Chris Gustafson, a UNL agricultural economics major, holds a copy of "Rural Voices -- Literature from Rural Nebraska," which he edited and published. The book features short stories, poetry and remembrances written by Nebraskans about rural life. Gustafson began the project because of his appreciation for rural Nebraska and his realization of how much the culture of farming has changed since his ancestors farmed in Saunders County in the 1870s. Gustafson stands in front of the barn on his family's farm near Mead; the barn is featured on the book's cover.

Student explores rural spirit in book

By Kristen Hansen, IANR NEWS and Publishing

A new book that captures the spirit of rural Nebraska life is rooted in a UNL student's deep appreciation for his rural upbringing.

Chris Gustafson, a senior agricultural economics major who grew up on his family's farm near Mead, edited and published Rural Voices - Literature from Rural Nebraska. The 370-page compilation of short stories, poetry and remembrances was written by Nebraskans about rural life. The book, published in August, is the culmination of three years of work, started in 1999 with help from the university's Center for Applied Rural Innovation.

While publishing a book is an ambitious task for any student and somewhat unusual for an agricultural economics major, Gustafson said it combined his love for literature with his appreciation for rural Nebraska and its people.

"It was something that intrigued me," he said. "I decided to follow an interest that I hadn't pursued academically."

He said he hopes the book helps preserve the experiences and realities of rural Nebraska - its people, their thoughts and their stories - for people in Nebraska and elsewhere.

"I think this book gives an insight for those who don't know what it's like living in a rural area and it gives something for those living here to appreciate," Gustafson said, adding that the book's diverse opinions and writing styles should interest anyone who enjoys literature.

Gustafson said the project grew from his realization of how much farming has changed since his ancestors came to farm in Saunders County in the late 1870s.

"You have a lot of time to think when you're on a tractor all day, and I realized how much the culture of farming has changed since my family first arrived in the area," he said. "I decided to combine my interests in rural life and literature. This was the beginning of Rural Voices."

Gustafson looked to John Allen, a rural sociologist who heads the Center for Applied Rural Innovation in the university's Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources, for guidance on how to launch such a large project. Allen, who has written and published two books and more than 70 other academic publications including peer reviewed journal articles, advised him on the process.

"He was a big help," Gustafson said of Allen. "He gave me guidance and a lot of suggestions that were very useful."

Allen said he was eager to help any way he could.

"I was intrigued by his idea and wanted to do my best to support him," Allen said. "This was something totally outside his area and just came about from a value of his."

A news story announcing the project and inviting submissions was sent to newspapers across Nebraska in late 1999. More than 200 people sent 442 articles.

Gustafson said he was pleased with the quality of the submissions, though some topics were surprising.

"I never imagined so many people would have such fond memories of outhouses. There were a number of submissions about them," he said.

One-room schools were another popular topic.

Gustafson said the writings share experiences of rural Nebraska life that some people today wouldn't imagine.

"Some of the things the people of rural Nebraska went through were really rough and I don't think the younger generations realize what all their ancestors had to go through," the UNL College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources student said.

An editorial board of authors, UNL faculty and students reviewed submissions and selected more than 200 writings from more than 100 authors. Gustafson categorized the writings and compiled the manuscript.

"Compiling the manuscript was the easy part," he said. "It was finding a publishing house that was such a challenge."

After nearly a year of rejections from publishing houses, Gustafson started his own: Dirt Road Press.

"It was a matter of starting up my own small business," he said. "So I also got to learn about that while working on this project."

Gustafson sent the text and an idea for the book's cover to Morris Publishing of Kearney for printing. On Aug. 2, he picked up the finished book.

Gustafson, who will graduate in December, said he would like to work on a similar project again and perhaps even write his own book someday.

To buy the book Rural Voices is available for $12.55 each, including tax. To purchase a copy, mail a check or money order to Dirt Road Press, 1020 CR Q, Mead, 68041. Shipping is $2 for the first book and $1 for each additional book. Or visit the Web site at <www.nebraska ruralweb.com/dirtroadpress>.

