By Tom Simons, News & Information
When Ricardo Garcia (shown at right) visited the UNL campus in early June to interview for the position of assistant to the chancellor and director of affirmative action and diversity programs, a student on the search committee took him to the Nebraska Union.
"We sat down and he said, 'I want you to look around,'" Garcia recalled. "He said, 'What you see here are students from all over Nebraska. Most of them are white. Now, what's in it for us, this job that you have?'"
Garcia said the student's pointed question provided him with a perfect lead-in to discuss not only his role at UNL, but also the university's role in society.
"We started talking about the function of a university," he said. "Does a university reflect the culture that it lives in or does it improve the culture? My view is that the university improves the culture -- it provides a model that prepares students to be effective citizens in the global village. That's the real issue of affirmative action and a way we can do that is have a diverse faculty and a diverse student body."
Garcia will join the UNL administration Sept. 1, replacing Eric Jolly, who left in June 1995 to accept a position as senior scientist at the Educational Development Center Inc. of Newton, Mass. Christy Horn has been UNL's interim director of affirmative action and diversity since June of 1995.
Garcia, who will also have the academic rank of professor of curriculum and instruction in Teachers College, has been assistant vice chancellor for multicultural affairs at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point since 1994. His prior administrative experience was as chair of the department of elementary and secondary education at Montana State University-Billings from 1983-90 and director of the division of teacher education at the University of Idaho from 1991-94. He was a professor of education at Kansas State in 1990-91. He earned a bachelor's degree in English education from New Mexico Highlands University, and a master's degree in English education and an educational doctorate from the University of Denver.
The 56-year-old native of Swastika, N.M., (a town named for the ancient Native American symbol), acknowledged that UNL faces problems in diversifying its undergraduate student body, the biggest obstacle being Nebraska's small minority population -- 6 percent non-white in 1990. But he said there are ways to expose UNL students to diversity. One is to promote student exchange programs like the one UNL recently started with Grambling State. A second is to recruit diverse students at the graduate level, train them in teaching methodologies to serve as graduate teaching assistants who would provide exposure to intellectual diversity for undergraduates (as UNL does with its nine-year-old institute for international students). A third is to recruit a diverse faculty. Another is to encourage students themselves to address issues of diversity.
"Going back to that student in the student union, student government should have a plan to speak to issues of diversity that are not spoken to in their classes, issues that are major consequences to the students," Garcia said. "A real simple one right now is interracial dating and the implications of that. "Each unit on campus surely has some questions about diversity that concern them greatly.
The academic colleges all have concerns about diversity and many of them have come to acknowledge it because they're on the cutting edge and are aware of the fact that diversity is a part of life that needs to be addressed in their discipline. My goal is to work with them on diversity, to become a facilitative office rather than a compliance office -- although compliance will always be there because of the way the federal laws are written."
Garcia said it was Chancellor James Moeser's offer to be a facilitator for diversity that drew him to UNL.
"When I came for the interview, I asked, 'Are you interested in
developing diversity in the faculty, in the staff, in the curriculum and
in the student body? If that's your interest, I'm interested. If you're
interested just in enforcing the law, shoot, you've got plenty of people
there already who can do that.'"
Allan L. McCutcheon, associate professor of sociology at the University of Delaware, has been named the first permanent director of the Gallup Research Center at UNL.
Priscilla Grew, vice chancellor for research, said McCutcheon will assume the post Aug. 19, replacing Lynn White, UNL professor of sociology, who has served as interim director since October. McCutcheon will also be the Donald O. Clifton Professor of Sociology at UNL.
Funded by the Nebraska Research Initiative with assistance from the Gallup Organization, the center was created in 1994. It concentrates on the areas of survey research and quantitative methods, including public opinion, consumer and employee satisfaction and data utilization in the workplace. Its research involves scholars from fields such as marketing, political science, sociology, educational measurement, statistics and journalism.
