room for 116 students; the ground floor has a great hall, visiting faculty apartments, faculty offices, five high-tech classrooms, computer labs and spaces for planning, meeting and presenting.

"We expect the J.D. Edwards program to do nothing less than to train the leaders of the information technology industry in the years ahead," said Harvey Perlman, UNL chancellor. "It will bring distinction to our students and to the academic stature of the university."

The J.D. Edwards Honors Program and the Kauffman building are the result of a $32.2 million gift from Colorado software development pioneer, C. Edward McVaney and his wife Carole, both NU alumni. The program is named for Edward's business, J.D. Edwards & Co., and the building is named for Carole's mother, Esther Kauffman of Omaha. The McVaneys credit Esther as an example to live by, fostering the development of values that helped her five children succeed.

The April 20 event includes remarks from Nebraska Gov. Mike Johanns, U.S. Rep. Tom Osborne (R-Neb.) and Perlman, among others. Esther Kauffman and the McVaneys will also be present. The dedication concludes with building tours provided by current students in the J.D. Edwards Honors Program.

The first students entered the J.D. Edwards Honors Program in fall 1999, however the just-completed Kauffman Center will house its first students during the fall 2001

The program is gaining visibility and popularity. For 2001-2002, 277 students applied, 61 were interviewed, and 36 ultimately accepted into the program, which includes a full tuition and housing scholarship. The incoming students join 42 already in the program. An additional 36 will be added yearly to a maximum capacity of 116 students.

"I think there is a new UNL developing-more academic in focus, more ambitious, more determined to measure our successes by national rather than local standards," said Richard Edwards, senior vice chancellor for academic affairs. "The Kauffman Center is physically central to our campus, just as the J.D. Edwards program is intellectually central to our aspirations."

The Esther L. Kauffman Academic Residential Center is more than a residence hall and more than a classroom building. It represents a cutting-edge learning environment and way of approaching learning at the University. A special 8-page section of The Scarlet celebrates the Kauffman Center and the J.D. Edwards Honors Program in Computer Science and Management. See inside for details.

Ken Winkle and Ben Rader reject the "juiced ball" theory of hitting.

Back, Back, Back

New Hitting Style Prompted Baseball's HR Barrage

By Tom Simons, Public Relations

It's not the "juiced ball," it's not cozy ballparks and it's not expansion that caused the explosion of offense in Major League Baseball in the 1990s.

Rather, the root causes are a new, free-swinging hitting style, combined with a new relationship between hitters and pitchers, lighter bats and stronger players, two University of Nebraska-Lincoln historians report in a soon-to-be published paper, "Baseball's Great Hitting Barrage of the 1990s."

Ben Rader and Ken Winkle, like millions of other baseball fans, watched in fascination as baseball offenses exploded, starting in 1993, when major-league batting averages jumped 10 points and runs per game increased from 8.6 to 9.2 compared to 1992, while five players hit 40 or more home runs in a season for the first time since 1969.

And that was just the beginning. In the first six seasons of the three-divisional era (1994-99), the major leagues' composite batting average was .281, up from .257 in the two-divisional era (1969-93), while runs per 100 at bats increased from 12.4 to 14.3. Home runs were at the center of the barrage, with home runs per 100 at bats increasing by more than one-third, from 2.3 in the two-divisional era to 3.1 in the three-divisional era.

Rader and Winkle started looking for the underlying causes of the revolution when Rader began work on a 1990s chapter for a revised version of his acclaimed 1992 book, Baseball: A History of America's Game. As their research progressed, one factor came to stand out.

"Across the board, the biggest answer we found was the changing strike zone and the relationship of batters to pitchers," Rader said. "This is hard to measure statistically, but the area of the strike zone has moved away from the batters, away from the inside of the plate to the outer side of the plate, and the high strike, essentially a pitch above the belt, has been taken away.

"Also, pitchers don't have as much freedom to throw inside as they used to. There seems to be a new convention and the umpires enforce this convention. You can't just throw the old 'brush-back' pitch, where a Bob Gibson wouldn't let a hitter dig in. Some pitchers the last couple of years have tried to reclaim it, but when Pedro Ramirez of the Boston Red Sox started throwing inside and high, Frank Robinson (vice president for discipline for Major League Baseball) suspended him."

