Ellyn Meyers has been appointed to the position of director of Landscape Services, Botanical Gardens and Arboretum. She assumed her duties Feb. 23.
"We are delighted that Ellyn will be joining us," said Melvin Jones, vice chancellor for business and finance. "Her wealth of experience will be the foundation from which the Landscape Services division can build and grow since the devastating October snowstorm. Ellyn will provide excellent leadership and UNL's landscape services is in good hands."
Meyers earned a bachelor of science with honors in ornamental horticulture from Purdue University in 1983 and earned a master's in public horticulture administration at the University of Delaware as a Longwood Graduate Fellow. She has worked at public gardens in the Midwest, Mid Atlantic and New England regions. Her work experience includes curation of plant collections, directing adult and children's education programs, producing publications, garden design and managing parks and gardens.
Most recently, as director of horticulture with the Somerset County Park Commission, she has been in charge of botanical gardens and landscape maintenance within a 7,000 acre park system in north-central New Jersey. As a member of the American Association of Botanical Gardens and Arboreta, she serves on the Plant Collections Committee and the Urban Forestry Committee. She has been chapter president of the North American Rock Garden Society and has lectured at many botanical gardens and horticultural institutions.
Her areas of special interest include plant propagation, historic garden restoration, studying native plant communizes, nature photography and introducing new plants to the gardening community. In her new job, she looks forward to working with the staff to maintain and enhance the campus landscape and botanical garden with new trees, shrubs and perennial plantings.
"The first time I saw the campus, I knew that it was a special place," Meyers said. "I consider it a privilege to have this opportunity to bring plants into people's lives and add to the beauty of the University campus."
Meyers succeeds Bud Dasenbrock, who retired as director of Landscape Services in 1996. The division has 42 full-time employees and numerous part-time and student workers.
-Rhonda Zugmeier, University Services
artz, Bugenhagen For ServiceRosalee Swartz (left) and Marilyn Bugenhagen (right) are the 1998 winners of the University Association for Administrative Development's prestigious Floyd S. Oldt Award and Carl A. Donaldson Award. Chancellor James Moeser presented the awards Feb. 18 during the UAAD Founders' Day meeting.
Bugenhagen is the winner of the Carl Donaldson Award.She is associate director of the Nebraska Unions and director of Student Involvement, which encompasses offices in both the Nebraska and East Unions, the Culture Center and the Women's Center. She administers over components that include women's programs, minority programs, leadership development programs, advising of the University Program Council, student organization develoment, services for the more than 300 recognized student organizations on campus and community service learning programs. Bugenhagen manages a budget of about $1.5 million and supervises 10 full-time staff, 12 graduate students, 28 undergraduate students and numerous volunteers. In addition, she recently wrote and acquired a Federal Learn and Serve grant for $649,000, of which $40,000 will go to UNL programs.
In addition, Bugenhagen serves on 17 UNL committees and plays a leaderhsip role in nine of those. She also is active in four professional organizations and holds a leadership position on seven national or regional committee related to these.
Bugenhagen and her husband, Daniel, have a 4 1/2-year-old son. She is director of two choirs for her church and is a member of the Junior League.
Created in 1972, the award recognizes excellent managers in nonfaculty positions. It is named in honor of Carl Donaldson, founder of UAAD, who had a 43-year professional career at the University of Nebraska. The award recognizes the following qualities: communication and conflict resolution skills, promotion of teamwork and positive work relationships, delegation skills, planning, decision making, commitment to personal and professional development and support of subordinates.
Swartz is the winner of the Floyd S. Oldt Award for Exceptional Service to the University. She is the undergraduate program coordinator in the Department of Agricultural Economics in the College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources. She coordinates all student recruitment efforts, departmental advising, the New Student Enrollment program, supervision and hiring of student employees and providing scholarship, internship and employment opportunity information to students. She served as interim recruitment and placement coordinator in the College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources from November 1995 to January 1997.
Swartz joined the university in 1980 as a secretary in Agricultural Economics and a part-time student. She completed her bachelor's degree in business management in 1983 and subsequently was hired as agribusiness program coordinator.
