Gwendolyn Audrey Foster, assistant professor of English, has been awarded the Emerging Scholar Award by the American Association of University Women
AAUW is an organization dedicated to the recognition of excellence in achievement by women in academe. This coveted annual award recognizes the early professional achievement of a nontenured woman scholar who has a record of exceptional early accomplishments and who shows promise of future distinction.
Selection is based on demonstrated excellence in teaching, a documented and active research record, evidence of mentoring female students, and evidence of potentially significant contribution to the recipient's field of study. Past recipients include Donna Shalala, former chancellor of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and currently U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services.
Foster's expertise lies in film studies. She is author of Women Film Directors: An International Bio-Critical Dictionary (1995) and Women Filmmakers of the African and Asian Diaspora (1997).
She is also the writer and director of The Women Who Made the Movies, a 1992 video documentary of the work of early women film directors.
Foster teaches a wide variety of film and English courses, including a course on women filmmakers.
Foster will travel to Washington, D.C., in June to lecture and to recieve the award of$5,000 at the International Women's Leadership Conference, sponsored by the AAUW.
Alan Seagren, professor of educational administration and curriculum and instruction at the University of Nebraska, has received the 1998 Excellence and Leadership Award from the Chair Academy, an organization that provides training for organizational leaders in the United States and throughout the world.
Seagren, who has been on the Nebraska Teachers College faculty since 1963, was honored for his foresight in the design and implementation of graduate credit programs for the Institute for Leadership Training and Development and for contributions to the International Leadership Conference and Academic Leadership Journal.
Ornithologist Paul A. Johnsgard has published yet another book, this one Baby Bird Portraits by George Miksch Sutton: Watercolors in the Field Museum.
The 96-page book from the University of Oklahoma Press includes 35 color illustrations by Sutton, who was fond of painting young birds from life and of recording their developmental changes.
In his introduction to the collection, Johnsgard discusses Sutton's contributions to bird art and to ornithology. In essays accompanying the paintings, Johnsgard describes his and Sutton's personal encounters with the birds.
Johnsgard is Foundation Professor in the School of Biological Sciences.
Rodney J. Soukup, chair of the Department of Electrical Engineering, has received the National Electrical Engineering Department Heads Association Outstanding Service Award.
The award was presented to Soukup March 16 in Hawaii at the association's 14th annual conference. The annual award goes to an individual with a sustained record of service to the association and to electrical and computer engineering. Soukup is the ninth person to receive the award and the first person to receive it while still a department chair or head.
The award committee chair said Soukup had played a significant role in establishing and maintaining NEEDHA.
The associate director of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln's center for geographic information systems and remote sensing has been honored by the Association of American Geographers, the nation's most prestigious professional society for geographers.
Jim Merchant, research geographer with the Center for Advanced Land Management Information Technologies of the UNL Conservation and Survey Division and School of Natural Resource Sciences, received the Outstanding Contributions Award presented by the association's Remote Sensing Specialty Group. The award is given annually to one or two geographers.
The Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources researcher has been a principle investigator on a global land-cover characterization project that has received considerable professional acclaim. The digital data base groups similar land-cover and land-use areas and characterizes them by various seasonal attributes. NASA and the U.S. Geological Survey have been important collaborators on the project.
Irvin Shestak and Stephanie Hammer received a Kudos Award during the April 3 regents' meeting.
Shestak is a utility maintenance mechanic III in the Facilities Management Utilities Division. Along with his broad mechanical knowledge, Shestak provides leadership with co-workers. His nominator writes, "Irv has been very supportive in training and working with new maintenance people at the utility plant." In his 13 years with the university he has been a leader in implementing the team concept of addressing plant maintenance problems. The utility division has implemented many of Shestak's ideas effectively meeting maintenance challenges at the utility plant and significantly reducing costs.
Hammer is a clinic clerk at the University Health Center. Always open and receptive to new ideas and suggestions while treating students with kindness and respect, Hammer creates a positive and pleasant place to work. Her nominator writes, "I have worked in the medical profession for many years and know that it can get very stressful at the 'Front Lines'. . . but Stephanie always makes the best of any situation. I look forward to working with her everyday."
-Allison DeLunger, Public Relations
Bill Bode, materiel services administrator and assistant director of university services. has been awarded the National Association of Purchasing Management's Charles J. McDonald National Minority Supplier Advocate Award.