Rader and Winkle concluded that lighter bats and stronger players were also probable contributing factors. The average weight of a major-league bat dropped from 33 ounces in 1991 to 31 ounces in 1996, they reported, allowing hitters to wait longer on pitches and produce greater bat speed when they swing. While the average height and weight of major-league players was virtually identical in 1990 and 1998, they speculated that today's players are indeed stronger thanks to year-round training regimens, more careful attention to diet and (possibly) to the alleged use of illegal steroids. But they weren't able to prove the stronger-player theory.

"I contacted the strength coaches at all of these places and they claim they don't have any systematic data on whether players are getting stronger or not," Rader said. "Maybe they just don't want the competition to know how strong their players are, but we couldn't get any data."

In rejecting the popular juiced-ball theory, the Nebraska historians cited scientific studies of baseballs, an inspection by major league executives and newspaper reporters of the Rawlings manufacturing and testing facilities, and the improbability that all of the thousands of individuals involved in manufacturing baseballs would keep quiet about a conspiracy to change the ball.

The cozy ballpark theory was undermined when they found that the dimensions of major league ballparks remained virtually unchanged from 1990 to 1998 and they disposed of the diluted-pitching theory when they found no correlation between expansion and increased offensive output.

Major League Baseball, ostensibly in an effort to speed up the game, tried to retrain its umpires to call the rule-book strike zone this spring, with predictable howls from hitters. Whether the "new" strike zone will bring back some offensive-defensive balance remains to be seen.

"It will be fascinating to see what kind of results they'll have," Rader said.

Biodiversity Helps Ecosystems Absorb CO2, Nitrogen, Scientists Find

By Tom Simons, Public Relations

Increasing levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, nitrogen pollution and loss of biodiversity are three of the biggest ecological concerns facing the earth in the early years of the 21st century. Many scientists have postulated that loss of plant biodiversity through deforestation and replacement of native plant species by monocultures of crops and trees, lawns and other landscapes would reduce the planet's ability to absorb the excess carbon dioxide and nitrogen created by human activity.

A research team that includes biologist Johannes (Jean) Knops of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln has published a study in the April issue of Nature, the international weekly journal of science, that indicates those predictions are correct.

"There has been lots of emphasis on global climate change in the last decade," Knops said. "But there are very few studies that look at the interactions among these factors. This is one of the first studies that looked at three of these factors and examined interactions among them."

In the ongoing BioCON (biodiversity, carbon dioxide and nitrogen) experiment at the University of Minnesota's Cedar Creek Natural History area north of Minneapolis, the researchers created a scientifically controlled grassland environment consisting of six 20-meter-diameter plots, each encircled by a ring of five-foot vertical pipes capable of releasing varying concentrations of carbon dioxide. Computers monitor the speed and direction of the wind and the carbon dioxide level in each ring and adjust the release of carbon dioxide to achieve the desired concentration.

The area within each of the rings was subdivided into four experimental plots measuring two meters by two meters and planted in 1997 with either one, four, nine or 16 perennial grassland plant species, randomly chosen from among 16 species, including four nitrogen fixers (plants that absorb atmospheric nitrogen and convert it into nutrients). The three rings that served as control plots received no additional carbon dioxide, while the other three were grown under a 50 percent augmentation of carbon dioxide.

Beginning in 1998, half the plots at each carbon dioxide level received additional nitrogen. Plant biomass, a direct indication of carbon accumulated via photosynthesis, was measured twice in both 1998 and 1999.

When compared to the control plots, plots with one species increased biomass 7 percent in response to carbon dioxide elevation, while plots with 16 species increased their biomass by 22 percent. When both carbon dioxide and nitrogen were elevated, the increases were 17 percent for one-species plots and 36 percent for 16-species plots.

Knops, an assistant professor of biological sciences who joined the Nebraska faculty in 1999 after serving as adjunct faculty at Minnesota, said the results were what the researchers expected.

"If you have a more diverse system, with a variety of species, they complement each other."

Peter Reich, a plant physiologist and ecologist in the department of forest resources at the University of Minnesota and the lead investigator in the Nature paper, said diverse plots are more likely to contain species that respond well to an increased supply of nutrients.

Working with Reich and Knops were scientists from the University of California at Berkeley and Brookhaven National Laboratory, plus other scientists from Minnesota and Nebraska, including David Wedin, associate professor of ecology in UNL's School of Natural Resource Sciences. The study was funded primarily by the U.S. Department of Energy with additional support from the National Science Foundation.

Parking Shifts Expected As Lots Open, Lots Close

There's an annoying saying "No pain, no gain." Well, the parking situation at UNL might be an example. Construction projects on campus this summer will be painful to parking lots. But the gain in new buildings, and in total parking spaces, might ease the sting.

