October 10, 1997

Well Worth It? Deb Vocasek, CMA, left, inoculates Paul Thomson against the flu at the East Campus Union Wednesday. The University Health Center offers flu shots to faculty, staff and students for $8 as part of the Well Worth It program. For more information about when flu shots are available, call the health center at 472-7414. (Photo by Richard Wright)

UNL Garners High Marks in NCA Report

The University of Nebraska-Lincoln has been recommended for reaccreditation by an evaluation team from the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools.

The team report and recommendation is the first step in the evaluation process. The report now will be forwarded to a readers panel selected by NCA. Final approval will be in the hands of NCA's Commission on Institutions of Higher Education.

"We are delighted with the very favorable report we received from the evaluation team," said Nebraska Chancellor James Moeser. "The report underscores the fact that the university is moving in the right direction."

The evaluation team's report commended the university for its undergraduate programs, particularly for the Honors Program, which it said "is a strength of UNL. This is an important tool for recruiting and retaining highly talented students"; the Academy of Distinguished Teachers, which recognizes the university's top classroom teachers; the Comprehensive Education Program, designed to provide undergraduate students with competence in a wide range of subjects; and the Teaching and Learning Center, which supports the faculty with a variety of services.

"These diverse examples highlight the fact that provision of excellent undergraduate programs has been identified as a high priority for UNL as well as the university's strong research, graduate teaching and outreach programs," the report said.

In the area of research, the report commended the university both for its achievement of Research I status and for the significant contributions its research has made to the state. For example, more than 80 percent of the wheat acreage in Nebraska is planted in varieties developed by UNL scientists. "These improved varieties add an estimated $50 million to the state's revenues annually," the report said.

Other highlights from the report:

• "The evidence . . . indicates that financial resources are well managed."
• "The physical plant at UNL is impressive and clearly enables the institution to carry out its mission," but "as is the case at many institutions of higher education, a major facilities problem is deferred maintenance."
• "A strength . . . is the apparent fluidity of organization uncharacteristic of some large public universities. Programs can be developed fairly easily across college lines and faculty are able to work cooperatively across disciplinary and departmental lines."
• "The library can be counted as a strength of the institution. UNL provides its scholars a major research library which is also open to all residents of the state," but "like many research libraries today, the library has significant problems especially with respect to space and acquisitions."
• "The University of Nebraska State Museum (is) an outstanding facility for university teaching and research (and) an educational asset for thousands of school children and citizens."
• "UNL is . . . a leader in the use of telecommunications and electronic technology for instructional purposes."
• The report noted "the generally high morale of the faculty and its commitment to the institution" and reported undergraduate students who were "generally pleased with their academic and social lives and very committed to the institution."

The report said Nebraska has satisfactorily addressed many of the issues that were raised in its previous accreditation review in 1987, citing its achievement of Research I status, reflecting "a new level of research effort for the university," technological improvements in the library system, expansion of the Honors Program; and significant improvements in faculty salaries made by the Nebraska Legislature in the late 1980s and early 1990s. However, the report said, the salary advantage "has eroded each year since 1992-93." As a result, "there are some problems in retaining highly productive senior faculty, especially at the associate professor level."

The report also took note of the evaluation team members' conversations with some female faculty and staff who contended that the university does not have strong commitment to gender equity. While urging the university to increase its efforts to provide opportunities for all qualified persons and to be sensitive to the needs of women on campus, the team also also noted that Nebraska has made some progress in increasing the percentage of women faculty.

The team's report was submitted prior to Moeser's announcement of the university's budget reallocation plan, which enhanced diversity programs by more than $700,000. Included in that reallocation was $400,000 for a "Targets of Opportunity Fund" designed to recruit and hire talented faculty of color and senior women. It also was submitted prior to Moeser's appointment of two representatives to be responsible and accountable for progress on gender equity goals approved in 1991 by the NU Board of Regents.

Nebraska was first accredited by NCA in 1913. Its last previous comprehensive review was in 1986-87.

