Laura Hanzl

Recruiting Effort Enlists Undergraduate 'Ambassadors'

By Kevin Dugan, Arts & Sciences

A new opportunity for a select number of undergraduate students in the College of Arts and Sciences next semester will serve students and the college, said Laura Hanzl, recruiting coordinator.

Hanzl is implementing a Student Ambassador Program for the 1999-2000 school year. Up to eight volunteers will be selected this spring to participate. As students, ambassadors can offer a unique view of the university, the college and its programs, that will help the college convey to prospective students what it's like to be a student in Arts and Sciences, Hanzl said.

"Prospective students value what currently enrolled students have to say about their college and where it can lead them professionally. The program will play an essential role in assisting new students who are interested in Arts and Sciences with their questions and concerns," Hanzl said.

The ambassadors will participate in the program through campus and off-campus activities such as high school students' visits to campus and student recruitment fairs. A minimum of two hours per week will be spent on scheduled and informal recruitment activities. Retreats and weekly planning meetings also will be held. Besides participating in activities, ambassadors will develop leadership and communication skills. Ambassadors must be full time students with cumulative grade point averages of at least 3.0. They must be able to communicate well verbally, by telephone and in writing. They must have time to participate and be genuinely enthusiastic about the college. More information can be obtained from Hanzl at 472-6272 or at the Arts and Sciences Recruiting Office, 229 Burnett Hall. The deadline for filing an application is March 4, 1999.

Hanzl, who was named the college's first undergraduate recruiter last fall, came from Wayne State College, where she was assistant director of admissions and conducted a program similar to the ambassadors program. The Arts and Sciences ambassador program was modeled after a program in the College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources. Similar programs were recently implemented in the College of Engineering and Technology and the College of Human Resources and Family Sciences.

Hanzl said such a program is ideal for the College of Arts and Sciences, which occupies a central position as the oldest, largest and most diverse college at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

The college currently reaches most students on campus with a curriculum spanning the range of academic disciplines including the humanities, social sciences, physical and biological sciences, mathematics and computers. More than half of the credit hours completed by all undergraduates at Nebraska are taught in Arts and Sciences, and students earning degrees through the college are prepared for professional life through a broad, fundamental, education.

"The spectrum of general education classes provides students with knowledge, insights and valuable skills necessary for any career," Hanzl said.

"It's proven that if you are a graduate with a degree in one of the liberal arts, you have a tremendous amount to offer employees and your potential is nearly unlimited," she said.

NU Researchers Track Endangered Native Sturgeon in Platte River

By Vicki Miller, IANR science writer

Endangered pallid sturgeons released into the Platte River are providing clues about the habitat they need to survive and thrive in their native waters.

Pallid sturgeon were never very common in the Platte and other U.S. rivers. Only a few pallid sturgeon have been reported in the Platte in recent years and their numbers have dwindled throughout their native range. Today, they are a federally endangered species.

Ed Peters, a University of Nebraska fisheries biologist, heads a team investigating these sturgeons' movements to learn their specific habitat needs.

Last May, researchers released 74 hatchery-raised, 6-year-old pallid sturgeons weighing 3 to 6 pounds each into the lower Platte River. The Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources team surgically implanted radio transmitters in 10 fish to track their movements.

Peters and graduate students with experience in radiotelemetry-tracking fish via radio signals-monitored these sturgeons' movements throughout the summer and fall.

"Immediately after we released the fish, we were tracking where they were in the Platte River. We tracked them from the shorelines, with canoes and even in air boats," Peters said.

The fish stayed within about five miles of the stocking site, Peters said. "That was a surprise. We thought they'd disperse more."

Early results indicate the fish can survive in the Platte, Peters said.

Most pallid sturgeons don't use the Platte's deepest areas. They frequent intermediate depths in slow-moving water, Peters said. Pallid sturgeon prefer slow water adjacent to fast water.

"We think it might be for feeding purposes," he added.

"Most of the time, we found them in water 1 to 3 feet deep. That's somewhat shallower that what other studies have found," he said, though not too surprising since much of the Platte is less than 3 feet deep.

At just over a yard long, fish in Peters' study are smaller than those in some other studies. "As they get older, they may need deeper water," he said.

Otherwise, sturgeon in the Platte seem to be selecting habitats similar to fish in other studies, including their preference for slower-moving water, he said.

Researchers will fly over the Platte this winter with radio receivers in search of the fish and track them again next spring in hopes of learning about longer-term movements.

"We absolutely do not know whether or not these fish actually move out of the Platte River and return," he said. "They only way to find out is to see if we get some returns next spring."

Researchers also will use their first-year data next spring when they release and begin tracking another 15 pallid sturgeons.

There's still much to learn, such as where the fish spawn. The only known potential pallid sturgeon spawning area is in Montana's Yellowstone River, which feeds the upper Missouri River. There must be other spawning areas, Peters said, because dams along the Missouri River block downstream fish from reaching the river's upper reaches.

