Honoring Excellence This is the third in a three-part series profiling the winners of the 2002 Outstanding Research and Creative Activity Award, the 2002 Outstanding Teaching and Instructional Creativity Award, and the Universitywide Departmental Teaching Award.

The Biological Systems Engineering Department won the 2002 Universitywide Departmental Teaching Award.

Biological Systems Engineering department wins universitywide teaching award

Staff committed to research, students

By Ashley D. Anderson, IANR News and Publishing

Angie Wild-Pannier hopes someday drugs and medications will be administered to patients through adhesive skin patches.

As part of her graduate program in the Department of Biological Systems Engineering, Wild-Pannier is helping develop the technology to make it happen.

Glenn Hoffman, department head, cites the department's commitment to cutting-edge research as one reason it received this year's Universitywide Departmental Teaching Award.

Faculty members' devotion to students is another reason, he said.

Wild-Pannier attributes much of her success to faculty encouragement and support. It's not unusual to find professors helping students long after the 8-to-5 workday ends, she said.

"The devotion they have to their students is amazing," Wild-Pannier said. "It's like a family here."

Research and work experience are essential for success, Hoffman said, and the department provides those opportunities for students. Nearly one-third of the department's 203 undergraduates assist faculty members with research projects.

Donee Hawley, a senior biological systems engineering major, participates in Professor Dennis Schulte's water management research team. Hawley said she would attend graduate school at UNL because of its research opportunities and professors "who will teach me until the concepts are drilled into my head."

Each semester, five students test and design machinery at the Nebraska Tractor Test Lab. Companies such as John Deere and Caterpillar hire students immediately after graduation because those graduates are prepared to contribute right away, Hoffman said.

Sandun Fernando, a first-year doctoral student from Colombo, Sri Lanka, said the tractor test lab's international reputation drew him to UNL. Fernando is designing a soybean harvester that will detach pods from the stalk while leaving plants in the ground.

In addition to opportunities within the university, the department sponsors short-term international experiences in France and Chile. Students study an area of interest, conduct research and present their results to other students and faculty.

Global experiences give students an edge in the job market because employers look for experienced engineers and managers with leadership and communication skills, Hoffman said.

The department boasts a 100 percent job-placement rate - with many students receiving three or more interviews - because employers recognize students' knowledge and experience, he said. Graduates pursue a variety of careers, including bioprocessing, pharmaceutical and food development, machinery and equipment production, environmental engineering and managing agricultural and biological systems.

"Nebraska students have an excellent work ethic," Hoffman said. "Recruiters know they'll get hard workers if they come to Nebraska."

UNL's reputation doesn't hurt either, he said. UNL designed the world's first biological systems engineering curriculum and received the discipline's first accreditation.

The department also takes pride in its mentoring and advising programs for faculty and students, Hoffman said. It encourages new faculty to select at least one senior faculty member as a mentor and to develop mentor relationships outside the department.

Advisers assist freshmen and transfer students in choosing a program emphasis. When students select their emphasis, the department assigns them to faculty advisers with experience in their chosen field, Hoffman said.

"It's a major decision for students to make, and having someone who will give unbiased information is really valuable," he said.

According to a 1999 Gallup survey, 91 percent of graduating seniors are very satisfied or extremely satisfied with the advising program.

The department will use its $25,000 UDTA award to create an online database that allows students and alumni to give feedback on course content and how well courses prepared them for the workforce. Employers will use the site to evaluate graduates' skills. This assessment will allow the department to adjust the curriculum if necessary.

"The project is still in its early planning stages, but we plan to do something that will have a long-lasting impact on educational programs," Hoffman said.

Perlman sets latest budget reduction plan

UNL Chancellor Harvey Perlman announced on April 22 his recommendations for a second round of reductions to UNL's 2002-2003 budget.

These cuts will bring the total reduction to next year's budget to $9.8 million for the UNL campus. The total includes $5.54 million resulting from the cuts imposed by the special session of the Nebraska Legislature, $1 million to account for a NU system deficit resulting from unavoidable cost increases such as insurance costs, $2.37 million as UNL's share of the 1 percent reduction imposed by the regular session of the legislature, and $880,000 to fund an additional campus deficit caused by unavoidable cost increases.

The following new cuts totaling $1,497,959 make up the difference between previously implemented cuts and the cuts required by the reduction imposed by the legislature during its regular session.

