Twenty-seven University of Nebraska faculty members will receive awards for outstanding teaching, student advising or service, and more than 3,000 students will be recognized for outstanding scholarship at the 70th annual All-University Honors Convocation at 3:30 p.m. April 3 in the Coliseum.
Fourteen seniors will be honored as Chancellor's Scholars for earning A's on all of their graded work at the university and at all other post secondary institutions they attended during their academic careers. In addition, 332 seniors will be honored as Superior Scholars for being in the upper 3 percent of their colleges, or for being on the honors list since their matriculation as freshmen, and 3,130 undergraduates will be honored as High Scholars for having cumulative grade point averages of 3.6 or higher.
The following faculty members will also receive awards:
Alvah M. Kilgore, professor of educational administration and curriculum and instruction, and Ann Mari May, associate professor of economics, will be named to the Academy of Distinguished Teachers. Both will have a $1,000 stipend permanently added to their base salary as long as they remain members of the faculty.
Grace Bauer, assistant professor of English, will receive the Annis Chaikin Sorensen Award for distinguished teaching in the humanities. She will receive a $1,500 cash award, provided by the Sorensen family.
The following faculty members will receive Distinguished Teaching Awards from their colleges. Each recipient will receive a $1,000 cash award, provided by the Nebraska Legislature.
Beverly Benes, assistant professor of nutritional science and dietetics; Jessica Coope, associate professor of history; John W. Creswell, professor of educational psychology; Martin R. Gardner, Steinhart Foundation college professor of law; Heidi M. Inderbitzen-Nolan, associate professor of psychology; Kenneth A. Kiewra, professor of educational psychology; W. Max Kirk, associate professor of construction management; Dennis McCallister, associate professor of agronomy; Brent B. Nickol, professor of biological sciences; Jody Redepenning, associate professor of chemistry; Albert Rometo, professor of music; Paul Shoemaker, Nebraska Society of CPA's college professor of accountancy; Kevin B. Smith, assistant professor of political science; and Gregory R. Snow, associate professor of physics.
Donald J. Lee, associate professor of agronomy, and Lowell E. Moser, Sunkist Fiesta Bowl professor of agronomy, will receive the Student Foundation/Builders Award for Outstanding Advising. Both will receive a $750 cash award, provided by the University of Nebraska Foundation.
Donald H. Steinegger, professor of horticulture, will receive the Distinguished Educational Service Award. He will receive a $1,500 cash award, provided by the University of Nebraska Foundation.
Robert F. Bergstrom, associate professor of English, will receive the Chancellor's Exemplary Service to Students Award. He will receive a $1,000 cash award, provided by the University of Nebraska Foundation.
Esther Cope, professor emeritus of history, will receive the George Howard-Louise Pound Award for exceptional contributions through teaching, research, public service and administration. She will receive a sculpture by artist Sydney Lynch.
The following faculty members will be recognized for receiving University of Nebraska systemwide awards:
R.L. Pardy, professor of biological sciences, and May will be recognized for receiving Outstanding Teaching and Instructional Activity awards. John Janovy Jr., Paula and D.B. Varner distinguished professor of biological sciences, and Karen S. Kunc, associate professor of art, will be recognized for receiving Outstanding Research and Creative Activity awards. The Department of Mathematics and Statistics will be recognized for receiving the Universitywide Departmental Teaching Award. The University of Nebraska central administration will also honor these award winners at separate events during the spring semester.
-Karen Hart Underwood, Public Relations
Gwendolyn Foster's latest project looks at minority female filmmakers. (Photo: Richard Wright)
makers Subject of Latest Foster
EffortThe struggles of black and Asian female filmmakers pushing to bring their projects to an audience are examined in the most recent book by Gwendolyn Foster, assistant professor of English at the University of Nebraska.
"Women Filmmakers of the African and Asian Diaspora: Decolonizing the Gaze, Locating Subjectivity" is the first book-length study of black and Asian women directors, a limited group virtually ignored by mainstream cinema.
In the book, published last fall by Southern Illinois University Press, Foster explores the work of six successful African-American and Indian female directors. It is an offshoot of her earlier work on a 1991 documentary called "Women Who Made the Movies" and an encyclopedia of women directors in 1995.
While researching those projects, Foster discovered women filmmakers of color dealt with issues unique to them. Such women, she found, had exceptional trouble funding their films and getting them to an audience. Because of these obstacles, talented and potentially powerful voices are being overlooked in the cinematic arts.
"It's important that stories that haven't been told, get told," Foster said. "And that they get told by the people who know them best, who are closest to them."
Many of these stories, Foster noted, focus on exploring African-American roots and reviving forgotten histories.
