Promotion and Tenure reception April 29

Faculty earning tenure and or promotion in rank will be honored at a reception beginning at 6 p.m. April 29 in the lobby of Hardin Hall, 33rd and Holdrege streets. Reception hosts are John Owens, NU vice president and vice chancellor for IANR, Barbara Couture, senior vice chancellor for academic affairs; and Harvey Perlman, chancellor.

The following will be honored:

College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources
Julie Albrecht, Nutrition and Health Sciences, promoted to professor.
Joseph Barycki, Biochemistry, tenured and promoted to associate professor.
Mark Burbach, School of Natural Resources, promoted to associate geoscientist.
Rhae Drijber, Agronomy and Horticulture, promoted to professor.
David Dunigan, Plant Pathology, promoted to research associate professor.
Patricia Fairchild, 4-H and Youth Development, Department of Agricultural Leadership, Education and Communication, promoted to professor.
F. Edwin Harvey, School of Natural Resources, promoted to professor.
Suat Irmak, Biological Systems Engineering, tenured and promoted to associate professor.
Scott Josiah, School of Natural Resources, promoted to professor.
Timothy Kettler, Agronomy and Horticulture, promoted to assistant professor of practice.
Richard Koelsch, Biological Systems Engineering and UNL Extension, promoted to professor.
David Lambe, Agronomy and Horticulture, promoted to assistant professor of practice.
Darrell Mark, Agricultural Economics, tenured and promoted to associate professor.
Mark Pegg, School of Natural Resources, tenured and promoted to associate professor.
Melanie Simpson, Biochemistry, tenured and promoted to associate professor.
Madhavan Soundararajan, Biochemistry, promoted to professor of practice.
Julie Stone, Biochemistry, tenured and promoted to associate professor.
Richard Sutton, Agronomy and Horticulture, promoted to professor.
Kim Todd, Agronomy and Horticulture, tenured and promoted to associate professor.
Jerry Volesky, West Central Research and Extension Center/Agronomy and Horticulture, promoted to professor.
David Wedin, School of Natural Resources, promoted to professor.
Thomas Weissling, Entomology, promoted to associate professor of practice.
Amalia Yiannaka, Agricultural Economics, tenured and promoted to associate professor.

College of Architecture
Martin Despang, Architecture, tenured and promoted to associate professor.
Patricia Morgado, Architecture, tenured and promoted to associate professor.

College of Arts and Sciences
Shireen Adenwalla, Physics and Astronomy, tenured.
Grace Bauer, English, promoted to professor.
Daniel Claes, Physics and Astronomy, promoted to professor.
Stephen DiMagno, Chemistry, promoted to professor.
Janice Dowell, Philosophy, tenured and promoted to associate professor.
Kwakiutl Dreher, English and Ethnic Studies, tenured and promoted to associate professor.
Chris Gallagher, English, promoted to professor.
Jose Guevara, Modern Languages and Literatures, tenured and promoted to associate professor.
Andrew Graybill, History, tenured and promoted to associate professor.
Lawrence Harshman, School of Biological Sciences, promoted to professor.
Marie-Chantal Kalisa, Modern Languages and Literatures, tenured and promoted to associate professor.
Thomas Lynch, English, tenured and promoted to associate professor.
Victoria Smith, History and Ethnic Studies, tenured and promoted to associate professor.
Gregory Snow, Physics and Astronomy, promoted to professor.
Witawas Srisa-an, Computer Science and Engineering, tenured and promoted to associate professor.
David Woodman, Biological Sciences, promoted to professor of practice.

College of Business Administration
Hendrik van den Berg, Economics, promoted to professor.

College of Education and Human Sciences
Eric Buhs, Educational Psychology, tenured and promoted to associate professor.
Merilee McCurdy, Educational Psychology, tenured and promoted to associate professor.
J. Ronald Nelson, Special Education, tenured and promoted to professor.
Guy Trainin; Teaching, Learning and Teacher Education, tenured and promoted to associate professor.
Kathleen Wilson; Teaching, Learning and Teacher Education, tenured and promoted to associate professor.