Swartz's commitment to students and the university has been recognized through being selected as the first nonfaculty adviser for Alpha Zeta, as a two-time UNL Mortar Board People Who Inspire honoree and four-time recipient of the Recognition Award for Contributions to Students from the UNL Parents Association. She has served on numerous UNL committees.
Swartz and her husband, Michael, have two children. Swartz also is a Sunday School teacher and is active in parent-teacher associations.
The Oldt award was created in 1992 to recognize an employee in a managerial-professional position who demonstrates exceptional service and dedication to Nebraska, who demonstrates creativity and innovation and who has been committed to UAAD.
Barbara Von Eckardt, professor of philosophy and associate dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, has just been re-elected for a second term to the Governing Board of the Philosophy of Science Association. In addition, she was recently appointed as the Philosophy of Cognitive Science editor for the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, a new online encyclopedia developed by the Center for the Study of Language and Information at Stanford University. The Stanford Encyclopedia is a "dynamic" encyclopedia on the Internet which allows entries to be updated on a regular basis, thereby staying responsive to new research in the field. It can be found at http://plato.stanford.edu.
Elton D. Aberle, head of the animal sciences department at Nebraska, was named dean of the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison by Chancellor David Ward.
"We have great confidence in Aberle's ability to build bridges with all faculty and staff throughout the college, and with agricultural interests across the state," said Ward. "He has demonstrated a collegial manner, an appreciation of the importance of shared governance, and a thorough understanding of the missions of land-grant institutions. He will make an outstanding leader."
Irv Omtvedt, vice chancellor for the Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources at Nebraska said Aberle, known to his colleagues as "Abe," will be missed at Nebraska and will be an asset to the University of Wisconsin's program.
"Abe will be greatly missed," Omtvedt said. "He has provided dynamic leadership as head of the Animal Science Department, which is recognized as one of the top animal science programs in the country. But the University of Wisconsin-Madison position is an excellent professional opportunity for him. I know Abe will do very well at that fine school and I know I speak for all his colleagues and his faculty in wishing him the best."
Ben Brancel, the Wisconsin Secretary of Agriculture, said Aberle's hiring is "a good fit" for Wisconsin. "Aberle comes from a state that understands agriculture, and I am looking forward to working with him on all sectors of agriculture in Wisconsin."
Aberle emerged as the top candidate from a pool of more than 70.
Wiley said Aberle is a good listener who will bring a clear vision of how to lead CALS, which is one of the most programatically diverse and highly regarded colleges of agriculture and life sciences in the country.
The dean of CALS leads approximately 1,200 faculty and staff, and oversees an annual budget of roughly $110 million. The college enrolls more than 1,000 graduate and 2,200 undergraduate students. In addition to its research and instructional roles, CALS also has a strong extension and outreach mission, with 12 agricultural research stations across the state. It also enrolls 130 students in its farm and industry short course.
"This is a very appealing and challenging administrative assignment," said Aberle. The college's breadth and depth were among its most appealing attributes, he said, noting that very few land grant agriculture and life sciences colleges have the depth of basic research activity shown by CALS faculty. Literally no others share a campus with colleges of medicine, veterinary medicine, pharmacy, and UW-Madison's array of specialized research centers."
Since 1983, Aberle has served as head of the department of animal sciences in UNL's Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources. In 1996-97, Aberle served as interim associate dean and associate director of that university's Agricultural Research Division, which gave him insight into budget, recruitment, personnel and other leadership issues.
Prior to joining UNL, Aberle was on the animal sciences faculty of Purdue University from 1967 to 1983.
As department head, Aberle helped plan and implement a new $19.1 million department building that opened in 1988. Through the 1990s, Aberle led a multi-year effort to redirect funds and create new faculty positions in the department.
While at UNL, Aberle also built a much more formal connection between the department and external constituencies. For example, Aberle's department created liaison committees between Nebraska's beef cattle organization and the pork industry.
