Back to class Senior accounting major Jenny Ekeler stacks some of her books while filling her booklist Tuesday in the University Bookstore.

Holiday Honors King's Memory

NU Celebrates Martin Luther King Day With Events

There will be no classes and most offices won't be open at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Jan. 18 when the university marks its official observance of the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday.

Unlike other holidays, however, the campus won't be a quiet place. A daylong series of public performances, presentations and activities is scheduled to celebrate the theme of "More Than Just a Day: Remembering, Reflecting and Renewing."

The campus celebration actually began today, Jan. 15 (King's birthday) with "Multicultural Celebrations" in the Nebraska Union, presented by the NU African American and African Studies Program.

The Jan. 18 on-campus holiday celebration begins at 10 a.m. with a program at the Lied Center for Performing Arts, then shifts to the Nebraska Union for afternoon activities, and concludes at the Lied Center with a 5 p.m. public performance by Bertice Berry-a doctor of sociology, author, award-winning lecturer, stand-up comedian and nationally syndicated talk show host. Berry's appearance was made possible with support from Experian. Her performance is sponsored by ASUN.

Chancellor James Moeser will begin the morning program by presenting Chancellor's Exemplary Service Awards to longtime civil rights activist Leola Bullock of Lincoln and Miguel Carranza, associate professor of sociology and ethnic studies at NU.

Bullock will be honored for her more than four decades as a community spokesperson against prejudice and discrimination, beginning in the 1950s when she joined a picket line in downtown Lincoln to protest segregated lunch counters and continuing to the present day. Carranza, who received NU's 1998 Outstanding Contribution to the Status of People of Color Award, will be honored for his years of work as an administrator, teacher, adviser and scholar to improve all facets of academic life at the university for racially and ethnically underrepresented students, faculty and staff.

Moeser and Alcorn State University President Clinton Bristow Jr. will then sign a partnership agreement linking the two universities. Alcorn State was created in 1871 in Lorman, Miss., as the nation's first historically black land-grant institution and the state-supported institution for the higher education of African Americans in the United States. It has grown from a small center of liberal arts preparation to an agricultural and mechanical college of wide recognition and has emerged as a multifaceted state university.

"Our universities have in common a commitment to research, teaching, community service and providing our students with the broadest experiences for successful participation in a multicultural world," Moeser said. "We believe this partnership will greatly enhance these experiences."

The awards presentations will be followed by the New Orleans' Junebug Theatre Project and the Roadside Theatre of Kentucky's production of Junebug/Jack, an original musical play created from the stories and songs woven through Appalachian and African-American history and culture. During the civil rights struggles of the 1960s, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee invented Junebug to represent the collective wisdom of ordinary black people. Jack is an archetypal Appalachian hero, a boy living in poverty with his mother.

The morning's Lied Center events will conclude at noon with a performance by the Lincoln Community Gospel Choir.

Afternoon activities will take place in the Nebraska Union, where a complementary lunch will be available from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. The Lincoln High School choir, "Voices of Destiny," will perform during the lunch.

At 1:30 p.m., SST Communications Inc. of Chicago will present "Synergy from Others: Cultural Diversity on Campus" in the new auditorium of the remodeled union. The audience-participation theatrical production defines some key divisions of diversity and how institutions relied on assimilation in the past. It examines some of the problems facing society today such as stereotyping, garbled communication and collusion which stand in the way of embracing diversity. The production also looks at how to institutionalize the changes that will move the concept of valuing diversity from rhetoric to reality.

Afternoon activities in the union conclude with presentations from 3 to 5 p.m. by several NU student organizations.

Berry's performance will end in time for people to attend the annual Martin Luther King Jr. Commemoration at Mt. Zion Baptist Church, 3301 N. 56th St.

