By Amy Cyphers, News & Information
Nebraska is getting pretty good at this No. 1 stuff.
First it was a long-awaited national championship in football at the start of 1995. Then the volleyball team snagged its first national crown in December, followed by the football team's Sweet Repeat a few weeks later. And the accolades just keep piling up for more of UNL's finest.
The Cornhusker Marching Band is the latest team to earn No. 1 status in the field. As the 1996 recipient of the Sudler Trophy, the Huskers have been honored for having the premier band program in the United States. Although the Sudler is the band-world equivalent of a national title, assistant director Rod Chestnutt said it means more fame than fortune for the university.
"Unfortunately, it's not going to be the financial windfall that the Sears Trophy is for athletics," he said. "But it does carry the same weight in terms of the recognition among our peers around the country in the area of what we do."
Chestnutt said the Sudler is an important distinction for UNL.
"It demonstrates the university's commitment to excellence, to quality," he said. "It demonstrates that we have quality at all levels in all disciplines."
Administered by the John Philip Sousa Foundation in Chicago, the Sudler is awarded to the college band that has consistently demonstrated outstanding musicianship, show design and entertainment. The winner is chosen by a vote of all marching band directors in the NCAA. Voting is based on a band program's history and its appearances on national television. Chestnutt is fast to credit the Big Red for the band's airtime.
"That's where we really need to thank the athletic team because that's one of the reasons that we have the exposure that we do," he said. "Just like the football team, we're in a rural state that does not have the media exposure normally that a lot of other states have. If it were not for the exposure that the football team allows us to have, I'm not so sure that award would be as possible."
While trend-setting is a major factor in winning the Sudler, tradition is just as important, said Jay Kloecker, band director. As the oldest continuous marching band program in the country at a university rich in academics and athletics, Nebraska was primed for the honor.
"It's all very intertwined -- the whole football tradition and the band tradition and the university tradition," he said. "It's one thing to try to have a good band when you don't have tradition, but when you have this 118-year tradition of real pride in Nebraska band, it sure makes it a special occasion."
That special occasion will take place Sept. 28 when the Sudler is presented during the Band Alumni Day at the Nebraska-Colorado State football game. The 270 members of the current Cornhusker Marching Band and staff and hundreds of band alumni and a few former directors will be on hand to receive the trophy. Kloecker said the event will mean a lot to the fans in the stands as well.
"The Sudler is a very wonderful award for the band, but we think it's also a wonderful award for the university as a whole," he said. "It's going to be a real celebration -- past and present -- of what's happened with Nebraska band.
"The best part is going to be receiving it here at home and to be able to share it with the kids in band now and with all of the alumni that will be back and all of the other directors and with all of the other people in the stadium," he said. "There sure are a lot of people who go out of their way every week to say, 'Gosh, that's a great band. You guys did a wonderful job this week.' And this is a way for us to give a little bit back to Nebraska."
Both Kloecker and Chestnutt said they were stunned when they heard the good news in December. The band learned of it later, after a hard day of rehearsals for the Fiesta Bowl in Tempe, Ariz.
"They were a little shocked too," Chestnutt said. "I think 'stunned silence' is the perfect (term) for it, because it's not something they joined the band for in terms of awards. It's not something that they expected. It came out of left field. And it couldn't have been at a more opportune time. They were tired. They'd just gotten off the plane and gone straight to rehearse for about 12 hours, getting ready for the bowl."
In addition to countless hours of individual practice, the band meets for about 90 minutes each morning to rehearse as a group. Kloecker said winning the Sudler the reinforces the band's reputation for such dedication to excellence.
"It's a nice incentive, and in particular it's a wonderful recognition
for all of the students that have been through the band program before,"
he said. "It's a real testament to their work ethic and to how many hours
they spend. It's a really nice firm pat on the back for a lot of hard
work."
The UNL Department of Sociology is the 1996 winner of the University-wide Departmental Teaching Award. The award recognizes an academic department for its outstanding record of accomplishment in teaching. A $25,000 grant to the department accompanies the award.