The award is given by the Minority Business Development Group, one of the national groups with the association that promotes minority and women business development as a sound business function. The award recognizes an individual who has demonstrated an outstanding commitment to the advancement of women and business.
Audun Ravnan, George Holmes distinguished professor emeritus of piano, received an honorary doctor of music degree from Doane College at Doane's May 17 commencement exercises in Crete.
Ravnan, a native of Bergen, Norway, a musician and professor at Nebraska from 1957 until his retirement in 1993, was honored for his distinguished service to the arts in Nebraska.
Doane's citation said Ravnan has been called "the premier pianist in the state of Nebraska" and that he "significantly contributed to the arts in Nebraska and inspired (his) students to continue (his) legacy of great teaching and profound musical achievements."
Albania's University of Tirana last month recognized faculty member Sang Lee for his work in helping the Balkan nation's post-communist economic transition.
Lee, professor and chairman of management in the College of Business Administration, was presented with an honorary doctorate by the University of Tirana, recognizing seven years of effort by NU faculty members to help the impoverished country make the transition from communism to a market economy.
As director of the U.S. Agency for International Development-sponsored project "Management Training and Market Economics Education," Lee has led a Nebraska faculty team in training more than 5,000 government officials, university faculty and entrepreneurs throughout Albania, despite an interruption caused by a civil war in the country in the spring of 1997.
The project established the first and only master of business administration program in Albania and the program's first graduates received their diplomas at the same April 24 ceremony where Lee was presented with a Doctor Honoris Causa degree.
Through the project, Lee and his colleagues also established five business assistance centers, five computer systems and Students in Free Enterprise chapters throughout the country, and sent more than 170,000 books to the nation's universities.
Lee, who has the title of University Eminent Scholar and Regents Professor at Nebraska, is the second person to receive an honorary doctorate degree from the University of Tirana since the end of communism in Albania in 1991. The University of Tirana is the flagship university of the Albanian national university system and has awarded only four honorary degrees in its history.
-Tom Simons, Public Relations
Lee Rockwell, a 40-year professional at Nebraska Educational Telecommunications and director of GPN, announced his retirement effective June 5.
For the past 11 years Rockwell served as assistant general manager for educational telecommunications for NET and its flagship station KUON-TV, as well as heading GPN - a major national distributor and producer of educational media, headquartered at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and NET.
NET General Manager Rod Bates notes: "Though this year marks Lee's 40th with KUON-TV and NET, he informs me that his tenure really goes back to January of 1955 when he began working as a student volunteer just two months after KUON signed on the air! That's a lot of years of service to this organization.
"Lee can take enormous pride in the accomplishments of this organization over the past four decades," Bates said. "Most recently he has provided the leadership to GPN which has resulted in a substantial growth of service to the American education community. Indeed, Lee will be missed."
As senior administrator of educational telecommunications, Rockwell has been responsible for all of NET's formal education efforts as well as a wide range of educational technology services including cooperative efforts with the Nebraska Department of Education, the establishment of Nebraska CorpNet (a corporate training network for on-site delivery of credit courses), distance learning programming delivered via satellite and technology services for the hearing impaired and agricultural audiences.
During his tenure as GPN director, the organization became one of the largest non-profit video marketing entities in the United States. It serves as the exclusive video distributor for a number of instructional programs and series including programming from Children's Television Workshop, Newton's Apple, FASE Productions, Family Communications and others.
And, the GPN/Nebraska ETV production Reading Rainbow - cooperatively produced with WNED, Buffalo, N.Y. - is the most-used television program in our nation's schools, and an Emmy winner the last three years as the Outstanding Children's Television Series in America.
Earlier, Rockwell served for 13 years as Executive Director of NETCHE , a nonprofit consortium of colleges and universities within Nebraska, dedicated to the improvement of teaching and learning. During his tenure, the first working relationships between public and private, two-and four-year institutions within Nebraska were initiated. The first ongoing cooperative planning sessions for chief academic officers were established, along with the first cooperative instructional improvement programs and the first student academic assistance and study skills centers.
Two Nebraska ETV Network productions were recently honored as winners by the Central Educational Network in the 1998 CEN Awards competition.