He said his experiences as a teacher, researcher and administrator have given him a deep commitment to the land grant mission and philosophy.
"I believe that the core values of the land grant universities have resided and continue to reside in their colleges of agriculture and life sciences," he said. "These colleges are prepared because of their history, culture and expertise to play a key role in helping the whole university establish closer linkages with the public it serves."
Aberle's research background is in muscle and adipose tissue growth, meat quality and meat processing. He has taught courses in meat science, animal growth and food chemistry.
His annual salary at CALS will be $148,000. A formal start date has yet to be determined.
James "Jim" Leitzel, husband of Joan Leitzel, former senior vice chancellor for academic affairs, died of cancer Feb. 25 in Durham, N.H. He was 61.
Nationally known for his expertise in mathematics education, he had taught mathematics at the University of New Hampshire since September, 1996, where Joan Leitzel is president.
From 1993 to 1996, he was a professor of mathematics at the University of Nebraska.
Chancellor James Moeser said the university community extends its sympathies to the Leitzel family.
"All of us who knew Jim Leitzel are saddened by his ," Moeser said. "We will remember him as a caring teacher, friend, and colleague. Jim was one of the most respected members of the faculty who helped make our programs in math education nationally recognized. But most of all, we remember his warm humanity, his compassion for others, and his tireless work for civil rights and equality which contributed so much to the climate and culture of the Lincoln campus. Our hearts are with Joan and their two sons in their personal loss."
Mel Thornton, professor of mathematics and statistics at UNL, said Leitzel's affiliation with the Mathematical Association of America gave him a "clear and profound view of the national scene in mathematics education."
"He was so well connected nationally, it really gave our department a close tie to the national movement in mathematics reform. I remember he gave a number of really wonderful presentations to high school teachers about mathematics education.
"And I thought it was particularly exciting for his students in Math 201, which is for students who are hoping to be math teachers, to take a course from someone with such a strong national reputation for teacher education.
"His leaving left a big hole in our department because nobody else knew what he knew and had those connections or the kind of vision he had."
Jim Leitzel earned his bachelor's and master's degrees in mathematics from Penn State University and a Ph.D. from Indiana University. From 1965 to 1992, he was a member of the math faculty at The Ohio State University and from 1990-1993 was a visiting mathematician and director of special projects at the Mathematical Association of America in Washington, D.C.
At the time of his death, he was co-director of the national Exxon Project NExT for the support of mathematics faculty in multiple roles.
Judy Walker, assistant professor of mathematics at UNL, is a Project NExT fellow. The program is designed for college math teachers in their first professional position, she said. Its goal is to help new professors make the transition from graduate student to college professor.
Jim Leitzel developed and directed the project, now in its fourth year. Walker remembered Leitzel's uncanny ability to remember the name and a personal fact about everyone he met. "It was really a wonderful ability he had," she said. "Even if you had just met him once, he remembered your name and could strike up a conversation that followed up whatever you had talked about before."
In 1991, he edited document, "Call for Change," that set new directions for the preparation of math teachers.
Thornton said the publication has become the "bible" for those interested in math education training.
From 1991-1995, Leitzel directed the assessment of calculus reform efforts across the country. He was a frequent speaker at national and regional conferences, and had given more than 60 presentions in the last eight years on the teaching and learning of mathematics.
In addition to his wife, he is survived by his sons and their families: James and Donna Leitzel and daughter Hannah of Columbus, Ohio, and John and Karen Leitzel of Chicago.
A funeral service for Jim Leitzel is scheduled for 10 a.m. Feb. 28 at Phillips Church in Exeter, N.H.
Memorials are suggested to the Greater Math Association of America Fund, 1529 18th St. NW, Washington, D.C. 20036; the James Leitzel
Scholarship Fund c/o Univ. of New Hampshire Foundation, 9 Edgewood Rd., Durham, NH 03824; or the Jimmy Fund c/o Dana-Farber Institute, 1309 Beacon St., Brookline, MA 02146.
Funeral arrangements are being handled by Kent and Pelczar Funeral Home, 41, Exeter Road, Newmarket.
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