Dashboard Saints: In Memory of St. Christopher by Terrie Hancock Mangat, 1985

Four James Quilts Among Century's 100 Best

Apanel of quilt scholars has chosen four quilts from the renowned James Collection in the International Quilt Study Center in the NU Department of Textiles, Clothing and Design, to be among the top 100 American quilts of the 20th century.

The top 100 American quilts were recently selected by a panel of distinguished experts representing four major non-profit quilt organizations - The Alliance for America Quilts, The American Quilt Study Group (located on the NU campus), the International Quilt Association and the National Quilting Association. Twenty-nine panelists nominated more than 1,700 quilts made between 1900 and 1999 and then painstakingly whittled that list down to the final 100.

"Having four out of 100 of our contemporary studio art quilts identified among the top 100 American quilts of the 20th century reaffirms the quality of the James Collection and the expert eyes that the Jameses possessed as collectors," said Patricia Crews, professor of Textiles and director of the center.

The four quilts owned by the center are: Aurora by Michael James (1978) (shown above); Dashboard Saints: In Memory of St. Christopher by Terrie Hancock Mangat (1985); Depth of Field III: Plane View by Jan Myers-Newbury (1985); and The Men: Mask Face Quilt #2 by Faith Ringgold (1986) (shown at right).

Carolyn Ducey, curator of the International Quilt Study Center's collection, commented that "James and Myers-Newbury illustrate visual depth and movement expressed through color and light in their quilts. Ringgold and Mangat focus on imagery that tells a story. The work of all four artists represent the innovation and expression associated with the last quarter of the twentieth century."

A full-color exhibition catalog will be published by Primedia, publisher of' Quilter's Newsletter Magazine, McCall's Quilting and Quiltmaker, as well as many other popular magazines.

The top 100 quilts will be featured at the International Quilt Festival's "Quilt Show of the Century," which will be held at the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston in October. The International Quilt Festival is the largest annual quilt show and quiltmaking academy in the world, drawing more than 50,000 visitors.

"We look forward to sharing these important quilts with the public and are pleased that the University of Nebraska's unique International Quilt Study Center will be represented at this significant venue," Crews said.

Depth of Field III: Plane View by Jan Myers-Newburey, 1985 (shown above).

Academic Senate Queries Moeser

Unfunded Mandates Questions Clarified by Chancellor

By Kim Hachiya, Public Relations

James Moeser took heat from the Academic Senate at its last meeting of the year April 27 as he attempted to clarify the university's upcoming reallocations and unfunded mandates.

Moeser said that in addition to an assessment from central administration amounting to $2.68 million, the Lincoln campus must reallocate internally to support "unfunded mandates."

These include:

• $701,252 for information technology. This number has been reduced from an initial working figure of $1.2 million. It includes the costs of providing software and hardware upgrades; costs associated with Internet2; LotusNotes implementation; and costs of continuing to network and wire campus buildings.
• $433,000 for Kiewit Institute faculty support. This amount fully funds faculty lines in the UNL-supported portion of the Peter Kiewit Institute in Omaha and fulfills UNL's agreement in the Business Plan established by the regents in 1996.
• $322,000 to cover deficits in scholarship support. The decision to create a number of scholarships, particularly for high ability students, has had the benefit of maintaining enrollments and has resulted in demonstrably more qualified students. The scholarships include book scholarships for students enrolling in the Honors Program; Distinguished Scholar Awards for those students who don't quite qualify for full Regents Scholarships; transfer student scholarships and National Merit Scholarships.
• $350,000 for medical insurance benefits for graduate assistants.
• $150,000 for diversity. Most of this money will be used to satisfy training requirements for all supervisors as mandated by the federal government's Office of Civil Rights.

The combined total of the universitywide shortfall assigned to UNL and UNL's unfunded imperatives is $4,636,602 in the first half of the biennium, and $5.78 million the second. This necessitates a percentage budget reduction of 2.47 percent in the first half of the biennium and 3.06 percent in the second half.

Moeser called the numbers "very conservative" and "as lean and small as possible." He acknowledged that the upcoming round of cuts, which will occur over both halves of the biennium, will be painful and damaging.

He suggested some alternatives to mitigate the second half of the biennium. Intensified student recruiting should grow enrollments and tuition revenues, he said. Continued work toward implementing efficiencies in operating procedures could save money. And he urged the Academic Planning Committee to take the lead in looking for programs that are "no longer part of the need for knowledge in the 21st century."

Several faculty questioned why UNL is now funding positions for the Kiewit Institute, funding which the chancellor said was promised by the legislature but was not actually appropriated.

