By J. P. Levkulich, News & Information
A chilled water line break at South Stadium Wednesday left players and personnel in the dark.
The break, causing water to run into the electical conduit and eventually into the switch gears in the basement of the South Stadium offices, left the building without power until 2 p.m. Wednesday and one third of the campus without air conditioning.
Gary Thalken, manager of utilities with Facilities Management, said that until the break is found there would be no chilled water for the affected part of campus.
"Once we see where the break is, we can install valves to stop the water," Thalken said. Unless it heats up real quick, I don't think many will mind."
Thursday morning, the repair crews were still attempting to locate the break and install valves to slow the water.
Richard Hoback, manager of maintenance for Facilities Management, said that this was the second break in that area within the past several years.
"The chilled water pipes in some areas of campus are 30 years old and things like this can happen anytime," he said. "It would take major spending to dig up campus and replace the old pipes."
Thalken said that while breaks could occur, it really isn't an emergency situation. "Most of these occurances are caused by soil movement (freezing/thawing) rather than the corrosion of pipe," he said. "While we are prepared for this, we aren't in a state of emergency. Things like this can happen."
While the repair crews were working and South Stadium personnel either went home or carried flashlights, the athletes were milling about the darkened corriders and waiting for business as usual.
Coach Tom Osborne appeared nonchalant as he peered into the darkened electrical room.
"Practice will go on as planned," he said. "No change in schedule."
Hoback said that while the South Stadium was without power, the rest
of the stadium was unaffected.
By Tom Simons, News & Information
UNL has received a three-year, $320,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Education to design and implement a model program using technology to create accessible classroom and laboratory environments for students with disabilities.
"We have targeted three courses (math, foreign language and biological sciences) that present particularly difficult challenges for students with disabilities," said Christy Horn, interim director of Affirmative Action and Diversity and co-director of the program with Roger Bruning, professor of educational psychology.
Horn said the program will use UNL's new Accommodation Resource Center to adapt multimedia techniques to aid students with disabilities. An example, she said, is when a professor lectures with the aid of an overhead projector. A blind student doesn't know what's on the screen and a hearing-impaired student can't hear what's being said. Using special FM receivers or closed-captioned video monitors would help hearing-impaired students, while Braille and raised-line drawings would allow blind students to feel what other students are seeing.
"We've been waiting a long time to have the funding to do this, and to some extent, we've been waiting for better technology to be available to be able to do some of the things we want to do," Horn said. "A lot of this is experimental and we want to engage faculty in adapting the technology and the curriculum. No one is better qualified than the individual faculty member to know what should be included."
Horn said work on the program will begin in October and the first workshop for faculty slated for the 1996 spring semester. Initially, the program will involve a minimum of three faculty members, who will be resources for other faculty in their departments. In the third year of the program, UNL faculty will begin disseminating what they have learned to other universities.
"We have already been providing a great deal of access in our
classrooms, but now we want to do a lot more to make it possible for
students with disabilities to succeed without significantly altering the
courses," Horn said. "I think we can make the learning experience better
for every student in the classroom."
Recent budget-cutting proposals related to the "Contract with America" could spell hard times for parents and students if they are implemented by Congress, according to John Beacon, director of scholarships and financial aid at UNL.
Beacon said that as part of an effort to balance the budget by 2002, Congress has identified $10.4 billion in cuts to financial aid over the next seven years.
"There was a grass roots effort to try to dissuade them from that," said Beacon. "But Congress is looking for the path of least resistance, that is, higher education, so they went with that. Some campuses have organized letter-writing campaigns and that has had some impact on what has happened so far."
Some of the proposals Congress will be considering during the remainder of the month include:
Beacon said the fate of some of these proposals will be known by Oct. 1. He said Congress already is looking at eliminating the capital on the Perkins program and the State Student Incentive Grant Program for 1996.
Beacon said students, parents and university employees need to understand the effect such cuts will have on their institutions.
"Federal aid represents 75 percent of all aid that goes to students for college. $32 billion is made available to 6 million students with an average award (in 1994) of $3,500," said Beacon. "The American public really supports this aid. In a January 1995 poll, 92 percent of registered voters said federal aid to higher education was a good investment in the future.
"The bottom line is that there's going to be far greater dependency on
loans and far less grants and student employment in the future if we
don't do something to stop this," added Beacon.
