September 13, 1996



Ground-breaking Event

Nebraska's newest home for high-tech companies took a big step last Friday at a ground-breaking ceremony for UNL's Technology Park, located north of Interstate 80 in Lincoln's Highlands area. The $2 million, 22,000-square-foot main building will serve as an "incubator" for growing high-tech businesses in Nebraska. Among those on hand for the dedication were (pictured above) Priscilla Grew, UNL's vice chancellor for research, and Tom Thomsen, former president of AT&T Technology Systems. Thomsen, a UNL graduate and honorary doctorate recipient, is one of three prominent alumni from industry who served as key advisors in planning Technology Park. Also on hand at the ground-breaking were Chancellor James Moeser, NU President Dennis Smith, Lincoln Mayor Mike Johanns and Lt. Gov. Kim Robak. (Photo by Donna Simon)

Composer Chip Davis Creating Alma Mater Song for UNL

By Phyllis Larsen
Director, Public Relations

While UNL students and supporters love their fight songs - There is No Place Like Nebraska and Hail Varsity - they have never had a traditional alma mater hymn like many other colleges and universities.

That will soon change as one of the country's most celebrated new age composers works to create an additional song for UNL.

Omaha composer Chip Davis, president of American Gramaphone, is creating a song to be debuted Oct. 12 as part of UNL's Homecoming celebration.

American Gramaphone was founded in Omaha by Davis in 1974. It is a company devoted primarily to distribution of Davis music played by the group Mannheim Steamroller. The instrumental ensemble is described as an eclectic blend of classical form and rock and roll rhythms.

"I regard him as one of the most creative musicians at work in this country today," said UNL Chancellor James Moeser. "I'm delighted that someone with his talent, training and professional standing wanted to give something like this to our university.

"We have great fight songs. I love There is No Place Like Nebraska and we have no intention of replacing it. But most schools have both a fight song and an alma mater, so this is a piece of tradition we need to create."

Cornhusker Marching Band director Rod Chesnutt said "Ever since I came here we've discussed having an alma mater written. It's not a new idea for us. But it wasn't until Chip Davis recently came forward with an offer to create the song that a plan was put into motion.

"No Place and Hail Varsity really function as pep songs. In fact, it's my understanding that the No Place tune was based on a polka. Alma maters are intended to be reverent, solemn and hymn-like - something that glorifies the university."

At other colleges and universities, the alma mater traditionally is performed just before or after the national anthem at athletic and other events. "It serves a similar function of a national anthem for the school," said Chesnutt. "It's intended to stir one's soul."

Davis said he feels honored to be given an opportunity to compose an alma mater for UNL. "Writing something that goes into a timeless position is flattering for a composer. But more importantly, I am a giant fan of living in the state of Nebraska," he said. "I was trained as a school teacher and being involved with education, especially with a place with the stature of the University of Nebraska, is a rare opportunity."

Davis is also pleased to carry on a family tradition. His father composed the alma mater for Chip's high school in Sylvania, Ohio.

In their initial meetings, Moeser and Davis discovered a shared musical history. Davis was an undergraduate music major at the University of Michigan in 1967 while Moeser pursued his doctorate in musical arts there.

"There is an automatic language that we share," said Davis. "Because of the intense classical music background that we have in common, I was able to understand the style of alma mater the chancellor had in mind."

Davis said he composed the basic music first and is now working on the words. "I'm in the process of finding out about traditions from the past that are still continuing. That helps guide the lyric content," he said. He said he plans several verses to deal with the philosophy of the university, traditions and campus life.

"I've heard the initial work, and I love the tune," Moeser said. "It's very stately and very singable."

If the work progresses on schedule, the Cornhusker Marching Band and a combined university choir will join Mannheim Steamroller to premiere the song at halftime of the Oct. 12 Nebraska-Baylor football game.


Is 'Information Age' a Misnomer?

