UNO Magazine, Spring 2011 by UNO Magazine

magazine

spr ing 2011

From one leader to another Methodist Health System celebrates the strength and leadership abilities of women. Leading the way in our commitment to your health, we built the first and only medical campus and hospital dedicated solely to the care of women. We have the area’s only comprehensive program for sexual assault survivors. And we’re the only health system in the metro area that embraces the educational initiatives and health-related activities of Spirit of Women®, a national organization that actively supports wellness for women. We’re devoted to caring for you as you continue to influence and inspire. www.bestcare.org

Methodist Women’s Hospital 192nd and West Dodge Road

vol. 2, no. 1

Letters to/ from the Editor

spring 2011 www.unoalumni.org/unomag

CREDITS Managing Editor

Anthony Flott

6 Alumni Association 9 Partners

10 Philanthropy

Matters

associate Editors

Jennifer Arnold, Tim Kaldahl art direction

Emspace Group

The Colleges

Hacking Away

Kelly Kennedy Contributors

UNO Magazine is published three times a year by the University of Nebraska at Omaha, the UNO Alumni Association and the NU Foundation. Direct editorial inquiries to Managing Editor UNO Alumni Association 6705 Dodge St., Omaha, NE 68182-0010 Phone: (402) 554-2444 Toll-free: UNO-MAV-ALUM Fax: (402) 554-3787 Email: aflott@unoalumni.org

Getting Personal Piracy Patrol

Courts, schools and the workplace are turning more and more to Victim Offender Mediation.

Crime Time News

Restoring Order

37 Neighborly

What’s showing on TV news isn’t always what’s happening on the streets.

Advice

The Wrong Prescription

38 Ounce of

Prevention

Send all changes of address to attention of Records or visit www.unoalumni.org/records

CSI : UNO Better Safe Than Sorry

CLASS

NOT E S

Views expressed within this magazine do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the University of Nebraska at Omaha, the UNO Alumni Association or the NU Foundation.

Athletics

21 Get to Know

cover illustration

Dave Ahlers, Leo Biga, Bryce Bridges, Becky Bohan Brown, Nancy Castilow, Erin Dyer, John Fey, Tim Fitzgerald, Colleen Kenney Fleischer, Eric Francis, Warren Francke, Mary Kenny, Tom Kerr, Don Kohler, Greg Kozol, Tom McMahon, Michael J. O’Hara, Nate Pohlen, Lori Rice, Bonnie Ryan, Megan Schmitz, Scott Stewart, Terry Stickels, Alan G. Thorson, Meghan Townley, Wendy Townley, Les Valentine, Kevin Warneke, Jenna Zeorian.

Letter from the Chancellor

Safety Happens

46 Taking Sides 48 Just For You 50 Bookmarks

52 Sights & Sounds

Retrospect

For Fun

FROM THE EDITOR

Sure, it was a girl’s bike. But it was my first set of wheels, and it got me wherever I was going as a 7-yearold roaming Omaha’s Karen Western neighborhood.

as snacks to employees. Eating them at work was OK; taking them to school and selling them at lunch wasn’t. I’ve gotten into fist fights, committed various traffic violations, and perpetrated numerous injustices big and small against others. I’m not proud of any of it.

And then it was stolen.

We’ll always live in a world where bad happens. That was driven home most tragically Jan. 5 when a troubled student shot two Millard South High School administrators, killing one, UNO graduate Vicki Kaspar. The student then shot himself to death.

