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Dr. Mary Liz Jameson, left, serves up some "Yummy Hummers," (actually sauteed honey bees mixed with butter, garlic and rice) during Science Saturday at the University of Nebraska State Musuem. More than 3,200 children and adults experienced science hands-on through displays about edible insects, paleobotany, parasite dissection, silly-putty making, and DNA extracting, according to Marian Langan with the museum. |
The following is a statement issued Feb. 3 by Chancellor James Moeser:
"Today it was brought to my attention that within the past few days a University of Nebraska faculty member sent out an unsolicited message on the UNL e-mail system that, in my judgment, contains many racist terms. I want to make clear that this e-mail was sent without the University's knowledge and certainly in no way represents the institution. I regret that the University's e-mail system has been used in this way.
"Further, while recognizing every individual's fundamental right to free speech, I absolutely condemn such racist commentary. We all share a responsibility at this institution to create an environment that is supportive of all individuals, and I recommit myself and the institution to that end."
Campus Recreation Outdoor Adventures can help participants have a quality outdoors experience. The Office of Campus Recreation maintains the largest inventory of outdoor rental equipment in the local area. Equipment is available on a first-come, first-served basis. Almost every type of outdoor camping trip can be outfitted with Outdoor Adventures rental equipment. Outdoor Adventures is located in the Campus Recreation Center. The entrance is located on the east side of the center, next to the Military Science Building.
The UNOPA Professional Growth Committee will present "Assertive Communication: The Best Way to Get Things Done" at 8:30 to 11:30 a.m. in the Selleck Continental Dining Room and at 1 to 4 p.m. in the East Union on March 4.
Frank Greene III, a professor and coach at Concordia College and an academic adviser in the College of Business Administration at UNL, will be the speaker.
The workshop is open to all UNL staff. The cost is $10 for UNOPA members and $15 for others. The registration deadline is Feb. 25. Call Karen Green at 472-4688.
Massage therapy is offered by Campus Recreation through injury prevention and care. The massage therapy staff includes Amy Patt, L.M.T., licensed in Nebraska for 11 years, and Brad Decker, L.M.T., C.S.M.T., who brings his sports massage experience to Campus Recreation. Massage therapy is offered on both city and east campuses. To schedule a massage or for more information, call 472-3467.
The Distance Learning Group and the Teaching and Learning Center will present "Program Evaluation and Faculty and Administrator Receptivity" from 8:30 to 10 a.m. Feb. 11 in the Selleck Hall private dining room. Speakers will be Roger Bruning, Educational Psychology, and Jolene Schauer, AgLEC Department.
To register call the Teaching and Learning Center at 472-3079 or e-mail teaching@unlinfo.unl.edu.
A customer takes a last glance before leaving the Art Print & Poster Sale sponsored by the University Program Council Monday in the Nebraska Union. The sale continues through Friday in the north lobby. Photo/Richard Wright |
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WellWalkers is a program offered by Wellness Services in Campus Recreation to give participants an opportunity to engage in cardiovascular activity throughout the work week. A fitness specialist will lead the walks to provide participants with motivation, education and most of all, a great workout.
WellWalkers begins the week of Feb. 9. Walking sessions meet on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays from noon to 12:50 p.m. All sessions will leave from Wellness Services located in room 56 of Campus Recreation.
A month's punch pass is $15, which allows participants to walk four times a week for one month - a total of 16 sessions.
Relieve stress, lose weight, make new friends and feel great. For more information, call Ashley Dodge, 472-4753, or stop by Wellness Services at Campus Recreation.
The Center for Environmental Toxicology is seeking to expand its faculty roster. Faculty membership now stands at 37 members, 21 from UNMC and 16 from UNL. Departments/units currently represented include: Agronomy, Biochemistry, Biological Systems Engineering, Chemistry, Entomology, Eppley Institute, Food Science and Technology, Pathology, Pharmacology, and Pharmaceutical Sciences.
Faculty who are conducting research related to toxicological problems and are interested in participating in the center are encouraged to submit an application for membership. Statements of interest, along with a curriculum vitae, should be submitted by March 2 to Ercole Cavalieri, director, Center for Environmental Toxicology. Newly approved members will be added effective May 1998. For more information, contact Cavalieri or Harry Bullerdiek, center coordinator, <hwbuller@mail.unmc.edu>.
On April 25 the center will hold a joint faculty/student meeting at Mahoney State Park from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. University faculty interested in learning more about the center are welcome to attend. Reservations are required and can be made by contacting Bullerdiek by April 11.
If you are planning a construction or remodeling project for the summer of 1998 for completion by fall, contact Terry Haubold at Facilities Planning (472-4817) by Feb. 16 so he can provide a cost estimate in March. Funding for the design and bidding costs will need to be received by March 31 in order to complete the project by the fall of 1998.
