April 25, 1997



New Digs

The Nebraska Union Ballroom is serving as a tempory home to union administrative offices as extensive renovation continues on the building. The offices are expected to relocate to new spaces in the building in about a year (Photo by Richard Wright)


Authors Discover, Tell Story of Nebraska

Imagine taking a tour of Nebraska without leaving the classroom. That's what two instructors with the Center for Curriculum and Instruction envisioned when they penned a new social studies text for middle level students.

After more than two years, associate professors Bill Sesow and Susan Wunder are putting the finishing touches on a textbook to be published by the Instructional Materials Council for this fall. With more than 200 photographs, 15 maps and five graphs, Sesow said he and Wunder tried to create a book middle level students could identify with.

The title? "You know, it's difficult for me to take two years of work and condense it into four or nine words," said Wunder. So they settled on just three: Journey Through Nebraska.

What Sesow and Wunder describe as a tour of Nebraska is divided into two sections. The first introduces students to Nebraska's geography, history, economy and government.
"We've taken a very broad view of social studies," Wunder said. "Beyond history and geography, which are key, we've added a great deal of cultural study, civics, literature, music and art."

The second section of the text explores seven distinct regions of Nebraska from the Panhandle and the southwest, through the central and north central, to the eastern areas from north to south.

"One of the highlights is that we use celebrations the students can identify with to introduce each region," Sesow said. "For example, the chapter on north central Nebraska opens with the Burwell Rodeo."

Each region is closely examined, including topography, history and economy. Students share the authors' discoveries of how towns got their names, notable Nebraskans who live or lived there and must-see sites.

"The most exciting thing for me is what I learned about Nebraska," Wunder said. "The experience has made me want to go everywhere and meet everyone."

"I think it was Harry Truman who said he didn't have much use for a man who didn't know about his own home or his own roots," Sesow said. "I think it's extremely important for Nebraska students to know about their state and take pride in their state."

After more than two years of research and travel, what do the authors think makes Nebraska unique? They agree it's Nebraskans.

"We don't have enormous amounts of underground resources, with the exception of water," Wunder said. "So our energies have gone into developing people as resources. That's what makes Nebraska very unique and very special."

- Valerie Marino

A Pattern Develops

Jester's Plume, circa 1850, is among a collection of approximately 950 antique and contemporary art quilts valued at more than $6 million that will be donated to the University of Nebraska by Ardis and Robert James of Chappaqua, N.Y.


University New Home of Noted Quilt Collection

A collection of approximately 950 antique and contemporary art quilts valued at more than $6 million will be donated to the University of Nebraska by Ardis and Robert James of Chappaqua, N.Y. The former Nebraskans also plan to give a $1 million endowed gift to establish an International Quilt Study Center, NU Foundation officials announced April 24.

The foundation will seek an additional $2 million to support the development of the International Quilt Study Center at the university, said Terry Fairfield, president of the NU Foundation. The money will support research, exhibitions, acquisition and conservation of both antique and contemporary art quilts.

The James Collection is one of the largest and most comprehensive collections of quilts in existence and features handmade quilts dating from 1750 to 1992 from the United States, Europe and Japan.

The James Collection is considered particularly noteworthy because it includes both antique quilts and some of the best present-day art quilts. The Jameses say they have been seekers of the uncommon.

The quilts will be boxed and shipped to Lincoln by mid-June and the first showing of the quilts will be a sampling of 20 to 30 to be displayed at the Great Plains Art Collection Gallery in Love Library.

The UNL department of textiles, clothing and design will coordinate the exhibitions and maintain the quilt collection in state-of-the-art storage facilities with environmental controls on East Campus. Patricia Cox Crews will be the first director of the International Quilt Study.

- Peggy Strain

Science Is Everywhere at State Museum

The University of Nebraska State Museum will celebrate Astronomy Day and National Science and Technology Week with "Science is Everywhere!" from 1:30-5 p.m. April 27 at the museum.
Scientists, artists and amateur astronomers Nebraska will be at the State Museum in Morrill Hall. They will conduct activities and experiments, exhibit their art, share their expertise and love of their hobbies and explore what really happened to the dinosaurs.

Visitors will learn they can find radiation in everyday objects, watch earthworm recyclers, find out what causes explosions and measure earthquakes. ScienceWorks graduate students will be on hand to prove that you can have fun with physics. Nebraska's wetlands will be simulated and visitors can explore this rare habitat's insect population.

The Nebraska Game and Parks Commission's 20th annual habitat stamp art contest will be on exhibit at the museum. The 72 paintings in the traveling exhibit are the winners, runners-up, honorable mentions and meritorious entries from the children's divisions of this year's contest.

The Prairie Astronomy Club will celebrate Astronomy Day at the Ralph Mueller Planetarium, where members will share experiences, expertise and telescopes. There will be displays and exhibits, including a demonstration of the Internet, the latest photos of Comet Hale-Bopp from observers all over the world and computer simulations of astronomical phenomena. The NASA Regional Teacher Resource Center will be open for teachers to copy space videos and materials. The planetarium will present "Comets Are Coming" at 2 p.m. and a laser show, "The Music of Enya," at 3:30.

At 4 p.m., UNL geologists Mary Anne Holmes and David Watkins will present their recent findings and the best evidence to date that a huge asteroid smashed into the earth 65 million years ago and killed the dinosaurs. Join them in the museum auditorium for "Apocalypse Past: The Asteroid Impact That Ended the Age of Dinosaurs."