As best as I can recall, that was my first encounter with crime — and it put me through an emotional ringer. First I was sad, then angry. That got me to walk the streets in search of it. Just a few blocks away, I found my bike leaning up against some other kid’s house. All I had to do was go up and take it back. But then I got scared. If someone could steal from me, of what else might they be capable? Funny thing is, I can’t remember if I ever got my bike back — or if so, how I got it back. All I remember is it being stolen and how that made me feel. As we built this issue of UNO Magazine, that theft and other crime-, safety- and justice-related issues in my life came back to me on occasion: a man who had an auto accident with my wife started harassing us with abusive phone calls; my wallet was stolen — at work; during a manhunt, a police officer ran through our backyard with his gun drawn. Some of the times, I’ve been the one at fault. In high school, a bakery I worked at fired me for taking pastries they provided

Such tragedies occur everywhere and all too frequently. But we compound those tragedies if we just throw up our hands and do nothing. That’s not the case at UNO. As you’ll discover in the following pages, UNO faculty, staff and students are actively working on various fronts to make Omaha and beyond a safer, more just world. They’re helping prisoners walk the straight and narrow, pushing back against gangs, protecting us against cybercrimes, and assisting local and federal law enforcement agencies. You’ll be proud of these and other efforts — and perhaps you’ll even learn a thing or two about making your own world a better place.

Enjoy the read,

Anthony Flott Managing Editor

Letters to the Editor Reader feedback is key to making UNO Magazine among the best university publications in the country. Write us about the magazine, the university, or suggest a story. Letters must include the writer’s first and last names, address and phone number and may be edited for taste, accuracy, clarity and length. www.unoalumni.org/unomag-led

m ag a z i n e

On Fall 2010 being useful Thank you for your good work on the magazine. I’ve been quite impressed with the past few issues and want to say thanks to you and everyone else who is helping to make the magazine an informative and enjoyable tool for keeping up with what is happening on campus. J. Patrick Anderson (’72)

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DISAPPOINTED I was disappointed in the Fall 2010 UNO Magazine. I did not like to see that it was promoting yoga, hypnosis, and an article showing both sides of the legalization of marijuana! Deb Virgl (’84)

FROM THE CHANCELLOR

READ IT ALL I have read the entire … marvelous … issue! Loved it, loved it. Loved the idea of following a theme, health, with the huge variety of articles. We have already had the marijuana discourse at our lunch table. Dorothy Rasgorshek (’58) 5 STARS Wow! Loved the Fall 2010 UNO Magazine issue! It’s full of interesting, fun, relevant and helpful articles and received my 5-out-of-5 star rating! Go Mavs. Vincent J. Leinen (’79) LIKIN’ THE LOOK David and I have had many comments regarding the article and our daughter, a 2005 grad, commented on the “look” of the magazine in a very positive way. We appreciate your work! Josie Metal-Corbin, M.Ed. UNO Professor, School of HPER GOOD HUMOR Congratulations on another outstanding edition of UNO Magazine. I love the humor of the cover, and your team has done a great job with the scope of the theme. I’m going back to read many of the articles I’ve just skimmed through so far. This new magazine represents UNO so positively! Amy Risch Rodie, Ph.D., PCM UNO Associate Professor of Marketing STILL DRAWING HEAT We were disappointed to see how the issue of global climate change was addressed in your Point/Counterpoint column (Summer 2010). The media has been criticized by both scientists and journalists for giving equal space to two experts who hold opposing viewpoints on the validity or severity of climate change (e.g., Trahant 2005, Boykoff 2008, Ward 2009). This approach implies there is a debate as to whether or not climate change is occurring and on its significance to society. In fact, the world’s largest and most respected scientific societies have released consensus statements stating that climate change is occurring, humans are contributing to it, and it will have widespread adverse impacts on human health, the global economy, and the environment (e.g., CAETS 2007, WHO 2008, National Academies 2009). In the fall of 2009, the leaders of 18 scientific societies in the United States … wrote an open letter to the U.S. Senate saying greenhouse gases must be dramatically reduced in order to avoid the most severe impacts of climate change. The [UNO Magazine] column was especially misleading because the faculty member who rejects the scientific consensus is a chemistry professor while the faculty member who represents the scientific consensus does not have a science background. A journalist should mention if a professional’s opinion deviates substantially from the consensus opinion in his or her field, but there was no mention of this. We applaud UNO Magazine for covering one of the most important issues facing our society. However, we would like to see the magazine interview a UNO science professor who is active in climate change research rather than an article that frames this topic as a debate. Kristine Nemec (1999, 2003) Melanie Trecek-King (1998, 2003)