"There's an interest in maintaining ties to history and finding that which is lost," she said. "There's also a tendency to look at things that are repressed by mainstream society, things that are not talked about, things that are taboo," such as interracial marriage and interracial sexuality.
Despite critical acclaim and success at prestigious film festivals, none of Foster's subjects have become household names. For many complex reasons - racism and sexism chief among them - these women haven't had the breaks of their male counterparts, she said.
Both Spike Lee and Jon Singleton, for example, made one movie that got the attention of Hollywood producers. Name recognition and multipicture deals soon followed. Despite the critical acclaim that women such as Julie Dash have received, such good fortune has not befallen black women directors, Foster said. But there is some hope on the horizon.
While not behind the camera, black and Asian female directors are working behind the scenes, making small inroads as producers, executive producers and distributors. And they're pushing to make films that appeal to a female audience, especially women of color, she said.
"The thing that encourages me most is that women are moving into the executive production positions (in Hollywood)," she said. "If you have women in place there, whether they're of color or not, it really changes what gets the OK (for financing), what gets a chance for distribution, what gets a chance at the film festivals, and ultimately what stories get to be told."
In her two years of researching for the book, Foster said she was amazed by her subjects' determination to bring their cinematic visions to the screen. Undaunted by continual setbacks, these women forged past racism and sexism in the industry to tell their stories and complete their projects.
"You have to be utterly driven as a director, but insanely driven as a woman of color," she explained. "To hang in there and get the money to make your film and then to get it distributed is an extraordinarily difficult process."
Foster is "thrilled" by the success of "Women Filmmakers of the African and Asian Diaspora: Decolonizing the Gaze, Locating Subjectivity." Now in its second reprinting, the book has been nominated for a Theater Library Association Book Award, and feedback from from critics, academics and the subjects has been "appreciative and excited," she said.
Foster's next project will be a study of American cinema's preoccupation with whiteness. "By not looking at whiteness," she said, "we've missed opportunities to look at race and racism in different ways."
-Amy Cyphers, Public Relations
A new bachelor of science program in architectural engineering based in Omaha, recently approved by the Nebraska Coordinating Commission for Postsecondary Education, will graduate students to enter a growing profession that understands how modern buildings - and architects - work.
The program is one of only 14 such degree programs in the United States. The degree was designed to meet the need for building-related engineers in the Omaha area. Program graduates typically become registered engineers employed by building design and construction firms. Demand for program graduates is expected to be strong, according to Paul Seaburg, associate dean of the College of Engineering and Technology's Omaha campus. Three Omaha firms - Leo Daly, DLR Group and HDR - rank among the top 12 U.S. architecture/engineering firms.
"I am told there are more architectural engineers per square foot in western Omaha than there are in downtown New York City," Seaburg says. "These Omaha firms hire graduates from as far off as Penn State. We need to help them."
The degree program includes a three-semester course sequence in architectural design offered through the College of Architecture. Engineering courses comprise the majority of the 134 credit hour program. Students will develop a specialized design capability in either building structural or mechanical/electrical systems, along with an understanding of the function of all engineered building components. The program is part of the expanded offerings at the Peter Kiewit Institute of Information Science, Technology and Engineering,
Grenville Yuill, program director, joined the NU faculty on March 1 from the top-ranked architectural engineering department at Penn State University. He says many people, even within the engineering profession, are not familiar with architectural engineering.
Architectural engineers work with architects on the engineering design of the structural support system, the mechanical systems that heat, cool and ventilate buildings, and electrical distribution systems critical to the productivity of building occupants. The process of designing a building, Yuill says, means that economics, aesthetics, functionality, environmental and safety issues and other factors must be considered.
"Modern buildings are complex integrated systems with many components. An efficient budding should be designed from a total systems standpoint, considering the culture of the building itself."
Since coming to Nebraska, Yuill has hit the ground running to build what he hopes will become one of the nation's best architectural engineering programs. Yuill has held faculty positions at Penn State University and the University of Manitoba. A native of Winnipeg, he earned a Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota and a graduate diploma in business administration from the London School of Economics. He is a Fellow of the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air Conditioning Engineers, and a former member of the National Research Council of Canada.
Yuill speaks enthusiastically about the benefits of the program for prospective students seeking breadth and depth in their education. Job opportunities are "fantastic" for program graduates, he says. "Students can pick and choose the kind of firm they want to work for and the location they want to be in."
Yearly enrollment is expected to grow to40 or more, according to Yuill. He is aggressively recruiting first and second year students for classes, beginning this fall, including his son, who is considering a transfer from Penn State's architectural engineering program.
Yuill is optimistic about the future of NU's program. "We are starting from scratch but with knowledge of what others have done. There's no reason we can't do better."
- Deborah Derrick, Engineering and Technology
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