Once funded, the design bidding, construction and warranty phases are managed by Architectural and Engineering Services with a department's involvement throughout the process. After the bid is received and the contract has been signed, construction can begin. If the project is complex, special fast track methods may have to be implemented to complete it by the start of the fall semester. Summer is the busiest time of the year for construction projects on campus. Help Facilities Management and Planning complete your project during the summer for your fall deadline by contacting Haubold soon.
University construction projects are processed through Facilities Management and Planning primarily to ensure that building and life safety codes are strictly adhered to for the protection of faculty, staff and students, both during and after the completion of the construction project. In addition, its professional staff ensures that compliance with accessibility codes, planning and design standards, and university procurement, contracting and insurance policies. Building permits posted by Facilities Management and Planning indicate that construction projects are authorized by the university and comply with the above codes and policies. Requests for information or assistance should be directed to Haubold, Dave Peterson or Howard Parker at 472-3131.
Christos Papadimitriou, an internationally recognized professor of Computer Science at the University of California, Berkeley will give a public lecture at 3:15 p.m. Feb. 19 in 217 Ferguson Hall. A reception precedes the talk at 3 p.m. in 114 Ferguson Hall. The presentation is free and open to the public.
Papadimitriou is known for his work in the theory of algorithms and complexity, as well as its applications to databases, optimization, AI and game theory. He has taught at Harvard University, MIT, Athens Polytechnic, Stanford University and UC San Diego before arriving at Berkeley in 1996.
"Complexity as Metaphor" will explore how complexity has been used as a metaphor for unfairness in economic theory, for chaos in dynamical systems and for unbounded-rationality in game theory.
Papdimitriou's talk is sponsored by the Arts and Sciences Colloquium in Discrete and Experimental Mathematics, the Center for Computers and Information Science, the Department of Chemical Engineering, and the Department of Mathematics and Statistics.
Charles Ansorge of Teachers College and Bruce Sandhorst of Information Services will demonstrate TopClass Classroom Management System software from 2:30 to 4 p.m. Feb. 13 in 118 Burnett Hall.
The university has been exploring use of this software to support distance education and classroom instruction over the Internet using the World Wide Web. TopClass connects learners with each other and with their instructor in an integrated environment. All users have password-protected access through a standard Web browser, on any platform.
Instructors create Unit Learning Modules for course content - syllabus, lecture notes, exercises, examinations, etc. using a favorite HTML editor or converter, then click a "submit" button to move the material to the TopClass server database. TopClass checks all links and will even allow the instructor to upload images in the file.
This demonstration will cover some features of TopClass, including: e-mail, discussion lists, batch registration, threaded discussion, Web-based delivery of course content, and automated or instructor-corrected exercises.
If there is enough interest, a one- or two-day workshop will be scheduled later this spring to help instructors prepare materials for a Web-basedclass using TopClass.
To register: contact the Teaching & Learning Center at 121 Benton Hall (0623), 472-3929 or fax. 472-4932 or e-mail at: teaching @unlinfo.unl.edu.
The Archaeological Institute of America, Lincoln-Omaha Society, will present its fourth lecture of the 1997-98 season at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 10 in E103 Beadle Center. LuAnn Wandsnider, Department of Anthropology, a specialist in archaeological survey who has worked extensively in the American Southwest, Egypt and India, will present "Two Million Years of Eating."
One of Wandsnider's current interests is the history of cooking techniques among ancient peoples. Studying ancient cooking was an off-shoot of another archaeological project involving the discovery and excavation of ancient hearth pits in western Nebraska which date from A.D. 200 to 1000. Based on hearth evidence, Wandsnider deduced that these Indians had a diet based on edible roots, onions and tubers. Evidence also points to Indians using roasted corn ears, corn beer, tortillas, hominy, cornbread and succotash. Wandsnider also draws on archaeological insights from Africa and North America, including western Nebraska, to answer questions on ancient food preparation techniques and handling. Recipes for the preparation of insects and other delectables will be revealed.
Ancient Greece and Egypt will be the focus of a summer study abroad program offered May 10 to June 1 by the International Affairs Office.
Michael Hoff, associate professor of art and art history, will lead the program. Hoff teaches classical art and archaeology at the university. He has conducted archaeological research in Greece for the last 20 years.
Participants will begin their summer journey in Cairo exploring the great pyramids. Then it will be off to Athens, Crete, Delphi and Olympia as participants will explore ancient monuments, temples, theaters and shrines of Greece.
The program is available to university students as well as the public for three hours of credit in art history. It can be audited for no credit. The estimated cost of the program is $2,780 plus tuition, based on a minimum of 25 participants.