By Kim Hachiya, News & Information
Glen Drohman is pleased as punch to walk a visitor through his new pride and joy. Drohman, who has worked in the greenhouses since 1956, has put off his retirement as greenhouse manager by a couple of years for the chance to operate the new greenhouses attached to the Beadle Center.
"I felt like I had started something and I didn't want to leave until it was finished," Drohman said.
What's finished business for Drohmen is a beautiful, state-of-the-art set of four greenhouses. One is dedicated for student use and the others toward research needs. All were needed to replace the ramshackle little greenhouse that was located in the "wind tunnel" between Oldfather, Burnett and Bessey halls.
Besides being buffeted by winds that literally sucked panes of glass from the old greenhouse, the building got so little sun that most of the time supplemental lighting was needed. In the summer, Drohman and his student workers moved plants to spots underneath the bedding tables to provide shade from the hot sun and in the winter, they installed extra insulation because the building was not well temperature controlled. Kind of a bad thing when you're talking about a Nebraska winter.
"We had to do a lot of improvising, that's for sure," Drohman said. "It's going to be a lot easier here. We were just crammed into that space. I think we had the highest productive greenhouse in Lincoln in terms of production per square foot."
Computers will queue the lights, temperature, fertilization and water schedules in the new greenhouses. A slightly sloped floor means water will drain rather than pool. The potting benches are accessible to people using wheelchairs. The ceilings are of a tempered glass strong enough to support a person walking on it, and surely strong enough to survive a pelting by hailstones.
But the biggest luxury is the space. Lots of it. There's storage galore. The new teaching greenhouse alone is bigger than the old greenhouse that served teaching and research needs. And because it's just a 20-pace walk down a hallway from the botany labs to the greenhouse, professors and students no longer will have to schlep plants in insulated boxes to labs scattered across campus. A nearby potting room will accommodate 35 students at a time.
The teaching greenhouse will feature a general purpose area as well as desert and tropical habitats. One of the research greenhouses is divided into four distinct areas, each with a separate air handling system, to prevent cross contamination of plants. This greenhouse also has an area built just to handle 8-foot tall corn plants.
The facility also boasts several growth chambers where lighting can be boosted to hyper-stimulate photosynthesis. A special cold-storage chamber will allow UNL to purchase and stockpile seeds. Pesticides and chemicals are stored in a secured area. And there's a new room where soils can be mixed and stored.
Drohmen has cared for millions of plants during his nearly 40-year tenure at UNL. He first applied at the university in 1949, winning a job from Frank Keim, who headed up agronomy. Drohman left the university for the armed forces and a short stint in a commercial greenhouse, but he returned in 1956 when then-greenhouse manager Carl Bruce retired.
Over his career, he's shepherded hundreds of students through his greenhouse. That contact with students has been one of the most rewarding aspects of his job.
"So many of the students have turned out to be wonderful and fine people. They really have made things of themselves," he said. Drohman scoffs at the idea that he might have had a little bit of input into that.
He's pleased that the Harry Lloyd Weaver Native Garden, a tiny plot of land just west of the old greenhouses will be moved to the new facility.
"That's not just a weed patch," Drohman said of the garden that features native plants and a mini-pond. "A lot of people thought a lot of that garden. They wanted to see it saved."
Drohman is proud of the new greenhouses. He had a big part in helping design the structures, based on his years of experience in what worked and what didn't when you were working with students.
"I think Nebraskans should feel so fortunate to have a research complex of this magnitude here in Lincoln," he says. "You would have to drive pretty far, in my opinion, to find a finer greenhouse."
Pam Rodgers will take over for Drohman in January. A graduate of Texas A&M University and the University of New Mexico, she was assistant greenhouse manager in UNL's horticulture department before being tabbed to replace Drohman last February.
Right now, she is learning the "Drohman Way of Running a Greenhouse," Drohman joked. Whether she will continue his habit of growing poinsettias that eventually grace the offices of the Arts and Sciences dean at holiday time is unknown.
"I think that was kind of a nice thing to do," Drohman said.
Researchers at UNL will remain at the leading edge of biotechnology because of the foresight and generosity of a University of Nebraska alumnus.
Oak B. Smith has established an endowed fund valued at more than $275,000 at the University of Nebraska Foundation. Smith, a long-time resident of Shawnee Mission, Kan., died Feb. 10, 1995.
The fund will create the Smith Research Facility in the George W. Beadle Center for Genetics and Biomaterials Research, where it will be a people. They really have made key resource for UNL researchers in their efforts to study and modify protein.
