UNO Alum - Fall 2005 by UNO Magazine

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Fall 2005

Standing tall with Sierra

Grad Lisa Renstrom takes the reins of the Sierra Club

Details next page

Contents Fall 2005

Cover photo by Chris Keane

UNO Homecoming

Durango says don’t miss

Saturday, Oct. 15, 11 a.m.

Kids 12 & Under Eat, Attend Game for FREE!!

Pre-game picnic/ tailgate party at the UNO’s Sapp Fieldhouse

1 p.m.

UNO vs. Augustana Al F. Caniglia Field

11 a.m. - 1 p.m.

• The Mavs commence their whipping, looking for their ninth win in the past 10 homecoming games.

RETURN FORM BY Oct. 7!

IS&T

10-14

Education

Meeting speech pathologist need.

CPACS

16-17

Goodrich marks 1,000th grad.

C-CFAM

All that for just $10 for adults. Kids 12 & under (of alumni) attend and eat for free!!!! Price includes ticket to the game, food & beverages.

18-21

Cover Story Page 28

Features On the cover: Standing tall with Sierra

Larry Boersma receives the Sierra Club’s Ansel Adams award for conservation photography.

Sally Ganem takes up residence in the Nebraska Governor’s Mansion.

31 Opening Doors

Maria Vazquez makes opportunities for herself— and others—with Metropolitan Community College.

UNO Soccer Coach Don Klosterman has the Mavs in pursuit of another national championship.

Association Departments

Reserve me ____ adult tickets at $10 each and ____ free children’s tickets! I have enclosed $ ____ for the tickets. Make checks payable to UNO Alumni Association

____________________________________________________________________________________________

Picture Purrrfect

Special K

Zip_____________

Names for Name Tags__________________________________________________________ (please include children’s names and ages)

Merger

Alumni Association in Action

Class Notes

34 See who’s doing what and where. w w w. u n o a l u m n i . o r g

Editor: Anthony Flott Contributors: Sonja Carberry, John Fey, Tim Fitzgerald, Eric Francis, Warren Francke, Chris Keane, Tom McMahon, Nick Schinker, Shelly Steig.

UNO alum Lisa Renstrom takes over the presidency of the 750,000-member Sierra Club.

Nebraska’s First Lady

Phone___________________________ State_________

The College of Fine Arts and School of Communication merge to form C-CFAM.

Sign us up for UNO Homecoming 2005!!!

City__________________________________________________

6-9

IT Pioneer still shaping the future.

Faculty at work overseas.

To attend, fill out the form below and mail with your check to: UNO Alumni Association, 60th & Dodge, Omaha, NE 68182. For more info call toll-free UNO-MAV-ALUM (866-628-2586) or e-mail sking@mail.unomaha.edu

Name__________________________________________________

Arts & Sciences

Students learn while serving.

oin us for food, fun and freebies at UNO Homecoming 2005 on Saturday, Oct. 15. Kids 12 & under of alumni attend FREE!!! Here’s the lineup: • Free Mav Tattoos for the kids • Mav Coach Pat Behrns delivers a rousing pep talk! • UNO Mascot Durango • Amazing Arthur and his magic, juggling and balloon animals.

College Pages

Alumni Association Officers: Chairman of the Board, Adrian Minks; Past Chairman, Stephen Bodner; Chairman-elect Mike Kudlacz; Vice Chairmen, Cookie Katskee, Rod Oberle, Kevin Warneke, John Wilson; Secretary, Angelo Passerelli; Treasurer, Dan Koraleski; Legal Counsel, Deb McLarney; President & CEO, Jim Leslie. Alumni Staff: Jim Leslie, President and CEO; Roxanne Miller, Executive Secretary; Sue Gerding, Diane Osborne, Kathy Johnson, Records/Alumni Cards; Sheila King, Activities Coordinator; Greg Trimm, Alumni Center Manager; Joan Miller, Accountant; Anthony Flott, Editor; Loretta Wirth, Receptionist. The UNO Alum is published quarterly by the UNO Alumni Association, W.H. Thompson Alumni Center, UNO, Omaha, NE 68182-0010, (402) 554-2444, FAX (402) 554-3787 • web address: www.unoalumni.org • Member, Council for the Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) • Direct all inquiries to Editor, W.H. Thompson Alumni Center, (402) 554-2989. Toll-free, UNOMAV-ALUM • email: aflott@mail.unomaha.edu • Send all changes of address to attention of Records • Views expressed through various articles within the magazine do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the University of Nebraska at Omaha or the UNO Alumni Association.

Fall 2005 • 3

Chancellor

An institution of first choice

s the long days of summer draw to a close and an academic year begins, there is an unmistakable metamorphosis taking place on campus. The early morning air is filled with the sounds of the marching band practicing on the field. The plaza is alive with students, conversation and laughter. Classrooms and laboratories take on new life. And everywhere you look, lives are being changed and dreams realized. It’s another great fall semester on the UNO campus! As we begin our 97th year, we welcome a record number of 1,900 freshmen, bringing our total enrollment to just fewer than 15,000, a slight gain compared to last fall. The College of Arts and Sciences boasts the largest undergraduate enrollment, followed by Business then Education. More than 2,700 students are enrolled in graduate degree programs. So how might we describe the “average” UNO freshman? Generalizations are difficult, but research does provide some insight: • They most likely are a Nebraska resident (93%) between the ages of 18-24 (79%). • They reside in Douglas or Sarpy County (64%). • The had an average high school grade-point average of 3.34 and were ranked in the upper half of their graduating class. Their average ACT score was 23.4, the highest in UNO’s history. Their high school graduating class was less than 400 students (69%). • UNO was their first choice for college (73%), and they’ll return for their sophomore year (72%). • Most of their classes at UNO will have less than 30 students (62%), and will be taught by full-time faculty (68%) who hold a doctorate or other terminal degree (87%). UNO is proud to be the institution of choice for our incoming freshmen and all of our students. We know the marketplace is competitive and students have many choices available to them. That’s why everyday, we focus on creating an environment that is student-centered, academically excellent, and with opportunities for community engagement, like service learning and internships. Here’s to the start of another exciting and fulfilling academic year! Until next time,

Campus SCENE

Photo by Tim Fitzgerald

Set, Hut: Pads were popping, whistles were blowing and coaches were yelling as the UNO football team began fall practices Aug. 4. The Mavericks won the North Central Conference title last season with an 8-3 record but failed to qualify for the playoffs. The return of 19 starters has the Mavs hoping for their first postseason appearance since 2001.

UNO Football Schedule Home games in red

Aug 27 Sep 3 Sep 10 Sep 24 Oct 1 Oct 8 Oct 15 Oct 22 Oct 29 Nov 5

2005

Letter from the

Nebraska-Kearney Northwest Missouri State Central Washington South Dakota Oklahoma Panhandle State Minnesota Duluth Augustana* St. Cloud State North Dakota Minnesota State, Mankato

* Homecoming

4 • Fall 2005

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Fall 2005 • 5

College of

Arts & Sciences

IT pioneer Kerrigan still shaping the future

A Star is Reborn: Mallory Kountze Planetarium

he 1970s saw the first microprocessor, the first

Tfloppy disk, the Apple II, the Tandy Radio Shack

TSR-80, the evolution of the CP-M operating system and Ethernet networking, the birth of the first software worm and the first ATM. Though many people remained merrily oblivious to this information technology locomotive then gaining steam, Patrick Kerrigan climbed aboard for the wild ride, then helped steer the course. He began his journey in 1973, shortly after graduating from the College of Arts and Sciences with a double major in mathematics and physics. Initially, Kerrigan worked for First Data Resources as a COBOL programmer. Then it was on to Burroughs Corporation (now Unisys) as a technical representative. In 1977 he became the first employee and software developer for Information Kerrigan, center, and Mathematics Chair Jack Heidel, right, presented the Technology Inc. of Lincoln, Neb. inaugural Kerrigan Fund for Teaching Excellence in Mathematics award to Dr. “After I was in IT [information technology] for Valentin Matache (left). three years, which would be a year into my third job, I began to appreciate the leveraging power of softsions through generous donations to the departments of ware and how much control it could be used to exert mathematics and physics. Through the University of over an enterprise,” Kerrigan recalls. Nebraska Foundation Kerrigan recently established the Today, more than one-third of U.S. banks depend on Kerrigan Fund for Teaching Excellence in Mathematics to software systems developed by Information Technology. award exemplary teaching. The inaugural award was preThe company has grown to 700 employees in Lincoln, sented to Dr. Valentin Matache, who also coordinates 200 in Sioux Falls, S.D., and 30 in Birmingham, Ala. Kerrigan’s mini-grant research program that encourages Though Kerrigan ended his formal career with (and pays) students to pursue mathematical research Information Technology in 1999 when he retired as chief projects with faculty members of the mathematics operating officer, he stays involved with the company. department. “For six years now I have done special projects at ITI “I am honestly tickled by the projects taken on by the on a ‘less-official’ basis,” he says. “For about half of the students,” Kerrigan wrote. “I think good habits are contatime this summer I have been teaching my self-styled gious, but require exposure. And it is easier to enjoy ‘Management Best Practices’ course to the company’s top learning when everybody around you is positive about it. 70 managers.” The math faculty I have met seem very interactive with Kerrigan continues to help shape the future, only now the students, which can only take the students to the next through his philanthropic ventures. level. That includes furthering teaching and research mis“It makes me want to go to school again.”

Exposure to ‘The best’ A

sked to reflect on his time at UNO, Patrick Kerrigan provided the following observations: “When I went through UNO, I was on a bit of a mission to simply graduate. By the time I was graduating, I really felt maybe a little like I had shortchanged myself because there was not

6 • Fall 2005

time for more of all the courses. “It would not have taken too many more courses to minor in German, which Professors Thill and Jung made very understandable and enjoyable. I included physics as the second half of a double major quite simply because I came into contact with the enthusiasm of Dr. Jack Kasher teaching an introductory (and required for math) physics course. I think I can credit the

required English courses (especially contemporary novel taught by Harvey Leavitt) with my lifelong enjoyment of reading. I was never able to squeeze in a history class (and had only one semester in high school), but I credit a survey course in the history of journalism and the desire to read that have made me so interested in biographies. “Thirty years ago, I got an excellent education at UNO.

With the expanded and enhanced facilities now available and the excellent quality of the faculty that I have had the privilege to meet, I repeat that it would be great to go to school here again. It seems that because UNO has even its best faculty teaching some of the introductory courses, maybe that is the spirit of UNO. You didn’t have to wait years to be exposed to the best.” UNOALUM

he worn seats and tired carpet below testify to the

Thundreds of thousands of visitors who have gazed into the Mallory Kountze Planetarium heavens above. Eighteen years of dust dull its 33-foot dome, and what once was cutting-edge multimedia technology now is tired and cantankerous. Still, there is magic in this place for the faculty and staff of UNO’s physics department who have managed and promoted the planetarium since it opened in 1987. So, too, for the myriad elementary and secondary students who here have taken field trips through time and space. Beginning this fall, though, this UNO star is being reborn. The planetarium is undergoing an extensive overhaul thanks to funding from the Gilbert M. and Martha H. Hitchcock Foundation, Sarah and Sean Suiter, Frank and Shirley Hartranft and other friends of UNO. Assistance also is coming from the University of Nebraska Foundation. Perhaps the most impressive improvement will be the addition of the Spitz ATM 4 system, which will bring the planetarium into the digital age both in terms of show production and equipment control. The previous control console had its panels removed and sent for repair and upgrade. The new system and its software package will improve show quality while also reducing the labor required to produce the shows. Previously, images often were produced by superimposing multiple images with multiple projectors. The new software automatically performs the superimposing and allows for a single projection. This reduces the need for many of the projectors formerly required. Other significant changes include repairs and updates to the Spitz 512 starfield projector, the heart of the planetarium. The projector includes latitudinal, daily, annual and precessional motions for demonstration of various celestial phenomena. It also projects more than 2,000 stars and planets, and the entire instrument may be turned in azimuth rotation (360-degree). The 8-foot tall projector is lowered and raised via a special elevator to allow the planetarium to serve multiple purposes. New video materials will be purchased and supplementary LCD projectors will replace many of the dozens of slide and strip projectors. Technology costs during the update are estimated at $85,000, with an annual maintenance cost of w w w. u n o a l u m n i . o r g

$5,000 to $10,000. Another $20,000 is estimated for cleaning of the dome and replacement of the carpet and seating. The work is the first major update to the planetarium since it opened. The planetarium originally was funded by The Hitchcock Foundation in memory of foundation President Mallory Kountze, who died in 1984. The tribute, designed to educate students about our “last frontier,” befits this descendent of one of Omaha's pioneering families. For many years since, the planetarium’s public shows have featured prominently in regional travel guides and on many lists of important things to see in Omaha. The planetarium’s new and improved look should debut starting with spring semester 2006, when it hosts about 500 students enrolled in UNO astronomy classes. It also will continue serving area elementary and secondary schools and the general public.

Photo by Tim Fitzgerald, University Relations

Fall 2005 • 7

College of

Arts & Sciences

Bioinformatics major a window to understanding life he slippery gooiness of biology,” says Dr. Geoffrey Dixon of Brandeis University, “is a consequence of its incredible complexity, consisting as it does of complex systems based upon chemistry. “And chemistry obeys the rules of physics, which exists because of, and is consequently best described by, mathematics. Mathematics is the ur-fluid of reality (gad, how poetic), and our symbolic attempts to represent mathematics have given us windows through which our mushy gray matter can peer, and with which this same mushy gray matter becomes altered, and we call this alteration understanding (a frequently generous appellation).” A critical tool for building these windows to understanding, scientists have discovered, is information technology. Toward that end, the College of Arts and Sciences and the College of Information Science and Technology have teamed to create bioinformatics, a new major born from the synergism of biology, mathematics, chemistry and information technology. The program begins this fall with 30 students—a figure expected to grow quickly in the coming years. In addition to receiving a liberal arts foundation, students completing a bioinformatics degree will complete a minimum of 21 hours of information science and technology, 20 hours of mathematics, 16 hours of biology, 20 hours of chemistry and 13 hours of bioinformatics.

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Improving Life Biology Professor Bruce Chase, who helped develop the new major, explains how this exciting new area of study began to emerge: “It grew initially from the needs of molecular biologists to be able to analyze large data sets that describe different types of biological molecules in distinct types of cells, in various disease states, or as organisms change during their growth and maturation,” he says. “As molecular biologists became able to characterize an organism’s tens of thousands of genes and their products, they faced the daunting challenge of being able to analyze enormous data sets. “Bioinformatics was born as a synergistic effort as computer scientists, mathematicians and statisticians joined biologists to make sense of these data sets. It is now a field of its own, with many different facets.” Chase’s own research illustrates just how bioinformatics may dramatically improve life. “My work on biomarker development in Parkinson’s disease uses tools developed by bioinformaticians,” he says. “A biomarker for a disease is a measurement, based on some biological characteristic, that has utility in diagnosing or determining the stage of the disease. Parkinson’s disease presents challenges for diagnosis

8 • Fall 2005

Teamwork: Dr. Jim Rogers, left; and Tom Helikar are using bioinformatics to understand the structure and function of complex biochemical pathways.

and treatment because it results from the death of a particular subset of brain cells that cannot be directly assessed. As these cells die, individuals develop the movement abnormalities associated with Parkinson’s disease. Accurate diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease can be difficult, and a biomarker could aid in better diagnosis and, if so, in earlier, more effective treatment.” With clinical collaborators at the University of Thessaly in Greece, Chase et al can use gene chip technology to assay the levels of the products of about 40,000 human genes in the blood of Parkinsonian patients. He and others then can use bioinformatics methods to identify the constellation of genes whose products together serve as a biomarker for Parkinson’s disease. Classifying Life Professor Quiong Lu, meanwhile, is employing bioinformatics to classify life. Lu earned a doctorate in biology at University Laval (Canada) then a master’s degree in bioinformatics at Concordia University in Montreal. He describes his particular interest as “exploring existing molecular databases to discover knowledge of species phylogeny and molecular evolution” and the “development and implementation of computer Professor Quiong Lu applications to facilitate that research.”

UNOALUM

His favorite project to date is his role in developing Deep Fin, a web-based information center (www.deepfin.org/PIs.php) and international community of researchers interested in fish phylogeny (lines of descent or evolutionary development). “We are becoming a national center for bioinformatics research,” says Lu, who speaks enthusiastically about his work for the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, the University of Nebraska Medical Center and UNO. He is particularly enthusiastic when discussing his role in recruiting students for the bioinformatics program. “It is an exciting field to be in, and the students will be inspired whether they are coming from a biology background or an information technology background.” Defining Life That certainly was the case with Tom Helikar, an undergraduate in the bioinformatics program. Though he was hired for his programming skills to serve as a research assistant to Dr. Jim Rogers, Helikar since has developed a passion for biology and currently is planning to pursue a doctorate in that field at UNMC. Since Rogers, a mathematical biologist at UNO, also is a courtesy faculty at UNMC, Helikar can continue collaborating with Rogers while working on his Ph.D. Helikar’s inspiration to dramatically alter his life plan came through contact with Rogers’ research hypothesis developed several years earlier. Having earned his doctorate in biology, Rogers had been working for several years in UNMC laboratories when he began to doubt

that laboratory work on individual cells would ever unlock the mysteries of how cells—cancerous or healthy—processed signals. He suspected there existed a much more complex system of information processing than anyone else had ever proposed and began to theorize that cells could not be understood when isolated from the whole. He knew he would not be able to investigate that theory in a traditional lab but would need to learn about mathematical modeling. He quit his job and went back to school to get a master’s degree in math. While working on his math degree, Rogers teamed with UNO Professor and Mathematics Chair Jack Heidel to write a $450,000 National Institute of Health grant proposal to fund a three-year study in which they would use mathematical analysis to understand the structure and function of complex biochemical pathways. The grant was approved, and Rogers was hired at UNO as an assistant professor of math this year. Math Professor John Konvalina since has joined the team of researchers, as has Helikar. Rogers is quick to point out that although Helikar still is an undergraduate, the level of his work puts him on the same footing as other members of the team. “He is an equal,” says Rogers. The team soon may be closing in on a critical point in its research. Rogers’ hopes are high not only for a clearer understanding of the complex intelligence of cells, but also for a clearer understanding of what life is. In other words, he’s hoping to open a window.