"I'm very excited about the potential of the Gallup Center," McCutcheon said. "It has the potential of becoming not just a regionally recognized center for excellence, but nationally and internationally, too. The graduate program will be one of the first of its kind in the country. There are actually only two others like it in existence."
A native of Clarinda, Iowa, McCutcheon earned his bachelor's degree from Iowa State University (1972) and his master's (1977) and doctoral degrees (1982) from the University of Chicago, all in sociology. He has been a member of the Delaware faculty since 1982, became an associate professor in 1988 and served as associate chair of the sociology department from 1989-95. In 1987, he received Delaware's Lindbach Foundation Distinguished Teaching Award. He has also served as an instructor at the European Consortium for Political Research's Summer School in Social Science Data Analysis and Collection at the University of Essex in England since 1990.
In 1995-96, he had a Fulbright Research Grant at Tilburg University in the Netherlands. He's also served as an instructor and visiting professor at the Catholic University of Brabant in the Netherlands, and the University of Mannheim and the University of Cologne in Germany and was a guest scientist at the Max Planck Institute in Freiburg, Germany, in 1988-89.
McCutcheon's wife, Lisa Crockett, will also join the UNL faculty as
associate professor of psychology. She has been associate professor of
human development at Pennsylvania State University.
Freshman students enrolled in the University Foundations course are participating in a new summer reading program. During the summer, the students will read Amusing Ourselves To Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business, by Neil Postman. On Aug. 25, they will participate in small group discussions regarding the book with various faculty members.
The summer reading program was developed to acclimate incoming students to university-level work. The students will receive credit for reading the book and participating in the discussion.
Postman's book examines how television has transformed and largely trivialized public discourse in America.
Following the discussion, there will be a convocation for all incoming
students in the Lied Center for Performing Arts. The convocation will
feature a special program to formally welcome the new students into the
UNL academic community.
Two interim administrative appointments have been announced by Irv Omtvedt, interim senior vice chancellor for academic affairs and vice chancellor for the Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources.
Omtvedt said Darrell Nelson, dean and director of the Agriculture Research Division, will serve as interim vice chancellor for IANR, and Nancy Stara, associate professor of accounting in the College of Business Administration, will serve as interim associate vice chancellor for academic affairs.
Nelson will assume primary responsibility for IANR's day-to-day operations while Omtvedt adds the senior vice chancellor for academic affairs responsibilities during the search for a replacement for Joan Leitzel, who left last month to become president of the University of New Hampshire. Nelson will provide a leadership role in implementing a comprehensive review of the institute as part of the strategic planning process to optimize program effectiveness in the 21st century. His appointment was effective July 1.
Stara will be responsible for leadership duties formerly assigned to Liz Grobsmith, who resigned as associate vice chancellor for academic affairs last month to become dean of the College of Letters, Arts and Sciences at the University of Colorado-Colorado Springs. Stara will oversee the general education program, summer sessions and the honors program. Her appointment is effective July 15.
"These appointments will allow the programs associated with both IANR and the office of academic affairs to aggressively move forward during this transition," Omtvedt said. "Both Darrell Nelson and Nancy Stara bring excellent academic and administrative credentials to these positions and are recognized leaders at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. We are pleased they are willing to accept these leadership positions."
Nelson has been at UNL since 1984, when he was named head of the department of agronomy. He became dean and director of the Agriculture Research Division in 1988. He earned a bachelor's degree in agricultural education (1961) and a master's degree in soil fertility (1963) from the University of Illinois, then earned his doctorate in soil chemistry (1967) at Iowa State University and was a faculty member at Purdue University for 16 years before coming to UNL.
Stara joined the UNL faculty as an assistant professor in the school
of accountancy in 1985 and was promoted to associate professor in 1991.
She served as associate dean of the College of Business Administration
from 1991-94, then returned to the teaching faculty. Stara earned a
bachelor's degree at Park College (1964), then earned a juris doctorate
from the University of Nebraska (1967) and an L.L.M. degree in taxation
from the University of Denver (1985).