The Division of Continuing Studies' state-aided budget will be reduced by $842,858. Details of the impact of this proposed cut have not been finalized; however, the cuts may require some of the following:

• A reduction in the number and variety of courses offered through evening programs.
• A reduction of the number and variety of courses offered in support of distance education programs.
• Increased fees.
• Elimination of the Community Partners Programs.
• A reduction in operating services of the Nebraska Center hotel.
• A reduction of, or increase in fees for, conferences and non-credit programs.
• Reductions in services as the statewide learning centers at Scottsbluff, College Park in Grand Island, Norfolk, North Platte and Southeast Nebraska.
• A reduction in marketing programs at the Division of Continuing Studies.
• A restructuring of internal operations. The Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources would have an overall reduction of 1 percent, or $404,449, from areas spread across teaching, research, extension education and service. The areas include:
• International Programs Division: $22,517 eliminated in state funding.
• Panhandle Research and Extension Center Veterinary Diagnostic Lab: Closing the lab will result in the elimination of one vacant tenure-line faculty and 2.6 staff positions, for a reduction of $213,413.
• Agricultural Economics: Eliminate one vacant faculty position, resulting in a reduction of $62,991.
• Agricultural Leadership, Education and Communication: Eliminate one vacant faculty position in agricultural journalism resulting in a reduction of $81,705.
• Nebraska Forest Service: Eliminate one vacant staff secretary III position, resulting in a reduction of $23,823.
• Integrate the Conservation and Survey Division and the School of Natural Resources Sciences into a single unit. Any administrative savings would be used to strengthen these units or other academic units affected by budget reductions.

The Department of Intercollegiate Athletics will have a reduction of $250,652, the amount the university has annually transferred in state funds to athletics to offset the costs of maintenance and repairs for the Bob Devaney Sports Center. Athletics will absorb the Devaney Center operating costs using self-generated funds available through internal department budget reductions.

The superintendent position at the Trailside Museum at Fort Robinson State Park will be eliminated for a reduction of $43,084. This proposal was suspended during the first round of budget reductions until arrangements could be made to ensure the continued operation of the museum. With the signing of a letter of intent with the Nebraska State Historical Society, assurances are in place that the museum will be able to continue to provide exhibits, school programs and tours to the public.

More information on the proposed budget reductions, the decision-making timeline and the principles for the budget reduction process are available on the UNL Web site http://www.unl.edu/pr /chancllr/chanhome.html.

What's next The UNL Academic Planning Committee will conduct hearings and discussions May 1-3 on the chancellor's proposed budget reductions, and will return its recommendations to the chancellor by May 10. Perlman's final budget reduction plan will be announced as soon as possible after consideration of the committee's recommendations.

Amy West, a student in the J.D. Edwards Honors Program, meets with teammates in her design studio class. The students created money-saving software for Lincoln Electric System.

J.D. Edwards students design software for LES

By Dave Fitzgibbon, University Communications

The Lincoln Electric System stands to save hundreds of thousands of dollars thanks to new computer software developed by a team of UNL students.

The software revamps the utility's equipment specification and parts ordering systems, putting many functions online that have long been handled through paper-based processes. LES engineers will trade a 2-inch-thick specifications book for a sleek computer interface.

"What the engineer used to do to create a work order is to fill out this paper-based form. Our job was to make a application so they can do this all on their computer," said Brandon Moser, a UNL graduate business student from Albion.

The student programmers say the goal was to streamline the ordering process for electrical equipment and installations. They eliminated double entry of information, reduced errors and greatly sped up the process.

The project has been a multi-faceted, real-world experience for students in a course called "software design studio," part of UNL's J.D. Edwards Honors Program in Computer Science and Management.

"It incorporates everything we're trying to teach them and all the intangibles that go along with an education: communication skills, negotiation skills, leadership skills and those sorts of things that it's hard to simulate in a classroom," said Stephen Forgét, software design studio program manager.

The students will cumulatively spend upwards of 2,800 hours on the project, said Scott Henninger, software design studio director. They meet frequently over two semesters and conduct weekly meetings with LES to research the company's needs and current processes.

"We're going to have the experience of communicating with a wide variety of people: engineers, managers, executive boards," said Amy West, a junior computer science major from Omaha.

"(The students) also learn how much more complex, ill-defined, and messy real-world problems are," Henninger said. "They learn a lot of things about team and customer relationships that they don't normally get in a classroom setting. They also learn that problems don't come in neat little packages with answers in the back of the book."

And the experience is often pivotal for students.

"It changes you in a way. And it's really a learning experience and it's just a different way of looking at something. It gives you the confidence to go out in the business world," West said.

The software design studio takes on seven projects each year. Companies or organizations pay a small fee and receive working custom-designed software. Other projects under way include permit and routing software for an over-the-road trucking firm and a field data collection system for the Nebraska Department of Agriculture.