"I feel we are ethically and morally obligated to hew to the plan," Moeser said.

Huge Genoways, museum, said faculty morale is at its nadir and that he was offended by some of the chancellor's comments regarding productivity and programs.

Moeser said the university, as led by its faculty, must become more proactive in meeting the needs of students. "We cannot say that we are too proud, too tradition bound, to be responsible to the market. We cannot say we are above question," he said, arguing that faculty must pick up the challenge to be creative in finding ways to build enrollment and also be more productive in winning research funding.

Growth in sponsored programs, he said, could bring millions to the university in the form of indirect cost recapture.

"Ultimately, I believe we will be a stronger university if we respond in the right way and seize upon opportunities," he said.

Following the chancellor's remarks, the senate voted nearly unanimously asking that "alternatives be explored to cover or reduce the budget shortfall and that faculty be fully involved in the deliberations."

Architecture Dean Retires After 26 Years of Service

By David Ochsner, Public Relations

W. Cecil Steward, dean of the University of Nebraska College of Architecture, will retire Dec. 31 after a 37-year career in education that includes a 26-year term as Nebraska's first and only dean of architecture.

Steward came to the University of Nebraska in 1973 after serving as associate dean of architecture at Texas A&M University. His record of accomplishments includes both local, national and international initiatives, from planning assistance for rural and urban communities in Nebraska to participating in the National Park Service's Pennsylvania Avenue redesign at the White House.

Following his retirement, Steward will continue to work part time with faculty and students and remain active in city and state public policy issues, including his role as a planner on the Lincoln/Lancaster County Planning Commission. Steward also will continue to serve as president of the Joslyn Castle Institute for Sustainable Communities, an innovative program he founded in 1996 as a partnership that includes state government, the United Nations Center for Human Settlements, the College of Architecture and other public and private organizations worldwide.

"As an international leader in the architectural profession, Cecil Steward has brought the highest level of excellence and innovation to the College of Architecture and to the university," said James Moeser, chancellor.

"His involvement in a diverse range of social, political, environmental and economic issues has benefited students and researchers throughout the university as well as communities both in Nebraska and around the world. His visionary work in sustainable communities has helped cities both large and small to be more self-determinant, ecologically respectful and collaborative in their quest for a better quality of life. Although his leadership at the university will be sorely missed, we wish Dean Steward well as he continues to lead his profession in other activities including his continuing role as president of the Joslyn Institute."

Early in his career, Steward was instrumental in bridging the gap between practitioners and teachers of architecture. He has been a leader in expanding the profession to include a broad range of quality of life issues. Among his many accomplishments Steward says he takes pride in being involved in the decision by architects in China to model their licensing and accreditation system after the U.S. model.

"I've been blessed to have those kinds of experiences that I have been able to transfer to students, faculty and the community," Steward said. "And what has kept my motivation connected to this state and to this central place is its strength of character and sense of commitment. It truly is the nation's heartland."

Steward said he is also proud of the character of his faculty and students, many of whom have garnered national and international leadership roles. "I wouldn't trade this faculty for any other in the country," he said. "It is an outstanding teaching faculty."

Steward is the only educator to have served as president of both the National Architectural Accrediting Board and the American Institute of Architects. His leadership was acknowledged when he was named recipient of the 1999 Topaz Medallion for Excellence in Architectural Education from the American Institute of Architects and the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture.

A proponent of practicing architecture in a global context, Steward in his work with architectural education in China and other Asia Pacific countries advanced the international mobility of students, faculty and architects. As president of AIA, he positioned the organization for greater leadership in international practice and promoted international chapters, which now include London, Paris and Hong Kong.

In 1992 and 1993, he participated as an invited juror in the judging of design competitions for the Seoul International Airport in Korea and the Jin Mao World Trade Center in Shanghai, China. Both projects will be the largest of their kind when completed. In addition, he was planning and design project director for Nigeria's Imo State University from 1981-88, and has been a consultant on architecture and architectural education to the People's Republic of China since 1979.

Steward is a member of the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations and the Nebraska Capitol Environs Commission where he assisted in the writing of the first design guidelines in protection of the Nebraska Capitol building.

Born in Pampa, Texas, Steward received a bachelor of architecture degree in 1957 from Texas A&M College and a master of science in architecture from Columbia University in 1961. He studied city planning and architecture at the Ecole des Beaux Arts in France and in 1965 opened his own practice that he maintains to this day, along with his full-time career in education. He was awarded an honorary doctorate of humane letters from Drury College in Springfield, Mo., in 1991.