Writing at UNO is getting . . . easier? riting is easy,” journalist Gene Fowler once said. “All you do is stare at a blank sheet of paper until drops of blood form on your forehead.” The anguish of the blank page, or, these days, the blank screen, is familiar to many at UNO, whether they be first-year college students or faculty with years of writing assignments behind them. Help now is at hand. For the word-weary from all areas and stations of the UNO community the College of Arts & Sciences offers the new Writing Center. There, explains Writing Center Director Connie Eberhart (pictured), “students and faculty alike have the opportunity to develop an ongoing, one-to-one relationship with a professional who can assist them through the term of a writing project, throughout a course, or throughout the college experience. “Our mission is to help clients develop as writers, placing more focus on the writer than on any single piece of writing, helping the writer develop writing processes that lead to effective writing products.” The new facility is housed in the comfortably and brightly decorated Room 150 of Arts and Sciences Hall. It features wireless networking and comfortable spaces where consultants and clients can collaborate. A fresh pot of coffee and a network printer stand ready, sideby-side. Graduate teaching assistants and instructors from the English Department make up the center’s inaugural staff. Consultants from other disciplines could be added later.

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For the formal or impromptu workshop, the room is equipped with a computer, DVD/VCR and Elmo presenter, all hooked to an LCD projector. All of the center’s logistics are handled by an online service called Writing Center Online. For helpful links on writing or to sign up for a consultation, clients can visit the center’s website at www.unomaha.edu/writingcenter. Writing Center services might be made available to alumni in the future.

Fall 2005 • 9

College of

Information Science and Technology

Peters, left, Shah and Dufner. Photo by Tim Fitzgerald

IS&T students learn while serving Omaha community ames Peters knows the value of the work he, Piyush

JShah and other students at the College of Information

Science & Technology (IS&T) did for the City of Omaha when they designed and developed the Web-based information systems that give citizens access to the Mayor’s Hotline via the Internet. That’s because he’s used the Internet hotline himself— to report graffiti along the Keystone Trail. “It works very well,” Peters says. “The City responds quickly.” Making it easier for Omahans to report and track comments and complaints made electronically to the Mayor’s Hotline is just one example of the service learning projects undertaken by the students of Dr. Donna Dufner, associate professor of Information Systems and Quantitative Analysis (ISQA) at IS&T. The service learning aspect of Dufner’s classes unites bright, eager students with clients throughout the city whose needs vary from basic computer training to the development and implementation of complex integrated 10 • Fall 2005

systems. These projects frequently generate other opportunities, such as jobs or internships, because the clients are so satisfied with the products that they want to hire the students. “It’s quality work from start to finish, something these clients would have to pay a consultant $1,000 a day to develop,” Dufner says. In addition to the satisfaction that accompanies a successful project, the students receive a Presidential Service Award, including a pin and a letter from President Bush. Corporate Veteran Dufner is a veteran of the corporate world, having worked 15 years in the information technology industry for AT&T, Chemical Bank Corp., ARDIS (a joint venture of IBM and Motorola), Bell Atlantic Nynex, the City of Omaha, and Douglas County, Neb. A native of Greensburg, Pa., she holds an MS in computer and information science from the New Jersey UNOALUM

The benefits are many. Institute of Technology, an MBA from the University of “The students are able to serve the community, and in Chicago, and a Ph.D. in computer and information scithe process they learn what service means and how to ence management from Rutgers. She is a certified Project integrate it into their lives,” Dufner says. “I think that Management Professional. through service learning projects, we’re turning out more She decided to make the switch to teaching after well-rounded people, in terms of their contributions to receiving her Ph.D. in 1996. “It was a good decision, society.” because the students love the fact I have real industry Dufner says she was very involved in community servexperience.” ice projects when she worked in the corporate world. “I Before joining UNO in 2000, Dufner taught for three just brought it with me when I started teaching.” years at the University of Illinois, where in 1998 she was She continues to develop her own sense of community, named a University Scholar for excellence in teaching both through her students’ work and through programs in and research, the highest honor awarded by the universiOmaha, such as her participation in the 2004-2005 ty. Leadership Omaha program. “I loved the University of Illinois,” she says. “My main Sponsored by the Greater Omaha Chamber of incentive to come to UNO was that the job involved Commerce Foundation, Leadership Omaha is a communiworking in the community through service learning projty leadership training program designed to motivate indiects. I need that. I need more than just the classroom viduals to develop a sense of community trusteeship, teaching.” encourage participants to assume leadership roles in Her areas of expertise are telecommunications and community affairs, develop participant information systems design, developawareness of the Omaha community, ment and implementation. Her profes“We’re sending the and provide opportunities for communisional and research interests include cation between emerging and estabproject management, public sector inforvery best we have to lished leadership. mation technology, virtual “collaboratoThe work with the Mayor’s Hotline ries” and asynchronous learning netoffer out into the was the result of pro-bono work Dufner works. community.” had done for the mayor’s office. She Client Communication at the Core worked as the project manager for Dr. Donna Dufner had In training students to one day work a public information system for the with big-budget information and juvenile justice system, one that would telecommunications systems, they also must learn how to link several sources of information into one, providing a deal with clients and project managers, those who are more complete background about offenders. stakeholders in the in the outcome. Not all clients are as Making the Mayor’s Hotline available via the Internet high profile as the City of Omaha. Some, such as those allows citizens to easily report complaints and track the who are the subject of this fall’s service learning projects progress of their report. It provides a tracking number that in south Omaha, are small business owners and entrepre- is used to ensure no complaint goes unattended. neurs. Peters, 25, earned his master’s degree in management “Some of it amounts to teaching basic word processing information systems (MIS) from UNO in May. He says the skills and publishing skills, things they can apply to their Mayor’s Hotline project provided real-time practical trainnew businesses,” Dufner says. “For many of our clients ing and an opportunity to represent the university. “It was this fall, we’re basically opening the door to communicaa good experience.” tions.” Shah, a 25-year-old from Bombay, India, who earned Many of the clients are Spanish-speaking and must his master’s degree in MIS from UNO in 2004, says the learn through an interpreter, Dufner says. “This is a marservice learning project was personally rewarding. A fedvelous way for them to learn about a part of the commueral grant paid for Peters and Shah’s time and tuition nity they are not familiar with. Some of our students are costs. from small towns and have had very limited exposure to “I learned a lot, starting with how to talk to and deal the many ethnic groups we have in Omaha. with the users,” Shah says. “The whole project involved a “The students are very excited about these projects. lot of presentations which definitely improved my skills in They are looking forward to the cross-cultural experience, communication, technology, project management and as well as the learning experience.” scheduling. And, I was able to help develop an excellent Students involved in the fall course come mainly from product that benefits the City of Omaha and the Omaha IS&T, with more than half from the UNO Honors procitizens.” gram. “So we’re sending the very best we have to offer Through serving learning projects like this, Dufner says, out into the community,” Dufner says. success is shared by students, clients and the community. w w w. u n o a l u m n i . o r g

Fall 2005 • 11

College of

Information Science and Technology

Fulkerson finds his dreams in the classroom

bout 10 years ago, Robert Fulkerson was working at a telecommunications company when some friends approached him about starting an Internet Service Provider. Trouble was, the time commitment for a new business would conflict with his job. That’s when a friend told him there was a teaching position open at UNO. “I thought, ‘Hey, if I got a job as a teacher I’d have all this free time to start up a multimillion-dollar business,’” Fulkerson recalls. He got the UNO job, and it didn’t take long for reality to slap him hard in the face. “After working 70 hours a week for a year at both jobs, I realized teaching was not the dream job I thought of.” Today, he’s still at UNO, working as a full-time instructor in the College of Information Science & Technology. It isn’t that he abandoned his dreams. He simply replaced them with new ones. “Teaching ended up being what I love more than what I thought I was going to love,” he says. Fulkerson is more than a teacher. He’s a popular teacher, a wise, witty and imaginative one whom students remember long after they receive their final grade. In 1999 he was nominated for the Excellence in Teaching Award, and he received the Alumni Outstanding Teaching Award. Fulkerson, 34, is an Omaha native and a 1989 graduate of Millard South. He attended Creighton University and received his bachelor’s degree in computer science. He says he’s ABT (All But Thesis) away from receiving his master’s in computer science, also from Creighton. He is a good teacher for many reasons, not the least of which is that he remembers what it’s like to be a college student. “I started teaching at 24 years old. I was just a few years older than most of my students. I realized then that I shouldn’t ever forget what it was like to be a student. If I do, I’ll lose them.”

college and a training or certification program. Students leave PKI with useful, real-world skills supported by the theory of computation.”

Student-Centric He describes himself as “student-centric.” “I focus on the class. If I stand in front of them and say, ‘This is how you do a loop,’ that’s boring. They might as well bring pillows and blankets to class. I want them to be engaged.” Core students in information technology classes, he explains, are computer science and management information systems (MIS) majors. But the classes also draw from other disciplines, including geography, geology, math and education. “With that diverse an audience, which is exactly what a 12 • Fall 2005

Fulkerson. Photo by Tim Fitzgerald

class is, an audience, I’ve got to make it entertaining as well as informative or they won’t even attempt to go beyond what’s on the page.” People ask how he can teach an introductory class semester after semester. “It’s because every year, there are one or two students who dazzle me. They wrap their brain around something a little differently, and they come up with a solution that’s way out of the box. That’s when I say, ‘Yes!’ That’s what I was looking for—someone to look at programming differently. “I tell them right from the start, ‘Don’t expect it all to be fun and games. But it will be as interesting as you want to make it.’ The challenge is mine as well. Not that I can win over everybody. But those who come into my class that are on the edge or are already interested in the material, hopefully I can fuel their fires even more.” He enjoys teaching at UNO and the progressive nature of the Peter Kiewit Institute. “A lot of the students in our discipline today just want to go out and make money. They don’t have to come to UNO for that; they can go to a two-year college or get certified in various skills. We’ve got to make them want to come to UNO, to show them that they need to come to UNO for a complete information technology education. Our primary job as educators is to provide the theory behind the applications they’ll see in the workforce. “PKI offers many unique opportunities with internships, business partnerships and cutting-edge classes. With classes in Web development and information security, for example, we're offering more practical, hands-on classes that help make UNO a hybrid of a traditional four-year UNOALUM

Thinking differently Sometimes it involves changing the way computer scientists think about their discipline. “Computer science as a whole has to adapt to the fact that this is not biology. It’s not physics. Most of our students don’t go on to make grand discoveries that change the world. They’ve already set a career goal for themselves. They come here to get it started.” He says his methods aren’t unique. “I treat my classroom so it’s not like I’m on this side of the desk and they’re on that side. I look at my role more like a collaboration in their education.” It serves to enhance the experience for both teacher and student. “In my Internet programming class, especially, the students are constantly suggesting new things to cover or discuss, and that gets me excited. I feed off their excitement in the classroom.” PKI students have phenomenal abilities, Fulkerson says. “The students coming in today are simply amazing. They’re so smart it’s scary. I think they have raised the bar, which means we teachers have to step it up a notch. They push you to be a better teacher.”

IS&T interns, Gallup partner on high-tech visualization lab high-tech visualization lab on the Gallup University riverfront campus teams UNO student interns and Gallup employees to revolutionize the way data is presented. The 2,000square-foot facility features the latest in hardware and software visualization methods and technologies. It brings together 10 Gallup employees and 10 UNO interns. “The purpose is to create innovative tools to visualize data with an emphasis on design, aesthetics, and state-ofthe-art software technology” says Dr. Gerald Wagner (pictured), a distinguished research fellow at the Peter Kiewit

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Institute, IS&T. It means scholarships and employment opportunities for UNO students and innovative new software products geared to satisfy Gallup clients. Philip Ruhlman, chief information officer of the Gallup Organization, says the process reverses how Gallup traditionally has worked with its clients. “Rather than begin by collecting the data for a client, we will start with determining how the client ultimately wants to see the data and then work backwards.” Ruhlman says Gallup clients visit the Omaha campus for twoday retreats, during which they work with the teams to specify how they want their data to look. Gallup for more than two years has utilized UNO interns,

Fulkerson met his wife, Kris, in junior high and began dating when both wrote for the school newspaper at Millard South. “I tried to date all her friends first,” he recalls, chuckling. “I sent them flowers, wrote them poems, took them to plays—and got dumped. All the time, she’s wondering, ‘What’s wrong with these girls? Can’t they see what a wonderful guy he is?’” They were married in 1994. “She was not the last choice,” Fulkerson says. “She was the best choice.” The Fulkersons have two daughters, Katie, 2, and Becca, six months. Kris Fulkerson teaches English at Metropolitan Community College and writes essays. Fulkerson writes essays, short stories and poetry, “although I’m not a great poet by any measure.” His Web site (http://www.morpo.com/robert/) includes reviews he’s written about the music concerts he’s attended. He also writes movie reviews, which leads us to his current dream. “What I would like to write, what everyone would like to write, is a movie. I have two script ideas in my head. I just have to put them on paper.” It’s not a new dream, he says. “My goal was that by the time I was 35 I would have made a movie and have it shown somewhere, even if it was on a wall in a garage.” That’s not likely by his 35th birthday in December. But, perhaps, some day soon, he’ll write the script that will become the next big-screen blockbuster. Then he’ll have all that free time left over for teaching. selected from among the students of One Innovation Place (One IP), a program started by Wagner at the College of IS&T. Additionally, 30 students are involved in Visual Storytelling and Data Visualization, a course facilitated by Wagner in the Gallup facility. Nine speakers distinguished in their fields each will give two-hour lectures on nine Fridays during the fall semester. Gallup is financially making this course possible. To give the community an opportunity to meet and listen to these leaders, one-hour seminars for the business, government, military and academic community will be held at Gallup at 7:30 a.m., Wagner says. There is no fee for attending. The sessions are available for sign up at www.vis.oneinnovationplace.com. Also, more than $15,000 in awards has been pledged from various businesses to recognize the most outstanding final student projects.

Wolcott article tops journal’s download list n article by Dr. Peter Wolcott of IS&T’s Department of Information Systems & Quantitative Analysis (ISQA) ranks No. 1 on the list of mostdownloaded articles in the electronic “Journal of the Association for Information Systems.” The article, “A Framework for Assessing the Global Diffusion of the Internet,” registered 7,960 downloads as of August 1. The Journal of the Association for Information Systems (JAIS), the flagship research journal of the Association for Information Systems, publishes scholarship of the highest quality in the field of information systems, including forward-looking conceptual and empirical articles.

Fall 2005 • 13

College of

Information Science and Technology IS&T first to hold meeting in Heartland

AMCIS conference held at Qwest ore than 1,050 participants from

M400 universities and 40 coun-

tries met at Qwest Center Omaha in August for the 11th annual Americas Conference on Information Systems (AMCIS). Sponsored by the Association for

Union Pacific, Mutual of Omaha, First National Bank and the Peter Kiewit Institute,” says Dr. David Hinton, IS&T dean. Two internationally renowned leaders in their fields gave keynote addresses. Linda Sanford, IBM’s sen-

NU Vice Provost Donal Burns, UNO Chancellor Nancy Belck, an unidentified conference delegate and conference Volunteer Jamie L. Griffiths gathered at the Henry Doorly Zoo for a social evening.

Information Systems (AIS), AMCIS is a gathering of information systems academics and research-oriented practitioners in North America, Central America and South America. Conference chairpersons were Dr. Deepak Khazanchi and Dr. Ilze Zigurs, professors in the department of Information Systems and Quantitative Analysis (ISQA) at UNO’s College of Information Science & Technology (IS&T). The pair was instrumental in bringing the conference to Omaha. “This was the first time that an AMCIS conference was held in the Heartland – the very center of the United States, with a record level of corporate sponsorship, including 14 • Fall 2005

ior vice president for Enterprise On Demand Transformation and Information Technology, spoke Aug. 12. Dr. Roger Schell, co-founder and president of Aesec Corporation, a new company focused on verifiably secure platforms for e-business, addressed the conference Aug. 13. Other noteworthy aspects of the conference: • A record number (48) of doctoral consortium participants met at the Arbor Day Farm Lied Lodge and Conference Center and for the first time a sponsor (Union Pacific) underwrote their costs. Dr. Varun Grover of Clemson University and Dr. Rajiv Sabherwal of the University of Missouri-St Louis chaired the doctoral

consortium. • Also at the Lied Lodge, the MIS junior faculty camp was held off-site for the first time, with 19 junior faculty participating from the same number of universities. The MIS camp was chaired by Dr. Lynda Applegate of the Harvard Business School and Dr. Blake Ives of the University of Houston. • Dr. Winnie Callahan, executive director of the Peter Kiewit Institute (PKI), led a panel session that included Todd Fishback (DoCenter), Dick Shoemaker (Pinpoint), and Steve Webb (Lockheed Martin). The session, New Models for Academic and Industry Partnerships, focused on PKI. The opening night reception was held at Omaha’s Henry Doorly Zoo. Other local sponsors included PKI, the University of Nebraska Medical Center, Creighton University, UNO, the AIM Institute and the O! Campaign. Khazanchi shared one of many positive comments received from delegates: “There was a general consensus that this year's meeting was very well managed,” said Dr. Dinesh Batra of Florida International University. “We would like to thank you for your efforts in making the conference and meeting memorable and useful.” The Association of Information Systems (AIS) is the premier global organization for academics specializing in information systems, with nearly 5,000 members representing nearly 50 countries from North America, Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia. AIS sponsors two major conferences, AMCIS and the International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS). Next year’s AMCIS conference will be in Acapulco, Mexico. AMCIS also provides the opportunity for information systems faculty to meet and review the latest offerings from major vendors, publishers and suppliers. The large number of attendees in a dedicated field is a strong draw for major players in the information systems academic marketplace. UNOALUM

Education UNO clinic serves students, clients

Meeting the demand for speech-language pathologists I n a bustling campus of 14,000 students, it’s easy to overlook Hannah Jones. That’s mostly because she’s just 6 years old, of course. The pigtailed youngster comes to the UNO campus once a week, visiting the College of Education’s Speech-Language-Hearing Clinic in Kayser Hall. There she learns to deal with the Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) that she was identified with at the age of 2. ASD is a collection of developmental disorders that involves impairment of social responsiveness, symbolic abilities, and communication (both verbal and nonverbal). Though she receives school-based intervention services, her family sought additional help at UNO. The association began two years ago at the clinic’s Summer Speech Camp. There, Hannah began working on basic grammatical structures. Since then, clinic intervention has targeted improved joint attention: attending to an object, event or social partner; vocabulary and concept development; answering and asking questions; and “reading” emotional states from facial expressions. Hannah’s progress has been impressive. In structured settings she now can carry on a basic conversation about familiar topics, identify her own emotional states, and formulate questions to obtain information. “It is truly a joy to watch Hannah now and reflect back on the strides she has made in these four years,” writes her father, Gordon Jones. “Having the speech services provided by the students is a very important part of Hannah's success story.”

itation centers, nursing care facilities, community clinics, government agencies, research laboratories and elsewhere.