"Ernie Chambers: Still Militant After All These Years," an hour-long documentary profiling one of the most colorful and controversial state senators to ever serve in the Nebraska Legislature, received the CEN Jerry Schumacher Award for "Best Local Program Which Examines Race or Racial Issues Within a Community."
The program traces Chambers' political life as a community activist in the 1960s to today, where he is recognized as one of the Legislature's most powerful figures.
"Ernie Chambers: Still Militant After All These Years" is a production of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Television's Public Affairs Unit for broadcast on Nebraska ETV. Camille Steed is the special's producer/director.
The 33rd Street Sessions program featuring "reservation blues" performed by the Native American group Indigenous garnered a CEN Program Award Honorable Mention in the "Cultural Performance" category.
The 30-minute concert performance program, featuring hard-driving blues by two brothers and a sister from the Yankton Sioux Reservation in South Dakota, was produced and directed by Sue Maryott. The 33rd Street Sessions series is taped at the Nebraska ETV studios in Lincoln and produced by the Cultural Affairs Unit of University of Nebraska-Lincoln Television for broadcast on Nebraska ETV.
Jake Clanderman, vice-president and managing director of CEN, presented Steed and Maryott with their awards in ceremonies held in Lincoln on May 11.
Reading Rainbow, the long-running PBS series for beginning readers, was honored with a fifth Daytime Emmy Award as Outstanding Children's Series. The award, the most prestigious symbol of achievement in television, was presented May 9, in New York City. This year's win is the third straight victory in this category for the highly acclaimed series.
Another Daytime Emmy was garnered for Outstanding Live and Direct to Tape Sound Mixing, bringing Reading Rainbow a total of 13 Daytime Emmy Awards. The series is a production of GPN/Nebraska ETV Network and WNED-TV, Buffalo, N.Y., and is produced by Lancit Media Entertainment of New York City.
Reading Rainbow airs at 12:30 p.m. Mondays through Fridays on the Nebraska ETV Network and at 10 a.m. Saturdays and 7 p.m. Thursdays on EduCable, the cable television service of the Nebraska ETV Network.
"The recognition afforded the series through winning another Daytime Emmy Award again draws attention to the positive work Reading Rainbow is doing for today's literacy initiative," said GPN Director Lee Rockwell. "We are pleased and honored to be a part of this important movement."
Funding for Reading Rainbow is provided by Kellogg's® Rice Krispies® Cereal, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the National Science Foundation and public television viewers.
GPN, the Nebraska ETV Network and EduCable are services of Nebraska Educational Telecommunications. The complete Nebraska ETV and EduCable programming schedules are available on NET's World Wide Web site http://net.unl.edu. You can also visit the Reading Rainbow World Wide Web site at http://gpn.unl.edu/index.htm.
Fourteen NU extension educators representing more than 70 counties have been honored for their contributions to student recruitment by the university.
Working in conjuction with on-campus faculty and staff, the educators were involved in a unified effort in the 1997-98 academic year to make students more aware of their opportunities at the University of Nebraska. Chancellor James Moeser addressed the group at luncheon June 2 in Lincoln and presented each educator with a special certificate of appreciation.
The Team Award, which recognizes outstanding partnerships built by student recruitment contacts to promote NU to prospective students and their families, went to the Panhandle Recruitment Committee. Its members were Rob Eirich of the Scotts Bluff County office in Gering; Chuck Hibberd of Scottsbluff, district director of the Panhandle Research and Extention Center; Don Huls of the Dawes County office in Chadron; Carla Mahar of the Deuel County office in Chappell; and Barb Schlothauer of Gering, assistant director of development for the University of Nebraska Foundation for the Panhandle.
The District Award to recognize outstanding participation by a district in recruiting activities went to the West Central District, headquartered in North Platte. Recipients included Dennis Bauer of the Brown County office in Ainsworth; Connie Francis and Steve Gramlich of the Lincoln County office in North Platte; Gary Hergert of North Platte, district director; Noel Mues of the Furnas County office in Beaver City; Lynee Osborne of the Dundy County office in Benkelman; Sarah Purcell of the Custer County office in Broken Bow; and Carol Straub of the Keith County office in Ogallala.
Vision Awards that recognize long-term contributions made by student recruitment contacts in his or her regional area, were presented to John Lambert, recently retired from the Keith County Office in Ogallala, and Hergert.