The schedule of events:

Friday, Jan. 15

Noon: "Multicultural Celebrations," African American and African Studies Program, Nebraska Union

Monday, Jan. 18 (Lied Center)

10 a.m.: Chancellor's Exemplary Service Awards

NU-Alcorn State partnership agreement signing

10 a.m.: Junebug/Jack

Noon: Lincoln Community Gospel Choir

Monday afternoon, Jan. 18 (Nebraska Union)

12:30 p.m.: Complementary lunch

12:45 p.m.: Lincoln High School Voices of Destiny choir

1:30 p.m.: "Synergy from Others": Cultural Diversity on Campus

3 p.m.: Student organization presentations

5 p.m.: Bertice Berry, Lied Center

7 p.m.: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Commemoration, Mt. Zion Baptist Church, 3301 N. 56th St.

University of Nebraska-Developed Egg Allergy Test Commercialized

By Molly Klocksin, IANR news writer

Consumers with egg allergies could have safer food experiences, thanks to a University of Nebraska-developed test that detects minute traces of eggs in processed foods.

"Egg allergy is one of the most common forms of food allergy, especially among children," said Steve Taylor, head of NU's Department of Food Science and Technology and co-director of the Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources test development team.

Neogen Corp. of Lansing, Mich., began selling the 30-minute egg test to the food industry the week of Dec. 14 under a university licensing agreement. It's the only commercially available test to quickly detect egg cross-contamination.

Cross-contamination occurs when allergenic food residue gets into another food processed on shared equipment. Processing foods on the same equipment is common and economically necessary, said Sue Hefle, a food toxicologist and co-director of NU's Food Allergy Research and Resource Program.

A person who's allergic to eggs would know to avoid egg nog during the holidays, Taylor said. However, if a company processes egg nog and then milk without properly sanitizing its equipment, an egg-allergic person could unwittingly develop an allergic reaction after drinking that milk, he said.

Egg allergies can cause severe illness and death. The past three years, undeclared egg residues have led to recalls of 102 food products in the United States, Hefle said.

"This test gives the industry what it has wanted-a quick and easy way to be sure all traces of the allergen have been removed from the equipment," she said. The 30-minute test can replace tests that took days to complete in a laboratory.

The test will be of most interest to processors of pasta, ice cream, milk, baby food and salad dressing, the company said.

NU's tests are based on Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assays, or ELISA. ELISA essentially uses antibodies to detect proteins that are the allergy troublemaker.

In August 1998, Neogen commercialized a Nebraska-developed peanut allergy test. A test for casein, a milk component, should be commercialized in 1999, Taylor said.

The NU research is conducted in cooperation with IANR's Agricultural Research Division.

National Merit Finalists Up Two-Thirds Since 1994

The number of National Merit finalists enrolled at the University of Nebraska­ Lincoln in the fall semester reached 144, an increase of almost two-thirds over the 88 who were enrolled in 1994.

"This is another indication that our efforts to attract high achieving students have been successful," said James Griesen, vice chancellor for student affairs. "We have made strong scholarship commitments to National Merit finalists who enroll at Nebraska and that has helped us attract these outstanding students. Our increased numbers are particularly gratifying because this is the most competitive era ever for attracting National Merit scholars."

The 144 National Merit scholars include 135 college-sponsored finalists and nine corporate-sponsored finalists. NU's 1998-99 freshman class includes 38 National Merit finalists.

The increase in the number of National Merit scholars parallels a general increase in the academic indicators for freshman classes since implementation of new admission standards in the fall of 1997. The average ACT composite score for freshmen jumped from 23.3 in 1996 to 24.3 in 1997 and remained at that level in 1998. Similarly, the percentage of freshmen who graduated in the top 20 percent of their high school class increased from 38.4 in 1996 to 44.6 in 1997 and remained steady in 1998.

Global Warming Could Affect Cattle Grazing Lands

By Robert Sheldon, Public Relations

Global warming could result in a decrease in the predominant grass on which cattle feed in areas such as the rangelands of western Nebraska and northeastern Colorado, says Richard Alward, a postdoctoral student in biological sciences at NU.

Although many scientists believe global warming is under way, little evidence exists to show what effects such warming will have on global environment. Alward's study is one of the first to provide such information.