Client Satisfaction At UNO, the Speech-Language-Hearing Clinic serves individuals from 2 to 80 years of age, often collaborating with area schools for those clients who receive special education services. Student clinicians under the supervision of master clinicians assess and treat clients with a diversity of communication challenges: ASD, language disorders, Down syndrome, aphasia, spastic dysphonia, stuttering, articulation and phonology disorders. Clients and their families report a high level of satisfaction with the UNO clinical services. “Hannah loves to work, and she has been paired with some remarkable clinicians who have made real and lasting contributions to our daughter's growth,” says Gordon Jones. “Being able to take Hannah to UNO has sev-

Shortage of Help While it is heartening to see the help Hannah is receiving, there are, sadly, others like her who go without such assistance. That is due in part to what is a growing concern—a national shortage of qualified speech-language pathologists. Currently, 42 million Americans—one out of every six—have a communication disorder. Yet in a 2004 American Speech-LanguageHearing Association (ASHA) survey of school-based speech-language pathologists, 62 percent of the respondents reported their school districts had more job openings in the field than job seekers. The shortage extends to faculty at institutions of higher education. According to the U.S. Labor Department (2002-03), speech-language pathology is one of the country’s top 30 hottest growth professions out of 700 through 2010. The need for speech-language pathologists could continue, too, given the changing makeup of the U.S. population. That includes a growing elderly population with more seniors who are susceptible to strokes, hearing impairments and other communication disorders. UNO continues to make a concerted effort to recruit more students UNO student Justin McCarty works with Hannah Jones. into the field. Plans are underway to conduct recruitment activities eral advantages for us, namely proximity to our home and Hannah's with high school counselors and students across the state. Currently, 60 school. Familiarity with the routine and surroundings helps Hannah transiundergrad and graduate students are enrolled in its speech-language tion with less anxiety and, of course, the staff and students are great to pathology program, designed to provide students with a strong theoretical work with and give us ideas that translate beyond the classroom. We are and clinical foundation. very thankful for the services our daughter receives and we always tell ASHA-accredited, the program features small class sizes and basic people about our great experiences at the university.” undergraduate coursework in human communication sciences and disorFor more information about UNO’s Speech-Language Pathology ders. Students also complete four clinical practicum experiences, includProgram, contact Department Chair Mary Friehe at (402) 554-2211. ing a half-time placement in public schools and full-time placement in a hospital or clinical setting. Program faculty work closely with the Omaha community to provide valuable hands-on clinical experience, practical Happenings schedule training and excellent placement opportunities for students. ollege of Education alumni can read more about fellow alumni, UNO graduates consistently score better than the average on the faculty and current students in Happenings, mailed in November. national professional exam. All master’s-level graduates are prepared for practice in a broad range of facilities, including schools, hospitals, rehabil-

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Fall 2005 • 15

College of Public Affairs and Community Service

Goodrich Program

Goodrich Program marks 1,000th graduate, history of success hen Marisa Ozuna walked across the stage at the

WUNO Commencement ceremony in August, she

2001 the program earned the national Theodore M. Hesburgh Award Certificate of Excellence for Faculty Development to Enhance Undergraduate Teaching and Learning. Ethnic diversity is a hallmark of the program. The student body includes African-Americans, Asians, EuroAmericans, Hispanics and Native Americans. Many are first-generation college students. The program welcomes older, returning students as well as traditional college students. “We don’t recruit by quotas, but we are after a mix,” Cederblom says. Founded on the heels of the racial unrest of the late 1960s, the Goodrich Program was “a daring and risky proposal for its time,” he says. “The program has really flourished since that time. All in all, it’s worked out extremely well.” Goodrich scholarships cover tuition and fees for a max-

stepped straight into the history of the Goodrich Scholarship Program as its 1,000th graduate. It truly was a significant milestone for the 33-year-old program, founded in 1972 with funds from the Nebraska Legislature as the result of a bill authored by the late State Sen. Glenn Goodrich of Omaha, the man for whom the program is named. More important than the numbers are the faces of those 1,000 graduates, where they came from and what they have gone on to accomplish, says Goodrich Chairman Dr. Jerry Cederblom, one of the program’s original faculty members. “Our success isn’t as much in achieving the 1,000th graduate as what our thousand graduates have gone on to achieve,” Cederblom says. Goodrich grads include doctors, attorneys, corporate executives, social workers, politicians, nurses, business owners, journalists and teachers, he says. “The graduates cover a rich, broad spectrum, one that highlights the program’s benefits and diversity. Because many of our graduates remain in the Omaha area, the Goodrich Program has had a tremendously positive impact on the community.” The son of a packinghouse worker, Goodrich understood the benefits of a college education, Photo by Tim Fitzgerald having attended college on the G.I. Bill. Later in UNO Chancellor Nancy Belck and Marisa Ozuna, the 1,000th Goodrich graduate. life, he continued to be a great believer in providing people a way to overcome their economic means. imum of 10 semesters or 145 credit hours, or until graduFunded by the state, the Goodrich Program offers schol- ation, whichever comes first. That averages to about arships and an intensive multicultural curriculum coupled $5,000 per student per year. Admission is based on the with support services designed to yield the confidence to applicant’s financial need, academic record, a personal succeed. interview that aims at assessing motivation toward realisIn addition to Cederblom, the Goodrich faculty tic goals, a writing test and personal recommendations. includes six instructors—Dr. Michael C. Carroll, Dr. Judy Harrington, Dr. Barbara Hewins-Maroney, Dr. Imafedia Growing graduation rate Okhamafe, Troy Romero and Dr. Pamela J. Smith—and Success is evident in a growing graduation rate, up three graduate assistants. Penny Nordahl, who coordifrom 34 percent between 1978 and 1982, to 55 percent nates support services, has served in the program for today. The retention rate of 80 percent between freshman more than 30 years; staff assistant Cathy Young has served and sophomore years is better than UNO’s overall retenfor 28 years. tion rate of 70 percent. Both exceed the national average. The teaching staff has won numerous awards, and in Once Sen. Goodrich achieved success in the 16 • Fall 2005

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Unicameral, Hubert Locke, the founding dean of the College of Public Affairs and Community Service, became the force behind developing the program. Goodrich met with Locke to plan how best to put the scholarship funds to use. “Dean Locke authored the program and then brought in the faculty to fine-tune it,” says Cederblom. “He (Locke) was very willing to experiment, and that’s precisely what we did. He set the course, but it was up to us to blaze a trail.” The program’s core curriculum constitutes six credit hours of its Photo by Tim Fitzgerald Former program chair Wilda Stephenson, front row, center, was on hand to greet some of the interns who students’ course work during have participated in the Stephenson Internship Program. The program, coordinated by Judy Harrington, each semester of their first year recently received a private endowment of $250,000. and three hours during each semester of their second year. it was just a matter of believing I could accomplish this. Selected Goodrich students participate in the Stephenson “I truly don’t know what I would be doing if not for the Internship Program during the third or fourth year. This Goodrich Program.” program, named after former program chair Wilda Douglas Russell, M.D., is a 1987 Goodrich grad. “The Stephenson and coordinated by Judy Harrington, recently Goodrich Program was incredible in helping me do the received a private endowment of $250,000. things I needed to do, to get my credentials in place, to Today, the program’s innovations—its multi-cultural get my grades up, to help me develop into a candidate focus, its broad, general core curriculum, and its incluwho would be accepted once I applied and went through sion of critical reasoning and intensive writing across the the process of going to medical school,” Russell recalled. curriculum—make an impact across the campus. “It has “By all means, the support I got through the Goodrich had a great influence extending multicultural education Program is the reason I became a physician.” to the rest of the university,” Cederblom says. Russell gives back to the program, serving the Goodrich grads return in support Stephenson Internship Program as a mentor to a Goodrich To celebrate the 1,000th graduate, about 180 people student who hopes to become a physician. attended an invitation-only reception Aug. 14 at the UNO Troy Romero, a 1999 graduate and a current member Milo Bail Student Center Ballroom. Attendees included of the Goodrich faculty, was the first in his family to gradmembers of Sen. Goodrich’s family, Locke, most of the uate from college. He since has earned his master’s program’s original faculty and former Goodrich Program degree and is working on his doctorate in psychology, Chairs Stephenson and Don Dendinger. writing his dissertation on the Goodrich Program. They watched a video that was photographed, pro“Being a part of the program, I know it from the inside,” duced and directed by Carlos Barrientos, a 1977 he says. “I know what Goodrich does for students.” Goodrich graduate, which included interviews with other One of the program’s newest supporters is its most program grads. recent graduate. Ozuna, 28, received her bachelor's “I learned a lot,” commented attorney Eric Whitner, a degree in business administration (management) from the 1982 grad. “I really owe the Goodrich Program, but the UNO College of Business Administration. community owes the Goodrich Program a lot, because She transferred to UNO as a freshman and received a that’s where I work.” Goodrich scholarship her sophomore year. It made all the Kathleen Jamrozy, a 1991 Goodrich graduate and today difference, she says. co-owner of the Flatiron Café, told how the news that she “As a first-generation college graduate,” Ozuna says, had earned a scholarship “was winning the lottery.” “the Goodrich scholarship played a huge part for me in “The Goodrich Program I think more than anything completing my degree.” gave me the self confidence,” she says. “I think the hardAs it did for 999 other graduates. And as it will for est thing I ever did was get a degree. More than anything, many more to come. w w w. u n o a l u m n i . o r g

Fall 2005 • 17

College of

Communication, Fine Arts and Media

Finding the creative center in a holy place ‘full of wonder’ By Barbara Simcoe or seven days this past June I par-

Fticipated in the Yitzhak

International Arts Gathering that took place in Akko, Israel. The project came into being through a consortium of Jewish Federation chapters called Partnership 2000 of Western Galilee, of which Omaha is a member. The purpose of the consortium is to support and foster professional, cultural, social and economic relationships that establish and preserve ties with Jewish communities in Israel, the partner cities and around the globe. When the idea for an arts gathering began to take form several years ago, it was decided to adopt the theme of Yitzhak (Hebrew for Isaac) as the creative center that artists would contemplate and explore in making their contributions. This was a multi-disciplinary gathering that included visual art, dance, theater, music, performance art and arts projects of elementary schools from the consortium cities. In addition to the artist participants, there also were many Jewish Federation members who came as supporters of the arts and delegates from their communities. Western Galilee College played a key role in the Yitzhak Gathering, organizing and hosting the 100-plus participants, and was the locus for many of the contributions from Israeli artists. Artists explored the theme of Yitzhak in very diverse ways. I decided to take a metaphorical narrative approach and developed five large digital prints based on the Yitzhak/Isaac stories in Genesis: 18 • Fall 2005

Sarah discovering she was pregnant with Isaac, the sacrifice of Isaac, Isaac settling near the Well of Living Sight, the arrival of Rebecca to be his wife and Isaac’s betrayal by Rebecca and Jacob. I used digital photographs I took

while on a Fulbright in Lithuania last year for much of the landscape imagery. The dunes of the Curonian Spit of coastal Lithuania had an uncanny resemblance to aspects of the Mediterranean land formations, and the warm colors used on much of the Baroque architecture of Vilnius worked into my visual ideas very well. Other imagery from side trips to Poland and Croatia also worked their way into the prints. Finally, I invited one of my students to be a model for the Sarah/Rebecca

figures I used in four of the five prints. Akko was the main Crusader stronghold during the 13th century. Located about 8 meters below the current old city level, quite a lot of it has been excavated, but with much more to do. The coordinators of the Yitzhak Gathering received permission from the city of Akko to exhibit the visual art works made by the American artist contributors in what is called the ‘prisoners hall,’ so called because Jewish prisoners were held there by the British in 1947.

The opportunity for my participation came about through one of my colleagues, Gary Day, who had just been to Israel over the Christmas holiday with his wife, Mary, and several others from the UNO community. That group traveled to Israel, in part, as an effort to forge a stronger relationship with Western Galilee College. I wanted to contribute to the development of that relationship and was inspired by the potential of pictorial ideas based on the theme of Yitzhak. Like many adventures, my travel to

Israel for the Yitzhak Gathering and then Jerusalem, the Galilee and the Dead Sea region was quite different and much richer that I had even imagined before going. It would take pages and pages to describe, but it will have to suffice here that what I received in my experience of Israel, Israeli culture and the incredible encounter with such an ancient and holy place was literally full of wonder. Barbara Simcoe is a professor in the art and art history department.

Faculty in First Person By Anna Monardo s I wrote my first novel, “The Courtyard of Dreams” (Doubleday 1993), the story of an American girl and her Italian father, the challenge was to transform autobiographical material into fiction. With my second novel, “Falling In Love With Natassia” (forthcoming with Doubleday, May 2006), the challenge was to do enough research to bring to life characters who are utterly different from me—a professional modern dancer, a Korean War survivor, a psychotherapist. Now I’m facing both challenges at once as I work on a third book-length project, a collection of essays that explore the psychological aftermath of my family’s emigration from Calabria, the southernmost region of Italy’s mainland. A recent Faculty Development Leave from my teaching and administrative duties in the UNO Writer’s Workshop gave me the opportunity to travel to Italy to spend an extended period of time in the land that my mother and her family left in the 1920s and 1930s, and that my father left in 1950. Because of my parents’ deep ties to Calabria, I’ve always had easy access to basic ancestral information—names, dates of

Digital Delights: Simcoe explored the theme of Yitzhak through metaphorical narratives present in five large digital prints. Top, “Living Sight” recalls the Genesis story of Isaac settling near Beer-lahai-roi, “the Well of Living Sight.” Bottom, “Isaac’s Betrayal” recounts Rebecca and Jacob’s maneuverings to secure Isaac’s birthright intended for Esau.

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births and marriages and deaths. Since my father’s death in 1994, however, the writing of these essays has been a way to explore questions of heritage and bi-cultural identity. What is gained in the process of immigration? What is lost in the process of assimilation? During my recent month-long visit with my relatives, in recorded conversations with my uncles and aunts, I gathered a wealth of information about the harsh day-to-day realities of life in Southern Italy in the years before, during and after World War II—the realities that precipitated my father’s immigration to the U.S. I also came home with a stash of original documents: my father’s government-issued identification cards, report cards, military papers and a small book charting his medicalschool curriculum and exams. I’m still reading and translating these documents, but simply holding them—feeling the quality of the paper, seeing the handwriting, the signatures, the formats and cover designs—gives me important historical information. Among these documents were some personal letters, and

this is where it gets tricky, this business of writing about family, using the familiar world of one’s family as a microcosm within which to explore universal dynamics and themes. When you’re holding a loved one’s personal letter in your hand, questions of privacy and loyalty force themselves on you. You never find the right answer—these questions Top: Santuario di San Francesco are inherent to the discichurch in Paola, Italy. Bottom: Anna pline of creative writing— Monardo, second from left, and her but with each new project son Leo (foreground) joined her aunt you face the questions in a and cousins on an outing in Messina, more intimate way, perSicily. haps with a little more with students in the newly courage or more caution. launched UNO MFA in Writing, Returning to my work with I’m bringing along these quesour undergraduates in the tions, my souvenirs from Italy. Writer’s Workshop, as well as

Fall 2005 • 19

College of

Communication, Fine Arts and Media

Communication in action Former Grad Student Wins Major Prize ormer School of Communication graduate student Huong Nguyen has won a second prize in a national writing contest in Vietnam. The award was for a collection of short stories. “This contest is very prestigious, it is like the Pulitzer Prize for young writers,” she writes. “The book received very good reviews; and so a big Vietnamese publisher will sign a contract to use my literary works in the next five years.” Huong Nguyen continues to work on a Ph.D. in Social Policy from the University of Chicago.

Johansen Lectures In Poland rofessor Bruce Johansen lectured in Lublin, Poland, during the summer. He writes that freedom there is in bloom: “In Poland, now free of centuries-long oppression

from east and west, freedom is in season.” “The Poles don’t miss a beat these days burying their tortuous history under a heaping pile of jokes and satire. In some Polish bars, for example, the star attraction is the political toilet, with Lenin on the lid, Open it up, and you will enjoy the privilege of expressing your opinion on Stalin’s face.” Dean Returns To Campus ally Dean, former news assignment manager for CBS’ Washington Bureau and a former associate news director at WOWT, will visit UNO on Wednesday, Oct. 19. Dean, now senior associate at the Project for Excellence in Journalism and director of broadcast training for the Committee of Concerned Journalists, has done studies on such topics as the state of broadcast news today and ethics in journalism. He will be speaking at 1 p.m. in the MBSC Dodge Room. All faculty and students are welcome to attend.