Electronic Copyrights Aren't Always User Friendly


By David Ochsner
Scarlet Editor

Contrary to the wisdom of the ages, sometimes it is prudent to stick one's head in the sand.

This advice was offered by Karen Hersey, intellectual property counsel at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, on one strategy universities should consider in their new role as Internet access providers. Hersey addressed a large group of administrators and faculty at the Copyright & Scholarly Publishing Symposium Tuesday at the Wick Center.

Hersey said in the past universities and their libraries used to play a more "passive role" in delivering information to the academy and the public, but relatively recent advances in computer technology and the Internet have created a host of new copyright and delivery challenges for universities.

"Universities have become IAPs (Internet access providers). They are delivering information through computer networks just like CompuServe and Prodigy, with the exception that universities are nonprofit," Hersey said.

Information delivery, however, is far from a benign act. The network supports thousands of faculty, staff and students, many of whom are unaware of or ignore copyright laws, licensing agreements, and rules governing the distribution of obscene materials.

"Should we (universities) be carriers only, with no responsibility for the content?," Hersey asked. "Thankfully, IAPs are considered carriers, not content providers. As long as we are considered access providers and copyright (and other) violations are done without the university's knowledge, we can fare better. Universities are better off sticking their heads in the sand."

Hersey warned that when a university starts to monitor the content of information traveling over its networks, it becomes a "publisher" and therefore bears the liability for its content. This includes using V-chip technology to monitor, for example, obscene words, or saving e-mail messages on servers for long periods of time.

"Messages on servers should be dumped every two or three days - if you save them, then it is considered to be monitoring," Hersey said. "But if we keep out of the monitoring business, just like AT&T, we will continue to be viewed as providers only."

She said universities should, at this point, view telecommunications companies as "on their side," because companies like AT&T have lobbied and continue to lobby Congress to protect IAPs from content liability.

That doesn't get universities entirely off the hook, however. If, for example, the university receives a complaint about a student using unauthorized material on their web page or distributing obscene materials, the university must take action.

"With pornography, we can become culpable just for having it on our networks," Hersey said. "We are advised not to monitor content, but if it is found then we must act to remove it."

Concerns about what's on the Internet don't mean a whole lot, however, if you don't have access to it in the first place.

Until recently, Hersey said, most information provided by cities and universities, primarily through their library systems, was available to anyone walking in off the street. It was almost entirely print-based and governed by long-established copyright laws.

The beauty of the old copyright laws that govern printed materials lies in their rather egalitarian simplicity, including a fair use exception that allows for relatively easy reproduction and delivery of printed information. Fair use allows a professor to make multiple copies of a poem found in an anthology. It allows you to pass a book along to a friend once you've finished reading it. Your original purchase of the book (or the library's original purchase of its collection) fulfills most of the obligations covered by copyright law. And in the case of public libraries, any person, regardless of rank or social standing, can borrow from its holdings.

Hersey said this is not the case with Internet access.

"If information comes in under copyright, anyone can use it," Hersey said. "But electronic information comes in under contract law, a license. Licensed information often has a very tightly defined group of users - registered students, faculty with ID cards - people cannot just walk in off the street and use it. Electronic information restricts who can use it.

"With electronic information we find that we may not be able to download the information and make text copies, or interlibrary loans," Hersey said. "Electronic information also comes in with limits on disclosure, especially with respect to databases. Information is provided under a nondisclosure (clause) even if that information was under the public domain to begin with."

In confronting these issues, Hersey said MIT now employs several lawyers who specialize in licensing and copyrights, and the school has instituted a campaign against software piracy.

"Raising awareness of these issues on campus is a must, including changes in the law," said Hersey. "The landscape is changing for the university, and it's getting a lot rockier."


Nebraska's Toadstool Park is just one of many sites explored in the new Nebraska ETV documentary Restless Prairie, airing Sept. 16 and 22.