Platte River anglers often fish for the shovelnose sturgeon, the pallid's more common cousin, and might even hook a lake sturgeon, which is endangered in Nebraska, Peters said. Anyone who happens to catch a rare pallid sturgeon should release it immediately and report their catch to the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission. It is illegal to possess the endangered fish. Pallid sturgeon resemble the shovelnose but are a much lighter color, have smaller eyes, a longer, sharper snout and a smooth belly with no scales between the two rows of bony plates.

Any pallid sturgeon should be released even if an angler spots a radio antenna sticking out of its underside, but Peters would appreciate a call at (402) 472-6824 to let him know where such fish were caught and released.

The Nebraska research coupled with similar studies in North Dakota, Montana, Illinois and Missouri should produce a clearer picture of pallid sturgeon movements and needs. Results will help the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service determine how best to reestablish the pallid sturgeon nationwide. The ultimate goal is to rebuild the pallid sturgeon's population enough to remove it from the endangered species list.

"Reestablishing the pallid sturgeon is definitely part of everyone's goal," Peters said.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service funds this IANR Agricultural Research Division research.

Peters will discuss this and other research during a presentation, "Development of Habitat Suitability Criteria for Platte River Fish Species," March 3 at 3 p.m. in 116 LW Chase Hall on UNL's East Campus. His lecture is part of the 1999 Water Resources Seminar, "Spotlighting Water Research." Lectures are Wednesdays through April 28, except March 10 and 17. For seminar information or to obtain videotapes of lectures, contact the UNL Water Center/Environmental Programs at (402) 472-3305 or e-mail sress@unl.edu. The seminar is sponsored by the Water Center/Environmental Program, School of Natural Resources, IANR and UNL.

Q&A Addresses Senior Lecturer Title Addition

Last year the Board of Regents approved a new title, Senior Lecturer, as part of the university's list of faculty titles. They did so upon recommendation from the UNL campus, based on a proposal made by Senior Vice Chancellor Richard Edwards and negotiated with the Academic Senate Executive Committee. Departments began using this new title this year. Academic Senate President Gail Latta posed the following questions concerning the introduction of this title to Edwards.

Latta: What was the motivation for creating the Senior Lecturer position?

Edwards: There were several immediate reasons. First, we had a number of long-serving, excellent instructors who had been hired in "temporary" positions; they never could be sure from year to year whether they would be rehired for the next year, and also they did not receive full benefits as temporary employees. We believed that we should recognize their contributions to the university and ensure that they received an appropriate contract. Second, there was wide-and unfair-variation across the campus in titles, benefits and treatment, and so we wanted to try to bring some greater equity to these positions.

But more broadly, the university should have an esteemed, faculty-rank title to recognize people who make truly outstanding contributions to the university but who, for whatever reason, are not the right fit for tenure-track positions. Let me give you a couple of examples from other universities: At Cornell, Katherine Gottschalk, a University of Chicago Ph.D., is Senior Lecturer and Director of Freshman Writing Seminars. At Harvard, Roger Stoddard, a literature scholar in his own right and Curator of Rare Books at the Harvard College Library, is a Senior Lecturer: David Foster, a biologist and Director of the Harvard Forest (an internationally-renowned ecology research site), is Senior Lecturer. These schools have similarly accomplished Senior Lecturers in English, Astronomy, Computer Science and other departments.

At other universities as well, Senior Lecturer is recognized as a status reserved for people of substantial accomplishment and significant contribution. Now, not every Senior Lecturer needs to be at this Olympian level of achievement, but we do have a number of high-achieving people at UNL who deserve an appropriately distinguished title to recognize them.

Latta: Couldn't these goals have been accomplished without creating a new title?

Edwards: No, I don't believe they could have, or at least not as fully.

Latta: Why is it important to distinguish between the titles assigned to tenure-track and non-tenure-track faculty? Why has this become a concern at this time?

Edwards: The principal concern is to ensure greater equity among non-tenure-track faculty across the campus. We are always torn between the need to avoid disparate treatment of individuals who work in different units on campus and the equally compelling need to provide those widely varying units with sufficient flexibility to make their programs successful.

The immediate matter that brought this issue to the fore was provision of benefits. A fair amount of actual disparity of treatment-though treatment strictly in accord with the old rules-had developed over time.

Latta: Have all non-tenure-track assistant professors been re-titled Senior Lecturers, or just those in teaching positions? What about non-tenure-track research assistant professors? Why are they different?

Edwards: No. The actual process is a little different from what your question suggests. What we have done is added the Senior Lecturer title and clarified the rules for the Lecturer position. We then asked departments to make sure that their appointments are consistent with the new guidelines for appointment. We had individuals in about ten or a dozen different non-tenure-track appointment categories - instructor, visiting assistant professor, assistant professor, lecturer, visiting instructor, and so on - who were all doing similar work but carried different titles, depending upon which departments they worked in; in some cases, the variation even occurred within the same department.