Library getting new look

College of Communication, Fine Arts and Media Calendar of Events — September through December 2005 Art & Art Histor y Shows and events held in the UNO Art Gallery, 1st Floor, Weber Fine Arts Building. Opening receptions begin at 6:30 p.m.

Aug. 28-Sep 23 Wanda Ewing: Dos and Don’ts Oct. 2-Nov 20 ART: Keeping the Faith (Ringgold)!, Opening reception Sept. 30. Faith Ringgold Family Day, Nov. 5, 11-4 pm Dec. 4-20 Fall 2005 BFA Thesis Exhibition. Opening Reception Dec. 2 Barbara Willson Memorial Lecture Series Fall 2005 Lectures held in the UNO Art Gallery unless otherwise noted. Times/dates subject to change.

Sept. 28 Greg Halpern, Bemis Resident, Photographer, Noon Oct. 8 Art: Keep the Faith, Faith Ringgold, Lecture at Joslyn, Time TBA.

20 • Fall 2005

Oct. 13 Zachary Hamilton, Sculptor/Installation Artist, Bemis Resident 7 p.m. Nov. 10 Heidi Hesse, Conceptual/Installation Artist, Bemis Resident, 7 p.m. Nov. 21 Alisa Fox, Printmaker, UNO Printmaking Resident, Noon. Dec. 5, 6, 9 UNO Studio and Art History Thesis Students, Presentations, Noon.

C o m m u n i ca t i o n Oct. 14 Italian Night Extravaganza Fundraiser, 7-10 pm, Brookside Café

Ma ste r s & Mus i c S eri es Sunday evenings at 5 p.m. in the UNO Art Gallery, 1st Floor, Weber Fine Arts Building. Reception with artists follow lectures/performances. Call 554-2402 for ticket information.

Oct. 2 Faith Ringgold: Social Conscience in Art Wanda Ewing, artist, UNO Department of Art & Art History, Claudette Valentine, piano, and Nola Jeanpierre, voice.

M u s ic Performance start at 7:30 p.m. in the Strauss Performing Arts Center Recital Hall, unless otherwise noted. Call 554-3427 for event information or to reserve tickets.

Sep. 27 Heartland Philharmonic Orchestra Mazeltov Concert, 7 p.m., Jewish Community Cntr.

Photo by Tim Fitzgerald, University Affairs

Oct. 20 Ecoutez: Leon Bates, piano Oct. 31 Hauntcert Heartland Philharmonic Orchestra Concert Nov. 29 Ecoutez: Anton Belov, baritone

T he a t r e Performance start at 7:30 p.m. in the the UNO Theatre, Weber Fine Arts Building, unless otherwise noted. For ticket information, call the UNO Theatre Box Office, 554-2335.

Sept. 22-25 Homebody/Kabul, WFAB 006 (FREE admission to season ticket subscribers) Oct. 6-8, 12-15 Smash Nov. 17-19, 30, Dec 3 Mother Courage and her Children

Oct. 16 Resonate: Teri Heil & James Johnson, piano

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onstruction has begun on a $6.8 million addition to University Library on the University of Nebraska at Omaha (UNO) campus. Named in honor of UNO alumnus Guinter Kahn, a major donor for the project, the new wing will add 31,000 square feet of study space. The construction, which began Aug. 1, will extend the north side of the library toward Dodge Street and will provide seating for 428 additional users. “This project is the beginning of a new chapter for us as a library,” said Stephen Shorb, dean of University Library. “We intend to make our facility a destination that will bring people to campus and also serve as a home away from home for the UNO community.” The addition is designed to support current learning styles that emphasize group work and interactivity, Shorb said. Plans call for eight new group study rooms and a multimedia boardroom for student presentations. Wireless Internet will be available, and special outlets and network ports will be provided for users with their own laptop computers. Each of the library’s three floors will have a unique atmosphere, Shorb said. The lower level will connect to an outdoor reader’s garden and will feature a browsing area for current issues of scholarly journals, the latter of which was recom-

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mended by UNO faculty. The main level will place interactive study space around a central café lounge, where coffee and light meals will be available. The upper level (depicted in artist’s rendering) will be a visually appealing reading room with glass-paneled walls, specially lighted bookshelves and private study desks for graduate students. Nate Gieselman of Omaha-based Alley Poyner Architecture is the project’s chief architect. All of the building work is being overseen by Hawkins Construction Company. The addition is scheduled for completion in 14 months and should be open to the public near the end of 2006. Funding for the addition comes from private sources and is being coordinated by the University of Nebraska Nate Gieselman, Alley Poyner Architecture P.C. Foundation. In addition to physical changes, University Library is undertaking other changes as well. The library Web site at http://library.unomaha.edu/ has a new look and continues to be a work in progress. Shorb said the goal is to fully reorganize its content and structure by the spring semester to make it easier for patrons to find and use what they need. Fall hours for University Library: Monday-Thursday, 7 a.m. to 11 p.m.; Friday, 7 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Sunday, noon to 11 p.m. Fall 2005 • 21

Fine Arts, Communication merge to form new college By Nick Schinker

nique specializations that were unlikely in the past now are distinct possibilities for the new College of Communication, Fine Arts and Media at UNO. Formed July 1, the new college, known by the acronym CCFAM, combines the School of Communication, KVNO Radio and UNO Television, and the departments of the College of Fine Arts, including art and art history, music, theater and writers’ workshop. C-CFAM Dean Robert Welk says the college “is united by its conviction that imagination and human communication are inseparable aspects of the same intellectual process. “Through traditional and innovative teaching and the use of emerging technologies,” he says, “the college promotes learning, research, scholarship, creative activity and service to the profession and to the broader community in all aspects of human communication.” Innovative teaching and the use of emerging technologies promise to afford students and faculty exciting possibilities, Welk says. “We’re looking, for example, at the possibility of an arts criticism degree program in journalism,” he says. “While that may have been something we could have done before, it would have been difficult to coordinate all the necessary elements. Now we have all the arts departments together with communication. I think that could turn into a pretty interesting specialization. There aren’t many of those around, if any.” He says collaboration with other colleges, such as UNO’s College of Information Science & Technology at the Peter Kiewit Institute, could broaden under the new college. Ideas include offering an interactive media program and an inter-college program in software design. “Putting this college together has given us an opportunity to see all the possibilities,” Welk says. “This is a very positive move.” FIRST RESTRUCTURING SINCE 1996 The most recent major restructuring of a college at UNO was in 1996 with the establishment of the College of Information Science & Technology. That came through the merger of

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three existing units—computer science, information systems and quantitative analysis, and the Center for Management of Information Technology—in order to meet the needs for information science and technology education throughout the state. Technology, likewise, is one of the drivers of C-CFAM’s formation. Jeremy Lipschultz, director of the School of Communication, says C-CFAM will enable faculty to better respond to rapid changes in technology. Some possibilities he cited include a weekly student television newscast with a companion website, and courses that examine the revolution in Podcasting as a new media distribution system.

Photo by Tim Fitzgerald, University Affairs

“Through traditional and innovative teaching and the use of emerging technologies, the college promotes learning, research, scholarship, creative activity and service to the profession and to the broader community in all aspects of human communication,” says C-CFAM Dean Bob Welk.

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“Each time something new comes about, we have to look at our curriculum and ask, ‘What does this mean?’ and ‘How do we respond?’ With the new college, we can respond more rapidly to these innovations.” Chancellor Nancy Belck agrees that C-CFAM affords tremendous opportunities for students, faculty and the community. “The College of Communication, Fine Arts and Media enhances the ability of all its units working individually and collectively to meet the needs of 21st century students,” she says. “It provides a coherent framework for related academic and academic support programs.” Belck says C-CFAM will foster the development of multidisciplinary activities which integrate arts and communication. “The college will be a catalyst for new ways of imagining human communication, artistic activity, social behavior and culture.” The combined college is the culmination of work that began two years ago. “We had many shared interests, particularly in the new media area,” Lipschultz says. “The chancellor brought us together in order to explore the possibilities.” At the time, he says, KVNO radio and UNO TV (KYNE) were a part of the academic affairs unit. However, the TV studios provided support for broadcast courses for the School of Communication. “We always had a long and good relationship with them,” Lipschultz says, “but structurally we were different from them.” Welk, who headed the committee examining the establishment of the new college, says C-CFAM “will get UNO TV more imbedded in the academic mission. It still provides a service function, but I think we’ll find more ways to get TV involved, as a tool for student recruiting, perhaps, or through more televised presentations of Fine Arts programs.” Lipschultz says the new college will be home to more than 1,000 students, among them about 550 undergraduate and 100 graduate communication students. SEARCH FOR NEW DEAN BEGINS IN FALL Although Welk initially was named interim dean, the “interim” has been removed from his title. He does not intend, however, to seek the position permanently. “I was retired once,” he says. “I came out of retirement two years ago to serve as interim dean for the College of Fine Arts. I’m looking forward to being retired again.” The search for a dean will begin this fall. After formulating a job description, interviews are expected to begin after Jan. 1. The target date for having a new dean in place is July 1, 2006. Lipschultz says the search committee will look for a person who relates well to students and faculty and who values and understands the roots of particular issues and the changes in business environments. No staff positions were eliminated by combining the colleges. Welk says two new staff positions will be added. One will be an assistant student services coordinator, to replace work that had been done by student services in the College of w w w. u n o a l u m n i . o r g

Arts & Sciences; the other will be someone to provide technical support for the new college’s computer systems. Combining the colleges is part of an evolutionary process that has been seen before, at UNO and at other colleges and universities, Lipschultz says. UNO’s College of Fine Arts, for example, originally was a part of the College of Arts and Sciences until about 1972. “It’s not uncommon in the life of a university for entities to move into an organizational structure that promotes their looking toward to the future.” In examining the feasibility for a combined College of Communication, Fine Arts and Media, the committee found a number of universities where communication and fine arts departments were linked. Committee members contacted representatives of those colleges to gather information and advice. “There was no one model that we found exactly like what we are doing,” Lipschultz says. “Every one is a product of a unique history, just as we are here at UNO.” Welk says he is pleased with the outcome. “It was neces-

C-CFAM Dean Robert Welk says the college “is united by its conviction that imagination and human communication are inseparable aspects of the same intellectual process.” sary for us to see how to keep things together and yet still move forward. I think we did well in terms of how it will be organized and structured.” Lipschultz says the benefits will include a higher profile for the School of Communication and a closer relationship with the arts. “There are a lot of students who want to study media and the arts,” he says. “The new college will be more responsive to the students and the community.” Although the concept of combining the colleges began in part with the budget reductions of recent years, cost savings was not the primary purpose, Welk says. “The faculty and staff of the affected units believe the new administrative structure best achieves the mission of UNO as Nebraska’s metropolitan university.” The new college is broader and deeper, Lipschultz says. “We think this is an exciting time in the history of the School of Communication,” he says. “We are really anticipating great things, and I would encourage alumni to visit with us and provide their ideas. We will be very open to their thoughts as we proceed.” Fall 2005 • 23

PICTURE PURRRFECT By Warren Francke

Larry Boersma perfects his craft, receives Sierra Club’s Ansel Adams Award for conservation photography

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PICTURE PURRRFECT I

t was more than 50 years ago that Larry Boersma rode shotgun in a borrowed Cadillac convertible, chauffeuring Omaha University’s Ma-ie Day Princess in a parade through downtown Omaha. The day is memorialized in five pages of photos in the 1953 Tomahawk yearbook, edited by Boersma. Perhaps only a handful of former classmates know Boersma today as an award-winning photographer. Back in the ’50s he certainly was known for his work with publications, as make-up editor for the Gateway and as a member of OU’s Press Club and Student Publications. Some kept track of Boersma as he took his OU degrees (BA, 1953; MA, 1955) to teach at Omaha’s Tech High, then to start a journalism program at Copyright Larry Allan 2005 Adams State College in Colorado. Fewer followed his path to New York City, where he made it big in the magazine business. Boersma progressed from advertising sales to marketing director to vice president and associate publisher for such magazines as Better Homes and Gardens, Ladies Home Journal, Saturday Evening Post and Photo World. The latter was owned by Penthouse, but Boersma’s meetings with publisher Bob Guccione didn’t involve the “Pets” featured in girlie layouts. “He lives a fairly conservative lifestyle,” Boersma says of Guccione. “We’d meet in his town house once owned by Judy Garland, and I’d sit at the dining room table with the head of his Rhodesian Ridgeback in my lap.” But his career path took two more turns, and none of the fellows who worked with him on the Gateway or Tomahawk staffs pictured him huddling in Montana snow waiting patiently to photograph the elusive Canadian Lynx. Or quietly getting acquainted with an Arizona wolf pack he’d been told was too wild for close contact. Boersma’s magazine marketing career in Manhattan would have made an interesting enough story. It’s even more so since his 1977 move to California to take up pet photography and become an expert in capturing on film the wild animals of North America. Two days before this writer called to catch up with his adventures, word came to Boersma that he’d been selected by

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the Sierra Club as the 2005 recipient of its Ansel Adams award “for superlative use of still photography to further a conservation cause.” His work—under the pen name Larry Allan—includes photo-illustrating more than a dozen books with such titles as “Lynx,” “Wolf,” “Coyote” and, most recently, “Creative Canine Photography.” He’s also made a “venture into the 21st century” with a CD photo essay, “Keep Wild Animals in Our Lives!” The output would have pleased the late Danny Langevin (BS 1954), son of Omaha World-Herald photographer Eldon Langevin. “I learned photography from Danny when he was my photo editor on the Tomahawk,” Larry says. Photography was part of the package when he replaced Lloyd Berg (BGS 1952) at Tech High and again at Adams State, where he doubled as journalism head and public relations director. It came back into his career with involvement in two magazines, Photo World and American Photo. Picture Perfect Pets His departing gift from Guccione featured a year’s worth of photo supplies, but that alone didn’t jump-start his new career. It also took the loss of a prized Pembroke Welsh Corgi, a show dog named Harmony that died young. She’d won honors at the Westminster Kennel Club, then was gone “with no great photos to remember her by.” Larry decided, “Since my wife and I felt that way, we bet others would like portrait-quality pictures of their dogs.” He studied lighting and other facets, then set up booths at dog shows with wife, June, working alongside. They added cats, horses and birds (producing a cockatoo book) and “built quite a nice business.” For the record, cats are toughest. “You kind of accept what they give you,” Boersma says. “I cover June with a piece of fabric, and she invisibly holds the cat.” One session with a national champion Maine Coon saw the cat bolt and hide after every shot. The couple created cover images for such magazines as Dog Fancy and Cat Fancy. Their ragdoll cat, Rikki, a long-furred 15-pounder, made the cover of the 2004 Barnes and Noble cat calendar. “She just settled in our cactus garden when June tapped on the window, and she looked up and I snapped.” He doesn’t just take pictures, but works in many capacities with animal causes. Boersma became “an expert tummy shaver” when he started San Diego’s feral cat coalition, which once spayed and neutered 300 feral cats in one day, a task done carefully with welder’s gloves. Finding that he worked well with animals, he gradually headed into the wild and found that it took “years worth of work” to illustrate such juvenile books as “Lynx.” (June does text under the pen name Jalma Barrett.) There also was “lots of travel” from their longtime San Diego base. They headed for Montana and Canada, seeking sightings from forest service folks. “Lynx are very reclusive, and you hardly ever see two together.” His images of a mother with two young cubs were easier

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“cuz momma has to take care of those little guys.” He keeps his distance by using doublers to increase a 500mm lens to 1,000mm, using top-of-the-line Canon and Minolta cameras. And his favorite lynx in the book, a youngster ready to pounce from a perch in a yellow-leafed tree, was easiest of all. “Tiger” was being hand-raised by a Canadian farmer, who rescued the cub when its mother was killed by a car. “It leaped into my lap when we were having coffee on his porch and started to purr like a Mack truck. It would hide under my car, hit me on the back of my leg with a paw, then race off.” The most difficult shots required sitting in the Montana snow, wearing many layers and remaining still for hours before catching a Lynx pouncing on a rabbit. He didn’t yet use the more sophisticated long-range lens when he met that Arizona wolf pack. “Fortunately, some people, and I’m happy to say I’m one of them, just don’t seem to scare animals as much. In time, the wolves grew more and more comfortable around me. One stood up on my chest, and I got noseprints on my lens. “I was told they didn’t like people, but when I came back a couple years later, they came up to me like a long-lost friend.” He’s had no mishaps with his subjects, despite carrying no weapons into the wild. His usual companions: his wife and a cattle prod. CD-Conservation Disc Feeling they’d “really done the west,” the Boersmas recently moved closer to their four children, to Sarasota, Fla., where he’s already had the opportunity to snap two panthers. He’ll have a hard time, though, topping the image on his conservation disc. Among the 134 photographs of 55 North American species is a mountain lion leaping from rock to rock in Utah. Camera

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solid on tripod, he focused on the rock, anticipating the leap. Five images include two paws still on the launch rock, two paws on the boulder where it landed, and the one on his prize-winning disc: the cougar caught in mid-flight with only sky above and rocks below. Another memorable image freezes a coyote in full howl at a full moon. But it wasn’t only the marvelous photos that led to his Sierra Club honor, an awards committee member said. His conservation essay added to its impact. His experience lately has made Boersma, 73, “much more of an environmental advocate.” The title, “Keep Wild Animals in Our Lives!”, highlights his hope that “people will understand that the world and its critters don’t belong to us.” The CD begins with him wearing a wide-brimmed western hat narrating observations on the wonders of wild creatures: the threats to a snarling grizzly, a buffalo rolling in a dust bath, a fierce-eyed eagle, a nursing coyote, a nuzzling wolf mother, a cougar carrying her cub in gentle jaws. Even striped skunks among yellow dandelions. It helps that Benson High’s late Gunnar Horn (BA 1934) sparked his journalistic drive, and that he double-majored in writing (then a joint degree between journalism and English departments) and natural sciences. He later earned a doctorate in marketing in Sussex, England, and even studied mystery writers there. But the photographic interest inspired while editing the university yearbook began Copyright Larry Allan 2005 the journey. Its most recent stop was Sept. 9 in San Francisco, where he received the Ansel Adams Award. There, at least one more fellow grad learned of Boersma’s photographic prowess. Presenting him with the award was Sierra Club President Lisa Renstrom, also a UNO alum (1982).