College of Engineering
Sina Balkir, Electrical Engineering, promoted to professor.
Stuart Bernstein, Construction Systems, tenured and promoted to associate professor.
Steve Goddard, Computer Science and Engineering, promoted to professor.
Michael Hoffman, Electrical Engineering, promoted to professor.
Dongming Peng, Computer and Electronics Engineering, tenured and promoted to associate professor.
Christopher Tuan, Civil Engineering, promoted to professor.
Zhaoyan Zhang, Mechanical Engineering, tenured and promoted to associate professor.

Hixson-Lied College of Fine and Performing Arts
Paul Barnes, School of Music, promoted to professor.
William Shomos, School of Music, promoted to professor.
Francisco Souto, Art and Art History, tenured and promoted to associate professor.

College of Journalism and Mass Communications
Frauke Hachtmann, tenured and promoted to associate professor.
Joseph Starita, promoted to professor.

College of Law
Susan Poser, promoted to professor.

UNL Extension
Kim Bearnes, Northeast Research and Extension Center, promoted to associate extension educator.
Gail Brand, Southeast Research and Extension Center, promoted to extension educator.
Jill Heemstra, Northeast Research and Extension Center, promoted to associate extension educator.
Kayla Hinrichs, Northeast Research and Extension Center, promoted to associate extension educator.
Lisa Kaslon, Northeast Research and Extension Center, promoted to associate extension educator.
Clyde Ogg, Agronomy and Horticulture, promoted to associate extension educator.
Gary Stauffer, Northeast Research and Extension Center, promoted to extension educator.
Monte Stauffer, Southeast Research and Extension Center, promoted to extension educator.
Steve Tonn, Southeast Research and Extension Center, promoted to extension educator.
Ruth Vonderohe, Northeast Research and Extension Center, promoted to associate extension educator.

ACE course certification reviews begin June 2

Since the university wide approval of Achievement-Centered Education (ACE) general education program at the beginning of the spring semester, faculty have been busy preparing to implement the program. In late February, deans of each undergraduate college named faculty leaders to two teams, Course Facilitators and Interim ACE (IACE). Course Facilitators are assisting faculty with the submission process. The IACE committee is charged with certifying the initial set of ACE courses. Both groups have been attending weekly meetings to gain a common vocabulary and the tools to help faculty create the initial set of courses for ACE.

Course Facilitators and the IACE committee are currently working with faculty in their constituent units. Concurrently, Todd Jensen, New Media Director, Information Services, has been working with programmer Tim Steiner to create an online course submission system that integrates course approval and ACE certification capabilities. The system is operational, and faculty can now submit their requests at courseapproval.unl.edu.

Consideration of the initial set of courses for ACE certification by the IACE committee begins June 2. Faculty who are submitting courses that do not require University Curriculum Committee action (those courses without changes to title, description, hours or prerequisites) are encouraged to submit their courses by the June 2 deadline. Target dates for all courses including those needing UCC action as well as those that do not are Aug. 15, Sept. 15 and Oct. 15. The Interim ACE committee urges faculty to submit their courses early to ensure that the courses will be included in the set of courses offered when ACE is implemented in the fall 2009 semester.

The ACE team is making resources available for those wishing to know more about ACE and the submission process. The ACE web site (ace.unl.edu) is populated with the ACE program documents, minutes for ACE meetings, contact information for IACE team leaders and Course Facilitators, a chart showing course approval paths, a one-page summary about ACE, guidelines/rubrics for each learning outcome, deadlines, FAQs and a link to the course approval submission page. It will soon have examples of courses that the IACE team endorses and other resources, including those relating to assessment issues, as the program builds.

Implementing ACE is a work in progress. Many questions are yet to be answered. As decisions are made and issues resolved, faculty and staff will be informed. Communication with the campus is a top priority for the ACE team. In addition to putting information on the web site, Nancy Mitchell, interim director of general education, has communicated with a variety of key audiences and will continue to do so. Anyone with questions should consult ace.unl.edu or contact Mitchell, one of the ACE Course Facilitators, or an IACE member. Again, requests for ACE certification may be submitted at courseapproval.unl.edu.

Faculty Database project under way

UNL is in the early stages of launching a new faculty database. This web-based application, called Activity Insight, will allow UNL to more easily collect and aggregate data about faculty scholarship, research and outreach, according to Ron Roeber, associate vice chancellor for academic affairs. In short, it's a program that will make it very easy for faculty to update their curriculum vitae and quickly and easily provide information to others about their scholarship.