Dear Alumni and Friends: In today’s society, issues of crime prevention and safety, cybersecurity, gang violence and the criminal justice system dominate the headlines. Heightened security at airports, identity theft, drug manufacturing, distribution and abuse, once relatively removed from the nation’s heartland, now plague cities large and small across the nation. Even the way crime is scientifically investigated and reported in the news has undergone rapid change over the past few years. In this edition, UNO Magazine takes up the timely issues of Crime, Safety and Justice for All. You’ll learn more about UNO faculty and student research into the problems of gangs, airline security and identity theft. You’ll read how UNO’s Nebraska University Consortium on Information Assurance (NUCIA) has risen to become one of America’s top training grounds for cybersecurity. And you’ll gain useful tips on how to protect you and your family from criminals, how to hire an attorney, and how to stay safe in a host of other ways. Equally important, you’ll gain insight into how UNO is partnering with the FBI and local law enforcement to keep our campus and community safe. And what UNO alumni, like business leader and philanthropist John Morgan, are doing to help Nebraska inmates turn their lives around following incarceration. You also won’t want to miss alum Dave Krajicek’s national perspective on crime reporting in the Bookmarks section, as well as a local view on crime and the media in “Crime Time.” I hope you’ll take the time to read this fascinating edition cover to cover and that you’ll come away with a greater understanding of UNO’s role in keeping our communities, states and the nation safer. As chancellor, I am extremely proud of our alumni, students, faculty, and staff who make extraordinary contributions, every day, to our understanding of criminology, justice, public safety, cybersecurity, and inmate rehabilitation. We have a great story to tell and, as usual, UNO Magazine covers the topic from multiple angles. Enjoy!

Until next time,

Chancellor John E. Christensen

ALUMNI ASSOCIATION

Furniture Mart’s Batt Receives Citation The UNO Alumni Association bestowed its Citation for Alumni Achievement upon UNO graduate Robert Batt during the university’s winter commencement Dec. 17 at the Omaha Civic Auditorium. The Citation, inaugurated in 1949, is presented at each UNO commencement. The association’s highest honor, it encompasses career achievement, community service, involvement in business and professional associations, and fidelity to the university. UNO Alumni Association Chairman of the Board Kevin Munro presented the award to Batt, who is the 153rd Citation recipient (Batt is pictured with Chancellor John Christensen, left, and Munro). An Omaha native, Batt is executive vice president of Nebraska Furniture Mart (NFM). He earned a bachelor’s of science degree in business from UNO in 1976. Born in Omaha, Batt is the grandson of Rose Blumkin, who founded Nebraska Furniture Mart in 1937. He began working at the company at 14. He graduated from Omaha Central High School in 1966 then attended UNO. His mother, Frances Batt, attended thenOmaha University in the mid-1930s.

Batt, 62, has been active in civic and community organizations at the local, state and national levels. He currently serves on the three-member Nebraska Liquor Commission. He also is a member of the Sarpy County Sports Commission and the Salvation Army Advisory Board. Previously, Batt served on the State Comprehensive Capital Facilities Planning Committee. He also served as chairman of the Omaha Personnel Board from 1998 to 2003. His service has extended beyond Nebraska, too. After fires in 1988 ravaged Yellowstone National Park, Batt served as a charter member for the U.S. Concert Committee for Yellowstone to help raise money to restore the park. Batt has maintained involvement with UNO. Recently, he assisted with the collaboration on a joint project between NFM’s Information Technology Department and UNO’s College of Information Science & Technology. The partnership helped develop and build NFM’s information technology platform. Batt also has served as an honorary UNO Hockey Coach.