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STANDING TALL WITH SIERRA

BY SHELLY STEIG Photo by Chris Keane

Whenever Lisa Renstrom sees a Hummer in a parking lot, she stops her Honda Insight—a space-age-looking hybrid that gets up to 70 miles per gallon—climbs out of the car and pulls a sticker from her purse. The sticker proclaims ‘I WILL EVOLVE,” including a picture of a tiny car. Renstrom doesn’t remove the sticker’s backing, but she does slip it under the much larger vehicle’s windshield wiper. 28 • Fall 2005

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While some radical activists might be tempted to slash the Hummer’s tires or “key” its paint, hers is a lighthearted and non-confrontational approach to a sometimescontentious topic — environmentalism. As the newly elected 51st president of the 750,000-member Sierra Club, the 1982 UNO graduate is determined to dispel preconceived notions about environmentalists, while at the same time finding collaborative solutions to environmental issues. She took over the position in May 2005 after the organization’s highest-ever voter turnout. As one of her initiatives, she spearheaded the Sierra Summit, the largest gathering of Sierra members in the club’s 114-year history. Renstrom inked an Alist of keynote speakers—Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Arianna Huffington and Bill Maher—for the summit, which took place in San Francisco Sept. 8-11. The gathering featured 1,000 delegates from across the country sharing their concerns in a town meeting format. Delegates then made recommendations on what the club’s focus should be for the next five years on issues such as building a new energy future, promoting wise individual and consumer choices, and environmental protection. Though such words weren’t yet in her lexicon while growing up in Omaha, Renstrom was learning the preliminary vocabulary. Her father Carl, who was 56 when she was born, was a Swedish immigrant who epitomized the American dream. He was a hard worker who held odd jobs, including a stint as a Fuller Brush salesman, before following in his own father’s footsteps and filing several patents. One of them, for a pencil-thin metal curler that provided the contrived-curl trend of the 1930s and 1940s, led to the formation of Tip-Top Hair Products. The company later produced popular pink, foamy hair rollers, providing enough of a bankroll for Carl to build a private retreat in Acapulco. Through the years that retreat morphed into a Hollywood playground called the Villa Vera Hotel. It was the spot where Elizabeth Taylor married her third husband, Mike Todd, where then-President Nixon and his wife celebrated their 25th anniversary, where bombshell Lana Turner lived for three years, and where scenes were shot for Elvis Presley’s “Fun in Acapulco” (Because of security concerns, Presley filmed offlocation in Los Angeles). The hotel was named for Carl’s firstborn daughter and Renstrom’s 20-years-older half-sister Vera. Vera later had two sons who formed the band Meat Puppets, a group Curt

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Cobain cited as his inspiration. She died of cancer in 1996 at age 59. Villa Vera’s success led Carl to later open MaraLisa, another Acapulco resort property, and a shopping center. Renstrom remembers her father as a gregarious character who lived large and was proud of his achievements, but who also taught her valuable life lessons. LOOK, LEAP, BUT DON’T HESITATE “I grew up with a sense of fiscal responsibility and responsibility in general,” she says. “In my father’s eyes, ingenuity was the machine that made America great. There was a great sense of stewardship about the land and its resources—waste not, want not.” She laughs, then adds, “But my father had two favorite sayings that kept confusing me, ‘Look before you leap’ and ‘He who hesitates is lost.’” Her mother, Betty Anderson, was a dental technician who met Carl while performing a routine cleaning. She was 30 years his junior. They married and moved to an 80-acre “gentleman’s farm” near 100th and Pacific streets where the family kept horses, chickens and Charolais cattle. Some sources have indicated that Carl was a devout atheist, but Renstrom disagrees. “My father was not a religious person,” she says. “He did not promote any specific faith or philosophical perspective—except a lot of common sensebased, living-well perspectives. My parents sent me to Catholic schools (Christ the King and Duchesne Academy)

“My coursework at UNO was a

But I got my MBA by fire in Mexico.”

great foundation.

and sometimes went to Mass with me.” Renstrom transferred to Westside High School as a junior. About that time Carl’s health began to fail. Wanting to stay near her father, Renstrom enrolled at UNO, where she received her BS in business administration. “My coursework at UNO was a great foundation,” she says. “But I got my MBA by fire in Mexico.” That’s an understatement considering what transpired south of the border. Carl had passed away in 1981 while Renstrom was taking classes at UNO. Soon after graduating in 1982, she and her newlywed husband, Omahan Mike Mangimelli, left the United States to manage three properties in Mexico. Even though she had spent time there during grade school and could speak the language fluently, it still was a Continued Page 30 Fall 2005 • 29

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culture shock for a young, blonde, female to enter Mexico’s volatile business world. Executor of Carl’s will, Renstrom hired outside consultants to help her prepare the properties for sale. Her father’s estate, however, was not clearly delineated and the previous management claimed an ownership interest. When she refused to back down, the disgruntled ex-employees filed criminal charges. Unlike the United States, she says, Mexico at the time considered accused “guilty until proven innocent” and she could not post bail. Only three years after arriving in the country, Renstrom found herself at Reclusorio, a women’s prison in Mexico City. Although mice skittered across her as she slept, the prison wasn’t as bad as some might imagine. It previously had been a psychiatric hospital and had outdoor areas within the walls. For three weeks, Renstrom was held in a location for those under observation. The next two months, authorities placed her in an area for those awaiting trial. There were no bars, and she and her seven cellmates had their own keys. During the last three months she resided in a cellblock where her infant daughter Alex could visit on weekends. Renstrom spent six months in Reclusorio until reaching an agreement with the plaintiffs, who dropped all charges. Despite the fact that she desperately missed her daughter and had to match bravado with murderers, Renstrom insists that the half-year in prison was invaluable. “It was an unbelievable experience that I wouldn’t trade for the world, even though at the time I didn’t know if I would be swallowed up in the system. Perhaps I equate it to going to war. You’re not facing your death, but you’re certainly facing limitations—the loss of your freedom, the loss of being able to live the life that we take so much for granted: showers, cleanliness, friends, family.” TRANSITIONS Renstrom was released from prison in the spring of 1987 and returned to the United States, semi-settling in Los Angeles. She then tallied some serious frequent flyer miles commuting to Mexico to manage and initiate efforts to sell the Mexican properties (finally settled in 1993), and also to Boston to complete an executive management program at Harvard University Graduate School of Business. Her personal life went through some major transitions, tool—she divorced her first husband and later relocated to Charlotte, N.C., with her mother, daughter and current husband, Bob Perkowitz. In Charlotte, Renstrom intended to settle down and become a stay-at-home mom. But she didn’t want to stagnate, so she began searching for an environmental organization that didn’t require a specific expertise for involvement. She visited a nearby Sierra Club meeting and shortly after was named the group's political chair. Renstrom then worked her way from

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A family affair for Nebraska’s First Lady By Tom McMahon

s a girl, Nebraska’s first lady accompanied her parents to the voting booth, standing by her mother as she handed out political flyers. There, Sally Ganem learned the importance of the political process. She missed the part about being a Democrat, though. The wife of Nebraska Governor Dave Heineman, Ganem grew up in Democrat-heavy South Omaha, attending South High School. Her family also leaned Democratic, the clan including a cousin’s husband, Phillip Vasquez, who became Bill Clinton’s deputy energy secretary. Somehow, the 1971 (BA)/1975 (MA) UNO alumna emerged Republican. “I read and listened to what people said,” Ganem says. “My family had some great political discussions.” Presumably continued to the present. “My sister and I cancel each other out,” says Ganem, “although she switched parties to vote for Dave.” Politics again is calling the former UNO homecoming queen and Young Republican party member. Ganem is retiring from 33 years as an elementary educator and administrator to devote more time to her husband’s upcoming re-election campaign. Heineman became governor when Mike Johanns left that position in January to become George Bush’s U.S. Secretary of Agriculture. “I had really decided last year, before Dave became governor, that I would retire. I bought an apartment building planning to make it one of my projects. I won’t have time for that now.” She leaves behind Fremont’s Howard Elementary School, where she’s been principal for three years. She draws double takes when introducing her replacement, Kate Heineman—no relation. “I told the kids, if she’s a Heineman, she’s going to be good.” Ganem, by the way, doesn’t go by “Mrs. Heineman,” When she and Dave w w w. u n o a l u m n i . o r g

wed in 1977 she kept her maiden name of Lebanese heritage. Both sets of her grandparents immigrated from Lebanon in the early 1900s, and, “There weren’t many Ganems out there. There were none in Nebraska and only about 40 outside of the Middle East. I checked.” Heineman and Ganem met during a political campaign. He had just graduated from West Point and came to the Douglas County Republicans wanting to get involved. She was working on John McCollister’s senatorial campaign. “I asked him if he wanted to get involved . . . politically, that is,” she says with a smile. They were engaged two months after meeting and married six months later. “We met through a campaign. What a great way to start retirement by working on his campaign.” Ganem, who cites role models such as Lou Hoover, Eleanor Roosevelt and Laura Bush, plans to be an active first

lady. Ganem says she will focus her efforts on women's and children's issues. She has a keen interest in early childhood education and wants to increase opportunities for Nebraska’s children in that area. She also is concerned about the state's drug problem, particularly methamphetamine use, and hopes to aid in its reduction. “I plan to examine the issues and decide where to get involved.” For Ganem, being Nebraska’s first lady is another opportunity to learn and to grow, which her parents encouraged and UNO fostered. “My UNO years were ones of sharing and reflecting ideas with friends and professors. I learn best by exchanging ideas with other people.” She also is looking forward to reuniting full-time with Heineman and their son Sam, a 20-year-old University of Nebraska-Lincoln student. Ganem often stayed in the couple’s Fremont home during the school year, especially when she had evening activities. “Sam was attending Midlands [College] and living at home in Fremont. Now he lives at home again, in the Governor’s Mansion. He told me I need to come live with them.” Politics, after all, is a family tradition. Photo by Eric Francis

Standing Tall

local to state and national posts, serving on the board of trustees and board of directors during the next nine years. Making the jump from successful businesswoman to soccer mom to environmental activist was not a huge leap, says Renstrom. “I believe everyone is an environmentalist at heart. But they come to it in different stages and for different reasons in their lives. It really wasn’t until I moved back to the United States and joined the Sierra Club that I was able to turn these thoughts into any sort of action that meant anything. I also felt that bringing the economic and business background from school and from my work in Mexico was something that the environmental movement needed.” She later became executive director for Voices & Choices of the Central Carolinas, a 14-county organization in the two states that encouraged citizens, elected officials and business leaders to seek sustainability economically and environmentally. She also began an ongoing collaboration in a project with Harvard professor Marshall Ganz titled, “National Purpose, Local Action.” Its goal is to evaluate, through self-assessment surveys, how the Sierra Club and similar organizations can be more effective at the state and local levels. During her term leading the nation’s oldest environmental group, Renstrom will continue focusing on sustainability— choosing goods and services that minimize the usage of irreplaceable natural resources while not producing toxic byproducts—in what she considers to be the third era of the environmental movement. At its inception and first era, the Sierra Club concentrated on conserving land, such as that in Yosemite and the Grand Canyon. During the second era, which reached its zenith in the 1960s, activists saw the implementation of clean air and water acts. Renstrom believes the club has led the way for two eras, and she is excited to be at the helm in the third era as the organization concentrates on working with communities at the local level to solve climate change issues, teaching responsibility and fairness, and encouraging energy independence. Because family is important to Renstrom (her mother lives with her in Charlotte; her 19-year old daughter was supposed to have begun her freshman year at Tulane University but now will study in London though a Syracuse University program) she also emphasizes the need to focus on the health, welfare and security of American families. Renstrom also believes that as a registered independent she can find common political ground when it comes to the environment. She does it at home, at least; though her organization leans left, her husband is a Republican. She is determined to focus the organization on providing fertile soil for friends and neighbors to nourish seeds of sameness. She sees the Sierra Club as a big tent and adds, “You can be an NRA member and a Sierra Club member. You can be pro-choice or pro-life and still be a Sierra Club member. Environmental values are part of all of us. They are neither Republican nor Democrat. “People just need to look into their hearts and ask, ‘What is important to me and my children, and how do I want to leave this world?’”

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Photo by Eric Francis

Opening Doors

By Sonja Carberry

t was a ritual that took place every summer, two parents and their six daughters crammed into a station wagon for 3,000 miles round trip. Jesus and Beatriz Garcia began the annual trek from their home near 19th and Q streets, heading South of the Border to visit relatives in Mexico City. Maria, their youngest daughter, recalls the long trips being “full of anticipation and excitement to see family. Tears of joy upon arrival, tears of sadness at departure.” They also were opportunities for Maria, just a few months old when her family left Mexico in 1964, to learn from where and whom she came.

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Some in the extended family were poor and struggling; others were educated and successful. “So I saw both sides,” she says. “There’s the misconception that everyone in Mexico is poor, and that’s just not true.” Today, Maria Vazquez can be counted among the educated and successful as the director of campus and student services at Metropolitan Community College's South Campus. She has become known as someone who opens doors for others and for starting dialogues between the Hispanic population and government officials, educators and employers. Insistence on Education Her own doors began opening in childhood, thanks in large measure to her parents’ insistence on education. The Garcias worked hard—sometimes holding two or three jobs— to ensure that each of their daughters could attend Catholic schools. “Education was very important to my parents,” Vazquez says. “They had high expectations. But they didn’t really know how to help us after high school.” Vazquez wasn’t too sure how to help herself. After graduating from Omaha Gross High School in 1982 she jumped from job to job, including one exhausting week loading meat into boxes at a south Omaha packing plant. She also worked at a UNOALUM

clothing factory and later took a cosmetology course to work for less than a year as a hairdresser in a Bellevue, Neb., salon. It was about that time that Vazquez was introduced to Theresa Barron-McKeagney, beginning a life makeover of sorts. Barron-McKeagney was working for the Chicano Awareness Center as an education counselor when the two met in 1984 through the prompting of CAC Director Patrick Velasquez. Also the daughter of immigrant parents and the youngest of 11 children, Barron-McKeagney understood how hard it was to take that first step toward higher education. “It’s always that feeling of, ‘Can I do it?’” she says. “You ask, ‘Why don’t I see other people here that look like me?’” An older sister when registering at UNO had taken Maria, then in high school, along with her. Barron-McKeagney, today the director of UNO’s College of Social Work, showed Vazquez even more, explaining credit hours and course requirements. “She took me by the hand and got me registered at Metro,” Vazquez says. “Not literally, but that’s what it felt like to me at the time.” Stepping through that first door marked the beginning of an educational journey that took Vazquez through an associate’s degree at Metro and on to bachelor’s and master’s degrees in social work at UNO. “Once in the classroom,” she says, “I knew that is exactly where I needed to be. I belonged there as much as the person sitting next to me.” Other doors opened, too. Vazquez in 1987 joined the Chicano Awareness Center as a Head Start parent educator, setting a certain tone for her career. “That’s where I think I found my calling of serving the community,” she says. “It was going outside my circle to realize all the problems and needs in the community.” The director, Patrick Velasquez, strongly encouraged education and involvement. “He really instilled in us that we needed to be out in the community to hear the voices of those who didn’t have a voice,” Vazquez says. In 1990 Vazquez began a four-year stint as an education counselor for the CAC. She later worked for the University of Nebraska Medical Center (social worker), Social Settlement (part-time therapist) and the UNO School of Social Work gerontology department (part-time instructor). Moving over to Metro In 1996 she joined Metropolitan Community College as a school-to-career facilitator with the Opportunities | Jobs | Careers program. During the next four years she also was a project coordinator for its Urban Rural Opportunities Grant, taught classes and facilitated staff development. She left the college in 2000, setting up computer labs in north and south Omaha as manager of community technology initiatives for the Applied Information Management Institute. She then joined U.S. Senator Ben Nelson’s staff as the statewide community liaison with the Latino and general population. Vazquez, a Nebraska delegate to the 2000 Democratic National Convention, saw firsthand the needs of minorities throughout the state, from Scottsbluff to Schuyler. It was an eye-opener to hear firsthand the struggles of minorities in rural settings, she says. w w w. u n o a l u m n i . o r g

In 2001 Vazquez became the first Latina to hold a City of Omaha cabinet post, serving for two years with Mayor Mike Fahey as director of Greater Omaha Workforce Development. The two had met during Fahey’s election campaign. “What I always noticed about Maria is she is an absolutely wonderful listener,” Fahey says. “She listens and she takes time and she makes thoughtful comments. “The Workforce project was a bit of a troubled agency and we were a new administration, so she had to bring in all new people. She did that while actually working on a whole remodeling project. I thought she did an outstanding job of pulling that all together.” Vazquez returned to Metro in June 2003 as coordinator of its Nebraska Corrections Education Connection. Less than a year later she assumed her current post as director of campus and student services. “I feel like I’m where I need to be at this point in my life,” Vazquez says. “I am truly blessed. I love to come to work. There’s an excitement and an energy.” Her boss, Metro Executive Dean of Campus and Student Services Jim Grotrian, touts Vazquez’s ability to connect with young students and seasoned community leaders alike. “Maria has a soft touch with people and with issues and enjoys really making a difference in the quality of the way we serve students,” he says. “She’s one of our stars at the college.” Vazquez especially enjoys connecting with students, even the tougher ones to reach. “What people need to realize is that when kids or young adults are pushing adults away, they are really encouraging them to get closer,” she says. Vazquez tries to find common ground with each student and then pushes home her message: “If you are educated and prepared, socially networked in a community, things can happen. You have to work hard, stay focused and stay positive to make things ‘happen.’” Over the course of her career, Vazquez has held nearly 20 board and committee appointments, from United Way of the Midlands to the Heartland Latino Leadership Conference to the Project Impact Committee with the U.S. Attorney’s Office of Nebraska. With her own children, Paulina and Brandon, she emphasizes the lessons of education, family and giving back that she learned from her own parents. The family tries to serve meals at the Stephen Center once a month. She also has taken them with her to community and work-related events to chip away at the lessons. “No one owes you anything,” she says. “You owe the world a ton.” Vazquez says she’s arrived at this point in her life thanks to many people. Her parents instilled morals and values. BarronMcKeagney got her started in college. Five sisters, “all leaders in their own right,” also helped. She even cites, from a distance, labor activist Cesar Chavez for his concept of servant leadership. “It’s about knowing who you are, being centered, being balanced. It’s about humility,” Vazquez says. “It’s true. I stand on the shoulders of those who came before me.” Fall 2005 • 33