The Department of Sociology is composed of 16 faculty members and two emeritus faculty. More than 4,000 students take classes in the department each year, with about 150 students majoring in sociology, up almost 50 percent in the last five years. The department offers bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees. The entire course schedule for an undergraduate major in sociology is available in the evening through UNL's Division of Continuing Studies.
The roots of the department go back to 1884 when the first sociology courses were offered by George Howard, who later served as president of the American Sociological Association (two other UNL faculty members later served as national president -- E.A. Ross and Charles Ellwood). Joyce Hertzler founded the Midwest Sociological Society in 1937. Six UNL sociology faculty members, including Hertzler, served as president of that organization.
The sociology department places strong emphasis on teaching. For more than 20 years, the department has made teaching excellence a key consideration when awarding faculty merit salary increases. Large lower-division lecture classes are taught by senior professors. More than half of current faculty members have received teaching awards. Teaching performance is routinely assessed through student evaluations of their classes, exit interviews with graduating students, and five-year alumni surveys.
Asked to rate their sociology education, 92 percent of alumni surveyed rated it either "excellent" or "good." Some 94 percent said sociology had contributed positively to their quality of life, and 88 percent said it helped them better understand different cultures and institutions. More than 90 percent said sociology improved their ability to summarize knowledge, to think objectively and to understand research methods.
The department is heavily involved in interdisciplinary programs, including ethnic studies, environmental studies, women's studies, Great Plains studies and Judaic studies. In addition, faculty members contribute to the larger community by volunteering their services to such programs as drug prevention, pre-trial diversion and rape/spouse abuse.
The department's research arm is the Bureau of Sociological Research, perhaps best known for its Nebraska Annual Social Indicators Survey, which examines numerous factors affecting the quality of life on Nebraskans. Recent surveys have studied such topics as rural mental health and the effects of divorce on children. Two nationwide studies have ranked the department as having one of the three most productive research programs in family sociology over the past 10 years.
The Universitywide Departmental Teaching Award was established in 1992
to emphasize the importance of quality instruction throughout the
university. The selection is made by a committee of senior faculty
members from all four University of Nebraska campuses. Previous winners
are the UNK Department of Chemistry (1993), the UNL Department of English
(1994) and UNO's Goodrich Scholarship Program (1995). This year's award
will be presented during ceremonies scheduled for April 19.
By Tom Simons, News & Information
UNL and Grambling State University have signed a memorandum of understanding that will promote opportunities for faculty and student exchanges, faculty and staff development, cooperative research efforts, graduate study opportunities, technological interchange and consulting activities between the two universities.
The collaboration was the idea of Ruby Higgins, assistant director for student support services in UNL's Office of Multi-Cultural Affairs and a Grambling graduate. Higgins had discussed the idea with Grambling officials, then suggested to Joan Leitzel, UNL senior vice chancellor for academic affairs, in 1994 that UNL investigate the possibility of a collaborative effort with the historically black Louisiana institution.
Leitzel was receptive to the idea and asked Merlin Lawson, dean of graduate studies at UNL, to take a leadership role in conversations with Grambling and in working with UNL's deans to identify areas for potential collaboration.
"Partnerships such as the one we are developing with Grambling provide institutions with opportunities to maximize the effectiveness of their respective resources," Lawson said. "Such collaboration acknowledges that minority underrepresentation in academe is not restricted to individual institutions, nor can comprehensive solutions be achieved without establishing partnerships like this. The benefits of this arrangement will be monumental in terms of the professional development activities that will flow between our campuses, and in the combined use of institutional resources such as faculties, libraries and facilities."
Lawson arranged for four Grambling representatives to visit UNL last April and for Suzanne Ortega, associate dean of graduate studies, to visit Grambling in the fall. The universities agreed on a draft of the memorandum, then Higgins completed the task of getting signatures on the memorandum from Grambling President Raymond Hicks, Leitzel (UNL's interim chancellor at the time) and the 22 deans and other admininistrators who will be directly involved in the agreement at the two universities.