31st Scholarship Swing TEE OFF Sept. 12, TIBURON THE UNO Alumni Association will tee off for scholarships on Monday, Sept. 12, with the 31st annual Chancellor’s Scholarship Swing at Tiburon Golf Club. The association’s biggest single fundraiser each year, the Swing last year raised $44,000, pushing the total to nearly $600,000 raised since the association began hosting the tournament 16 years ago. The money raised supports various Association-sponsored student scholarships. Letters have been sent to businesses and individuals seeking their participation in the tournament as sponsors. To participate, or for more information, contact Elizabeth Kraemer at (402) 554-4802 or email ekraemer@unoalumni.org

ALUMNI ASSOCIATION

UNO Magazine, Association events honored at CASE Conference The UNO Alumni Association received five institutional awards during the CASE VI Conference held in Kansas City in January. CASE — the Council for Advancement and Support of Education — is the professional organization for advancement professionals who work in alumni relations, communications and marketing, fundraising and other areas. Case VI is one of eight regional districts and is comprised of institutions from Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wyoming. UNO Magazine, edited by Anthony Flott, received two awards at the conference. Also honored were three Alumni Association outreach programs directed by Association Programs Coordinator Elizabeth Kraemer. “This is great news for UNO to learn that so many of our alumni programs are recognized as being among the best around,” says Alumni Association President Lee Denker. The magazine received a gold award for Publications Program Improvement. The UNO Alumni Association in 2009 ceased publishing the UNO Alum magazine, recasting it as UNO Magazine in 2010 as a joint venture with the University and the University of Nebraska Foundation. The magazine is designed by Omaha’s Emspace Group. The Fall 2010 issue “Whole Health: Mind, Body and Soul” received a gold award for a Cover of Four or More Colors. Flott, managing editor, produces UNO Magazine in cooperation with assistant editors Tim Kaldahl (UNO University Relations) and Jennifer Arnold (NU Foundation). The association programs honored involved input from staff members and volunteers.

“Popping In” received a silver award for Institutional Relations Project. The program took a unique approach to building a collaborative spirit between the Alumni Association and the many campus departments it works with each year. In August, alumni staff surprised more than two dozen departments with the delivery of Maverick-branded popcorn tins. It also provided an opportunity for numerous UNO employees to meet association staffers whom they previously might only have dealt with by phone or email. The UNO Chancellor’s Scholarship Swing (pictured) received a bronze award in Student Advancement Programming. The annual golf tourney raised $44,000 with participation from 160 golfers and 42 sponsors. The UNO Graduation Fair in May received a bronze award for Special Groups Programming. The Association organized a welcome for graduates as they picked up their caps and gowns prior to commencement. Various campus groups provided the students with information, gifts and prizes. Kraemer also made a presentation at the conference on the successful graduation fairs the association has implemented. She also led a roundtable discussion on how to engage young alumni. Denker was elected district secretary as a member of the CASE VI Board of Directors. He also presented alumni awards at the conference, led a roundtable on “Measuring Alumni Success” and moderated two sessions for advancement leaders. Additional information can be seen at www.unoalumni.org/caseawards

UNO Partnership PROGRAMS CREDIT

INSURANCE

TRAVEL

The UNO Alumni Association has begun a new corporate partnership to bring alumni exclusive credit offers with a Mav-branded credit card! Each account benefits the university through the association. Information is being mailed to all UNO alumni soon. For more information, visit www.unoalumni.org/credit

Are you covered? If you have insurance needs, visit the association website at www.unoalumni.org/insurance to see the discounted offers available to UNO graduates for health, life, auto and long-term care insurance.

Join fellow alumni aboard a “Legendary Danube” cruise Sept. 17-28 with stops in Prague, Nuremberg, Regensburg, Salzburg and elsewhere. For more information, visit www.unoalumni.org/travel. To receive a brochure, call the association toll-free at UNO-MAV-ALUM (866-628-2586).

ALUMNI ASSOCIATION

Welcome Aboard New director hired for Thompson Center

Last November, you may have answered a call that not only benefited the UNO Alumni Association Annual Fund, but a number of UNO student organizations, too.