- Tom Simons

Currin, Jacobson to Monitor Equity Efforts Following recommendations to promote gender equity at the University of Nebraska, two representatives have been named to oversee improvements efforts on the Lincoln campus. Bruce Currin, director of human resources, and Evelyn Jacobson, associate vice chancellor for academic affairs, will be responsible and accountable for progress on gender equity goals approved in 1991 by the NU board of regents. The "Gender Equity Goals and Strategies" document was designed in 1991 to advance the NU system to a "position of leadership among similarly situated institutions." In February, NU President Dennis Smith appointed a Gender Equity Task Force to review the goals and strategies set forth in 1991. The task force presented its report Aug. 25. In it, the group recommended each campus appoint at least one person to be responsible and accountable for progress in gender equity goals. UNL Chancellor James Moeser designated Currin to manage gender equity issues for staff and Jacobson to manage those for faculty. "I do not expect Bruce and Evelyn to handle this task single-handedly, but to undertake the responsibility to see that all persons in their line of authority do all they can to realize the goals that have been set before us," he said. The chancellor has asked for comprehensive reports from Currin and Jacobson when the fiscal year ends next June and each subsequent year as activities at the Lincoln campus are undertaken to reach the goals set forth by the board. "I believe the designation of persons accountable and responsible for gender equity was a sound recommendation," Moeser said. "By making these appointments, along with other initiatives such as our targets of opportunity fund, I'm confident that we're better positioned to accomplish the task set before us by the regents." - Jim Ballard

Currin Jacobson

Agricultural economics professor Bruce Johnson works out Wednesday in the East Campus Recreation Center. Although experts agree that regular exercise is a key component to a healthy lifestyle, IANR researchers are exploring the unhealthy phenomenon of exercise dependence. (Photo by Richard Wright)

NU Team Develops Exercise Dependency Questionnaire

Almost everyone is familiar with the tragedies of people whose lives are controlled by drug, alcohol, food and gambling dependencies.

University of Nebraska researchers are studying another problem with equally damaging possibilities - exercise dependence.

"Too much of anything can be bad," said Nancy Betts, NU nutrition scientist. "Exercise is healthy, but when exercise gets in the way of other activities, assessment is needed."

Betts and graduate students worked over several years to develop the Exercise Habits Inventory, a questionnaire to identify possible cases of exercise dependence syndrome and to determine how exercise and eating disorders are related.

The term "exercise dependence" was coined in 1987 by D.M.W. De Coverley Veale, a professor at London's Royal Free Hospital, Betts said.

Although a clear definition still is being debated, exercise dependence can be identified through a set of diagnostic criteria outlined by De Coverley Veale, she said. Criteria include repeating a pattern of daily exercise, increasing level of priority assigned to exercise, increasing tolerance to the amount of exercise performed over time, experiencing withdrawal symptoms when exercise is stopped, easing withdrawal symptoms when exercise begins again and speeding to re-start exercise after a period of abstinence, she said.

Young people seem to be the most susceptible to this dependency, Betts said. Although the proportion of people who abuse exercise is small, it does seem to be increasing.

Betts and her students began testing the inventory's validity in 1993.

"We need repeated testing that shows questions are answered similarly across different types of characteristics," Betts said. "People who exercise more should have a different score than people who exercise less."

Responses that indicate someone would give up a relationship, refuse a career move or ignore a doctor's warning to reduce exercise could signal a problem, Betts said.

In 1995, about 350 UNL students in introductory nutrition classes volunteered to help test the inventory's strength, Betts said. Results supported its validity.

"We found the questions regarding weight loss and weight control were answered differently among men and women," Betts said. Women tended to exercise to reduce weight while men were more focused on improving performance.

"When we've done the eating attitudes test along with the exercise dependence inventory, we find a strong correlation between eating habits and exercise dependence," Betts said.

Another test of the Exercise Dependence Inventory mailed nationally resulted in a 500- to 600-person sample of mainly older adults, Betts said. These showed a different focus on exercise.