Special K

Association in Action

PKI Director Callahan receives Alumni Citation

By John Fey

uke University may have its successful “Coach K” in Mike Krzyzewski, but UNO has a Coach K of its own, and he’s pretty

special. This Coach K’s name is easier to spell, too. Don Klosterman has coached the UNO women’s soccer program since its 1999 start, and already he’s racked up 104 wins. “Ninety-nine percent of it is talent,” says Klosterman, who has taken three of his six teams to the NCAA Division II Final Four. “We’ve been fortunate to recruit the types of kids that we do.” When UNO added soccer, Klosterman was hired from Millard South High School, where he led the boys program for 10 years. He quickly accepted the offer from then-athletic director Bob Danenhauer and associate A.D. Cherri Mankenberg to start UNO’s program. “UNO right away offered kids a chance to play at a Division II program and play at this university, which was great for them for academic reasons,” Klosterman says. “So the whole thing turned out, to me, to be a brilliant, perfect match.” UNO’s new athletic director, David Herbster, is in awe of what Klosterman (104-54-4 after six seasons) has accomplished. “Don is a student and teacher of the game of soccer and has been successful wherever he has been,” Herbster says. “I think the best thing I can say about Don is that there is nobody I would rather have coach any of my daughters than Don.” Photo by Tim Fitzgerald, University Affairs Meghan Pile, who has started her final season “Don is a student and teacher of the game of soccer and has been successful as a Maverick, looks to Klosterman as more than wherever he has been,” says UNO Athletic Director Dave Herbster. just a coach. “Coach is genuinely concerned with all of us,” plus for the program. “To have the dominating teams he’s had says Pile, an all-region selection at defender last year. “He’d the past five or six years is pretty amazing,” she says. bend over backwards for any of us on the team. He’s a good As pleased as Klosterman is over the on-field success of his guy.” players, he’s equally proud of the Mavericks’ work in the Success came early for the program. In just the team’s classroom. fourth year, UNO was national runner-up losing to Christian In six seasons, 17 of Klosterman’s players have been named Brothers 2-1 in the NCAA final. Last year, the Mavs made it to to the Academic All-North Central Conference teams. Those their third straight Final Four, falling in the semifinals 2-0 to numbers bring a smile to his face. eventual champion Metropolitan State. Three-quarters of their “I think it’s phenomenal,” he says. “There are quite a few point scoring returns for UNO in 2005, including Allpeople on campus that recognize that. A lot of the professors American forward Beth McGill. comment to me. They say, ‘It’s great what you guys do in athKlosterman, 53, is only slightly surprised at the success letics.’” over the past six years. Mike Krzyzewski probably would agree. Pile says Klosterman’s ability to recruit good talent is a

34 • Fall 2005

News & Information

UNOALUM

he UNO Alumni Association bestowed its Citation for Alumnus Achievement upon Winnie L. Callahan, executive director of the Peter Kiewit Institute, during the university’s summer commencement ceremony Aug. 12 at the Omaha Civic Auditorium. The Citation is presented at each UNO commencement. The Alumni Association’s highest honor, it encompasses professional or career achievement, community service, involvement in business and professional associations, and fidelity to UNO. Adrian Minks, 2005 chairman of the Peter Kiewit Executive Director Winnie Association’s board of directors, presented the Callahan became the 138th recipient of the Citation for Alumnus Achievement. award to Callahan, who earned master’s and doctoral degrees from UNO in educational administration. She is the 138th recipient of the Citation, first bestowed in 1949, but just the second to have received a doctorate from UNO. Callahan is in her seventh year as executive director of the Peter Kiewit Institute (www.pki.nebraska.edu), home to UNO’s College of Information Science and Technology and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s College of Engineering and Technology. She also is assistant vice president of the University of Nebraska Foundation. In these capacities, Callahan works directly with PKI’s board of policy advisors and its chairman, Walter Scott Jr. She serves as a liaison between the business community and the deans of the two colleges in PKI, and works with UNL, UNO and the university president to enhance opportunities for collaboration and cooperation. In the last seven years Callahan has been instrumental in helping PKI develop partnerships with more than 180 businesses. Callahan also assists in PKI’s student recruitment and chairs its scholarship selection committee. In addition, she works closely with the Scott Technology Center, its director Ken Moreano, and local leaders to promote economic development and entrepreneurship. Prior to her current position, Callahan was with Omaha Public Schools as a teacher and principal and as the OPS director of public information services. For more than 21 years she w w w. u n o a l u m n i . o r g

also taught graduate and undergraduate courses in UNO’s College of Education, where she earned two degrees (MA, 1975; Ed.D., 2003). She earned a bachelor’s degree in elementary education from Winthrop College in Rock Hill, S.C. Callahan has spoken locally and nationally on a variety of topics related to building excellence in education. She served for three years as a consultant to Walt Disney on numerous educational videos using Disney characters to clearly portray difficult math and English concepts to young children. Callahan serves on an array of community boards, having been elected president of several. She is a 1984 graduate of Leadership Omaha and served on the founding board of Youth Leadership Omaha. She’s also been involved with the Institute for Career Advancement Needs, the Omaha Children’s Museum, Omaha Summer Arts Festival, River City Roundup, West Omaha and Downtown YMCA, and others. Her professional memberships include Phi Delta Kappa, the American Association of School Administrators, the National School Public Relations Association, Nebraska Council of School Administrators, Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE), Kauffman Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership and the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE). Callahan also has received community recognitions, including the Nebraska Literacy Award and the YWCA’s Outstanding Woman of Distinction Award. In October 2004 she was inducted into the Knights of Ak-Sar-Ben Court of Honor. She is married and has two sons.

UNO Homecoming 2005 Saturday, Oct. 15

oin fellow alumni at the Sapp Fieldhouse (rain or shine) for food, fun and freebies at UNO Homecoming 2005 on Saturday, Oct. 15. Kids 12 & under of alumni attend FREE!!! Here’s the lineup: 11 a.m.—Picnic/tailgate party at Sapp Fieldhouse Enjoy delicious food and beverages; games, prizes and Mav Tattoos for kids; a pep talk from Coach Pat Behrns; UNO Mascot Durango; and the Amazing Arthur with magic, juggling and balloon art. 1 p.m.—UNO vs. Augustana, Caniglia Field UNO goes for its ninth win in the past 10 homecomings! All that for just $10 for adults. Price includes ticket to the game, food and beverages. Again, kids 12 and under of alumni attend free!!!! Sign up now! To attend, download the 2005 Homecoming Registration PDF form and return it to us with your payment by Oct. 7. For more info call toll-free UNO-MAV-ALUM (866-6282586) or e-mail sking@mail.unomaha.edu

Fall 2005 • 35

Association in Action

www.unoalumni.org

Asked and Answered T

he questions were asked, and UNO graduates answered, giving their opinions on three online surveys since the last UNO Alum was mailed in June. Monthly survey results include:

Photo by Tim Fitzgerald

A large Alumni Association crowd was on hand in Elmwood Park to see “Othello.”

The Bard in the Yard T

he Bard was back, and so were 170 of his closest friends. That’s how many people attended the UNO Alumni Association’s fifth annual Shakespeare on the Green picnic, followed by a Shakespeare on the Green performance of “Othello.” The picnic buffet preceding the planned performance was held in the W.H. Thompson Alumni Center. UNO Professor Cindy Melby Phaneuf, co-founder/artistic director of the Nebraska Shakespeare Festival, provided a preview of “Othello” at the picnic. The crowd then headed to a reserved space at the performance. Part of the fee paid by attendees went toward a donation to the Nebraska Shakespeare Festival. Don’t miss next year’s Shakespeare on the Green Picnic (details later) and Performance. Call Sheila King at 554-4802 or e-mail sking@mail.unomaha.edu.

Association inks new online affinity partnership

NO supporters, alumni, and friends now can generate significant new funds by purchasing wellness, water, and personal care products that promote healthy lifestyles. The opportunity was created through an affinity marketing program with Team in Focus, which each month will contribute 15 percent of total online purchases. To further explore this opportunity benefiting UNO, visit the Association’s website at www.unoalumni.org

36 • Fall 2005

June Is it morally acceptable to conduct medical research using stem cells derived from human embryos? • Yes—66% • No—27% • Not sure—7%

July U.S. Senator and UNO grad Chuck Hagel has offered several ideas for the war in Iraq. Among his suggestions, and others, which do you think is most important? • Stay the course—37% • Better train Iraqi forces—16% • Better recruit, entice more U.S. troops—1% • Commit more U.S. troops currently serving elsewhere—3% • Get Allies to guard Iraqi borders—10% • Engage more help from Middle East countries—13% • Pull out now—15% • Other—2% • Don’t know—3%

August The U.S. Supreme Court in June rulings seemed to indicate that context and placement determine whether Ten Commandments displays are permissible in public places. What do you think? • Allow public displays anywhere—56% • Allow by context/placement 31% • No public displays anywhere 11% • Undecided—2%

UNOALUM

News & Information

“In Care Of” roll call adds UNO-affiliated U.S. soldiers

he UNO Alumni Association’s In Care Of program continues with eight more care packages having been sent to UNOaffiliated soldiers currently at war. Since the program’s start, 25 care packages have been issued. Each care package includes: first aid and grooming kits, phone cards (generously provided by Family Support Center of Offutt Air Force Base), a Nebraska Life Magazine (generously provided by Nebraska Life publishers), a UNO Alum magazine, an LED keychain mini flashlight, waterless hand sanitizer, single-use camera with American flag design, retractable utility knife, sunscreen, lip balm, UNO baseball cap, Life Savers candy and notes from alumni. Among recent recipients was Sgt. John F. Ayers, a combat medic with the U.S. Army’s 313th Medical Company currently serving in Iraq. He is the son of UNO graduate John P. Ayers a 2000 MPA graduate who served in Jordan, Kuwait, Iraq and Afghanistan from April 2003 until March 2004 as a chief warrant officer with the U.S. Army National Guard. After receiving a care package his son wrote in thanks, including photos taken with a camera he was provided. “It has been really hot here, so I hope that didn't ruin the film,” Ayers wrote. “I took many pictures of the base I'm on and also some pictures of me convoying. Thank you again for the care package; it meant a lot.” The following soldiers each received a care package since the last Alum was published in June. For more information on the In Care Of program, visit the Association’s website at www.unoalumni.org/incareof.

John F. Ayers Rank, Branch: U.S. Army National Guard Current Assignment: Combat medic, Iraq UNO Affiliation: Son of UNO graduate John P. Ayers (MPA, 2000) of Lincoln, Neb. Father John P. Ayers served in Jordan, Kuwait, Iraq and Afghanistan from April 2003 until March 2004 as a chief warrant officer with the U.S. Army National Guard.

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UNO graduate Joseph Adam Niess is serving with the U.S. Army in Camp Taji in Iraq.

David Beezley Rank, Branch: PVC, U.S. Army Current Assignment: Afghanistan. UNO Affiliation: Son of UNO graduate Charles Beezley (BS, 1975) of Springfield, Mo.

Current Assignment: USS Higgins, Gulf. UNO Affiliation: Son of UNO graduate Terry Rhedin (Framke; BS, 1985) of Bremerton, Wash., and currently a chief petty officer serving aboard the USS John C. Stennis.

Joseph Adam Niess Rank, Branch: 1st Lt., U.S. Army . Current Assignment: Camp Taji, Iraq. UNO Affiliation: UNO graduate (BGS, 2002).

Rodney Tatum Rank, Branch: 1st Lt., U.S. Army National Guard. Current Assignment: Iraq. UNO Affiliation: Brother-in-law of UNO graduate Crystal M. Teets (BSED 2001) of Pooler, Ga.

Jillian L. Kinzer Rank, Branch: Spc., Nebraska Army National Guard. Current Assignment: Iraq, 313th Medical Company UNO Affiliation: UNO student

Kathryn L. O’Neil Rank, Branch: Staff Sgt., U.S. Air Force. Current Assignment: Baghdad, Iraq. UNO Affiliation: UNO student. James Rhedin Rank, Branch: 3rd Class, U.S. Navy

Mindy Theilen Schroeder Rank, Branch: 2nd Lt., Nebraska Army National Guard. Current Assignment: Iraq. UNO Affiliation: UNO graduate 2004.

Sherry Wattier Rank, Branch: Specialist, U.S. Army National Guard. Current Assignment: Iraq. UNO Affiliation: UNO graduate (BSW, 1991).

Fall 2005 • 37

Association in Action

News & Information

Longtime donor wins UNO season hockey tickets

rowing up, UNO graduate Ron Frisse had a bad case of the blues. The St. Louis Blues, that is. A longtime hockey fan, Frisse hails from Edwardsville, Ill., a suburb of St. Louis, and followed that city’s NHL franchise. After moving to Omaha, Frisse got his hockey fix by attending several UNO and Omaha Lancers hockey games each season. He’ll be making the trek to Qwest Center Omaha a few more times this coming season, though, having been randomly selected by the UNO Alumni Association to receive a pair of 2005-06 UNO season hockey tickets. The UNO Annual Fund promotion was conducted among donors of $25 or more through June. “I always find a night out at a UNO game to be an enjoyable experience,” says Frisse. “The games are always exciting.” Frisse has been an Annual Fund donor seven of the last eight years. Though aware of the hockey ticket promotion, he says it was not his motivation for giving. “UNO provided me with a solid education that was made possible because of others before me who contributed to the university,” the 1996 MBA grad says. “I like to try and give back so that today's students can benefit from the same programs that I benefited from when I was I student. Alumni support is crucial in helping the university develop the programs that it is able to offer.” Frisse has worked for Union Pacific for 15 years, starting there after earning an electrical engineering degree from the University of Missouri-Rolla in 1990. His UP career began as a data network engineer responsible for designing and maintaining a portion of UP’s LAN/WAN network. Today he is the regional director of telecommunications, guiding a team of three managers in Omaha, Kansas City

38 • Fall 2005

Mellenbruch Studio

Business discounts offered at new Alumni Center

he W.H. Thompson Alumni Center construction and renovation project is in full swing and the facility is scheduled to reopen Jan. 1, 2006. The changes (artist’s rendering above) includes new rooms and décor and increased access to the spacious grounds, all of it enhancing the elegant charm for which the Alumni Center is known. Centrally located and easy to find, the Alumni Center is a great place for meetings, seminars, conferences, banquets, holiday parties and social events. The Alumni Center will have a new ballroom, a hospitality/serving room, a built-in registration area and other prefunction space. A state-of-the-art audio/visual presentation

system is being installed, too. To encourage use of the facility when it opens in January, the Alumni Center is offering a 50-percent discount on business events and audio/visual rentals hosted prior to May 1, 2006 (up to three consecutive days). Reservations for 2006 are encouraged to be made as soon as possible. For additional details about the changes to the building, visit the Alumni Association’s website at www.unoalumni.org/alumni_center/center_renovation/ For rental information, contact Greg Trimm, director of Alumni Facilities, at 554-3368 or email him at gtrimm@mail.unomaha.edu.

Weekend Getaway Drawings remain to Kansas City, LA Photo by Tim Fitzgerald

UNO Hockey Coach Mike Kemp, right, was on hand this summer to congratulate Ron Frisse, recipient of a pair of UNO season hockey tickets through a promotional drawing for the UNO Annual Fund.

and Dupo, Ill. The unit installs, maintains and restores telecommunications equipment and systems (phones, computers, printers, networks, etc) within the central region. “The MBA has definitely helped me in my career,” says Frisse, who cites Professor Lynn Harland and John Hafer as standout teachers during his time in the CBA program. “The education I received during my MBA has helped me

develop the management skills I use daily and gives me an advantage in leading my team successfully.” Frisse is the second Union Pacific employee to be randomly selected as the season hockey ticket winner. Kelly Abaray, a Six Sigma process consultant for UP’s engineering department, received the tickets in 2002. She earned a BSCE from UNO in 1998 and an MBA in 2001. UNOALUM

he UNO Alumni Association is asking its graduates to “Make a World of Difference” through a contribution to the 2005 UNO Annual Fund. The 2005 campaign focuses on ways donors can make a difference not only on campus, but also in the world. That includes “In Care Of” care packages sent to UNO-affiliated soldiers at war (see page 37) and “Aid to Afghanistan” supplies for children and teachers in that war-torn country. To promote these efforts, the Association is conducting random drawings among donors of $50 or

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more for Weekend Getaway trips emphasizing UNO’s presence in the world. Trips include travel, lodging and performance tickets for two people. One donor will be chosen for each drawing. All donors of $50 or more also receive a UNO Alumni Gold Card and its benefits, entry in monthly prize drawings and a 2006 UNO campus display calendar. To qualify for the Weekend Getaway drawings, complete and return with gift the form on page 46. Online donations can be made at www.unoalumni.org.

Weekend Getaway—Kansas City Donation Deadline—Sept. 30 See former Maverick All-American Chris Bober and his Kansas City Chiefs take on former Mav great Ryan Krause and his San Diego Chargers at noon on Dec. 24. Grand-Prize Getaway—Los Angeles Donation Deadline—Dec. 31 VIP tickets to a taping of “Jeopardy!” where UNO grad Gary Johnson is producer-head writer. Drawing held in January 2006 after all 2005 donors are recorded.