David Sellmyer is a UNL physicist who will become director of the new Materials Research Science and Engineering Center, one of 27 such centers in the nation. The center is funded by a $5.4 million grant from the National Science Foundation.

Researchers awarded $5.4 million grant

Materials researchers at UNL have won a prestigious $5.4 million grant from the National Science Foundation. The grant establishes a Materials Research Science and Engineering Center at UNL, making it one of 27 such elite centers in the nation.

"This is a very exciting accomplishment for UNL. Competition for these centers is intense, and only the top research programs in the country win these awards," said UNL Chancellor Harvey Perlman.

The MRSEC is an outgrowth of UNL's Center for Materials Research and Analysis and involves scientists from the departments of physics and astronomy, chemistry and mechanical engineering, and the School of Biological Sciences whose research focuses on nanomagnetic structures. Their work in magnetic materials at the nanoscale - as small as one-billionth of a meter - has applications in advanced computing and data storage systems, handheld electronic devices, advanced sensors and possible future medical technologies.

"Nanoscience and nanotechnology are amazingly creative new subfields of materials science," said David Sellmyer, UNL physicist and director of the new center. "We are delighted at the opportunities this center will bring to students at UNL."

UNL nanomagnetics researchers are nationally recognized for their theoretical and experimental work and fabrication of new materials. In just the last two years, their research has included the synthesis of the first magnetic polymer or "plastic magnet" and has generated six patents granted or filed on devices for data storage, portable electronics and optical sensors.

The MRSEC grant illustrates the success of Nebraska's investments in UNL research, said Prem Paul, UNL vice chancellor for research and dean of graduate studies.

"Our stature in materials research and nanotechnology is a direct result of Nebraska Research Initiative funding in the past decade. Now we are seeing the return on that investment," Paul said.

The grant funds more than research projects, Sellmyer said. Training of graduate and undergraduate students and programs for educational outreach and technology transfer to business and industry are included in the center. The six-year grant will fund salaries for two post-doctoral fellows, 14 graduate students and 10 undergraduate students. It also funds a program that brings high school teachers and students to campus for research experiences, recruitment of graduate students from underrepresented groups, and supports a "Women in Science" program for high school students.

The center's research and its collaborations with industry partners such as IBM, Seagate, Hewlett-Packard and developing relationships with Nebraska companies hold high potential for inventions and discoveries that can be patented and commercialized. A recent example is a small, powerful neutron detector developed at UNL that could be used to detect hidden nuclear devices.

UNL's MRSEC grant is one of only three new awards made this year. Other institutions with MRSEC grants include the California Institute of Technology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Carnegie Mellon University, Harvard University and Princeton University.

Research funding increases in 2002

External funding for UNL research programs increased significantly in the past year, according to an annual report from the UNL Office of Research and Graduate Studies.

Federal research awards, funds awarded to the university from federal agencies, increased 18.1 percent to $52.7 million for the fiscal year ending in June 2002. Total research funding increased 18.3 percent, to $74.4 million in that period. Total sponsored programs funding, which includes funding for research and non-research activities such as instruction, public service, administration and student services, increased 24 percent, to $145 million, in the same period.

This year's funding numbers reflect a continuing trend in increased research awards for UNL, said Prem Paul, UNL vice chancellor for research and dean of graduate studies. In the two-year period since 2000, federal research funding has grown from $31.7 million to $52.7 million, a 66 percent increase, he said.

"These funding successes are a tribute to the expertise and hard work of our faculty and our initiatives to increase UNL's external research funding," Paul said. "Increased federal funding not only improves our ability to do quality research, it also increases UNL's stature among national research universities."

A few of the large grants contributing to the increase include:

• $4.5 million from the U.S. Department of Education to establish the Center for Reading and Behavior, which supports research and pilot programs for at-risk children at seven Lincoln elementary schools.
• $3.1 million from the National Institutes of Health to study substance abuse among Native American children and develop culturally specific interventions.
• $1.5 million from the National Institutes of Health to study how the HIV virus evolves in infected children.
• $1 million from the National Science Foundation to develop techniques for drought risk assessment.