Lincoln Hosting International Survey Symposium

The world's leading experts on polling and survey research have gathered this week for a major symposium, "Survey Research, Democracy and Democratization," at the Gallup International Research Education Center in Lincoln. The symposium is sponsored by the UNL-Gallup Research Center at UNL and the World Association for Public Opinion Research.

The symposium, the first of its kind in the world since 1980, will address the role of surveys and public opinion polling in emerging and established democracies. Seymour Martin Lipset, the Hazel Professor of Public Policy at the Institute of Public Policy of George Mason University and one of North America's leading authorities on social and political life, is the featured speaker at an April 26 banquet at the Cornhusker Hotel. His talk is titled "Survey Research and Democracy."

A number of international survey research scholars are making presentations at the conference. Erwin Scheuch, president of the International Institute of Sociology and an emeritus professor of sociology at the University of Cologne, Germany, played a central role in gauging the political and social transformations in Germany after World War II. He will discuss the use of surveys in political life.

Participants in the symposium include past presidents of the world association and directors of the CBS and Los Angeles Times polls.

Allan McCutcheon, director of the Gallup Research Center and UNL professor of sociology, says the symposium comes at a crucial time in the history of survey research.

"Surveys are becoming features of all modern democracies," he said. "Every major Western and Eastern democracy is starting to address issues related to polling and surveying."

Acclaimed Fields Medalist Inaugurates Rowlee Lectures

Efim Zelmanov, professor of mathematics at Yale University and holder of a Fields Medal, will give the inaugural presentations in a new lecture series at UNL.

Zelmanov, who is known for his major breakthroughs in modern algebra, will inaugurate the Howard Rowlee Lecture Series with lectures April 29 and 30. Zelmanov will present the first lecture, "What Makes a Group Infinite?" at 4 p.m. April 29 in the Bessey Hall auditorium. It will be preceded by a reception at 3:15 p.m. in 108 Bessey. He will give the second talk, "On Growth of Algebras," at 4 p.m. April 30 in 307 Oldfather Hall. Refreshments will be served at 3:15 p.m. in 807 Oldfather. Both lectures are free and open to the public.

Zelmanov obtained his graduate education at the Mathematics Institute in Novosibirsk in the former Soviet Union, writing a dissertation that solved long-standing problems in the area of Jordan algebras. It represented a major contribution to mathematics and a major breakthrough in the field, according to John Meakin, Milton Mohr Professor of Mathematics and Statistics at UNL. But Zelmanov's dissertation was not approved when he first defended it because he is Jewish. The denial of his work led to an uproar in Russia's scientific community and he was allowed to defend his thesis a second time in 1981, when it was approved.

In 1994 he received a Fields Medal - the mathematical equivalent of the Nobel Prize - for his seminal contributions to group theory. "Professor Zelmanov is in heavy demand as a speaker at many universities and major conferences around the world," Meakin said. "He is one of the most important mathematicians of the 20th century."

A workshop in geometric group theory will be held in conjunction with the lectures. The workshop is free and open to the public. The lectures and workshop are supported by the discrete and experimental mathematics program and the department of mathematics and statistics at UNL.

- Deborah Eisloeffel

Global View

Good Preparation Key to Fulbright Grant

Catherine Daly has been working with women in Afghan refugee communities in Nebraska, but she wanted to extend her research to women in central Asia. Fernando Osorio taught a course on bovine diseases in Brazil in 1993, but he needed funding to provide a hands-on lab for his students there.

Like most UNL faculty, these individuals have the qualifications and expertise to conduct academic work abroad. Now, thanks to their recent selection as Fulbright scholars, they also have the opportunity.

"The Fulbright is one of the most well-known programs that supports international teaching and research," said Daly, assistant professor in textiles, clothing and design. She attended an International Affairs-sponsored seminar on the Fulbright Scholars Program in last spring and went on to write her grant proposal. Her Fulbright will take her to Pakistan, where the majority of Afghan refugees are located.

Like three quarters of the Fulbrights awarded to American faculty and professionals each year, her four-month experience includes a lecture component as well as research. Daly will teach at the National University of Art in Lahore.

Some Fulbright grants are awarded for teaching only. Osorio, associate professor of veterinary sciences, will conduct a laboratory class on differential diagnoses at the Universidad Federal de Santa Maria in southern Brazil.

"The Fulbright will allow me to teach a course on diseases that can be mistaken for bovine foot and mouth disease," Osorio said. The training of select students throughout South America will help equip the region to achieve the international goal of eliminating foot and mouth disease.

About one-fourth of the Fulbrights awarded each year are strictly research grants. John DeFrain, professor of family and consumer sciences, studied families in Fiji during his Fulbright experience. He found the basic qualities of strong family structures there to be very similar to those he had identified in his research on U.S. families.

"My proposed research and background was what they needed; no studies like this had been done there," DeFrain said. "They can use the conclusions from my work to structure family programs throughout Fiji."

Some Fulbright scholars also establish contacts with individuals or departments at the host institutions.

"You have no chance if you don't have solid support from people where you go," DeFrain said. He encourages applicants to develop a relationship with their prospective sponsors.

"I think my selection had a lot to do with who I chose to support my credentials, and how I presented those credentials," said Daly. She had several colleagues review her application, including Joseph Stimpfl, assistant dean of International Affairs and the UNL Fulbright Program administrator.

"His anthropology background helps - he knows the human side you should emphasize, how to make your research sound seductive to the Fulbright committee," Daly said.

International Affairs will conduct a seminar on how to apply to the Fulbright Scholars Program at noon May 8 in the Nebraska Union. All faculty are welcome. Call International Affairs at 472-5358 for a reservation.
- Lindsey Smith

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