"This partnership will give provide students at both universities with more educational opportunities," Lawson said. "Through combination of resources, it will promote economies of scale, improve programmatic quality, promote educational diversity, attract more outside funding, and enhance a greater heterogeneity on both campuses."
"This is a great way to give our students some experiences they wouldn't ordinarily have," Ortega said. "It will expose them to a whole new set of challenges. This effort will be collaborative in every sense of the word."
"This is an exciting time in the university's history and this memorandum complements this excitement," said Hicks. "It adds a new dimension to the educational offerings and environment we attempt to provide for students and faculty. I am especially pleased at the student initiatives and the graduate opportunities and exchange programs that will be available to them. As we look forward to being a part of Nebraska's outstanding academic program, we are also eager to share the Grambling experience with Nebraska's students and faculty. At Grambling, we have a lot to offer that will ensure that this partnership will be professionally rewarding and culturally enriching for both universities."
Leitzel said she also is excited by the opportunities the agreement with Grambling can provide.
"We are especially pleased to be able to present to our students the perspectives that visiting faculty can bring to the university community," she said. "And we are excited that Grambling has chosen to work with us in this endeavor. Grambling has an outstanding academic reputation. Students and faculty at both institutions will be enriched by this experience."
The memorandum became effective Jan. 1 and will be in effect for five
years. The universities will make formal assessments of the memorandum at
the end of its second and fourth years.
By Mary Jane Bruce, News & Information
Stacked on the floor of Stephen Penrod's office at the UNL College of Law are copies of articles on the Oklahoma City bombing from three newspapers in Oklahoma and one in Denver. Information gleaned from the news reports was used when the psychology professor testified in Oklahoma City earlier this month at a hearing on whether to move the trial to a new jurisdiction.
Students recruited to help with the research project on pre-trial publicity poured through the four newspapers and systematically classified each paragraph of 1,600 articles. Penrod compared coverage of the bombing in Oklahoma to news accounts carried in the Colorado paper in areas such as details of the bombing, portrayals of victims and their families and the reporting of alleged evidence. He also studied statements made by government authority figures, including prosecutors.
"For example, we were looking for statements about seeking the death penalty in the case or on characteristics of the defendants," Penrod said. "Some of the more notable ones (used words like) 'monsters,' 'creeps,' that sort of thing."
Penrod said the differences in news reporting, coupled with other research he's done on pre-trial publicity, suggest the trial should be moved out of Oklahoma, even though the case has received substantial coverage all over the nation.
Penrod sat through two days of court proceedings and was the lead-off witness for the defense the third day, taking the stand for about two-and-a-half hours. He says the courtroom was packed with spectators, attorneys and state marshals, and described the atmosphere as tense, especially when a heated argument broke out between attorneys. Part of the time, Penrod sat at the defense table next to Timothy McVeigh, one of the defendants charged in the case. Penrod said McVeigh paid close attention to the proceedings, passing notes to his attorneys and asking to see Penrod's note pad.
Defense attorneys conducted their own public opinion surveys to demonstrate a difference in knowledge and pre-judgment about the defendants as a basis for arguing that the trial be moved. They looked to Penrod to draw a connection between survey data and the behavior of real jurors.
Other research Penrod has done includes jury simulation studies where mock juries are exposed to carefully controlled pre-trial publicity. His research was used to determine what types of publicity will influence jury decision-making even after jurors have heard the trial evidence, gone through deliberations or been told by a judge to ignore certain information not presented to them in the courtroom.
The experimental work Penrod has conducted involved relatively small amounts of pre-trial publicity compared with the Oklahoma City bombing, a case Penrod said has received more ink than the O.J. Simpson case prior to trial.