UNL has collected this data in some fashion for many years, he said, but this new system will streamline that process and allow easier access.

Academic Affairs is exploring options that will ease migration to the new database, Roeber said.

"We do not want to overly burden faculty with data entry activities," Roeber said.

The goal is to minimize the impact on faculty who will need to input their materials into the system. The software will incorporate as much data as is possible from existing data sources like research reports, he said.

UNL purchased the Activity Insight software from a Wisconsin-based company, Digital Measures (www.digitalmeasures.com). Roeber said Activity Insight is a secure, reliable way for faculty to manage and report their research, teaching and service activities. More than 500 colleges and universities use this system, according to Digital Measures' web site.

Once data is collected, Roeber said, custom reports can be prepared for a variety of uses, such as assessment, accreditation, legislative requests or other needs.

This new database is similar to the system known as E-ARFA used by IANR, Hixson-Lied College of Fine and Performing Arts and the College of Education and Human Sciences.

The new product may prove to be less costly than E-ARFA, Roeber said.

"Digital Measures has a good track record of continuing to update and add functionalities based on suggestions from their clients," he said. Because it's a growing business (it was started by a student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison), the development costs are borne by all its institutional clients and improvements can be implemented less expensively than using an in-house product, Roeber said.

Plans call to implement the change-over college by college over a three-to-five year time frame, Roeber said.

Academic Affairs is developing a plan to help to input faculty data from vitae and other sources, into the secure web-based system to reduce the burden on the time of faculty and support staff. Once historical data is entered, faculty update as necessary. A translation program is being developed to more easily migrate E-ARFA materials into the system.

Roeber said his office will work with each college to customize the software to meet specific needs. The office of the senior vice chancellor is looking at ways to provide clerical support to enter information into the Activity Insight database, he said.

A long-range goal is to integrate this database with others, such as SIS or the NUgrant database.

"Faculty should not have to enter data if it already exists somewhere else," Roeber said.

Consulting group will report on UNL diversity efforts May 12

Since fall 2007, UNL has contracted with a national consulting firm, The Advisory Board, which is advising a consortium of AAU research universities on a variety of topics identified by Chief Academic Officers as the most important challenges facing the academy.

The Advisory Board, which has existed since 1979, has a track record of advising hospitals and health care institutions, including UNMC. Last fall, it launched a new arm of its business -- advising higher education, specifically research universities.

The Advisory Board provides research reports on the issues identified as critical by the chief academic officers of the consortium members. The reports focus on best practices that lead to success.

The Advisory Board met with the chief academic officers in the consortium, and developed four priority topics. Those topics are: 1) how to increase diversity among students and faculty; 2) how to more fully demonstrate the value of higher education to various publics; 3) how to sustain research excellence; and 4) how to respond to upcoming issues.

The first report completed by The Advisory Board addresses ways to recruit and retain a diverse faculty. In the fall, Senior Vice Chancellor Barbara Couture and IANR Vice Chancellor John Owens surveyed chairs and heads to identify UNL-specific programs, strategies, challenges and recent successes in diversifying applicant pools and in hiring and retaining women and/or people of color. The Advisory Board also interviewed about 15 faculty and administrators to get their input as to challenges faced by UNL. This information, specific to UNL, has been incorporated into the report's recommendations.

Representatives from The Advisory Board will visit campus May 12 and present the results of their research to campus administration and to deans, chairs and heads at a workshop that afternoon. Couture, Owens and Chancellor Perlman are encouraging all UNL deans, department chairs and heads to attend this important workshop.

UNL will continue to host AAU Data Exchange

UNL will continue serving as host institution for the Association of American Universities Data Exchange through June 2012. Rebecca Carr, senior analyst in Academic Affairs, will continue as national coordinator of the organization. In addition, the organization held its annual meeting in Lincoln on April 21-23.

The AAU (Association of American Universities) is an organization of 62 research universities such as UNL, Harvard, Yale, MIT, Texas, Michigan and Stanford. The AAU Data Exchange is a consortium of the institutional research officers of these institutions. Its primary purpose is to collect, exchange and report information useful in the management and planning of the institutions.

The data collected and stored in the data exchange is primarily information reported to other agencies such as the National Center for Education Statistics and organizations such as the National Science Foundation and the American Association of University Professors. It also includes standard metrics such as retention and graduation rates. This information is collected in a data warehouse at MIT and is for the exclusive use of the exchange members.