Bryan Van Deun, president and chief executive office of the UNL Alumni Association since 1987, has resigned that post effective July 15 to become assistant vice chancellor for student affairs at UNL, Chancellor James Moeser and members of the alumni association executive committee announced today.
Michael Mulnix has been named interim president of the Alumni Association effective July 15. He will retain his current title of executive director of university relations.
"Bryan has done what he came here to do, and he has told me that this is an ideal time in his career to pursue other areas of leadership as well as teaching," said Moeser. "We appreciate the long service that Bryan has given to our alumni association. He created financial stability and an academic focus that has helped it to become one of the outstanding alumni associations in the country."
During Van Deun's tenure, the alumni association added several college alumni constituent societies, the alumni career assistance network, two new categories of membership, three new awards and such innovative projects as the family cultural series, the children's holiday party, the "Come On Home" homecoming celebration, a sculpture exhibit in the Wick Center's Holling Garden and an "Insuring Tomorrow" issues conference for faculty, staff, students and professionals. In 1989, the association received the gold medal for alumni program improvement from the national Council for Advancement and Support of Education.
"The alumni board of directors appreciates the enthusiasm and support that Bryan has given the university and its alumni during the past nine years," said Jeanne Salerno, who completed her term as chairman of the board of this week. "He has enjoyed a positive relationship with the board, the university community and the alumni."
In the past year, Van Deun has concentrated on the production of a new alumni directory, the introduction of an alumni page on the World Wide Web and the refurbishing of the Wick Alumni Center, which had begun to show the effects of 10 years of use. Last winter Van Deun, a board member of Lincoln Rotary Club No. 14, led a five-member Rotary group study exchange to the Philippines, where he met with with prospective UNL students and Filipino Rotarians in secondary and higher education.
With Assistant Vice Chancellor Kunle Ojikutu departing for a new position at Western Washington University, Van Deun will be needed immediately to help manage the student affairs division, according to James Griesen, vice chancellor for student affairs. "In addition, he will bring his valuable experience to the classroom, teaching one graduate seminar and one undergraduate class during the fall semester," Griesen said.
Van Deun earned a bachelor's degree in political science from Franklin College in Indiana in 1968, a master's degree in higher education administration from Iowa State University in 1973, and a doctorate in educational administration from Pennsylvania State in 1978. He served as a financial aid officer at Iowa State, Fairleigh Dickson University in New Jersey, and Lock Haven University of Pennsylvania, before being named associate dean of students at Lock Haven in 1978. Prior to his appointment at UNL, Van Deun was associate executive director for alumni relations at Penn State.
Moeser said a committee will be named soon to begin the search process
for a new alumni association president.
By Robert Sheldon, News & Information
It's hard enough to visualize even one black hole -- a region of space where gravity is so powerful that nothing, not even light, can escape its massive attraction. Even harder to contemplate is the idea that some galaxies are blessed with two giant black holes revolving around each other.
Martin Gaskell, professor of physics and astronomy at UNL, believes there are binary black holes orbiting one another in the centers of many galaxies. He was led to this conclusion by the study of the motions of gas in quasars.
"We think of black holes as something where things fall in and can't escape," Gaskell said. "If so, how does light get out?"
Quasars, or "quasi-stellar radio sources," are intense sources of energy in the centers of galaxies. The light they emit can be so strong that at great distances the glare of the quasar drowns out the light of the surrounding galaxy. Gaskell said that about 90 percent of astronomers believe that quasars are powered by giant black holes and that black holes are many times better at converting matter into energy than hydrogen bombs. In quasars, some of the matter is apparently converted into energy and escapes as light before it can fall into the black hole.
In 1983, Gaskell drew attention to a class of quasars in which the gas was moving at thousands of miles per second with respect to the galaxies where they are located. He proposed that the differences in apparent speed were due to the gas clouds being associated with two black holes orbiting each other.