Some individuals' qualifications or assignments are more appropriate to Lecturer status, and as part of this process we clarified that Lecturers can be on renewable contracts of one to three years. This makes possible giving Lecturers, again many of whom have been extremely important contributors to departmental programs, greater job security.

Both the "research" and "extension" appointments categories-for example, research assistant professor or extension associate professor-are reserved for appointments where funding for the position comes primarily from grants or other extramural funds. We rarely face this situation on the teaching side.

Latta: You say that at many institutions, the title "Senior Lecturer" connotes more status than "Assistant Professor," because it is not an entry-level position. Yet at UNL, we do not have a culture that reinforces this interpretation, and many affected faculty feel that they have lost status as a result of their title change. What can we do to address the concerns of those affected, and the disruption this has caused in our academic community?

Edwards: "Senior Lecturer" connotes someone, as I have said, of substantial accomplishment and responsibility - in that sense, it reflects a different status, a status more attuned to someone who has already attained accomplishment and responsibility, not, as in the case of assistant professors, someone at the beginning of his or her career. I believe that both Karl Polyani and Barrington Moore, two of the greatest social theorists of the century, were Senior Lecturers, "assistant professor" would fit rather uneasily with those names!

I do believe that we need to build into our campus culture a stronger recognition of and celebration of outstanding achievements-by whomever they are made, and in whatever area of the university's activities or mission. I hope this helps us move in that direction.

Latta: 1 understand that the current guidelines do not permit Senior Lecturers to be members of the Graduate Faculty, but that many non-tenure-track assistant professors previously were members. What is being done to rectify this situation?

Edwards: Clearly Senior Lecturers should be eligible for graduate faculty status, accepted into that status on a case-by-case basis as other faculty. Frankly, we need to get this fixed as quickly as possible. We never intended to have this restriction, as should be clear from the way I described Senior Lecturer status earlier. Dean Merlin Lawson and the Graduate Council recommended some time ago that this be fixed, and I believe that the system-wide Executive Graduate Council will soon be sending out a ballot to graduate faculty members to approve the change. It would be terribly wrong and wasteful if we do not extend the possibility of graduate faculty status to Senior Lecturers.

Latta: Many other opportunities that used to be available to non-tenure-track assistant professors such as funding through the Teaching Council and the Teaching, Learning, & Technology Roundtable, must be rewritten as well, if they are to remain available to Senior Lecturers. What factors should these organizations consider in deciding whether their resources are meant to he extended to Senior Lecturers?

Edwards: I understand that the Teaching Council, in its Fall, 1998 call for proposals, already added Senior Lecturers to those eligible for awards. I applaud this, and would hope that they might be available not only to Senior Lecturers but also to Lecturers - at least those, say, on longer than one-year contracts. As a campus, we have a huge stake in both recognizing current efforts and encouraging further efforts of Lecturers and Senior Lecturers in building the quality of our programs. For example, because we have clarified that Lecturers can be appointed on renewable contracts of one to three years, we enhance their ability to plan and develop curriculum. Before, in effect we said to them through their contract, "don't plan any improvements beyond the current semester or year, because you may or may not have a job." Thank goodness, many ignored this implicit message and made-and continue to make-important contributions that look to future academic years, for example in curriculum. I hope the support organizations like the Teaching Council will take this into account.

Latta: The nature of the guidelines for the new Senior Lecturer title makes it possible for departments to shift faculty lines which are currently tenure-track, to non-tenure-track lines in the future. Concern for this potentiality was discussed with administration last spring, before the guidelines were finalized last summer. Why were the suggestions for altering the guidelines to prevent this unintended use of the Senior Lecturer title not accepted? What is administration doing currently to prevent the misuse of the Senior Lecturer title to eliminate tenure-track faculty lines?

Edwards: My recollection of those discussions is a little different from what the question suggests, but let's confront the root issue: Are we cutting tenure-track lines and substituting non-tenure-track lines? There are two parts to the answer. First, creating the Senior Lecturer position does not create any new opportunity to do so; we already had the Lecturer title, and anything nefarious now possible could have been done before using the pre-existing title and rules. In fact, altering the balance between tenure-track and non-tenure-track played no part in our thinking. Second, it's possible some misguided administrator may abuse the new title, but that is not what is intended, and in any event the proof is in the data. Let's not worry about hypotheticals; we've reported fully on what our tenure/non-tenure ratio is, and the campus can see the numbers. People want to extrapolate from national trends to the campus, but we have the campus numbers, so let's just look at them. It turns out that the campus has had a remarkably constant number of tenured/tenure-track lines over the last decade, with some ups and downs, but we are right now-just about where we started the decade.