The UNO Alumni Association welcomes Gina Ray, CDM, CFPP, as its director of Alumni Facilities. Ray will be responsible for supervising and managing the William H. & Dorothy Thompson Alumni Center, one of Omaha’s most popular banquet facilities and conference centers.

Between Nov. 1 and 19, more than 92 UNO student volunteers representing seven organizations took to the phones to raise funds for the UNO Annual Fund. In recognition of their efforts, each organization received a stipend based on the number of members who volunteered and the amount of time they devoted to calling. The majority of the groups will use these funds for student development activities, such as to attend national conferences.

Ray will provide meeting, planning and support services to Thompson Center clientele, including corporate, private and university groups. She also will oversee marketing efforts, manage building maintenance and coordinate with contractors and other vendors. She began her duties Jan. 3. “Gina brings relevant experience and a fresh perspective to the Thompson Center operation to ensure that the business runs efficiently, and that our growth potential is maximized,” said UNO Alumni Association President Lee Denker. Ray has extensive customer service experience, particularly in catering and food service management. She most recently was a team leader and director of food service for Methodist Hospital and Women’s Hospital, where she had been employed since April 2007. Prior to Methodist Ray spent five years as director of operations for Brandeis Catering. Brandeis has been the Thompson Center’s exclusive catering partner since 1999. Ray also has catering, event and retail experience through previous employment with Sodexo Corporate Services (at Mutual of Omaha), Harvey’s Casino & Hotel (now Harrah’s) and Brandeis Food Management at Aksarben. “I am excited to join the Thompson Center and look forward to future relationships, both within the University and with new outside clientele,” Ray said. “I love the business of event planning and management, especially participating in memorable, once-in-a-lifetime events.”

Annual Board Meeting The UNO Alumni Association will hold its annual meeting on Tuesday, May 24, at 4 p.m. at the Thompson Alumni Center. New board members and officers will be elected and service awards will be presented. Contact Julie Kaminski at 402-554-4887 or jkaminski@unoalumni.org for more information.

“The phonathon allowed student organizations a great alternative to some of the more traditional fundraisers,” says Barb Treadway, director of Student Organizations and Leadership Programs. Typically, students raise money though activities such as bake sales, magazine sales, raffles and car washes. The volunteer groups included the Chinese Students and Scholars Association, the PanHellenic Council, the African American Organization, Alpha Kappa Psi, Colleges Against Cancer, Sigma Lambda Gamma and The Rock. Students began each phonathon with pizza, followed by a training session and three hours of calling. The students contacted more than 1,200 alumni, resulting in nearly $22,000 in pledges to the UNO Annual Fund. The Annual Fund supports students, faculty, academic programs, and alumni programming and communications, including UNO Magazine. Alumni who made a donation of any size received the official UNO Alumni Card. The card provides campus discounts, Criss Library access, two-for-one tickets to select hockey games, and the opportunity to purchase a membership to the newly renovated Health, Physical Education and Recreation (HPER) building. Amanda Gonzales, a member of the faith-based organization, The Rock, said the group plans to attend a conference and the stipend they earned will be divided for scholarships among members who can’t afford the attendance fees. She said her group “had a blast” working the phonathon, enjoying the interaction with each other and the alumni. “I know The Rock would definitely participate again,” she said. With the support from alumni and enthusiasm from the students, the possibilities are unlimited. — Erin Dyer

