October 30, 2003

UNL English Professor Sue Rosowski stands in front of a banner of Willa Cather and holds a copy of My Antonia by Cather, a volume in the Willa Cather Scholarly Edition, at the Cather Project offices in Seaton Hall. The Scholarly Edition, for which Rosowski serves as general editor, is a main objective of the Cather Project, a collaborative editing project that publishes editions of Cather's works with essays and notes, providing history of the text, a historical context and explanatory notes. The Cather Project involves editors from the United States and Canada. Photo by Brett Hampton.

'She is the voice of Nebraska'

Cather still inspires readers worldwide

By Elizabeth Fonfara, Special to the Scarlet

When Susan Rosowski arrived as a graduate student in Nebraska in 1969, she wanted to know more about her new home. What was it that made Nebraska unique? She found the answers in books such as My Antonia, O Pioneers and A Lost Lady, all written by University of Nebraska alumna Willa Cather.

Rosowski, now the Adele Hall Distinguished Professor of English at UNL, isn't the only reader to turn to Cather's works to understand more about Nebraska - or about life and the world. Her writings have been studied nationally for years in high school and college English classes and have been the subject of TV documentaries and studies. Her works have stood the test of time and have for many years kept the world's attention on Cather's vision of Nebraska.

"She is the voice of Nebraska," said Rosowski, a noted Cather expert and author of several books on the author. "The circumstances of her moving here and then the genius of her talent combined to mean that here was one of the great writers of American literature writing out of this place. Sinclair Lewis said in the '20s, 'The United States knows of Nebraska because of Willa Cather,' and if he were still alive today, he would say the world knows of Nebraska because of her."

Sandra Johnson, director of marketing at the University of Nebraska Press, also has grown to love Cather's works. She said she thinks that although Cather's novels are introduced in high school, appreciation and understanding of the works evolve over time.

" I didn't really appreciate Cather until I was in my 40s," she said. "Willa Cather has a classic appeal. She conveys the concepts of life, love and death."

Cather was born in 1873 in Virginia. At age 9, she moved with her family to Webster County, Neb., and later settled in Red Cloud. That town is now the home of the Willa Cather Pioneer Memorial and Educational Foundation.

It took some time for Cather to adjust to the landscape of her new home. She was once quoted as saying, "I was little and homesick and lonely so the country and I had it out and by the end of that first autumn, the shaggy grass country had gripped me with a passion that I have never been able to shake. It has been the happiness and the curse of my life."

Cather began at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln in September 1890. Her major at first was science and medicine. When her English professor published an essay she had written, she said she became "hypnotized" by seeing her name in print, and she focused on writing, becoming a columnist at both the Nebraska State Journal and the Lincoln Courier. She graduated from the university in 1895 and worked for magazines and newspapers and as a teacher until 1911, when she was enticed by her mentor and friend, Sarah Orne Jewett, to pursue life as a novelist.

In 1913, Cather published her first acclaimed novel, O Pioneers! It and many of her other works, such as My Antonia, draw on Cather's childhood and the landscape of Nebraska and the life Cather experienced here.

"Reading Cather enabled me to understand roots that I had felt but not articulated before that time," Rosowski said.

"She invites us to understand that change is an ongoing fact of life. Whether it is the change of immigration, the change of cultures coming together, the change of generations of aging, or of people coming together, she demonstrates ways in which we can identify and relate to continuities within change and that is by connections with the places in which we live and the communities in which we interact," she said. "This is why the works of Willa Cather are timeless."

That timelessness makes Cather's works appropriate for study in English classes and other forums nationally. This spring, the English department will offer a class called "Willa Cather and the World." On a national scale, UNL and the Willa Cather Pioneer Memorial and Educational Foundation sponsor the International Cather Seminar every three years; the most recent one was last May in Ripton, Vt. In the past, the seminar has been held in Nebraska and Virginia, locations with clear connections to the author, and has focused on topics such as environmental literature and "Cather as a Cultural Icon."

Cather and her works have been the subject of the C-SPAN series "American Writers: A Journey Through History." In addition, in fall 2002, the Nebraska Educational Television Network secured a $500,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to produce a television biography of Cather, "Willa Cather: Beyond the Frontier."

As long as readers continue to be interested in Cather's universal themes, interest in her works will continue, Johnson said.

"She stands up for the long haul," she said. "There will always be a steady stream of Cather in the state and the world. In Nebraska, we look for anything 'Nebraska' to be proud of. Willa Cather is Nebraska pride."

Elizabeth Fonfara is a senior advertising major from Omaha.

Final Phase 2 budget cuts announced

Chancellor Harvey Perlman announced his final Phase 2 budget reduction plan on Oct. 20. He announced the plan after the university's Academic Planning Committee had reviewed his proposals of June 17 and conducted hearings on them. Below is Perlman's Oct. 20 e-mail message to the campus community, informing it of the budget-reduction plan:

Dear Colleagues:

As you may recall, on June 17, I proposed these budget reductions in response to the cuts in state funding:

(1) several reductions in offices reporting to the Chancellor; (2) two administrative positions in the College of Architecture; (3) reduction of the Areas of Strength program in the College of Arts and Sciences; (4) restructuring and downsizing the Russian language program and eliminating instruction in Portuguese; (5) restructuring of engineering extension and the downsizing of administrative budgets in the Dean's office, College of Engineering; (6) reducing the College of Engineering's undergraduate equipment fund, to be replaced by the proceeds from the new fee attached to engineering courses; (7) eliminating the department of Industrial Systems Technology at the Peter Kiewit Institute in Omaha; (8) eliminating the Omaha site day-time program delivery in the College of Human Resources and Family Sciences; and (9) eliminating the department of Health and Human Performance in Teachers College.