In the case of the LES project, the company will pay $10,000 for working software, but Forgét estimates a professional consulting firm would charge upwards of $250,000 for the same product. Couple this with projected efficiency savings to LES of up to a million dollars over 20 years, and it's a winning situation for the utility and the students.

"The students have done an outstanding job and provided LES with a program that will vastly improve what has been a cumbersome process for our engineers," said Terry Bundy, LES administrator and CEO. "For students, the J.D. Edwards program is an innovative approach to education. For business, it is an opportunity to address critical problems with minimal costs. Nebraska is very fortunate to have the program located at UNL."

The payoff for students may be after graduation.

"Recruiters highly value team and project experiences, so the fact that they had a full year working on a team, where most others have at most a semester, gives them a real leg up on other students," Henninger said. "They've had something that's pretty close to a real-world working experience."

The software design studio team is putting the LES program through final testing; company engineers plan to be using it in the field this summer.

Theresa Barron-McKeagney and Eric Lee are NU Equity in Opportunity Administrative Fellows.

Presidential Fellows gain life experience

By Gayle Olson

When Eric Lee was growing up in Kansas, he dreamed of being just like Barry Sanders, the star football player. Theresa Barron-McKeagney decided in sixth grade she wanted to be a psychiatrist.

Both dreams are a long step from what they do today. The would-be football player and psychiatrist are being transformed into senior administrative officials of the future through the University of Nebraska Office of the President Fellowship Program.

Lee and Barron-McKeagney are the current recipients of NU's Equity in Opportunity Administrative Fellowships. The fellowship provides unique professional opportunities for faculty or administrative staff members and encourages them to consider serving in senior administrative positions. The program is also designed to increase diversity in senior administrative positions.

Lee and Barron-McKeagney have been in the program since August 2001 and have shared time between the president's office and their normal university duties. Lee is the coordinator of recruitment and retention for UNL's Teacher's College while he pursues a Ph.D. in educational psychology. Barron-McKeagney is an associate professor in the School of Social Work at UNO. Although she has been excused from her teaching duties this year, she still serves on various committees at UNO.

The fellowship requires about 20 hours of their time a week. The two fellows are involved in activities such as assuming leadership in a universitywide mentoring program for new and nontenured women faculty and faculty of color, participating in universitywide diversity and gender-equity meetings, and assisting in the university's outreach to local area community groups and organizations.

Accompanying President L. Dennis Smith in selected formal and informal meetings and events is another responsibility of the fellows.

"The Presidential Council Meeting was the most interesting event for me personally," Lee said. "Watching Smith's administration work in such a compromising budget ordeal was most beneficial to me."

Barron-McKeagney said that a visit to NU's external affairs committee was most meaningful to her.

"The administration handles what goes on outside the university with such direction, efficiency and vision," she said.

While the fellowship provides a unique opportunity to share the work of the senior administrators, it also opens the door for diversity in the predominantly white central administration. As an African-American, Lee feels he brings a viewpoint to a discussion that might not have been considered.

"I feel like a Marine. The few, but proud," he said. "Anytime you have alternate viewpoints, you strengthen your own. This is what I feel I bring to the administration."

Barron-McKeagney also emphasized a need to have her voice heard.

"Being a woman of color," she said, "you can really learn where you're not. How do they know what I think when I, as a Latino woman, am not there?"

President Smith said the fellowship program provides the opportunity to observe how senior administrators analyze situations and reach decisions, and how they formulate policy.

"I believe the fellowship experience meets its intended purpose - to provide sufficient knowledge on which to base a decision whether to pursue positions at senior administrative levels," he said.

Both Lee and Barron-McKeagney share a respect for the central administration, especially the president, and the demands of such a position.

While the football player may have turned into a recruitment adviser and the psychiatrist may have become a professor, both are doing things they love and their voices are being heard. The fellowship program has helped them extend those views to the central administration. They both are thankful for the opportunity and hope that the fellowship continues to provide for others the valuable experience they have gained.

Gayle Olson is a senior advertising and public relations student at UNL's College of Journalism and Mass Communications.

To apply Applications are being accepted to become an Equity in Opportunity Fellow during the 2002-2003 year. Internal applicants will be considered, and the selected fellow will receive release time from his or her current university duties to assume responsibilities in central administration. To apply, submit a current vitae and a letter expressing your interest and the reasons why you believe you meet the stated purpose of the fellowship to Shari Clarke, Associate to the President, University of Nebraska, 115 Varner Hall, Lincoln, NE 68583-0745. Application deadline is May 4. For more information about the Equity in Opportunity Fellowship Program, call Clarke at 472-3109.