Steward and his wife, Mary Jane, reside in Lincoln, They have two children, Karen of Los Angeles, and Craig, of Lincoln.

Wallace Peterson Named Academic Freedom Winner

By Kim Hachiya, Public Relations

The Academic Senate awarded its James A. Lake Academic Freedom Award to Wallace Peterson, professor emeritus of economics, at the senate's final meeting of the academic year April 27.

Peterson, who retired in 1991, was cited for his service as a senate member in 1971, the peak of campus student unrest due to the U.S. decision to escalate the war in Southeast Asia by invading Cambodia.

James McShane, English, said that in 1971, faculty were under siege for supporting student demonstrations, and also under siege for not supporting student demonstrations. Some members of the regents called for the dismantling of tenure. McShane said that Peterson called for an open forum between regents and faculty, for a constitutional convention to develop a university governance document and for continued adherence to due process procedures.

The constitutional convention resulted in the development of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Bylaws, McShane said.

He added that Peterson, who chaired the department of economics for a number of years, was a role model because of his quiet yet forceful leadership of the department, all the while striving to maintain the values of academic freedom within the discipline.

In accepting the award, Peterson said a university is place of intellect and that academic freedom, while not specifically guaranteed in the U.S. Constitution, is a cornerstone of a free society. The U.S. Supreme Court, he said, has upheld academic freedom as an equal to freedom of speech, press and religion.

He added that freedom to teach also carries the idea of freedom to learn. During the 1960s and '70s, he said, disruptive students often abridged other's right to freedom to learn.

Peterson said he sees several new assaults to academic freedom. Governing boards who wish to dismantle tenure and the trend toward hiring faculty in non-tenure tracks are troubling issues to him. The trend toward political correctness and intellectual authoritarianism also is an assault. And, within his own discipline, the trend toward narrowness of thinking, what he called monolithic rather than diversity in thinking, is worrisome.

Academic freedom, Peterson said, is a right that academe must never take for granted.

In other business, the senate elected Sheila Scheideler, animal science, as president elect. Miles Bryant, educational administration, was reelected secretary.

Albion's Wolf Named 'Builder'

Washington Professor to Deliver Commencement Address

By Annette Wetzel, Public Relations

John I. Goodlad, (shown at right), professor emeritus of education and co-director of the Center for Education Renewal at the University of Washington, will deliver the commencement address May 8.

James M. Wolf, chairman of Wagonhammer Cattle Co in Albion, will receive the Nebraska Builders Award, the NU Board of Regents' highest award for distinguished service.

Commencement exercises begin at 9:30 a.m. in the Bob Devaney Sports Center. Chancellor James Moeser will preside as approximately 1,800 students receive degrees.

Goodlad, who will also receive an honorary doctor of humane letters degree, has written, co-written or edited more than 30 books and has published more than 200 articles in professional journals and encyclopedias. His 1984 book, A Place Called School, received the Outstanding Book of the Year Award from the American Educational Research Association and the Distinguished Book of the Year Award from Kappa Delta Pi.

For the past quarter-century, he has been involved in an array of educational reform programs and projects, engaging in large-scale studies of educational change, schooling and teacher education. In his most recent book, In Praise of Education, he argues that education is an inalienable right in a democratic society.

Wolf has been active in agriculture, banking, politics and civil rights. He is a member of the National Cattlemen's Beef Association consumer relations committee and is on the board of directors for Packers Bank and Trust of Omaha and Packers Service Co. of Lincoln. He was chair of the Nebraska Carter delegation at the 1976 Democratic national convention, chair of the Zorinsky advisory committee, and finance committee member for Sen. James Exon. He is national commissioner and member of the national executive committee of the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith. He has been vice chairman of Nebraska advisory committee to the U.S. Civil Rights Commission and is a past member of the Governor's Civil Rights Commission in Nebraska.

He earned his juris doctorate at Harvard Law School and has received numerous awards, including most recently Albion Chamber of Commerce Citizen of the Year and a doctor of humane letters joint honorary degree from Nebraska Wesleyan University.

On May 8, a drop-off area for students and mobility restricted guests will be available on the south side of the Devaney Center, 17th and Court streets. Special seating will be reserved for disabled guests attending commencement. Sign language interpreters for hearing impaired individuals will be in section B-12 on the west side of the concourse level of the sports center. A limited number of seats will be reserved for hearing impaired guests. Reserved seats for guests who are ambulatory restricted will be available in the north and south sides of the arena. Guests in wheelchairs will be seated on the northeast corner of the arena floor. Golf carts will be located at the ramps on the exterior north and south sides of the Devaney Center to assist disabled guests.