In addition to funding research projects, external awards support many university functions, including libraries, the colleges, business and finance offices, regulatory compliance and technology transfer.

Paul says he is confident that the upward trend will continue.

Full report The Office of Research and Graduate Studies annual report was released last week. It is available at <www.unl.edu/research>.

UNL releases indicators of quality report

The following is the summary and content statement accompanying the "Institutional Indicators of Quality: Annual Report 2002" released last week by Richard Edwards, Senior Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs, and Rebecca Carr, research analyst, Office of Academic Affairs.

This report charts the performance and progress of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln on a number of "quality indicators." It is a first report card measuring UNL's progress toward the goals and high aspirations of the campus's A 2020 Vision, published in March 2000.

The picture that emerges is one of a university with some strengths and some weaknesses, but most striking is the unmistakable evidence of substantial improvement that has occurred in the last few years. For example, for a number of years, UNL's six-year graduation rate hovered around an unacceptably low level of roughly 47 percent, considerably behind our peers; in 1998 in fact, it was 46.4 percent. By 2001, however, this figure had climbed to 53.2 percent, eliminating two-fifths of the gap between UNL and our peers. We certainly have further to go, but the direction is right.

In research, to take another example, the recent momentum is equally impressive. UNL's federal research expenditures showed an upturn in FY2001, but because expenditures is a lagging indicator, it does not yet reflect the campus's progress during the last couple of years. For that, a different measure - federal research dollars awarded (not shown in report) - is better. For the fiscal year ending June 2000, UNL was awarded $31.7 million in federal research funding; in FY2001, UNL attracted $44.6 million, a whopping 41 percent increase. In FY2002, the total again increased, by 18 percent, to $52.7 million. These substantial increases in awards will be reflected in expenditures as work progresses on these projects.

The quality indicators thus show both the current (and recent) levels of performance and the direction of UNL's development. Because this is a candid and unvarnished report, pessimists and critics can find evidence to support their gloom; we in the campus community instead take great encouragement and hope from the clear evidence of progress and growing achievement. We do not in any way minimize the remaining challenges that the report documents; after all, A 2020 Vision is a 20-year plan for improvement. Nonetheless, the momentum of the past few years shows what UNL's faculty can achieve when given the tools and committed to the level of excellence set forth in A 2020 Vision.

Context

"What makes a university great? The greatness of the best research universities is grounded in an uncompromising pursuit of excellence" (A 2020 Vision, p. 1). But how can the university community, or Nebraskans in general, know whether the University of Nebraska-Lincoln is getting better, achieving its aspirations and making measurable progress toward excellence?

At the request of the University of Nebraska Board of Regents, UNL developed a set of quality indicators to monitor our performance. In December 2001, UNL proposed a list of 13 primary and 30 additional indicators to the board. Subsequent campus discussions refined or modified some indicators. In the process of collecting data, the development of operational definitions made it necessary to further slightly modify some indicators.

It should be remembered, however, that the measures in this report are only indicators of quality and of progress toward institutional goals. They are not an exhaustive list of accomplishments by UNL's faculty and students; nor can any set of quantitative measures fully capture the complexity, diversity and richness of this or any university.

Organization of the Report

The first section presents the primary indicators for each of five areas:

(1) Undergraduate Student Learning and Achievement

(2) Graduate, Professional and Post-doctoral Education

(3) Research, Scholarship and Creative Activity

(4) Outreach and Engagement

(5) Other Contributors to a Profile of Excellence.

The second section covers the additional indicators in these same areas.

For most indicators, the information is presented to answer three questions:

1.) How are we doing? We collected several years of data (for most indicators) to obtain an historical trend, which information is then presented in a line graph.

2.) How do we compare to the average of our peers? We next show the trend line described above in a graph that also contains the trend line of the average of our peer institutions. For some indicators, peer data are not available.