More information about the summer program in Greece and Egypt can be obtained by contacting Hoff by telephone at 472-5342 or by e-mail at mhoff@unlinfo.unl.edu. International Affairs, 472-5358, also has information.
A six-member peer review team will make an NCAA athletics certification site visit to the university Feb. 10-12.
The team will review the self-study that Nebraska has conducted over the last several months and conduct a series of interviews on campus.
Joan Laughlin, chair of the university's self-study steering committee and associate dean of the College of Human Resources and Family Sciences, said the self-study of the NU athletic department includes four elements - academic integrity, fiscal responsibility, commitment to equity and commitment to governance and rules compliance.
"The site visit team will consult our evaluations of how the department of intercollegiate athletics meets the operating principles in those four areas," she said. "It will review the self-study and either reach concurrence with us or indicate that it finds things to be different from what our self-analysis is."
Laughlin said the team's visit is part of the normal NCAA certification process. Nebraska was part of a pilot self-study program in 1991.
"At that time, the University of Nebraska did a self-study to help the NCAA determine the components of certification that all NCAA member institutions have since completed," she said. "Because we participated in that pilot program, we were put in the last rotation to be recertified."
Laughlin said the university will have an opportunity to provide additional information related to the team's recommendations after it reports back to the self-study committee and the athletic department. The NCAA Council on Certification will consult the team's recommendations and the university's self-study before reaching a decision - probably during the summer, Laughlin said - on granting certification to the NU athletic department for the next five years.
The site visit team members are Samuel Smith, president of Washington State University; Dianne Dailey, director of women's athletics at Wake Forest University; James Hoyt, professor of journalism at the University of Wisconsin; David Land, director of athletics/compliance at Ball State University; Suzanne Tyler, director of athletics at the University of Maine; and Liz Muir, NCAA Council on Certification.
Officials at the University of Nebraska Federal Credit Union warn that a statement circulating through Lincoln regarding Gerber baby food is a hoax and should be disregarded.
Jean Poppert, marketing and education director at the credit union, said a number of customers have brought in photocopies of a statement that encourages people to send copies of a child's birth certificate and Social Security card to a post office box in Minneapolis and Gerber foods will send back a $50 savings bond. The statement says this is in settlement for a lawsuit.
However, this is untrue, Poppert said. She warned against sending such confidential documents which could be used in a variety of unscrupulous ways.
She noted that Gerber foods has issued a statement on its web page explaining the origin of the hoax. That page can be found at http://www.gerber.com/st ory/newshome.html.
When cows grazing corn stalks ask "What's for lunch?" the answer is as likely to beBt corn" as it is "non-Bt corn."
That's the word from University of Nebraska specialists responding to queries about potential grazing differences between the two types of corn hybrids.
Bruce Anderson, NU forage specialist, and Terry Mader, NU beef specialist, have received reports by producers who claim their cows prefer non-Bt corn when given a choice. That may be simply because more grain is left in non-Bt fields, they said.
"There's nothing really out there that can prove beyond a shadow of a doubt there is a true problem," Anderson added.
Bt (Bacillus thuringiensis) corn is genetically engineered to manage European corn borers, a major Midwest corn pest that bores into stalks and causes ear droppage.
"Bt corn does what it' s supposed to do," Mader said, which is to provide greater grain yields at harvest. Subsequently, less Bt corn is left in the field for stalk grazing.
Bt corn is genetically altered through a protein that is toxic to corn borers. There is no "pesticide" in the corn for cows to ingest, only the altered protein, Mader pointed out. Like most proteins, this one most likely is broken down in the cow's rumen stomach.
"From what we know about ruminants, there's a small probability it's a concern," Mader said.
The Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources specialists say some cow owners may believe their stock perceive a palatability or digestibility difference, but there is no research to support these claims. However, as Bt corn is the "new kid on the block," just as with anything new or different, it has to go through "initial hits," Mader said. This is the second year Bt corn has been planted in Nebraska, added Mader, who is based at NU's Northeast Research and Extension Center at Norfolk.
Questions about grazing Bt stalks also have been raised in other Corn Belt states. Becauseof these widespread reports, Anderson said more study on the subject is needed.
"Does each occurrence get magnified 100 times, or are there 100 occurrences?" he asked.
Grazing stalks is an important resource for Nebraska cattlemen, Anderson said. Without corn stalk grazing to supplement winter feeding, cattle production could be lowered by at least one-third, he said.
From one-fourth to one-half of Nebraska's 8 million corn acres are grazed each winter, he said; just how much of that was planted to Bt corn is unknown. Not only do the cows benefit from grazing grain and forage left in the fields, but stalk residue breaks down quicker when cows walk over them.
- Cheryl Alberts, IANR news writer
For information on any of the events, contact John L. Harris,
472-3755,
or the number listed for the event.
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