Gaskell said many astronomers also believe that many giant black holes exist at the centers of many or most of the millions of known galaxies. Recent research by Gaskell provides evidence that pairs of giant black holes do indeed exist and probably formed when their galaxies collided.
He reasoned that over a decade or so it should be possible to see changes in the apparent velocities of the gas as the two black holes moved in their orbits round each other. In a paper published in the June 20 issue of the Astrophysical Journal Letters, Gaskell reported the discovery of just such changes in the apparent speed of assemblages of gas in a particular quasar, 3C 390.3. His research used data gathered over more than two decades.
"The exciting thing my measurements show is that there is a clear unmistakable trend in the velocity of the gases over time." Gaskell said. "My interpretation of the change in apparent velocity of the gases in 3C 390.3 is that it is due to two black holes orbiting around each other."
Gaskell's calculations show that the two black holes in 3C 390.3 have a combined mass about 4 billion times the mass of the sun. Gravitational radiation will eventually cause the black holes to spiral together and merge into one large black hole.
Unfortunately, two orbiting giant black holes may take centuries to go
around each other, so it might take observations far into the future
before final proof of what Gaskell's measurements indicate can be firmly
established.
The first high-performance concrete bridge to be completed in the United States will open to traffic July 15 at 120th Street and Giles Road in Sarpy County.
A ribbon-cutting ceremony will occur at the bridge at 10 a.m. to celebrate the bridge opening. A rain date of 10 a.m. July 17 has been set.
The three-span, 225-foot structure uses concrete strengths of 8,000 pounds per square inch for the deck and 12,000 pounds per square inch for the prestressed girders. These values are about double those of conventional bridges. The bridge incorporates seven I-girders, known as Nebraska University 1100 millimeter girders, with a 190-millimeter (7.5-inch) thick deck. Wilson Concrete of Omaha produced the girders and Hawkins Construction Co. is general contractor for the project.
"HPC is designed to last up to 100 years, compared with the 25-year life cycle of normal concrete," said Maher Tadros, professor of civil engineering at UNL. Tadros said the project shows that Nebraska is one of the nation's leaders in this field. High performance concrete for bridges means lighter superstructures for initial cost savings and durability for long-term savings, according to Portland Cement Association.
The project is sponsored by the Federal Highway Administration in cooperation with Sarpy County and the Nebraska Department of Roads.
UNL's Center for Infrastructure Research, through the Nebraska
Research Initiative, provides research support and technical assistance
to the project. The Nebraska project is one of eight high-performance
concrete bridge projects under way through the Federal Highway
Administration's Strategic Highway Research Program. Construction began
earlier on a similar bridge near Houston, but the Nebraska bridge is the
first project to be completed.
What appears to be just a slab of concrete at the Wilson Concrete plant in La Platte may give Nebraska a competitive edge in the construction industry.
A new concrete test bed will allow full-scale testing of bridge girders and beams, opening the door to product development for Nebraska industries. The capacity of the test bed is unique to structural test facilities nationwide, said Maher Tadros, UNL professor of civil engineering.
Due to space limitations, testing laboratories typically have an overhead crane that lifts only 10 to 15 tons. The Wilson test bed is unique in its ability to handle specimens up to 150 feet long and 70 tons in weight. The facility is the result of two years of collaboration between Omaha industry and UNL.
The test bed is 30 feet wide and 150 feet long, extending 10 feet below ground. A small room adjacent to the test bed houses computer and electronic equipment. On top of the bed, two rows of anchors hold structural components in place while concentrated forces of up to 1 million pounds can be applied.
"To my knowledge, there is no other permanent facility in the country that can test bridge girders of this size," Tadros said. "Wilson's facility allows us to use their commercial lifting and handling equipment and to receive advice from their experts."
Wilson Concrete, Peter Kiewit Sons, and Thiele Geotech Inc. of Omaha donated more than $150,000 to the project.
Jim Hendrix, UNL engineering and technology dean, said, "This unique
test facility is one example of how engineering education can by improved
by university-industry partnering."
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