Impact Awards, which recognize contributions made by student recruitment contacts that made an immediate impact on recruitment in his or her area in the current year, were presented to Brian Bosshammer of the Buffalo County office in Kearney and Allan Baquet, district director for the South Central Research and Extension Center in Clay Center.
In addition, 12 extension educators participated in an extension recruitment workshop June 2 in Lincoln. They are listed alphabetically by hometown: Aurora, Andrew Christiansen, Hamilton County; Benkelman, Osborne; Falls City, Gerald Hopp, Richardson County; Geneva, Judy Weber, Fillmore County; Grand Island, Tom Drudik, Hall County; Kearney, Bosshamer; Lincoln, Ellen Kraft, Lancaster County; O'Neill, Gary Stauffer, Holt County; Osceola, Amy Peterson, Polk County; Schuyler, Susan Hansen, Colfax County; Scottsbluff, Schlothauer; West Point, Larry Howard, Cuming County.
Perry Wigley, director of the Conservation and Survey Division, will resign July 1 and pursue research in groundwater, urban and petroleum geology as a faculty member with the division.
Wigley came to CSD in 1987 from Texas Eastern Exploration Co. of Houston, a petroleum exploration and production company, where he was exploration manager and chief geologist for on-shore North America. CSD is the state geological, water and soil survey and also supports a center for geographic information systems cooperatively with the School of Natural Resource Sciences.
One of the division's accomplishments during his tenure as director has been the transition from a survey with mostly scientists with master's degrees to one dominated by faculty with doctorates conducting advanced research and investigations, Wigley said. Others have been an increase in outside funding from about 10 percent to nearly 40 percent of the division's budget; strengthening programs in groundwater, geographic information systems and urban and near-surface geology; and enhancing cooperative projects and data-sharing with other agencies.
- Charles Flowerday, CSD
Steven Dunbar, professor and vice chairman of mathematics and statistics, has been named the founding director of the J.D. Edwards Honors Program in Computer Science and Management.
Dunbar, who begins the two-year appointment immediately, already has high hopes for the program, which was established with a $32 million private gift - the largest for the university.
"Our goal is to be the best at preparing students with an understanding of technology and information sciences for business and society," he said.
The program will provide an innovative curriculum that blends instruction in technology and information management with the liberal arts. It will provide a student-based living and learning environment housed in a high-tech residential center.
The first masters-level students will be admitted for the fall 1999 semester. Undergraduate students will begin classes in the fall of 2000, and the residential academic center is scheduled for occupancy in the fall of 2001.
"Professor Dunbar is a perfect match for this program," said Richard Edwards, senior vice chancellor for academic affairs. "The whole idea is that it is to be student-oriented, and Professor Dunbar has devoted his professional life to developing effective new approaches to math and science education. He's a national leader in this area, and in addition, he's a well-recognized mathematics scholar. We are lucky to have him."
Dunbar began his career at Nebraska in 1985 as an assistant professor.
-David Fitzgibbon, Public Relations
Norman Smith, a geologist from the University of Illinois at Chicago, will be the new chairman of the geosciences department in the College of Arts and Sciences.
Smith has been a professor of geology UIC since 1967. In 1982, he was a Fulbright Scholar with the Indo-American Fellowship Program at the University of Delhi and the University of Roorkee. In 1995, he was a fellow at the University of Cape Town, South Africa, and was a visiting scientist at the New Zealand Institute of Oceanography from 1988 to 1989.
"Norm Smith's accomplishments as a scientist and educator are well known to geologists around the world. We are thrilled to have him join us," said David Loope, former chairman of geosciences. "Some of his best-known work was done on the Platte and Calamus rivers right here in Nebraska. He has also worked on rivers and fluvial deposits in Alaska, western Canada, Antarctica and southern Africa."
Smith, who earned his master's and doctoral degrees at Brown University, begins his work at Nebraska Aug. 17.
-Evelyn Audi, Arts & Sciences
Richard Durst, dean of the College of Fine and Performing Arts, announced the appointment of two CFPA faculty members to administrative positions in the college.
Peggy Holloway will serve as assistant dean for student affairs. Holloway holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of Nebraska and has served most recently as assistant to the dean of the College of Fine and Performing Arts this spring. Her duties encompass student affairs recruiting, advising and retention of students. She will also coordinate collegiate scholarships and advise the College Student Advisory Board.