"I don't think, and I said this on the stand, that it would be possible to find a jurisdiction that is unaffected by pre-trial publicity," he said. "The best you can do is find a jurisdiction that minimizes those influences and maximizes the opportunities of the defendants to get a trial that's not influenced by things that have taken place outside the courtroom."
Penrod said the psychology of the courtroom is only part of the legal arena, where sound research can affect public policy and shed light on the behavior of witnesses, jurors and suspects. He said the change of venue trial is an example of how social science can produce evidence that can be used in court and can also inform policy makers about the way people make decisions.
Penrod comes to UNL from the University of Minnesota. He teaches
psychology classes on city campus and at the College of Law.
The essence of the firefly's glow is helping UNL researchers track a food poisoning culprits' potential hideouts in ground beef processing equipment.
Results provide scientific information small meat processors can use to guard against E. coli 0157:H7, the bacterium responsible for numerous serious food poisoning outbreaks nationwide, said Susan Sumner, the Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources food scientist who headed this research.
E coli 0157:H7 can be deadly even at low levels, but detecting minute contamination is difficult with conventional laboratory techniques. Sumner and graduate student Reann Panchev recently tracked low levels, thanks to some genetic borrowing.
They genetically inserted Luciferin DNA to the nasty strain of E. coli to mark the troublemaker's trail. Luciferin DNA is the molecular component of firefly luminescence, but the strain researchers used came from the laboratory, not fireflies themselves, Panchev said.
This modified E. coli doesn't visibly glow, but detection equipment reveals telltale luminescence that allows researchers to learn how and where it might grow or spread during processing.
"My goal was to mimic a small-scale commercial process," Sumner said. "I think it really worked for the applied research we wanted to do. we were able to look at and track the organism at realistic levels as it's going through the ground beef process."
Running meat inoculated with the modified organism through a laboratory meat grinder, researchers tested samples from different spots on equipment and evaluated commercial sanitizers and cleaning techniques.
The marker technique makes detection faster and easier. It reveals E. coli's presence in two hours instead of the two days needed for traditional lab tests. Most importantly, it detects significantly lower contamination levels. Researchers traditionally had to use higher levels of E. coli 0157:H7 for accurate results, but such levels aren't typically found in commercial operations.
This research tool is for laboratory, not commercial, use Sumner pointed out, but it's helping answer previously elusive, real-world questions about E. coli 0157:H7 and effective sanitation practices.
That's important because federal guidelines state that raw ground beef containing even minute levels E. coli 0157:H7 is adulterated and can't be sold to consumers. Sanitation is a major concern for meat processors, Sumner said, but there's been little scientific information on what works best.
Researchers identified key points in meat processing equipment where E. coli 0157:H7 tends to build up. They also gathered information about the most effective sanitizers and cleaning schedules.
Meat processing sanitation techniques vary greatly depending on the operation's size. These findings are most applicable to small processors because experiments were done on small, laboratory-scale equipment, Sumner said.
"Many meat processors already have an idea about problem areas," Panchev said. This research provides scientific evidence as industry prepares for new regulation.
"To a certain degree, we found that what most processors are doing is working pretty well," Sumner said.
E. coli 0157:H7 caused 32 food poisoning outbreaks nationwide between 1982 and 1993, 12 of which involved ground beef. Nationwide government surveys have found that less than 2 percent of ground beef contains the organism, Sumner said.
Proper cooking is consumers' best defense. Improper cooking after processing causes most ground beef-related E. coli 0157:H7 outbreaks, Sumner said, but processors want to assure the problem doesn't start in their plants.
Sumner will share her findings with small Nebraska meat processors during training session this spring though Cooperative Extension. She also plans to use the luminescent marker technique to further investigate how best to combat E. coli 0157:H7 in other processing situations.
UNL Veterinary Scientist Raul Barletta, who has worked extensively
with the Luciferin DNA, and Meat Scientist Roger Mandigo collaborated on
this IANR Agricultural Research Division project.