Mrs. Ann Smith says her husband's strong desire to improve others' quality of life motivated him to be active in food technology research.
"My husband wanted to help solve the hunger problem of the world by conducting protein research. He hoped to contribute to other people having a life without hunger - especially children," she said.
A native of Lincoln, Smith earned a bachelor's degree in agricultural economics from NU in 1940. He was known internationally for his expertise in vegetable protein research, food technology and protein chemistry. A pioneer in the field of food processing, he helped develop and perfect the technique of extrusion cooking which is used worldwide to prepare many products including breakfast cereals and snack foods.
According to Irv Omtvedt, vice chancellor of UNL's Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources, the Smith Research Facility offers new opportunities for the university to address problems that can dramatically affect the agricultural and food industries.
"With Smith's assistance and generosity, the future of food processing, food technology and protein research looks promising as the University of Nebraska continues to search for new knowledge. The Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources looks forward to continuing the association of Oak B. Smith with advancements in food processing technology," Omtvedt said.
The emerging field of biotechnology offers several new avenues for food modification that yield higher quality products with superior processing properties. For instance, scientists have modified soybeans and canola to produce a variety of oils with different levels of saturation, and potatoes with increased starch contents are being field tested.
Committed to education, Smith was presented a UNL alumni achievement
award in 1974. He served on the board of trustees for Baker University in
Baldwin, Kan., and was awarded an honorary doctorate degree from Baker in
1981.
By Dick Fleming, IANR News Editor
The first phase of a visioning process on food systems education has been completed by UNL, one of 12 institutions in the country selected to do so by the W. K. Kellogg Foundation of Battle Creek, Mich.
The project, named Nebraska Network 21 (NN21), was undertaken to assess educational needs for food systems education in the next century and what the educational mission of the land-grant institution should be by year 2020. More than 800 persons throughout state as well as UNL faculty and students participated in the sessions during the past 18 months.
During a program Sept. 18 marking completion of the first phase of the project, UNL Interim Chancellor Joan Leitzel congratulated NN21 participants. She said universities face great challenges planning for the future and "are changing and must change" at a time when several forces are affecting higher education institutions. These forces include a world with more and different demands, new and marvelous communication tools, constrained budgets, and a time when public institutions have lost public confidence.
"UNL is a special kind of university," Leitzel continued. "This is a public university for instruction, a university to conduct research, a comprehensive university to address all areas of knowledge, and a land-grant university with deep commitment to the people of the state."
Leitzel added that "No university and no program is an island. Every program involves many parts of a university. Like other programs, the university has a responsibility to prepare food systems professionals."
Irv Omtvedt, vice chancellor of the Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources at UNL, said that while food systems education might be considered an agricultural responsibility, from the begininning "NN21 was not considered an IANR project. It is even much broader than any component of UNL."
The goals of the NN21 vision are to ensure sustainability of quality food systems, be responsible stewards of the environment, develop and use human resources effectively, and create quality economic opportunities for all Nebraskans.
Phase two of the NN21 process involves developing an action plan to implement the goals and determine "how higher education can more effectively serve the people of Nebraska," Omtvedt said.
The first phase was financed with a $134,415 grant from the W. K. Kellogg Foundation, one of 12 projects in Kellogg's food system professions education initiative, Omtvedt said. Now there will be an opportunity to qualify for multiyear funding that could amount to more than $1 million from the Kellogg Foundation which would be matched locally.
The NN21 vision for the year 2020 calls for "communities of learning" for food systems education in Nebraska. Participants envision a network of communities for lifelong learners providing educational opportunities that are accessible and affordable. The vision is the outcome of regional sessions held at Scottsbluff, North Platte, Grand Island, Norfolk, Omaha and Lincoln.
Ken Bolen, dean and director of NU Cooperative Extension, and Don Edwards, dean of the College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources (CASNR), served as co-directors of the project. Joyce Povlacs Lunde, associate professor of agricultural leadership, education and communication, served as project coordinator.
Omtvedt said Glen Vollmar, dean of the IANR International Programs Division, Cecil Steward, dean of the College of Architecture, Bolen and Edwards will serve as members of the management team for Phase II. Other members may be added later, he said.
The other 11 institutions across the nation that have been conducting
visioning sessions are Clemson University, Iowa State University,
University of Minnesota, Ohio State University, Oregon State University,
Pennsylvania State University, Rutgers University, Texas A&M University,
Tuskegee University, Washington State University and the University of
Wisconsin.
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