New Documentary Explores Wonders of Nebraska's Prairie

ETV to Air 'Restless Prairie Sept. 16, 22

By J.W. Huttig
Nebraska ETV

Among the world's mountains and seas, Nebraska is but a tiny grain of sand. But hidden beneath its soil is evidence of natural disasters that, over a 5-billion year period, laid the foundation for a dynamic and still-evolving landscape.

Restless Prairie, a new Nebraska ETV Network documentary airing at 7 p.m. Sept. 16 and repeating at 5 p.m. Sept. 22, peels back the layers of time to discover the forces that shaped the land and continue to forge the landscape of tomorrow.

It is not a landscape to be taken for granted, says Joe Turco, who produced the documentary for the Science, Outreach and Specials Unit of University of Nebraska-Lincoln Television. Turco, a native of Omaha, says he was unfamiliar with much of Nebraska until he began working for the statewide network.

"Most of us who live in Nebraska have a peculiar vision of the state," Turco said. "We understand our own regions, but not the state itself. It wasn't until I began working here and traveling through the state that I realized how dramatic and diverse Nebraska's topography is."

Restless Prairie is an eye-opening journey to Nebraska's natural wonders: Restless Prairie tells its story through impressive video and creative editing by videographer/editor Perry Stoner. Animation from graphic artist Scott Beachler demystifies the scientific forces that created Nebraska's landscape.

Scientifically, Restless Prairie is a multifaceted story that requires many disciplines to tell. The documentary shows how geologists, biologists, hydrologists, archeologists, anthropologists, paleontologists and even NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory seek in their own ways to unravel the mysteries of the landscape.

"We're all trying to find answers to the same questions," Turco said, "but we're going about it in different ways."

The answers are important to our survival. Among other discoveries revealed in the program is an ancient fault line that may have been produced by an earthquake of magnitude 7 on the Richter scale, or about the same intensity as the quake that leveled Kobe, Japan, in January 1995. Scientists also found evidence that Nebraska endured a 200-year drought between 800 and 1000 years ago.

Forewarned is forearmed. The information gleaned by peering into Nebraska's past gives us the knowledge needed to prepare for changes in our environment, to evolve with it and endure as it has.

Academic Senate to Stress Faculty Input

Chancellor Reinforces 'Academic Rigor' Theme

By Kim Hachiya
News & Information

Academic Senate President Peter Bleed outlined some of goals and priorities for the senate at the body's first meeting Sept. 10. The priorities were developed at a retreat of the Senate's executive committee members.

They are 1) faculty oversight of academic standards and excellence; 2) faculty compensation and benefits; and 3) post-tenure review mechanisms.

Bleed said that faculty input is important as UNL moves toward the "virtual" university where instructional technology dominates. He said input into the selection of "centers of excellence" is vital.

Bleed said UNL is behind its peers in salary packages but is really lagging behind peers in terms of benefits, specifically university contributions toward retirement funds. Currently, the university contributes a maximum of 7.5 percent but peer average is more than 11 percent, he said. State law limits university contributions to 8 percent, Bleed said. The goal is to change that law to lift the cap to 12 percent. Extra lobbying efforts will be needed, he predicted.

Bleed also said the senate should be a leading voice in explaining and defending tenure and academic freedom.

Chancellor James Moeser told the senate he agreed with Bleed's assessment of priorities and said points of emphases are academic rigor, identification of centers of excellence and periodic review of tenured faculty.

Academic rigor, he said, will mean that students who seek graduate or professional degrees will be able to compete in any graduate program in the country. And those who enter the workplace will be sought after by employers because those students are prepared with the skills to succeed.

Faculty are key, he said, because they provide the academic support, such as extra tutoring, mentoring and guidance, that will be needed.

Moeser said he sees no changes in how UNL identifies criteria or financing for centers of excellence except that a more "macro" view will be used to develop the criteria.

Regarding post-tenure review, Moeser said UNL needs to be sure "we are true to our own standards as scholars."

"If we are as responsible as we can be, I believe we can avoid the bitter controversy seen in other states when regents and legislators launch direct assaults on academic tenure.