3.) How do we compare to our peers? Finally, we show UNL's trend line compared to each individual peer institution. (Again, some peer data are not available.)

The peer institutions established by the Board of Regents for UNL are:

• University of Colorado-Boulder
• Colorado State University
• University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
• University of Iowa
• Iowa State University
• University of Kansas-Lawrence
• University of Minnesota-Twin Cities
• University of Missouri-Columbia
• Ohio State University
• Purdue University

The following guidelines were used for choosing the quality indicators. The set of indicators, taken together, must present a picture of UNL that accords with our vision of what we want the university to be; the indicators are not the vision, but they must be consistent with it. The indicators should be measures of outputs, not inputs. The indicators should rely, to the maximum extent possible, on data already collected. The required data collection should not impose a large new administrative or record-keeping burden. Indicators must permit measurement consistently across UNL and peer universities or for UNL over time or both.

Findings

The data gathered for this report provide substantial evidence of institutional momentum as well as a gap between UNL and the average of our peer institutions on many indicators for which comparable data are available.

1. Undergraduate Student Learning and Achievement

The six-year graduation rate at UNL has climbed substantially from its previous steady state of roughly 47 percent. In 1998, our graduation rate was 46.4 percent, and the average graduation rate for our peers was 62.2 percent; a gap of 15.8 percent. By 2001, our six-year rate increased to 53.2 percent and our peers held fairly steady at 62.5 percent, thus reducing the gap to only 9.3 percent. So, between 1998 and 2001, UNL closed over 41 percent of the gap with the average of our peer institutions.

Similar gains have been achieved in the freshman-to-sophomore retention rate (see Additional Indicators). UNL's prior "steady state" was at about 74 percent, a full 8 percent lower than the average of our peers. Starting about 1998-99, UNL established a new steady state at about 79.5 percent, now roughly 4.5 percent lower than the peers' new average of around 84 percent. Thus UNL has made up slightly less than half of the gap between ourself and the peer average.

The rising graduation rate and retention rate seems consistent with other information that suggests rising undergraduate quality and achievement. For example, the 1998-99 jump in the retention rate coincides with the entry into UNL of the first cohort of students admitted under the higher admission standards imposed in fall 1997. The higher quality of students is also reflected in the increasing number of nationally competitive awards won by UNL undergraduate students.

Approximately one-third of August 2002 graduates indicated that they had participated in a "meaningful" research or creative activity in conjunction with a faculty member. This is the first time such data were collected for UNL, and peer data are not available. However, the high number suggests the importance of such programs as the new Undergraduate Creative Activity and Research Experiences (UCARE) program.

These and other achievements in the area of undergraduate education were recognized by the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) when - after a rigorous national competition - UNL was selected as one of 16 Greater Expectations Leadership Institutions. These institutions were identified because, in AAC&U's words, they "have made significant, comprehensive progress in becoming effective learning environments; campuses that prepare the diverse range of college students for the complexities of this new and technologically turbulent century." The Comprehensive Education Program, University Learning Communities, University Honors Program, J.D. Edwards Program in Computer Science and Management, UCARE Program, and Peer Review of Teaching project were all mentioned as examples of UNL's commitment to the undergraduate experience.

2. Graduate, Professional, and Post-doctoral Education

The number of nationally competitive awards won by UNL graduate and professional students has remained fairly constant (given the information available for this report). When looking at just Fulbright Scholarships and National Science Foundation Fellowships, UNL students are as successful as students at our peer institutions except the Universities of Colorado, Illinois and Minnesota. Students at these institutions obtain substantially more awards per capita than the other peer institutions. So, although we do not have evidence of an upward trend, we do know that UNL compares favorably to our peer institutions in terms of per capita national awards obtained by graduate and professional students.

The number of doctorates granted (see Additional Indicators) is on a slight downward trend, and the number of master's degrees varies from year to year. The number of graduate students completing degrees and indeed graduate enrollments generally are influenced in part by local and national economic conditions. The number of post-doctoral appointees increased by 25.5 percent between 1997-98 and 1999-00. Though this is not yet enough evidence to report an upward trend, we anticipate this number will continue to climb, largely as a consequence of the recent increases in funded research.

3. Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activities

UNL's research, scholarship and creative activities are aimed at increasing humankind's knowledge; expanding people's opportunities; studying and resolving serious social, health, economic, agricultural and other issues; developing new technologies that contribute to our economic well-being; and enriching our cultural and intellectual life. The outcomes of these activities may not be immediately quantifiable.

Nationally, the quality indicator probably most watched for comparison among research universities is federal research expenditures. However, because expenditures lag at least a year or two behind awards, the best way to measure recent progress is to look at research awards.

Federal research expenditures show a modest rise through 2000-01 (latest official data available). However, total sponsored dollars awarded (see Additional Indicators) shows a sharp increase from $92.1 million in 1999-00 to $116.6 million in 2000-01. Moreover, other evidence (not shown) suggests a considerable speeding up of research activity. For example, federal research grants awarded increased from $31.7 million in FY2000 to $52.7 million in FY2002, an increase of more than 66 percent over the two-year period.

This is a definite upward trajectory that we are fully confident will continue in 2003 as the fiscal year begins with news that two major federally funded research centers, with awards totaling more than $11 million, have been recommended for funding. We are anticipating official award announcements in the next few weeks. These successful center proposals are a direct result of our initiatives to increase external research funding to UNL. Further announcements of awards for large projects are expected as well.

4. Outreach

Despite the difficulties in adequately documenting the outreach and engagement activities on campus with quantitative indicators, the indicators for which we have data available show considerable gains. Participation in non-residential educational programs ­ both credit and non-credit ­ has increased substantially in just a few years. The number of participants in credit distance courses more than doubled from 712 in 1998-99 to 1,477 in 2000-01. This increase is due in large part to a greater number of distance courses being offered; in 1998-99, UNL offered 68 distance courses for credit, by 2000-01 this number had grown to 114.

Each of the three specific measures included as part of the index of commercial impact of faculty research have shown increases in recent years. UNL exceeds our peer institutions on the number of start-up companies that were dependent upon the institution's technology for initiation. Though a gap remains between UNL and our peer institutions on the other two measures, the number of licenses or options executed has grown steadily for the past four years from 4 in 1997-98 to 11 in 2000-01 and the license income received has nearly doubled since FY1997.

5. Other Indicators of Excellence

As the land-grant university and the state's largest institution, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln has a special responsibility to advance other state objectives and to assist in enhancing the quality of life in Nebraska.

There is good news associated with the diversity measures selected as primary indicators in this area. UNL has made substantial progress in attracting and retaining a more diverse faculty to tenured and tenure-track positions. The percentage of faculty who are not white males has grown from 22 percent in fall 1996 to 34 percent in fall 2001, which reflects increases in both female faculty (23.1 percent to 25.4 percent) and faculty of color (8.2 percent to 11.0 percent). In addition, the percentage of undergraduate students of color has shown a slow but steady increase since fall 1996.

Considering other contributors to a profile of excellence (see Additional Indicators), the news is mostly good. Despite dramatically increasing competition for top students, UNL has maintained its share of approximately 36 percent of students in the top 10 percent of Nebraska high school classes. The percentage of UNL alumni who give to the university and the percent of alumni who are members of the Alumni Association ­ both of which are often used as proxies for alumni satisfaction ­ have steadily increased in recent years and compare very favorably to our peer institutions.

The report

This year's report is intended as the first of what will be annual reports. For those quality indicators for which we currently have no data, we intend to develop the needed data to include in future reports; in some cases, proposed indicators may prove infeasible or otherwise not best, and so may change. We invite comment, criticism, questions, suggestions, and even praise.

Full report online The full indicators of quality report can be found at: www.unl.edu/svcaa/quality /report2002.pdf.