The APC recommended that all but one of the proposals be accepted, and made a suggestion for increasing revenues. You can find the recommendations of the APC on our website: (<www.unl.edu/pr/chancllr/index. shtml>).

The one proposal to which the APC expressed concerns was the proposal to eliminate the Omaha site day-time program delivery in the College of Human Resources and Family Sciences (now the College of Education and Human Sciences). UNL offers three curricula in Omaha: family sciences; nutrition and dietetics; and textiles, clothing and design. The committee felt this program elimination most directly affected a large, disadvantaged population in the Omaha area - nontraditional students who are single mothers, who are least likely to be able to take these courses in Lincoln. I am not in a position to restore all of these Omaha programs, but I have decided to accept the APC recommendation regarding the family science program. However, I am reaffirming the elimination of our textile and nutrition programs in Omaha.

The APC expressed no objection to the other reductions, and those will also be made final.

The APC also proposed a way to generate additional income by charging students an additional fee for re-taking a course. The committee estimated this plan could generate between $180,000 and $360,000 in revenue per year. I am not inclined to adopt this recommendation for two reasons. First, it would require an investment in technological adaptations to accommodate the fee. Currently our system is not set up to track which courses are "repeats," and although this sounds simple on the surface, it is not. Many course numbers are set up to be repeated; for example, independent study courses within a department. There is also no way now to track which courses on another campus are similar enough to be counted as a "repeat" when taken again at UNL. Second, it is my feeling that this fee would have the greatest impact on our most economically disadvantaged students. While I am not accepting this recommendation at this time, I will keep it in mind as a future option, pending further investigation.

There is one remaining matter from an earlier round of reductions. The APC encouraged me to rethink the Museum Studies master's degree program, and I had agreed to do so. The APC's concern was that the tuition income from students seemed to match or exceed the costs of the program. My concern was that before any of these reductions came about, we were informed that additional resources were required to sustain the program and that its director intended to leave that position. In addition, the program did not have an academic home nor members of the resident faculty who claimed ownership of it. We have explored actively with a number of deans whether a college and faculty were willing to assume responsibility for this program. We did not generate much enthusiasm in return. I know this program was a good program and responded in a variety of ways to student interest and to the interests of the museum community in Nebraska. But under these conditions, I believe I have no choice but to also finally end this academic program as well.

I know these reductions will be painful, but they are necessary to achieve the budget reductions imposed upon us. State revenue projections are not optimistic; however, I hope this will be the last time I will have to engage the campus in the difficult process of reducing our budget and, therefore, our services to our students and to the state.

I want to acknowledge the extraordinary effort of members of the Academic Planning Committee who, I'm certain, struggled with the pain of these reductions and the reality of the budget reduction. We owe each of them our thanks. And thanks to all of you who have lived under the threat of these reductions and yet have continued to build a great university.

Harvey

Search committee selected

The University of Nebraska Board of Regents has named a committee to begin the search for a new university president. The 18-member committee will be asked to conduct a national search and present to the board the names of four to eight finalists for the position, a process expected to take several months. The president is the chief executive officer of the four-campus university system and reports directly to the board.

Current University of Nebraska President L. Dennis Smith will step down effective June 30, 2004.

Board of Regents policy requires that the committee have representatives of faculty, students, administrators, the general public and the University of Nebraska Foundation. Committee names were selected from nominations from each of those constituencies. Members of the public were nominated by individual regents. The policy requires that one member of the general public and one member of the Board of Regents serve as co-chairs of the committee. The regent serves in an ex officio, nonvoting capacity.

Selection of committee members was made by secret ballot during the regular October meeting of the Board of Regents on Oct. 17. The search committee members are:

• Olamide Alabi, student, UNL (student);
• Kathy Campbell, executive vice president, CEDARS Home for Children Foundation, Lincoln (public at large);
• Miguel A. Carranza, associate professor, sociology and ethnic studies, UNL (faculty);
• Kenneth H. Cowan, director, Eppley Cancer Center, UNMC (administration);
• Randy M. Ferlic, chairman, Board of Regents (non-voting, ex officio member, search committee co-chair);
• R. Ellen Davis-Hall, associate professor, physician assistant program, UNMC (faculty);
• John C. Goldner, chairman, board of directors, University of Nebraska Foundation (foundation);
• Marilyn Hadley, dean of the College of Education, UNK (administration);
• Kay A. Hodge, associate professor of management and marketing, UNK (faculty);
• Hod Kosman, president, Platte Valley State Bank & Trust Co., Scottsbluff (public at large);
• William W. Marshall, chairman, Five Points Bank, Grand Island (public at large);
• Maxine Moul, president emeritus, Nebraska Community Foundation, Lincoln (public at large);
• Keith Olsen, president, Nebraska Farm Bureau Federation, Lincoln (public at large, search committee co-chair);
• Harvey Perlman, chancellor, UNL (administration);
• Burton J. Reed, dean, College of Public Affairs and Community Services, UNO (administration);
• Stephen K. Wild, chairman, Quantum Alliance (QA3), Omaha (public at large);
• Ethel H. Williams, associate professor, public administration, UNO (faculty);
• Richard Wood, vice president and general counsel, University of Nebraska (central administration).

In other news Other action from the NU Board of Regents meetings Oct. 17: ·The UNL Police Department will move to the ground floor of the 17th and R Street Parking Garage. The move is required because its current location at 17th and Holdrege streets will be cut off from a direct route to East Campus by the Antelope Valley project. ·A portion of UNL land near 17th and Holdrege streets will be sold to Lincoln Electric System for a new electric substation to provide more energy to the campus and the surrounding area.