By Amy Cyphers, News & Information
If it seems to you that the weather in Nebraska has been unpredictable, inconsistent and just downright wacky this year, UNL climatologist Ken Dewey says you're not crazy -- but the weather most certainly is.
Last summer was unusually wet and cool before turning into weeks of scorching heatwaves. September brought 100-degree temperatures, as well as the earliest freeze on record.
And what about January? Temperatures in Lincoln, for example, plunged to minus 19 before soaring to 71 degrees -- all in less than a week. A veritable Whitman's Sampler of weather.
"I've been using the expression 'an atmosphere with a split personality,' and this has been our winter," Dewey said. "We've had prolonged periods of fog, prolonged periods of sun, cold, heat, wind. We've had everything but plagues of locust."
But even with these extreme conditions, Dewey said Nebraskans will be surprised to find out that this winter is averaging "normal."
"What is normal in a place like Nebraska anyway? This winter it's a normal made up of extremes," he said. "Nebraska certainly is a place of contrasts and this winter has been a winter of contrasts and ironically still averaging out near normal."
Dewey said that up until a couple of decades ago, Nebraska experienced traditional, predictable, seasonal conditions. But global warming has changed all that.
"You used to be able to count on the weather in Nebraska," he said. "And people could plan on it, whether it was Boys State, Girls State, whether it was the Oklahoma game, whether it was time to plant the crops, whether it was time for the State Fair, everybody kind of knew what the weather was going to be like. Well, all bets are off now with this increased variability, because it can practically do anything."
Dewey and most of his colleagues blame the Greenhouse Effect for the increased variability and severe weather conditions in Nebraska and around the world.
"Overall in the country, there has been an increase in severe weather. A dramatic increase. So as we look at the climate system, we see, pretty convincingly, that the climate is getting warmer," he said. "We see evidence of increased variability in such aspects as increased amount of severe weather across most of the U.S., the shifting of the seasons a little bit, the rapid changes in weather that we've had here in the Midlands in the last four or five years."
Dewey, a professor in the geography department, said the variability in the climate goes beyond Nebraska, beyond the Great Plains, beyond the United States, and beyond North America.
"All around the globe, the weather patterns seem to be extreme in their variation from season to season, month to month, week to week, day to day," said Dewey.
These changes in global weather, coupled with the extremes in Nebraska's "continental climate," will pose a lot of challenges for weather forecasters in the future.
As for the rest of us, it never hurts to keep a jacket -- or a parka
-- handy.
Early in 1995, the Business Services Advisory Council conducted a survey on how well the Business and Finance service units were meeting the needs of the university community.
In an effort to provide feedback regarding the survey, the committee has listed below some of the responses from the various service units to the questions and concerns raised by survey respondents. Subsequent editions of the Scarlet will cover the remaining questions.
If you have any additional questions about a specific service unit, contact the person listed for that particular area:
Two "quality improvement teams" (QITs) have been formed to look into all matters raised by the survey concerning Facilities Management areas. The two QITs are part of a larger Quality Program that is being developed within Facilities Management. The Chancellor's Quality Improvement Action Council has been instrumental in the formation of the Facilities Management Quality Program.
If you have questions concerning business service areas, please feel free to contact any one of the Business Services Advisory Council members listed below:
John Ballard, associate dean of engineering and technology, W181 NH
0501 (2-3181); Paul Carlson, associate vice chancellor for business and
finance, 210 Admin 0425 (2-4455); Lester A. Digman, professor of
management, 277 CBA 0491 (2-3364); Glenn Hoffman, professor of biological
systems engineering, 233 LWC 0726 (2-1413); Roger Mandigo, professor of
animal science, A213 AnS 0908 (2-6456); James P. O'Hanlon, dean of
Teachers College, 233 Mabl 0234 (2-5400); Pill-Soon Song, chair of
chemistry, 551 HaH 0304 (2-3501).
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For questions regarding these Scarlet pages, contact:
dtaurins@unlinfo.unl.edu
(402) 472-8518, Fax: (402) 472-7825