June 6, 1997


Moeser Elected Big 12 Secretary

James Moeser, chancellor of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, was elected secretary of the Big 12 Conference board of directors.

The board, composed of the chief executive officers of the Big 12 member institutions, elected Moeser to the one-year term at its spring meeting in Dallas in May.

Minority Purchasing Council Lauds University

The University of Nebraska-Lincoln has been honored by the Omaha Minority Purchasing Council for using minority businesses.

UNL received the 1997 Corporate Award Level B (500-2,499 employees) for "most minority businesses utilized" from the council in May. UNL received a similar award in 1995.

In addition, Bill Bode, materiel services administrator for the university's purchasing department, received the first Al Curtis Robinson Minority Business Advocate Award.

Robinson, chairman of the Omaha Minority Purchasing Council for the past five years, is a strong advocate for minority businesses. The Minority Business Enterprise Input Committee, composed of minority suppliers, created the award to honor a person who exemplified Robinson's philosophies.

Bode has been a member of the council, part of the Omaha Chamber of Commerce, since 1991 and has been a member of the council's executive board for the past three years. He said the council's goals are to expand business opportunities for minority-owned businesses and to foster business relationships between minority suppliers and the corporate community. The council also provides a way for participating firms to coordinate minority purchasing efforts.

Two Cited For Purchasing Activities

William Bode, materiel services administrator, and Roger Spiehs, senior buyer, both of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Purchasing Department recently received the 1997 National Association of Educational Buyers Distinguished Service Award during the annual meeting in Orlando, Fla.

The award recognized individuals who have provided extraordinary service to their institutions, the higher education community, the association or the purchasing profession.

Bode and Spiehs, along with Kerry Kahl, director of purchasing and stores for the University of Washington, received this award for their organization of the NAEB Athletic Purchasing Conference and Exposition later this summer in Seattle.

Sheldon Curator Receives National Award

Daniel Siedell, curator of the Sheldon Gallery at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, has been chosen as the 1997 American Association of Museums fellow.

Awarded annually to a museum curator who is beginning a professional curatorial career with collections and exhibitions responsibilities, the fellowship provides financial support for the curator to attend the American Association of Museums' annual meeting and serve as conference fellow.

Siedell attended the annual meeting April 26-30 in Atlanta, where he was honored by the association's curators committee, which made the selection.

Glider Honored For Best Faculty Web Site

William Glider, assistant professor and teaching lab coordinator in the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, was winner of a web site competition sponsored by the Northwest Center for Emerging Technologies.

Glider, who teaches who teaches Biology 101, won for his general biology web page, cited as the best web faculty-created web site entered in the competition. In addition to a study guide, practice exams and other materials specifically aimed at students in Biology 101, Glider's page also includes general interest sections that provide "cool facts" about biology, including articles and close-ups of microorganisms photographed in UNL's electron scanning microscope facility. There are also links to other biologically interesting sites such as UNL's Cedar Point Biological Field Laboratory and Ashfall State Park in Nebraska and the University of California-Berkeley Museum of Paleontology.

Professor Glider's Biology 101 Web Page can be visited by pointing your browser at http://www.unl.edu/wglider/.

Publications & Photography Garners National Award

UNL's Publications and Photography unit was recently awarded a silver medal in the CASE (Council for Advancement and Support of Education) national awards in the "Individual In-House Publications" category.

Those named on the award included Brett Dietrich, Sally Buchholz, Jean DeShazer, Bob Crisler, Kathleen Kramer and Tom Slocum.

Anderson Tabbed Assistant A.D. For Communications

University of Nebraska Sports Information Director Chris Anderson has been promoted to assistant athletics director for communications by Athletics Director Bill Byrne effective July 1.

Byrne said Anderson will oversee all athletics department publications and television productions, including HuskerVision, supervise the department's Internet offerings and assist with radio and television contracts. She will retain her duties as sports information director, coordinating publicity and publications for the university's 22 varsity sports. Anderson replaces Don Bryant, who retires as associate athletics director for public relations in July.

"Chris has done an outstanding job in all aspects of her duties as sports information director the last four years and she has earned a promotion like this," Byrne said. "She has had a chance to learn from one of the best in Don Bryant and with Don's retirement, this is a natural move for her and for Nebraska. She has done great work in sports information, HuskerVision and on the World Wide Web, and continues as a valued member of the department's senior administrative team. I'm excited about working even more closely with her in the future."

Anderson has been with the athletic department for 12 years, serving as sports information director for the past four. Under Anderson's direction, the 1993 Nebraska football media/recruiting guide and 1994 national championship poster were named "Best in the Nation" by the College Sports Information Director of America, and the 1996 football guide was runner-up. A 1983 Nebraska graduate, Anderson spent two years as an assistant sports information director at Kansas State before returning to her alma mater in 1986 to assume a similar position for the Huskers.

Cacak Elected NAFA Chair

J. Michael Cacak, director of Transportation Services, was recently elected chairperson of the Midwest chapter of the National Association of Fleet Administrators (NAFA). Cacak was elected in March and took office April 8 at NAFA's annual Fleet Management Institute in Montreal, Quebec.

NAFA is a professional association of private and public automotive fleet managers from the U.S. and Canada with membership of more than 3,000. Cacak's responsibilities as chapter chair are to direct the activities and meetings of the Midwest chapter and represent the chapter at the national level.