"We think older adults exercise to promote health rather than for performance or to lose weight, unless they see weight loss as a way to improve health," she said.

The Exercise Habits Inventory is modeled after a survey created in 1979 at the University of Toronto to identify eating disorders, the NU College of Human Resources and Family Sciences researcher said. Currently, no blood or other physiological markers exist to diagnose exercise dependency, so Betts' survey attempts to match people's habits with De Coverley Veale's criteria.

An exercise dependence syndrome has been proposed to the scientific community, but is not yet accepted, Betts said. Some scientists believe exercise dependence is merely the symptom of another problem such as eating disorders like anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa.

"If so, at least this exercise habits survey is not a bad thing to feel out," Betts said, explaining that most people view exercise as a positive habit and eating disorders as a negative habit. "It's pretty positive to exercise and it's pretty negative to admit you throw-up after eating."

Completing the inventory takes about 20 minutes and requires the respondent to compare the importance of several activities to exercise. At this point, exercise dependency is determined based on the number of hours people exercise per week. Completed questionnaires also are put through a factor analysis test that groups questions based on the diagnostic criteria.

The inventory must undergo scientific review before it could be accepted as a valid instrument for determining exercise dependence, Betts said. It's currently being used in exercise dependence studies at the University of Maine and Arizona State University. Future research is needed to assign a point system to the criteria to help further identify dependencies.

"We still have a lot of work to do," Betts said. "But the only way we're going to find out if there's a syndrome or not is to use the survey."

Betts' research is conducted in cooperation with the Agricultural Research Division of NU's Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources.

- Tess Bresley, IANR News Assistant

Proposal Assistants Offer Writing, Editing Help on Grants

Three proposal writer assistants have been hired by the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research to help improve grant proposals. Mike Zeleny, director of research finance and operations, said the university is joining a national trend of universities with proposal preparation services.

The university's goal is to increase the amount of external funding won by researchers, Zeleny said. One way to do that might be to improve the writing and presentation quality of the grants, he said.

Faculty will write their actual proposals, he said, and then one of the proposal assistants will edit and review them, not unlike reviews undertaken at a granting agency, Zeleny said. While the proposal assistants will not be assessing the proposal for scientific merit, they will check grammar, punctuation and spelling; suggest word changes for clarity; and help with the visual appeal of the proposal itself.

The assistants, who have been hired as "on-call" employees of the

university, will have an office in 206 Whittier (phone 472-2838). They will work under the direction of Don Helmuth, associate vice chancellor for research. They will work on a first-come, first-served basis for all faculty, Zeleny said, and will not be assigned to assist particular individuals or colleges. The proposal writer assistants can be contacted directly or faculty may contact Helmuth (2-2851).

Funding for the positions has come from the Office of the Chancellor, Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research, the colleges of arts and sciences, engineering and technology, and business administration as well as IANR.

The assistants are Anne Nation, Monica Norby and Marla Rohrke.

Nation, a 1974 graduate of Doane College with a B.A. in history, has done graduate work in continuing education and computer science. She has extensive experience in grantwriting, particularly in the areas of human service needs and nonprofit agencies and has worked since 1985 as a freelance writer, editor and consultant.

Norby, who has earned bachelor's and master's degrees in horticulture from UNL, has worked since 1988 as an independent contractor and freelance writer/editor. Among her clients are IANR's Communications and Technology office, the University of Nebraska State Museum and the Department of Landscape Services. She is a founding member of UNL Garden Friends.

Rohrke earned a B.S. in zoology from UNL in 1973 and a master's in journalism in August 1997. She has done research work for the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission, worked for the Lower Elkhorn Natural Resources District and was a graduate assistant for both the College of Human Resources and Family Sciences and the College of Journalism and Mass Communication. She was a teacher of biology, chemistry and physics for nearly 13 years before joining the Game and Parks Commission in 1986.

- Kim Hachiya

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