Alward, a grassland ecologist currently wrapping up his Ph.D. degree at Colorado State University, published his finding in an article published titled "Grassland Vegetation Changes and Nocturnal Global Warming" published in the January 8 issue of Science, the journal of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

In his study, conducted under a NASA Global Change Fellowship, Alward examined 23 years of temperature and plant productivity data gathered at the Central Plains Experimental Range Station, a long-term ecological research site in northeastern Colorado.

The 1970-93 period he selected for study showed a sharp increase in annual average temperatures over the period. It turned out, Alward said, that the increase was due primarily to increases in average minimum temperatures, which went up more than five degrees Fahrenheit over the 23-year period.

"The change in night temperatures in the sites we studied made us (he and his academic advisers) curious about how plants responded to changes in night temperatures," Alward said. His conclusions highlight the potential effects of climate change on natural ecosystems.

On the sites he studied there was a decline in growth of Bouteloua gracilis (Blue Grama)-the dominant grass of the rangelands-as the average spring minimum temperature increased.

Alward isn't sure about the cause of the negative correlation. One hypothesis is that it is due in part to a loss of soil water in the late spring and early summer.

"A pretty good explanation could tie into water," Alward said. "The area we studied is defined as commonly water limited; with 13 inches or less rain per year." Even so, from 1970-93, the northeastern Colorado sites under study enjoyed an increase in rain.

"But rain is different from water in the soil," Alward said. "If it's warmer, more water evaporates and it's not available for summer plant growth."

Preliminary results of experiments now under way tend to support the connection between warmer nights and increased evaporation support their hypothesis, Alward said.

Because Blue Grama makes up as much as 40 percent of the diet of cattle on these steppes, a decrease in this predominant grass due to continued rise in the average minimal temperature "could have substantial consequences for livestock production," Alward said.

Sociologist Directs Growth of Institute for Ethnic Studies

By Kevin Dugan, College of Arts and Sciences

Since becoming director of the Institute for Ethnic Studies at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in August, Thomas Calhoun has hired three new faculty members, is searching for two more, and is planning the institute's move into new quarters next July.

The institute is a multi-interdisciplinary initiative of the College of Arts and Sciences. It addresses ethnic studies through a variety of traditional disciplines, with 15 faculty members representing the departments of psychology, sociology, communication studies, English, modern languages and literatures, history, and anthropology.

For Calhoun, serving as director is one more way he can broaden opportunities to involve all types of people in current issues, particularly people who have been excluded from participation and decisions.

"It's my belief that, if you can get to the table, then you can participate in all decisions that will impact the lives of all the people who have been previously excluded. At least their voice can be heard," Calhoun said.

As part of its educational role at Nebraska, the institute brings together interdisciplinary studies to better provide service to the community and to the university. It also provides uniformity to academic areas that had functioned independently until five or six years ago.

The institute works closely with the international studies major and with the Nebraska program in Human Rights and Human Diversity, a collegiate initiative. Programs of study are Latino and Latin American Studies, African and African American Studies, and Native and Native American Studies.

One undergraduate major, Latin American Studies, is offered by the institute. Undergraduate minors include African, Black, Native American and Latin American studies. An inclusive major in ethnic studies is being developed. It will apply to any of the subdisciplines.

The institute is in the early stages of discussions with the University of Nebraska at Omaha and other state institutions about how to make courses at one campus available to other campuses. The effort is an attempt to increase educational opportunity, save taxpayer money, and enhance the efficiencies of individual programs.

With the additions this fall of Domino Perez in English and ethnic studies and Jose Gonzalez in modern languages and ethnic studies, the institute has 15 faculty members. In 1999, they will be joined by Cecil Blake, an internationally renowned communications scholar. The institute also is filling one position in Latin American history and ethnic studies and one in Lakota modern languages and ethnic studies.

The institute sponsors and coordinates events at Nebraska such as the annual pow-wow by Native American students, Martin Luther King Day activities, Hispanic student recruitment, gay and lesbian studies, and other women's activities.

Next July the institute will move into its new building, the former Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity house on the Nebraska city campus. The building will house offices for all of the institute's programs.