Ellen Russell Named Associate Director of NN-21

Ellen Russell of Lincoln has been named associate director of Nebraska Network-21, known as NN-21.

The project seeks to provide Nebraskans access to quality, affordable lifelong learning opportunities in the 21st century.

The University of Nebraska's Institute for Agriculture and Natural Resources coordinates NN-21. In 1996, IANR received a $1.5 million, five-year grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation of Battle Creek, Mich., to provide leadership for NN-21 in Nebraska.

NU's partners include the state's community colleges, K-12 agricultural education programs, food-related businesses and industries, plus other Nebraska colleges and universities.

Nebraska ETV Programs Receive Awards

Programs and series produced by the Nebraska ETV Network have won a number of prestigious awards recently.

"The Man Who Drew Bug-Eyed Monsters," a documentary about Hollywood poster artist (and Nebraska native) Reynold Brown, received a "Gold Apple" award from the National Educational Media Network on May 31 at the organization's annual award ceremony. The program was produced, written and directed by Mel Bucklin, now an associate producer-director in the UNL Television/Nebraska ETV Network Science, Outreach and Specials Unit. "The Man Who Drew Bug-Eyed Monsters" was an independent production that was partly funded by Bucklin's 1994 Open Call award. The documentary was broadcast on Nebraska ETV and presented nationally on PBS.

Also receiving an award from the National Educational Media Network is the Nebraska ETV Network production "Fate of the Plains." The documentary, about the future of the Great Plains region from the perspective of its people, was recognized with a "Silver Apple" award in the competition. "Fate of the Plains," produced by Christine Lesiak of the UNL Television/Nebraska ETV Network Cultural Affairs Unit, was also broadcast nationally by PBS.

Two Nebraska ETV programs received recognition at the annual Central Educational Network meeting in Baltimore. A CEN Program award for Cultural Performance was presented for Plains Voices: "Mirage," produced by Joel Geyer of the UNL Television/Nebraska ETV Network Cultural Affairs Unit. A CEN Honorable Mention in Public Affairs was presented to the Statewide series, produced by Bill Kelly of the UNL Television/Nebraska ETV Network Public Affairs Unit.

Students Score at Top of National Business Test

The College of Business Administration recently received the results of the Major Field Test in Business, which was administered to 21 graduating seniors. The average score put CBA in the 99th percentile on the national scale, in a comparison group of 44,000 undergraduates from 317 college and universities tested from 1993 to 1996.

Offered by the Educational Testing Service of Princeton, N.J., for use in assessment in higher education, the Major Field Test in Business measures student academic achievement in areas representative of undergraduate business education, specifically accounting, economics, management, quantitative business analysis, finance, marketing, legal and social environment and international issues. According to the test description, "The questions are designed to measure students' knowledge and ability to apply significant fact, concepts, theories and analytical methods. The questions represent a wide range of difficulty, and the test attempts to cover both depth and breath in assessing student's level of achievement."

The CBA students, who were tested on a voluntary basis, had an average grade-point average of 3.5 on a 4-point scale. For three of the 21 participants, English is a second language.

Jack Goebel, dean of the college, said, "The students in this sample include some of our best and brightest. It must be as pleasing to them as it is to our faculty to see their performance scored at such a high level."

Obituaries

Football Legacy Builder Bob Devaney Dies May 9

Bob Devaney, who built the University of Nebraska football team into a national powerhouse, died May 9 at his Lincoln home. He was 82.

Devaney came to the University of Nebraska in 1962 as head coach and immediately turned around the losing football program. He drove the Huskers to 11 straight winning seasons, topped by back-to-back national championships in 1970 and 1971. His teams won eight Big 8 championships, and held an unbeaten streak from 1969 to 1972 (32 games).

After retiring from coaching in 1972 with the winningest record among college football coaches, Devaney continued on at Nebraska as athletic director, overseeing a program that won national prominence in several men's and women's sports and guided efforts to overhaul the university's aging athletic facilities. He stepped down as full-time athletic director in 1993, but continued work as a fund-raiser with the title athletic director emeritus until July 1996.

He is survived by his wife, Phyllis; a son, Mike, of Rye, N.H.; a daughter, Pat, of Palo Alto, Calif.; and two grandchildren.

Groundbreaking Director of Continuing Education Dies

Gayle B. Childs, 89, died May 21 in Oklahoma City. Childs was the retired director of Department of Continuing Education and former professor of secondary education at the University. After retirement, Childs received a Fulbright grant to establish correspondence education at Haile Selassie University, Ethiopia. Monty McMahon, director of the Department of Distance Education, writes of Childs:

"He is acknowledged as 'the father' of correspondence study in the U.S. He was also a scholar in the field, conducting research and writing many articles about the profession. He was my mentor in many ways as he was to others in the field nationally. The University Continuing Education Association Division of Independent Study established its highest award to professionals in the field in the early 1970s and named it the Gayle B. Childs Award.

"He really is the one who established Independent Study at UNL as a viable and respected educational option by his commitment and dedication to the distant student, his insistence on quality, and his highly respected scholarly skills and credentials. It has been and will continue to be the task of we who follow him to maintain what he began."

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