"There is no sentiment on our board for an assault on tenure but there is concern as to whether we are rigorous enough when we award tenure or productive enough afterwards. If we wait, there will be such an assault. A small correction done with a certain degree of expedition will forestall a much more difficult defense."

The chancellor also debuted two agency-produced television ads that run during nationally televised football games.

In other business, the senate elected Phyllis Japp, communications studies, to the executive committee, to replace Jay Corzine, who left UNL this summer.

EPSCoR Launches Phase 2 Of Research Program

By Robert Sheldon
News and Information

The National Science Foundation has extended the Nebraska EPSCoR (Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research) program for two more years, providing funds for continued support of the three original research clusters and the initiation of two additional research projects.

In addition, some EPSCoR funds will be awarded on a matching basis for startup projects by UNL faculty members in biological sciences, chemistry and engineering mechanics.

Royce Ballinger, UNL professor of biological sciences and director of Nebraska EPSCoR, said NSF will provide $1.48 million per year to EPSCoR. The state of Nebraska, UNL and the private sector will combine to match the NSF's $1.48 million.

EPSCoR was established by NSF to increase the geographic base of federal research support. EPSCoR initiatives are merit-based competitive programs designed to meet national needs in science and engineering research. Nebraska became eligible for EPSCoR funding in 1991, and work began with a $100,000 planning grant.

The original EPSCoR research and development grant of $4.26 million, awarded by NSF in 1993, provided funds for three research clusters - metallobiochemistry, behavioral biology, and materials science - over a three-year period. Funding for each of those clusters will be reduced during Phase 2 of Nebraska EPSCoR in order to support the two new clusters in bioremediation and plant science, according to Ballinger.

"EPSCoR's purpose is to stimulate new areas of research," Ballinger said. "The idea is to provide funds to start up projects, attract new people, and develop infrastructure for research."

EPSCoR has enabled each of the original clusters to establish high quality research groups.

In materials research, for instance, the cluster's research group in advanced magnetic materials has achieved recognition as one of the top groups in its field nationwide.

The behavioral biology group, which involves collaborations among 10 faculty members in biology and psychology on three campuses (UNL, the University of Nebraska at Omaha and Creighton University), has developed an intercampus graduate training and research program emphasizing the integration of evolutionary, ecological, organismal, molecular, physiological and psychological perspectives as seen in the behavior of individual organisms.

Funding for the metallobiochemistry research cluster, involving 15 scientists at UNL, Creighton, Hastings College and Nebraska Wesleyan University, has resulted in increased collaborations among biochemists and chemists on each of the campuses, and the development of joint research projects with local industries.

Similar achievements are expected in the new clusters, which were selected in collaboration with the Nebraska Department of Economic Development and the Nebraska Industrial Competitiveness Alliance, Ballinger said.

The new bioremediation cluster, which will include scientists in four departments and from three campuses, will examine interactions among physical, chemical and biological processes contributing to the fate and detoxification of hazardous residues in soil and water.

The new plant genetics cluster will involve eight scientists in three departments in a collaboration with the UNL Center for Biotechnology in an examination of the fundamental processes influencing plant development and productivity, with an ultimate goal of learning how plants can be genetically engineered for resistance to stress and value-added carbohydrate metabolism.

Ballinger said that the success of Nebraska EPSCoR is measured in more than specific research achievements.

"The program has fostered intercampus interactions among researchers and research administrators among the four major universities in Nebraska (UNL, the NU Medical Center, Creighton and UNO) as well as with state government and the private sector," Ballinger said.

A major benefit of selection by NSF for EPSCoR funding is that it makes the Nebraska program eligible for funding through other EPSCoR programs offered by other federal agencies, such as the National Institutes of Health and the Environmental Protection Agency.

NSF has provided the main funding for Nebraska EPSCoR. The second most prominent among other federal agencies to provide EPSCoR funds to Nebraska has been the Department of Defense, Ballinger said. Last year, Defense provided $2.2 million to eight research projects.

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