May 6, the day after commencement, two lots devoted to faculty-staff parking will close. One, commonly called the Temple lot at 13th and Q streets will close permanently due to construction of the new visitors' center. The other, a lot located between U and V streets off Stadium Drive, closes temporarily to accommodate construction at the new Champions Club. It will reopen this fall.

The good news? Spaces in a lot near Andersen Hall at 16th and Q streets, now devoted to student parking, will become faculty-staff spaces on May 7. Eventually, 140 stalls in the Andersen lot will be dedicated to faculty-staff parking. And demolition of the Carpenter Paper Co. warehouse, the former Big Red Store and the university's Has-mat storage building near the Champions Club site will add 157 stalls to mix by next fall.

Tad McDowell, manager of parking and transit services, said that while 117 spaces will be lost permanently, 297 will be added to the mix.

That's not counting the 1,200 spaces that will be finished in the 17th and R streets parking garage slated to come on line this fall, he said.

Folks who park in the Champions Club lot will be shifted to a lot north of the Stadium accessible from Avery Avenue. Spaces in that lot now devoted to student parking will shift to faculty-staff parking for the summer, but revert to student parking at summer's end, about the time the Champions/Carpenter/Has-Mat lot reopens.

McDowell said shuttle service east-west on R street from the new garage to the Lied Center will help folks get to their destinations.

There's good news for East Campus as well, he said. The land where the Livestock Judging Pavilion once stood will be paved this summer, creating a large lot near the campus center. And the street known as East Campus Mall will be repaved.

2001 Plants of the Year Winners Recommended for Nebraska

By Molly Klocksin, IANR News

The penstemon, the oakleaf hydrangea and the baldcypress are this year's winners of the Plants of the Year honors from the GreatPlants program.

The Plants of the Year award highlights hardy plants with exceptional ornamental qualities. It's part of GreatPlants, a joint effort of the Nebraska Statewide Arborteum and the Nebraska Nursery & Landscape Association.

Bob Henrickson, assistant director for horticulture programs at NSA, said winning plants are chosen for their ornamental value, hardiness, ease of maintenance and availability.

This year's selections are:

o Perennial of the Year - penstemon. There are so many beautiful and hardy plants among the 270-some species in this genus that the GreatPlants program selected the entire genus as the Perennial of the Year. Related to the familiar snapdragon, penstemon flowers generally are tube-shaped and typically grow in long, upright clusters. Plants range from dwarf, cushion forming types desirable for rock gardens, to taller types such as Husker Red penstemon that are suited to traditional gardens or perennial borders. Every state in the continental United States has at least one native penstemon. Nebraska has 10 native species. Participating nurseries and garden centers will offer an assortment of the best species and varieties for Nebraska.

o Shrub of the Year - oakleaf hydrangea (Hydrangea quercifolia). It is a dramatic shrub with numerous ornamental qualities. As the name implies, the bold, lobed foliage resembles large oak leaves. Dark green in the summer, leaves offer rich fall colors, from red to orange to purple. The white- to pink-colored flowers bloom in late June through July in large, drooping clusters that can be up to 12 inches long. The older stems can have attractive, peeling, cinnamon-colored bark. Oakleaf hydrangea grows 4 to 8 feet tall, spreading as wide or wider through root suckers. Henrickson said it does best with some shade and mulching to maintain cool, moist root environment. It is most effective in a shrub border and in massed plantings.

o Tree of the Year - baldcypress (taxodium distichum). It is a stately conifer that is hardy and adaptable in landscape settings across Nebraska. Although a conifer like pine and spruce, baldcypress is deciduous, dropping its foliage in the fall. It is relatively fast growing, reaching 50 to 70 feet tall. Mature trees are pyramid-shaped and widen at the base. Its fine textured leaves look like needles and are a soft sage green in the summer, turning to orange-tan before dropping in the fall. Native to wetlands from the Southeast United States north into Missouri and west into Texas, baldcypress does well in moist climates, but also is adaptable to dry, sometimes compacted soils throughout Nebraska.

For more information about the Plants of the Year, call (402)472-2971 or write the Nebraska Statewide Arboretum, P.O. Box 830715, Lincoln, Neb. 68583-0715.

The NSA is a horticultural organization with endeavors and initiatives in education, the arts, community development and the environment. It is a partnership between a private nonprofit membership organization and the University of Nebraska Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources.