A face lift for the basement of Andrews Hall

Senior Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs Richard Edwards, left, English Professor Steven Hilliard, center, and Dean of Libraries Joan Giesecke talk in a newly renovated classroom Jan. 10 during an open house in the basement of Andrews Hall. The gathering celebrated the refurbishing of the basement, completed over the last several months. It now features new furniture and lighting, high-tech classroom equipment, dry-erase boards and new paint and carpet. It was the first redo of the building's basement in decades and was considering a priority because nearly every UNL freshman takes an English class in the Andrews basement. The new classrooms are expected to help boost student retention rates. Photo by Richard Wright.

Food Scientists Susan Cuppett and Randy Wehling load a cooking oil sample into a near-infrared spectrometer to monitor oxidation. Photo courtesy of IANR.

Food scientists shed light on oil's freshness

Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources

Every cook knows that rancid oil makes a lousy stir-fry.

Food processing companies also know that using the freshest oil makes the best muffins and salad dressings. Because oil starts to go bad long before a noticeable odor sets in, companies frequently test the oil's freshness.

The current commercial testing method uses costly and hazardous solvents. UNL food scientists have developed a fast and easy new technique for measuring cooking oil quality that uses only light.

"Right now there's a lot of interest in methods that eliminate the use of hazardous chemicals," said Food Scientist Randy Wehling, who worked on this Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources research. "We feel that this would certainly be a step in that direction."

Oil goes bad when oxygen molecules attack its fatty acid chains in a process called oxidation. As the chains break apart, oil begins to take on a rancid odor and flavor. But the first oxidation step creates an odorless peroxide. To determine freshness, companies measure the oil's peroxide value, or how much of the oil has begun to oxidize.

Chloroform, the traditional solvent, is expensive to use and hard to dispose of. Wehling and colleague Susan Cuppett wanted to know if near-infrared spectroscopy, a technique widely used in the grain industry, also would detect oil oxidation. Near-infrared spectroscopy uses light wavelengths just beyond the visible range for a variety of measurements.

"Chloroform is the industry standard," Cuppett said. "So we can't just say, 'No more.' We were trying to come up with an alternative that was efficient, environmentally friendly and that would give us the same type of information."

The researchers found that by hitting oil with near-infrared light and measuring how much of it is absorbed, they could measure oil's peroxide value, and ultimately the oil's freshness. In addition to eliminating chloroform, the method is faster and easier.

"It's possible to put a near-infrared instrument out in the warehouse area of a plant where you'd actually be receiving the oil and you can test it right there," Wehling said. With little training, anyone can learn to use the equipment.

Purchasing a spectrometer is expensive, but researchers said that by eliminating laboratories, chemical disposal and technician time, the new method eventually would pay for itself.

The research already is generating interest. Wehling said it's now up to equipment manufacturers to market the technique to customers.

For Wehling and Cuppett, the new challenge is mayonnaise and other food products that use oil, such as salad dressings and corn chips. They are studying ways to measure peroxides in the presence of other food constituents, such as water, that also absorb near-infrared light and could interfere with peroxide measurements. Their research will provide another valuable tool to help food companies keep foods fresh for consumers.

Their research is conducted in cooperation with IANR's Agricultural Research Division.

New database helps recruitment

By Andrew Schadwinkel, Office of Admissions

Relationships made easy.

That is the promotional slogan for Talisma, the new database software that the Office of Admissions began to use in August. It stores a large amount of information about prospective UNL students in one place and makes it accessible to recruiters and colleges campuswide. It also provides a more unified way for UNL to speak to the thousands of students who express interest in attending the university each year.

A typical Talisma entry will contain a prospective student's name and contact information but also any information the university has learned about the prospect ­ possible areas of interest at UNL, campus visits, number of times the student and UNL have communicated, and more. UNL recruiters use this information to coordinate and schedule mailings and track the interactions between the university and the student. Admissions counselors can pull up a student's file on Talisma while speaking to him or her by phone and have up-to-the-minute information at hand immediately. The software is available on at least one computer in each of the nine UNL colleges, the Department of General Studies and the Admissions Office.

Talisma's cross-referencing ability also allows a college to look up all the information UNL has on students who might be visiting campus on any given day. Recruiters are also able to determine, for example, how many prospective students in Omaha have told UNL they are interested in a specific college. It allows admissions counselors to easily search out a specific audience of prospective students.

This communications ability is another of Talisma's strong points. Because Talisma can manage a lot of information, it is easier to build communications campaigns targeting specific groups of students. Plus Talisma was designed for automated e-mail and web-based communications, which are popular ways to connect with students. Talisma enables UNL to create a message in both HTML and text format and then determines which format works best for each prospective student's e-mail address.

Talisma is also user-friendly. It is Windows-based, so anyone familiar with Microsoft Word has a head start in the training needed to learn Talisma. Best of all, the information is up-to-the-minute accurate.

Talisma makes scheduling campus visits easier. Before, several offices across campus would have to schedule time and make arrangements manually to meet with one student. Now, it's possible to cross-reference this information across campus. Already, the staff orchestrating campus visits in the Admissions Office is working with the College of Engineering and Technology so that when visitors request an appointment with that college, the campus visits staff in Admissions enters the request into Talisma and the appointment is set.

University recruiters have only been using Talisma for a few months, but already the improvements over previous systems are clear - and are making managing relationships with future UNL students easier.

Stokes, Hitchcock win MLK awards

By Tom Simons, University Communications

Robert Hitchcock, UNL professor of anthropology, and Leroy Stokes, president of the Lincoln branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, have been selected as the winners of UNL's 2003 Chancellor's "Fulfilling the Dream" Awards.

Hitchcock and Stokes will receive their awards from Chancellor Harvey Perlman Jan. 20 at the capstone event of the university's weeklong observation of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. holiday. The event begins at 2 p.m. in the auditorium of the Nebraska Union, 1400 R St.

The award was established in 1997 to honor individuals who have contributed to the UNL community or the wider Lincoln community by their exemplary action in promoting King's goals and vision.

A member of the Nebraska faculty since 1982, Hitchcock also serves as the coordinator of the university's African Studies and Conflict Studies programs. A world-renowned authority on African development, he is in great demand as a consultant for African development projects and has worked extensively on human rights issues both locally and nationally. At UNL, he has served as faculty adviser for the African Students Organization and headed up a major university initiative to develop programs in human rights and human diversity. He is actively involved in the local chapters of Bread for the World and the United Nations Association. He works closely with refugee groups and non-governmental organizations representing the interests of disadvantaged people, including one NGO in Lincoln, Save Sub-Saharan African Orphans, an organization working to provide assistance for children who have been orphaned by the HIV/AIDS crisis in Uganda. He has also worked with Native North Americans on human rights issues and actively contributes to programs aimed at improving the lives of people of color in Lincoln and Nebraska.

Stokes is in his third year as president of the Lincoln branch of the NAACP and has served four years on the city of Lincoln's Commission on Human Rights. His other volunteer work includes service on the Lewis and Clark Bicentennial Commission, work on Habitat for Humanity housing projects and service as a deacon at Mount Zion Baptist Church. Through a series of community meetings, he provided vital community input on barriers to housing in the city and developed a process that has become a model for soliciting public comment for other community projects.

He has contributed to UNL in many ways, including efforts to recruit faculty, staff and students and to reinstate a chapter of Omega Psi fraternity on campus. The university honored him for his work in assisting in forming formal partnership agreements with two traditionally black universities, Alcorn State in Lorman, Miss. (his alma mater), and Grambling State in Louisiana. He has been employed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture Natural Resources Conservation Service for more than 30 years and works as an operations partnership liaison in the Northern Plains Regional Office in Lincoln.