Robert Fought, professor of music, will serve as associate dean for faculty affairs. Fought has been at the university since 1974 and is vice chair of the School of Music. His duties will include convening the College Curriculum Committee and the Academic Distinction and Awards Committee and coordinating collegiate assessment planning and the CFPA mentoring program for new faculty.
Theatre Arts and Dance chairman Kevin Paul Hofeditz has resigned effective June 30 to become professor and chair of the division of Theatre in the Meadows School of the Arts at Southern Methodist University in Dallas.
"The theatre program at SMU is one of the very best in the country at both the undergraduate and graduate levels," Hofeditz said. "It's a large program with an excellent tradition and outstanding resources. It is the only theatre chair position I would have left here to take."
Hofeditz has been at the University of Nebraska since 1983. He began his university career as a performer in the Nebraska Repertory Theatre in the summer of 1983 just before he joined the faculty that fall; he will end his University of Nebraska career this summer again as a performer in the Rep's production of "Carnival" June 10-20.
Richard Durst, dean of the College of Fine and Performing Arts, said plans are under way to select a new Department of Theatre Arts and Dance chairperson.
"We are proceeding with plans to select an interim department chair and will conduct a national search beginning this fall for a permanent replacement for Kevin," Durst said.
Julie Hagemeier will be the general manager for the Rep and Brad Buffum will continue as production manager with more responsibility in the day to day operation. Durst will serve as executive director for the remainder of the season.
NU President L. Dennis Smith has recommended the appointment of Lt. Gov. Kim Robak as NU vice president for external affairs and corporation secretary. The appointment, subject to approval by the Board of Regents, will be effective Jan. 7, 1999.
Robak will succeed James B. (J.B.) Milliken, who has accepted a position with the University of North Carolina.
As vice president for external affairs, Robak will work closely with the president, the chancellors, and other senior administrators to develop university programs, policies, and procedures. She will lead the university's efforts to build and strengthen its relationships with its numerous external constituencies, and will have overall responsibility for state, federal, and public relations and communications for the four-campus University of Nebraska system. She will also have additional responsibilities in the area of information services. As corporation secretary, Robak will be the principal staff officer to the Board of Regents.
Robak earned a Bachelor of Arts degree with high distinction in 1977 from UNL and taught the next four years in the Lincoln public schools. In 1985, she earned her Juris Doctorate with highest honors from the NU College of Law.
In 1991, Gov. Ben Nelson selected Robak as his legal counsel, a position she held until July 1992 when she was named chief of staff to the governor. She was appointed lieutenant governor in October 1993, and was elected to the position in November 1994. She will complete her term in January 1999.
The regents will be asked to approve the appointment at their June 20 meeting. The January start date coincides with the date a new lieutenant governor will be sworn into office. Her annual salary will be $121,500.
Donal Burns, associate executive vice president and provost will be named interim corporation secretary effective July 13, 1998 through Jan. 6, 1999.
Milliken had, as part of the annual review process and prior to the time of his announcement, recommended promotions for Ron Withem and Dara Troutman.
Withem, director of governmental relations, will be named associate vice president for external affairs and director of governmental relations, effective July 1. His new annual salary will be $90,000.
Troutman, director of communications, will be named assistant vice president for external affairs and director of communications, effective July 1. Her new annual salary will be $67,000.
Roger Mandigo, professor of meat science, has been named interim head of the university's animal science department.
Mandigo succeeds Elton D. Aberle, who became dean of the University of Wisconsin-Madison College of Agricultural and Life Sciences June 1.
Mandigo has been an animal science faculty member since 1966 and coordinated the facilities committee for the new animal science complex construction project. His specialties include meat manufacturing and processing research and new product development. He has major responsibilities for meat products developed in the UNL Food Processing Center, concentrating on research for the food industry.
A search advisory committee is expected to identify candidates for the department head position in the near future. Both internal and external candidates will be eligible for consideration.
Nicholas M. Bashara, a retired professor of electrical engineering, died June 7 at the age of 81.
Bashara, who also served as a research scientist with 3M, made key contributions to magnetic tape development. He had numerous journal publications and was co-author of a widely used treatise on ellipsometry and polarized light. Bashara was a fellow of the Optical Society of America, a member of Nebraska Sigma Xi and founder of the NU ellipsometry laboratory.
He is survived by his wife, Edna.
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