PARTNERS

Higher Ed Helping the Feds UNO and the Omaha FBI office have forged relationships across campus The special agent in charge of the FBI’s Omaha Division knows about the importance of academia and academics. Both his parents were professors, after all. “They were, frankly, horrified when I told them I wanted to join the FBI,” says Weysan Dun, who has been assigned to Nebraska multiple times during an eventful career. “That’s not what they expected.” His parents, immigrants from China who had taught neurophysiology and geography, came to support Dun’s career choice. But their son still has close ties to higher education, relying especially on UNO in a number of ways. “We greatly respect and cherish the idea of academic freedom,” Dun says. “And we also view the academic community in many ways — because it’s the incubator of knowledge, the incubator of new ideas — as one of the key components to ensuring that we have the freedoms that we so enjoy.” Dun says one of the most important outreach programs the bureau has focuses on colleges and universities. The program, the Academic Alliance, requires each of the 56 FBI field offices to be in contact with the major institutions of higher learning in its area. In Omaha, the more informal relationships that have grown not only get agents into UNO classrooms and recruiters to campus career events, but they also foster an exchange of ideas and information. For instance, experts in information assurance from the College of Information Science and Technology have become “go-to” resources for agents working on computer-based crime. The relationship goes back at least 10 years, says Stephen Nugen, assistant director of the Nebraska University Center for Information Assurance (NUCIA). In 2000, Nugen (before he came to UNO) and NUCIA’s former director, Blaine Burnham, helped establish the Nebraska chapter of InfraGard, a national private non-profit organization that serves as a public-private partnership between businesses, academics and the FBI. “There was a lot of concern at first about letting academics into the program,” Nugen says. InfraGard is a “safe space” where information security people from the government, private companies and others discuss issues and, often, sensitive problems. Professors talking about a company’s security structure or problems in a class or with colleagues was an initial fear. But it hasn’t been an issue, and the exchange of information has become critical as cybercriminals keep getting better. “And that’s the challenge that we have. We try to get better at what we do,” Dun says, adding that universities are very much part of

that process of continuous improvement with cybercrime, which ranges from fraudsters phishing for bank or credit card information to child pornography on the Internet. The FBI’s involvement with cybercrime has been important, Nugen says, and the FBI’s connection to campus is important. “I’d like to see it even get stronger.” Special agents also have consulted for years with UNO’s International Studies and Programs for their expertise, especially since 9/11. The university’s Center for Afghanistan Studies, Dun says, remains a nationally known resource. The international cultural and political insights UNO experts have are invaluable, Dun says. Dun also stresses that UNO students can explore the FBI as a career option, and not just the criminology and criminal justice career majors. The bureau needs a wide gamut of expertise — people who can speak languages and have an international outlook, technology wizards, and majors from the hard sciences. “We literally have a place for people of any background, ” he says. — Tim Kaldahl

PHILANTHROPY MATTERS

From Within UNO’s Transformation Project is helping inmates discover that staying out must come from inside

Convicted thief Jeremy Lukowski first read the words of Malcolm X while alone in “the hole” at the Omaha Correctional Center (OCC). Solitary confinement.

That was three years ago. He was sent there for mouthing off to an OCC staff member after a basketball game. “I’ve had an authority problem,” Lukowski says. Like Malcolm X.

By Colleen Kenney Fleischer

Lukowski, 30, has been in prison the past six years, most of them at the OCC. He grew up in North Omaha just blocks from the birthplace of Malcolm X, but he didn’t know it. He didn’t know much at all about Malcolm X; only that he’d been a powerful African-American in his time and had been through struggles himself. Lukowski didn’t know that Malcolm X had educated himself in prison as a young

man about his age. Or that he’d copied pages from the dictionary to improve his vocabulary. Or that he’d transformed his life from street thug and thief to a man with a mission, a minister of the Muslim faith and civil-rights leader whose words live on today.

While in the hole, Lukowski did pushups and read a paperback version of “The Autobiography of Malcolm X.” It blew him away. When he got out of the hole, he started reading the dictionary and biographies of other great black men. He took college courses. He wanted to transform himself like Malcolm X.

In fact, once he is motivated, no one can change more completely than the man who has been at the bottom. I call myself the best example of that. From The Autobiography of Malcolm X

PHILANTHROPY MATTERS

Now housed at the Community Corrections Center, Jeremy Lukowski is hoping to be released in March and begin attending Metropolitan Community College. He’s grateful for the help UNO graduate John Morgan provided through the Transformation Project. “Once you make that first mistake, a lot of people in society are just ready to do away with you.”