Fall 2005 • 39

Class Notes

SUBMIT A CLASS NOTE ON THE WEB www.unoalumni.org/communications/submitcn.asp

1940 Evelyn Glad Meyer, BA, lives in McLean, Va., and wrote in response to a thank you sent in recognition of an Alumni Association mailing. 1958 Gail Johnson, BS, writes from his home in Long Beach, Calif., that “Twelve Chi Omegas from 1955 pledge class gathered in Omaha for a 50-year reunion—what fun. It was like we had been together forever. Amazed by the campus and the size. No “Shack” any more!”

1963 David H. Schuur, BS, writes from home in Millersville, MD., that he and his wife, Judy, “just returned from Peru where we spent three weeks touring many of Peru’s PreInca ruins, including Machu Picchu, Sacred Valley, Temple-ofthe-Moon, etc. I have been retired since 1998.” Send him email at dschuur@erols.com

1966 Mike Moran, BS, was named to 2005 Colorado Springs Sports Hall of Fame during a ceremony last November. The honor was conferred by the Colorado Springs Sports Corporation, inductees chosen based upon their career accomplishments and contributions to sports in the Pikes Peak region. Moran most recently was senior communications counselor for the NYC2012 Olympic bid. He previously was chief communications officer for the United States Olympic Committee for 24 years, seeing the organization and its athletes through 13 Olympic Games, two Olympic boycotts, and numerous controversies and crises related to the world’s most visible sporting event. He retired from full-time service to the USOC in January 2003. He also is a consultant to Edelman Worldwide, one of the nation's largest PR firms, with headquarters in New York City. Much in demand as a speaker and master of ceremonies, Moran has occupied the podium for the USOC, and now NYC2012, at more 40 • Fall 2005

FA L L

2 0 0 5

Flashback File

Frosh Caps, 1942

From the Oct. 5, 1942 University of Omaha Alumni Gateway

“F

reshman, you look like a ‘man from Mars’ in that loud skullcap.” “Yes, sir; thank you, sir.” This is an example of how young men in the class of ’46 may expect to be addressed during the next two months, and of how they will answer—or else! For, according to Bob Spellmeyer, student council chairman, the J.C. Penney company will again furnish freshman caps this year, to be worn by all freshmen “until Homecoming.” The exact date when freshmen may get their button-hats will be posted on the bulletin board. “Caps are to be worn to and from school every day,” Spellmeyer declared. “They may be worn in the halls but not in class rooms. The ‘O’ Club will ‘encourage’ the wearing of the caps. A student is a freshman until he earns twenty four credit hours. The sooner the freshmen get their caps, the better.” And possibly most important of all; when a freshman is questioned about his cap by an upperclassman, “he must answer promptly and respectfully,” emphasized Spellmeyer. Picture: Punishment for not wearing a skull cap? The 1941 Tomahawk yearbook suggests what might happen.

than 1,500 press conferences, Olympic dinners, sponsor banquets, college graduation ceremonies, sports award banquets, and community and national events. In 2002, he was named to the College Sports Information Directors of America Hall of Fame. Moran and his wife Gretchen reside in Colorado Springs.

N.M., and writes the following: “Completed master in ministry on 29 June from Pepperdine University, Malibu. Am to be ordained on June 25, 2005. Am a trauma room chaplain at University of New Mexico Hospital. This is the start of my third career, even if it is only three days a week as a volunteer chaplain.”

Dwight E. Johnson, BS, lives in LaVista, Neb., and provides construction management services for Beringer Ciaccio Dennell Mabrey, a multi-disciplined group of architects, landscape architects and interior designers in 23 different states. Send him email at djohnson@bcdm.net

Frederick W. Tonsing, BGS, lives in McCormick, S.C., and is twice retired, first from a 20-year career with the U.S. Army and then from a 25-year career as a public school teacher. “Now 75 years old and still enjoying life with my wife, Ruth, of 53 years. Earned a master’s degree in education in 1970.”

1969 L.W. Hoover, BGS, lives in Tyeras,

James F. Bard Jr., BGS, is “completely retired,” he writes from UNOALUM

FA L L home in Westminster, Md. “Waiting by my PC for email from friends. They can reach me at jimbardjr@adelphia.net. Keeping active with old Air Force unit (915RW) and veterans.” Donald David Hawley, BGS, wrote from his home in Fort Walton Beach, Fla., in response to a fund-raising letter sent to Bootstrapper graduates. The letter noted that “Since UNO began the Bootstrap Program in 1951, nearly 12,000 military personnel have earned careerenhancing degrees, an achievement made easier via credit hours provided to officers for their commissions.” Hawley wrote “the sentence tells only part of the story! Many Bootstrappers were enlisted (not officers), as I was. Credits earned by officers and enlisted were by several other means, such as CLEP, tech school, etc. This letter makes it sound like only officers went Bootstrap—not so!” Send Hawley email at dhawley2@earthlink.net John K. Clark, BGS, lives in West Palm Beach, Fla., and provides the following update: “After retiring from the U.S. Air Force as a cap-

tain with 27 years of service I went to work as the director of administration for the Palm Beach County Tax Collector. I was elected to the tax collector position in 1992 and reelected in 1996, 2000 and 2004.” Send him email at jobobb@bellsouth.net Edward A. Peniche, BGS, was the keynote speaker on VE Day + 60 at Longchamps, Belgium, on May 8, 2005. He served with the 101st Airborne Division from DDay 1944 to VE-Day 1945. On Jan. 3, 1945, one of the bloodiest days of the attack on Bastogne, Peniche, then serving with the 502nd Parachute Infantry Regiment, helped destroy 10 SS Panzer tanks at Longchamps, helping break the back of the German attack on Bastogne. His efforts led the town to erect a monument marker in his honor, the Stele Peniche. Peniche was wounded in action at Longchamps. He lives in Houston and is a retired professor emeritus. 1970 Suzanne Wintle, BS, was named the 2006 Massachusetts Teacher of the Year. She teaches third grade at the Florence Sawyer School in the Nashoba Regional

Lost Alums -- 1957

Beatrice G. Ahern Ahern Charles L. Arbogast Phyllis C. Ayers Ayers Joseph F. Bachman James S. Baird Frank W. Bennett Marvin E. Berger William P. Berry Nicholas C. Bethlenfalvay Howard J. Blanchard Betty L. Bonser Bonser Helen M. Bosley Bosley John B. Bothell Patsy L. Halverson Bowman Terry J. Bowman Robert J. Bob Breci Wilma Bunney Richard Harris Butler James Roy Carper Billy G. Carriker Mary Chappell Ruth M. Clark Lyle W. Claypool Robert H. Cobbs

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School District in Bolton, Mass. She writes, “Thanks, UNO, for a great start to my career.” 1971 Jim Sweeney, BS, lives in Dunwoody, Ga., and is recently retired after 20 years for Bell South, where he most recently was a major accounts representative. He set several sales records there, working at the company’s headquarters in Atlanta. “I had two careers,” he writes, “Ten years as a teacher/coach in Elkhorn, Neb., Wayne and Emerson, N.J., and 20 years at the top of financials with Bell South, in both Florida and Georgia.” Sweeney, who notes he also is a cancer survivor, plans to retire “into the north Georgia mountains or in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado/Utah.” Send him email at sweeno@earthlink.net 1972 Albert Hodapp, MA, is a school psychologist who, with his wife, fellow alum Joan Hodapp (MS, 1974), coauthored and had published two articles in the reference book, “Encyclopedia of School Psychology, 2005.” Their articles deal with

“Media and Children” and “Teenage Smoking.” The Hodapps live in Mason City, Iowa. Send him email at ahodapp@aea267.k12.ia.us Jerry M. Nielson, BSBA, lives in Omaha and is teaching a management course at UNO as an adjunct faculty member. “It feels good to be back and contributing to the future of new emering leaders through classroom lectures,” he writes. Send him email at JMichaelNielson@ hotmail.com 1974 Joan Hodapp, MS, is a special education coordinator who, with her husband, fellow alum Albert Hodapp (MA, 1972), co-authored and had published two articles in the reference book, “Encyclopedia of School Psychology, 2005.” Their articles deal with “Media and Children” and “Teenage Smoking.” The Hodapps live in Mason City, Iowa. 1973 Martha Nye, MS, lives in Wellman, Iowa, and recently retired from teaching after 43 years in Iowa and Nebraska. She was named Educator of the Year for 2005 by the MidPrairie Education

Help us find these “Lost Alums” from the Class of 1957. Send news of their whereabouts to sgerding@mail.unomaha.edu

Mary A. Collier Shirley J. Dall John W. Dennison Marie Zadina Devery Philip S. Dickey Olin A. Dovel James J. Driscoll Donald E. Driver Donald J. Dunn Henry H. English Robert S. Esworthy Harold D. Floyd Wanda J. Dickinson Flynn Richard P. Friend Millard H. Gassaway Carol J. Bingham Gates Gordon M. Gibbs Grace D. Greene Norma J. Ceaz Hart Marilyn A. Brandes Higgs Dwight N. Hillis Carl M. Hillstrom Mark F. Holland Helton G. Hudgens

Robert A. Jackson Jeanice Johnson Garland M. Jones Robert W. Jones Herbert H. Kaplan Helen C. Kaplan Victor C. Kelso Marcia M. Miller Kemp Thomas P Kezlan Marjorie C. Kilanowicz Sharron Knowles Knowles Kirkland Richard B. Kirwan Kazimieras Kislauskas James G. Knudsen Rota Krumins Leo E. Lamb Arlin W. Leder Francis W. Lowe Vian Lukasiewicz William J. Martin Marilyn Ruth McDonald Donald C. McKeen Joseph A. Michalik

Dean B. Mill Theresa Rope Rope Miller Margaret M. Miller Marjorie G. Miller John J. Moos Gary B. Morey Kenneth M. Morrison Darrell E. Mudra Carl R. H. Nelson Daryl E. Nelson Richard E. Obrien Harold A. Olsen James B. Orourke Susan E. Oviatt Ruth M. Papa Leonard C. Pflanz Cheo Ro Pock Geneva Power John J. Pusey Frank A. Rademacher Robert F. Raikes Wanda G. Gearhart Richards Edward H. Rohan James E. Rose

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Ralph R. Roth Morris R. Shields Charles D. Skinner Malcolm F. Slayter Camille Wells Wells Slights Roy H. Smart Clifford A. Smith John T. Storrs Wayne H. Taylor Maudie L. Thompson Lewis I. Vance Dorothy B. Vaughn Ralph E. Walker Newman M. Warren Maxine Marts Watkins Dennis H. Weeks Delno West Pat R. Wilbur Harold H. Wilkerson Frank L. Wiseman Anthony J. Zinicola

Fall 2005 • 41

Class Notes Association, in whose district she has taught for 25 years. Nye has taught second and third grades, Title I Reading K-6 and grades K-8 in a oneroom school with Amish students.

1974 Ronald J. Skoneki, BGS, lives in Montgomery, Ala., and is retired from the U.S. Air Force as a Lt. Col. after 33 years of service and after working at civil air patrol headquarters at Maxwell Air Force Base in Montgomery. 1976 Emmett Hoctor, BGS, lives in Plattsmouth, Neb., and is a freelance writer. He notes that he was “the individual who gathered expert scientists to exhume the remains of Jesse James in 1995 with a blue-ribbon panel of scientists. Also getting permission from the six living great grandchildren of Jesse James. The results were conclusive

99.7 percent, almost unheard of in DNA study, as the match with the teeth of Jesse.” In the early 1980s Hoctor gathered 200 old photos of South Omaha and displayed them in 1982 at the South Omaha Centennial as the Hoctor Collection. It was donated to the Western Heritage Museum.

1978 David L. Sokol, BS, in June received the Citizen of the Year award from the MidAmerica Council Boy Scouts of America. He is chairman and CEO of MidAmerican Energy Holdings Company, a leader in the production of energy from diversified fuel sources, including geothermal, natural gas, hydroelectric, nuclear, coal and wind. It serves approximately 5 million electricity and gas customers in the United States and United Kingdom. He was cited for his active community involvement, which

Sweetness Sour for ’74 Mavs

Compiled from Omaha World-Herald articles, UNO media guide

n scouting the 1974 UNO football team, Jackson State (Miss.) football officials sought information from the Mavs' loss earlier that season to NAIA Abilene Christian. UNO lost that game 35-9, Abilene All-American Wilbert Montgomery scoring three touchdowns and rushing for 109 yards on 17 carries. Montgomery, a future All-Pro with the Philadelphia Eagles, was a known commodity to the folks in Jackson. He was a Mississippi native and, according to one Jackson official, spent a week on the Jackson campus before leaving for Abilene. That was OK with Jackson coaches who at the time were handing the ball to another outstanding Mississippi native—Walter Payton. Montgomery was good, but "Walter can do more things, and better," said an official. UNO found that out the hard way. The Mavericks got their first taste of "Sweetness" in 1973 when Jackson State scored a 17-0 win at Rosenblatt Stadium. It was the first predominantly black team UNO ever played. Playing in the mud and rain, Payton ran for 115 yards on 18 carries and caught four passes for 72 more yards. He scored on a two-yard run, an extra point and a 25-yard field goal. UNO Coach Al Caniglia (it would be his last season, the

42 • Fall 2005

FA L L has included efforts on behalf of the University of Nebraska at Omaha, Creighton University, the Omaha Airport Authority, Knights of Ak-Sar-Ben, and the Metropolitan Entertainment and Convention Authority (of which he is the current and founding chairman). Sokol was a Boy Scout while growing up in the Florence area of Omaha. He joined the MidAmerica Council Board of Trustees in 1992 and has served in numerous capacities, including council chairman from 2002 to 2003. He is a past recipient of the Silver Beaver and Whitney M. Young, Jr. awards and is one of the Mid-America Council’s Heritage Endowment Fund Patrons. In 2004, MidAmerican Energy was named the Mid-America Council’s Corporate Partner of the Year.

1981 Sally Cook, MS, writes that, “Your alum magazine is excellent and I do appreciate receiving it. I finished my master’s at UNO, driving from Lincoln for a year. I had taken a sabbatical leave from teaching in the Lincoln Public Schools because UNO offered what I wanted, an excellent program in reading education. Although I do not feel the ties to UNO that others would, I feel very positive about my education there. I had excellent professors (better than many at UNL) and met lifelong friends. One friend, Jeanette Tiwald (MS, 1981), is with LPS and director of the reading recovery program. You might consider writing an article about her. She was a great help to me while we were in the reading education program together, and afterwards. She is a very talented, dedicated person. I retired from LPS in 1997. I was considered one of the

Flashback File

longtime coach dying in February 1974) had high praise for the NFL's future all-time rushing leader. "He just ran out of our grasp several times," he told the Omaha World-Herald. "He's very deserving of all the recognition he gets." It was more of the same when the two teams played again the following season in Mississippi. A lot more. Jackson whipped UNO 75-0, the school's third-worst loss ever. "There was no evidence of the famed southern hospitality," began a World-Herald account of the game. Especially rude was Payton, who scored six touchdowns on runs of one, four, five, 44, 21 and six yards. He finished with 22 carries for 183 yards. The game padded a sterling college career in which Payton finished with 3,563 yards and 66 touchdowns. UNO's Worst Defeats: Creighton 128-0, 1913 Chadron State 117-0, 1927 Jackson State 75-0, 1974 Northern Michigan 82-7, 1976 Grand Island 73-0, 1915 Doane 73-0, 1926 Eastern New Mexico 74-6, 1958 Wayne state, 61-0, 1919 York 60-0, 1927 Creighton 57-0, 1911 Marshall 62-6, 1941

UNOALUM

best reading specialists—I owe part of that to my experiences at UNO. Thank you!” 1987 Jamese Qualitero, BGS, notes from his home in Centreville, Va., that he will retire Sept. 30 after 25 years of government service. Send him email at jimq_1945@earthlink.net 1988 Karen Tidwall, BA, was elected a new shareholder in the Milwaukee office of Whyte Hirschboeck Dudek S.C. Tidwall concentrates her litigation practice in the areas of commercial, business, and product liability disputes in both state and federal court. She also is a member of the firm's construction law group and counsels construction industry clients in managing risk through contract negotiation. 1991 Roger A. Hiles, BSBA, is director in the corporate finance group at Turner Broadcasting System, overseeing the company’s financial reporting consolidation process, corporate financial analysis and financial systems administration teams. He also has served in a leadership role for several company-wide process improvement initiatives. He writes from Atlanta that, “I work at the CNN Center in downtown Atlanta and have been with Turner for five years now. I find it an exciting company and industry to work in—television and its associated characters and brands are all around. It’s interesting to see it from the other side, and in my job I get to see the financial story behind it all. All of those commercials help fund my paycheck! I left the Omaha area about a year after I graduated from UNO in 1991 and came to Georgia. w w w. u n o a l u m n i . o r g

I still have a plan to obtain my MBA degree, more as a personal goal now, and less for career reasons. I've been married to a teacher now for 14 years, and we have two young children. It’s nice to

look back and reflect on where I’ve gone in the years since UNO.” Send him email at rthiles@charter.net Dakin Schultz, BS, writes from Moville, Iowa, that he is

Future Alums Got a picture of your little tyke? Send it our way as a print or in electronic format and we’ll post it on our website!

Colin Lindell Leslie, son of Cindy and Derek (’01) Leslie of Omaha and grandson of Nancy (Lindell, ’63) and Jim, (’63) Leslie of Gretna, Neb. Lauren Nicole Hofeldt and Benjamin Jeffrey Hofeldt, twin grandchildren of Sheila King (’90) of Omaha. Ava Grace Brummer, daughter of Melinda and Jim (’01) Brummer of Omaha Alexander Isaiah Streett, son of Fotini and Matthew (’95) Streett of Spotsylvania, Va.