By collaborating, AAUDE member institutions enjoy much shorter turn-around times, more flexibility in using the information, avoiding duplication of similar data, and providing much larger data samples that can be useful to members. As a member, UNL benefits by earning recognition for good service, and is able to use the data to inform institutional decisions.

UNL was first named the host institution in July 1, 2004. In October 2007, UNL submitted a proposal to continue serving as host AAUDE. Members of the selection committee and the AAUDE governing council were enthusiastic in their decision to have UNL continue as the host site.

The role of AAUDE on the national stage has expanded in the past few years. AAUDE members played a key role in reviewing and critiquing the Assessment of Research Doctorate Programs conducted by the National Research Council.
In addition, because of the increased attention to accountability in higher education, the AAU established an Institutional Data Committee that recommended that all AAU institutions collect and report data on undergraduate retention and completion rates (corrected for student transfers), undergraduate time-to-degree, cost calculators, and post-graduation outcomes. The committee included AAUDE members and the organization will be key to the successful implementation of these recommendations.

 

4th Round of ITLE focuses on student writing

Recipients of the Year 4 Initiative for Teaching and Learning Excellence grants were recognized March 11. This year's initiative focused on projects aimed at helping students write better.

Announced in 2004 and launched in 2005, the Initiative has awarded 53 competitive grants to projects designed by UNL faculty and staff, all aimed toward improving some facet of undergraduate teaching or learning on the UNL campus. More than $900,000 has been committed to the 53 funded projects.

To read about this year's recipients, click the urls (web addresses) below or go to the March 6 edition of the Scarlet online

A Comprehensive Plan for Improving Writing Skills

Fostering Faculty and Teaching Assistant Development as Writing Instructors

Improving Writing in History Survey Courses

Redesigning Business Communications Courses to Strengthen Writing Outcomes

Teaching Real-Life Writing Skills: A Food Science Blog

Writing in the Design Disciplines

Information Services and academic priorities under review

In his 2007 State of the University Address, Chancellor Perlman announced his intention to seek independent, external analysis to examine how information technology is currently serving the UNL campus and its mission:

"I believe it is a propitious time for us to take a careful look at our information technology, particularly with regard to how we are serving the campus, how we manage competing demands, and how we pay for these services," he said. "We need a master plan --one that builds upon but is not driven by the current accretion of activities that has occurred haphazardly in response to accelerating technological change. Over the course of the year, I intend to seek outside assistance to help us objectively think through these important and very complex issues. I will assure you that the entire campus community will have input on these matters."

UNL has engaged The Advisory Board, a Washington, D.C.-based firm, to assist in this effort. The Advisory Board sought out the main issues facing comparable institutions and provided a series of broad strategies and best practices that our peers have found effective. These suggestions are now under review by Information Services directors, the UNL senior administrative team, UNL deans, and the Faculty Computing and Facilities Committee. The FCFC has also produced a report expressing faculty concerns about academic computing, which is under review by our colleges and departments.

With campus input, UNL will develop a long-range vision for how information services should be delivered to best meet academic priorities. The Office of Academic Affairs is working in concert with Business and Finance and IANR to develop a process for responding to the reports of the Advisory Board and the Faculty Computing and Facilities Committee as they will contribute to this vision.

The process should be finalized by the beginning of fall semester 2008 and more news about these activities will be shared with the campus at that time.

Programs of Excellence yield returns on investment

In 2007, UNL invested about $6.8 million in Programs of Excellence. The return on investment has been impressive. UNL's Programs of Excellence activities generated more than $28.6 million in external grant funding, resulted in 18 faculty hires and produced 630 scholarly publications during 2007. Since launching in POE in 2002, UNL has identified 31 programs.

Heavy hitters in 2007 include Atomic, Molecular, Optical and Plasma Physics, which now houses the DIOCLES laser; the Nebraska Center for Virology; the Redox Biology Center; the Center for Children, Youth, Families and Schools; and Nanoscale Science and Technology.

Several programs directly impact undergraduate education, including support for Enhancing Undergraduate Education; support for the UNL Honors Program; and support for the Visual Literacy program. Nearly 1,400 students took courses supported by POE funding.

To read the 2007 annual report, visit www.unl.edu/svcaa/poe/.