Danika Dian Temoshek, daughter of Darren and Amanda (’99) Temoshek of Omaha Dylan Joseph Kirk and Drew Michael Kirk, twin sons of Doug and Cinda (Lund, ’02) Kirk of Omaha

Patrick Jackson Ramaekers, son of Anjanette (Glismann, ’96) and Patrick (’94) Ramaekers of Omaha.

Natalie Elena Parkins and Karlyn Sophia Parkins, twin daughters of John and Denise (Hunter, ’96) Parkins of Indianola, Iowa. Vincent Gage Rotolo, son of Melissa (Hall, ’95) and Chad (’00) Rotolo of Omaha and grandson of Joe (’69) and Sharen (’96;’01) Rotolo of Omaha. Zachary Robert Rathje, son of Jeff Rathje and Wendy (’99) Brown-Rathje of Omaha.

Allison Nicole Dyke, daughter of Sean and Tracy (Tonkin, ’96) Dyke of Omaha

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“currently employed with the Iowa Department of Transporation as a transporation planner, district 3, in Sioux City. Married (Mary) with two children (Jacob, 3; Madeline, 1).”

Sons & Daughters of UNO Alumni

Marissa Marlyn Milbrodt, daughter of Kelly (Stroh, ’02) and Matt (’02) Milbrodt of Sergeant Bluff, Iowa.

Hudson Kai Seeman, son of Brian and Jackie Vlcek-Seeman (’96) of Sugarloaf Key, Fla., and grandson of Cindy Belsky (’67) of Omaha and James Vlcek (’68) of Omaha. Newell Frederick Welk, son of Jennifer and Benjamin (’96) Welk of Omaha and grandson of UNO C-CFAM Dean Bob Welk.

Ruby Grace Merante, daughter of Stacy (Stewart, ’99) and Cory ’00) Merante of Ypsilanti, Mich.

Aubrey Jane Stark, daughter of Paul and Mandy (Messner, ’01) Stark of Council Bluffs, Iowa

Dominic Angelo Vincentini, son of Diane (Mach, ’93) and Chris (’90) Vincentini of Omaha and Jerry (’64) Vincentini of Bennington, Neb.

Kaeli Madison Vondra, daughter of Paul and Shannon (Van Emmerik ’01) Vondra of Omaha. Alec Anthony Franksmann, son of Beth (Borgeson ’99) and Brett (’97) Franksmann of Omaha and grandson of Robert (’91) and Mary Ann (’93) Borgeson of Omaha. Scarlett Avery Todd, daughter of William and Ana (Phillips, ’00) Todd of Tampa, Fla. Karissa Jennifer Orth, daughter of Robert and Jennifer (Schmidt ’01) Orth of Visalia, Calif.

Jacob Gannon Kirk, son of Thomas and Kelly (Tichauer, ’98) Kirk and grandson of Marty (’70) and Fred (’72) Tichauer of Omaha.

Submit a Future Alum on the Web

www.unoalumni.org/magazine/submit_future_alum/

Send us news of your baby—we’ll send a T-shirt and certificate and publish the good news. Include address, baby’s name, date of birth, parents’ names and graduation year(s). Please send the announcement within one year of the birth at www.unoalumni.org/magazine/submit_future_alum. Or, mail to: Future Alums, UNO Alumni Association, 60th & Dodge, Omaha, NE 68182. FAX birth announcements to: (402) 554-3787.

Fall 2005 • 43

Class Notes

1994 Scott B. Shiller, BS, lives in Washington, D.C., and works in the Bush Administration as an assistant to the USDA’s Rural Utilities Service Administrator. He was appointed to USDA after working on the Presidential Inaugural Committee in December and January. Prior to that he served as the regional victory director for the Bush-Cheney '04 campaign in south-central Pennsylvania. Send him email at scottshiller@hotmail.com 1995 Jason Paladino, BS, is a phsycial therapist for Arrowhead Physical Therapy. He lives in Peoria, Ariz., and takes email at paladinopt@cox.net Cheryl L. Ramos, BGS (MSW, 1999), says, “Hello from sunny Arizona (currently nearing 112 degrees)! I've lived in Arizona since June 2003 and love the weather, especially in the winter. I do miss Omaha, however. My son married a woman from Phoenix and moved here, so . . . Mom followed. It doesn’t hurt that I no longer have to shovel snow. Currently, I am working for Hospice of the Valley, the oldest and largest non-profit hospice in Arizona. As a medical social worker, I have the privilege of serving patients during their ‘last journey.’” Send her email at cheryl1945@cox.net Matthew J. Streett, BFA, lives in Spotsylvania, Va., where he and his wife moved last year. In May the couple was blessed with their second son, Alexander Isaiah Streett. Matthew is the pastor of a Greek Orthodox Church. 1996 Mike Scheef, BFA, has published his first book of draw44 • Fall 2005

ings called “1000 WRESTLERS.” After a successful gallery exhibition, the book is available at his website, www.1000wrestlers.com. He lives in Papillion, Neb., and takes email at eggman316@yahoo.com 1997 Charles Benish, BSBA, joined the Gross & Welch law firm as an associate attorney. Benish, who also received an MBA from UNO in 2000 (the same year he received his JD from Creighton University), will practice in the areas of corporate law, finance, bankruptcy and creditors’ rights, and litigation. He also is an adjunct faculty member at Bellevue University. 1998 Angie M. Rinker Herman, BS, lives in Omaha and writes that, “Directly after graduation I was hired by the Nebraska Medical Center as a marketing coordinator. I worked there for seven years, moving up to a lead marketing coordinator before I resigned in 2003 to stay home with my children. I am now the owner of Finales, an event planning and public relations business.” Contact her via email angie.herman@ cox.net. She also maintains a website at www. finaleseventplanning.com

Tugba Kalafatoglu, BA, lives in Istanbul and is president of Tugba Kalafatoglu & Associates, a global management and public affairs consulting firm providing strategic public relations, government relations, communication, marketing and lobbying services. It has offices in Turkey, the United States and Spain. Send her email at tugba@tugbakalafatoglu.com or visit her firm’s website at www.tugbakalafatoglu.com

FA L L 1999 Tracy Allan Dierks, BS, graduated from the University of Delaware at its 156th commencement in May with a doctorate in biomechanics and movement science. 2001 David P. Blair, EMBA, was appointed director of principal gifts for the Wider Omaha Lutheran School Association. He lives in Omaha and takes email at dpblair@cox.net 2003 Mandy Lou Michaud, BS, joined Midwest Laboratories in Omaha as a laboratory technician in the metals department. Nicholas Turner, BA, moved to New York City after graduating with honors. He is the special projects coordinator in the advertising department at Women's Wear Daily, a fashion trade journal. He’s also worked in the public relations department of Cotton Incorporated. “I plan to continue working in and with media,” he writes. Send him email at nicholaswturner@gmail.com 2004 Anne Herman, MA, was one of eight 2005-2006 winners of the Presidential Graduate Fellowships as announced by University of Nebraska President James B. Milliken. Herman is one of two recipients engaged in research projects at UNO. Fellows who are Ph.D. candidates at UNO receive $15,000; MA candidates receive $12,000. Funding for the fellowships is provided through the University of Nebraska Foundation. Herman is a Ph.D. candidate in industrial/organizational psychology. She received her BS in marketing from UNL, and her

MA in psychology from UNO. In addition to her current work on a creativity meta-analysis project and survey design research, her dissertation will focus on motivational, personality, and feedback influences on creative problem solving.

In Memoriam 1935 1937 1939 1940

Josh Bisher, MA, lives in Oxford, Ohio, and currently is the assistant director of information recreation within the Outdoor Pursuits Center at Miami University, Recreational Sports Center. His wife also is employed at Miami University with residence life and academic advising. He advises Phi Gamma Delta both on the university and national levels and assists with the coaching of women's club basketball. Send him email at bisherjr@muohio.edu

1941

2005 Natalie Black, BA, was named one of 76 new recipients of a Jack Kent Cooke Foundation scholarship. She was selected from a nationwide pool of 1,290 nominees from more than 600 colleges and universities. The scholarships are for studies at professional and graduate schools and each is worth up to $300,000, among the largest scholarships awarded in the United States. Black is attending medical school at the University of Nebraska Medical Center. As an undergraduate at UNO, she job shadowed physicians at UNMC and volunteered in its emergency room and in its geriatric department. At UNO, she graduated with a bachelor’s degree in biology and minored in chemistry and German. Black is a Millard South High School graduate.

1957

1942 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955

1956

1959 1960

1961 1961

Evan C. Williams James C. Moise Norman W. Porr Jeanne M. Hansen Robert J. Novak Phyllis L. Hopkins Phalen Norvin E. Ingram Ruth Salyards Harriet E. Brauch Cox Adele I. Egner Ireland Alvin W. Shepard Nancy R. Will Hamlin Richard E. Mayne Melvin E. Jarvis Robert W. Thams Shirlee “Carol” Roberts Buis Joseph A. Hanzal Dorothy A. Larsen Ruby Gilbreath Simmons Willis D. Cramer Lewis E. Radcliffe Richard D. Matthews Ollie J. Clatterbuck Lois M. “Max“ Freriks Tyler S. Coleman James F. Fargher Lois E. Mead Comstock Oscar L. Faulkner Jr. Donald V. Roddy Ralph William Gardner Neavola Sandritter Hendricksen

Class Notes

1961 Robert D. Tollett Joe H. Underwood Samuel A. Wareham Wallace L. Wood 1962 Gladys I. Helwig Howard R. “Rocky” Rockhold Earl J. Smith Garald L. Waldron 1963 Charles Pl. Busick Harry F. Cannaday Harry N. Cordes, Michael A. Dugan James W. Head Lucille Hougland Kniskern Charles W. Johnson Joseph W. Malcom Jr. Alfred J. Mattei James J. Stoneburner Charles E. Tolhurst 1964 Delbert E. Franklin Yvonne T. Hoffman Harsh Harry E. Mann Lowell J. Meyers James R. O'Bryan Sonja R. Heaton Partlow Richard L. Traub Vernon V. Vrtiska Richard T. Weatherall 1964 Earnest B. Wilson 1965 Edward H. Solter Jr.

1965 William P. “Bill” Albright Charles E. Hammack Roy L. Miller Ronald R. Olson Alden C. Walsh Rodney J. Walz 1966 Victor Aras Elbridge G. Chadwick Isham B. Daugharty Benjamin H. Hill Radford D. Hyde 1966 Alfred C. Munz 1967 Willis B. Bewley Pauletta J. Cortese James F. Erwin 1968 Bobby C. Davis Thomas P. O'Reilly Allan M. Parham Joanne G. Gallagher Minarcini Kenneth M. Wenzl 1969 Harlan E. Armstrong Dale L. Brown Donnely G. “Don” Cowan Harry James 1970 Kenneth E. Cleaver 1971 Louis T. "Tim" Bowring Keith N. Gibson Herman Harris Donald M. Schaefer 1972 Richard W. “Dick” Damron 1973 Wayne A. Kment

1973 Paul R. O'Brien, Jr. Tracy P. Rumsey, Jr. Willie L. Thompson 1974 Joseph A. Cebula Charles F. Jonas James L. Massey Horace G. McMillon Jr. 1975 Jules P. Perelli-Minetti Martin J. Ryan Ruth M. Schlott 1977 Alice R. “Ally” Milder Evelyn M. Williams 1978 Carol L. Watkins Thueringer Russell D. Schneider 1979 Elvira L. Hicks Nathaniel E. Moore 1981 Arthur R. “Arty” Gailloux 1981 LaDonna A. Holvik McManigal 1982 Louis W. Anderson Angela R. Rayhel Brown 1983 Gregory A. Lehman 1985 Audrey J. Ames 1986 Glenn E. Haney Gloria E. Siderewicz Tallant Carmela M. Thill 1989 Michael J. Pecha 1992 Connie Jo Kimbrell

Submit your class note over the web at www.unoalumni.org

What have you been doing since graduating from UNO? Your fellow alumni would like to know! Give us an update by filling out the form below. We’ll publish the news in a future issue of the UNO Alum and on our website. Send the news to Class Notes Editor, UNO Alum, 67th & Dodge, Omaha, NE 68182-0010, or Fax to (402) 554-3787.

Name__________________________________________

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_______________________________________________ _______________________________________________ _______________________________________________ Fall 2005 • 45

The UNO Century Club C

entury Club membership consists of individuals who support their alma mater with gifts of $100 or more. Gifts support various alumni association programs and services that make for a stronger, more vibrant university. With their UNRESTRICTED gift, Century Club donors receive one of five personalized mementos (pictured at right), special recognition in an annual report and invitations to select events throughout the year.

To Silver ($250 or more) Raymond D. Armstrong Lt. Gen. (Ret.) Russell C. Davis Williams A. Ehlers Robert C. Hill David Prochnau Loring B. Smith Welcome to these firsttime Century Club donors! Gold ($500 or more) Edward S. Risley Silver ($250 or more) Pamela A. Ruzicka

Bronze ($100 or more) Jim Bac Ewell L. Brown Richard A. Carroll Robert W. Clarke Donald R. Condrill Michael W. Coppess Lisa Cuevas-Jorgensen Stewart B. Dale Dennis C. Dervin Larry & Karen Dwyer Evonne M. Edgington David H. Elder Jr. Kathy English Jerome & Karen Ferguson Joann W. Fike Gary G. Funkhouser Tim Gates Anthony G. Gervasio George A. Henry Jr. Carroll C. Hicks Michael J. Higgins Jr. John M. Hoie Jr. Joanna Holland Lois A. Husted Dan & Julie Kaercher

Douglas R. Keiser Edwin R. Keiser Candance S. Kirkwood Peter M. Kracht Gerald T. Law Vickie Loomer Gill Juan R. Lopez De La Cruz Hillary A. Luton Walter A. McCann Alice J. McDowell Jacquie R. Melia Kellie M. Murphy-Morrell Catherine Nachreiner Calvin B. Nance Steve & Lisa Nelson Eugene F. O'Donnell Jerry L. Pearson Michael Pfeifer Lloyd C. Phelps, Maj. USA (Ret.) Linda Placzek James P. Reynolds Janet L. Rhodus Nadene Ries Paulette Sandene Gail Johnson Schmoller

2005 UNO Annual Fund Donation Form

STEP 1—Check level

Alumni Card Donor Less than $25

q Calendar Donor $25 or more

q Gold Card Donor q

$50 or more

Bronze Century $100 or more

q Silver Century

$250 or more

q Golden Century q

$500 or more

STEP 2—Mark payment information A.q Check enclosed for $ B.q Bill me for $

$2,500 or more

46 • Fall 2005

Name month

C.q I authorize the UNO Alumni Association to collect my gift of $ through my:

Visa

MasterCard

Expiration Date:__________

Card No.:

Diamond Century $1,000 or more

q Platinum Century

STEP 3—Complete Name and Address

Payable to UNO Annual Fund.

Signature

Discover

William J. Schonlau Jimmy D. Shaw Joseph V. Sinnett Roberta L. Slais Christine M. Snyder Craig Spriacklin Kenneth E. Stroud Gail L. Teshack William L. Tetlow Eugene F. Truax Charlotte L. Tsoucalas G.W. Van Wagner Joseph K. Van Wey Harry Vick Patrick G. Vipond Edward Walker Linda M. Williams Thomas W. Williams Robert M. Wilmes Kenneth S. Womack Ltc. (Ret.) Francis V. Young

As you wish it to appear in our 2005 Annual Report

Address

www.unobookstore.com Diploma Frame Order Form

UNOALUM

6001 Dodge Street • Omaha, NE 68182-0045 Telephone 402-554-2336 • Fax 402-554-3220

B: Mahogany Lacquer - w/medallion, black on gold mat

$139.95

A: Cherry Lacquer - w/medallion, black on gold mat

q AMEX.

Exp. Date: _____. Signature______________________________________ Save time and a stamp . . . Donate online at www.unoalumni.org

UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA AT OMAHA BOOKSTORE

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Acct. No.: __________-__________-__________-__________.

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See our display at the UNO Bookstore Visit our website for these and many other quality products at www.unobookstore.com

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___ Check made payable to UNO Bookstore. ___ Please charge to: q Visa q MC q Disc.

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To place your order: • Call (402) 554-2336 • Fax form to (402) 554-3220 • Mail order to UNO Bookstore 6001 Dodge St. Omaha, NE 68182

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Your Achievement Professionally Framed Commemorate and preserve your collegiate achievement in a handcrafted diploma frame!

24K, gold-plated medallion

Thanks to these upgraded Century Club donors! To Gold ($500 or more) Leonard & Ellen Finnegan James S. Garbina John L. Holland Neil M. Hopkins David B. Powell Pete Siegel

*From donor rolls June 1 through Aug. 31, 2005.

Welcome to the Club!

Your Achievement Professionally Framed.

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Address:___________________________________________

State_____ Zip__________ Tel: ______________________________ Email: ___________________________________________________

Qty.

Total

$139.95 $139.95 To place order Call 402-554-2336 or Fax to 402-554-3220 Mail order to: University of Nebraska at Omaha Bookstore, 6001 Dodge Street Omaha, NE 68182-0045.

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Total * Shipping and handling is $15 for each frame, 48 contiguous states only. For APO boxes and all overseas orders, please call for quotes. (Shipping and handling are nonrefundable). Prices are subject to change without notice.

Make a World of Difference 2005 Annual Fund

Make a World of Difference through a contribution to the 2005 UNO Annual Fund. In addition to traditional support of campus, donations support the following endeavors: Aid to Afghanistan: Through coordination with UNO’s Center for Afghanistan Studies the Association is providing supplies for students and teachers in Afghanistan schools.

In Care Of: In gratitude for the sacrifices being made by U.S. soldiers the Association has established “In Care Of” — military care packages sent to UNO alumni, students or children of UNO alumni/students/faculty/staff who currently are at war.

Donate today at www.unoalumni.org/give_to_uno or fill out the form on page 46 and return it to us today. Questions? Call us toll-free at UNO-MAV-ALUM (866-628-2586).

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