Helping Hand

Photo by Eric Francis

Transformation Project founder John Morgan is helping those from his old neighborhood, and others Transformation Project founder John Morgan grew up in North Omaha at a time when most white people — including his parents — were prejudiced against blacks. Morgan lived near blacks. He became friends with some, and they were among the most loyal he’s ever had. Loyal almost to a fault. Morgan always felt as if those friends had his back.

Says Morgan: “I thought, ‘Boy, if we could somehow or other spark that intensity and that desire and get people who are incarcerated this motivation from Malcolm X to change their life, that would really be a good thing.’” The inmate population, he says, doesn’t get a lot of attention from philanthropists. It’s expensive to incarcerate these men, he says. But you don’t have to have many inmates who go through the Transformation Project achieve some degree of success in order to justify its cost.

Transformation Project

He saw them struggle with racism.

Lukowski was motivated. He had a son, born while he was behind bars. He didn’t want his son to end up in prison like him. (He’d robbed an Omaha bar in 2003. Why? “I was just being greedy and stupid. I liked raising hell. That was what I seen. That was cool to me.”)

“I knew that was wrong,” he says.

But wanting to change and knowing how to change, he says, are totally different things.

He decided to give back to his old neighborhood, to African-Americans and to his alma mater.

In 2009, Lukowski saw a sign at the OCC about a new class for inmates — a program developed by UNO with a goal to help inmates return to the community rather than to prison. UNO created the program and all of its materials. It was called the Transformation Project.

But how?

And, to his surprise, it was based on the life example of Malcolm X.

UNO graduate John Morgan (’69) serves on the UNO Campaign Committee for the University of Nebraska Foundation’s Campaign for Nebraska: Unlimited Possibilities and is a foundation trustee. In 2007, he gave $1 million to UNO to create the Transformation Project, a re-entry program for inmates based on the life experiences of Omaha native Malcolm X.

The prison was administering the program with the UNO College of Arts and Sciences continued page 12

Morgan graduated from Omaha North High School then, in 1969, from UNO. He entered the computer field, working at first with IBM. He now lives and works in Minneapolis and is CEO of Winmark Corp., the parent company of stores like Play It Again Sports and Plato’s Closet.

One day, driving around in his old neighborhood, he decided to look for the birthplace of Malcolm X. He started reading about Malcolm X, and he realized that this was a man who’d gone through some tremendous transformation in his life and come out much stronger.

And it’s worth it to him, he says, if it can “save even a few souls.” Robert Houston, director of the Nebraska Department of Correctional Services, is impressed with Morgan’s generosity and with how he understands the importance of helping inmates change from within. “He rose out of the same neighborhood as many of them,” Houston says. “But I think he realized that not everybody is so fortunate. He’s directing the benefits of his success to people that just need help. “He gets it.” — Colleen Kenney Fleischer

PHILANTHROPY MATTERS

Transformation Project staff and partners pose with the graduating class of December 2009. Jeremy Lukowski is in the front row, second from the right.

under the direction of Chris Rodgers. The program was in collaboration with UNO’s College of Public Affairs and Community Service, the College of Communication, Fine Arts and Media, and the Nebraska Department of Correctional Services.

From Within

Lukowski signed on. But his expectations were low.

The Transformation Project, he says, taught him to be real with himself.

During the 12-week class, the program’s facilitators taught him and about two dozen other inmates in that first class how to write resumes and budget their money. They had each inmate create an “action plan,” setting goals to accomplish in the real world and the steps they needed to take to reach those goals.

He’d thought he was going to study business management. But in thinking through the steps to get a job in that field, he realized his background was too shaky. What business would hire him as a manager?

They also had each inmate create a “relapse” plan — what to do if he fell back to his old ways. The action plans were related to six areas — “stability domains” — proven to be necessary for inmates to succeed on the outside: education, housing, positive social networks (the people in your life), mental and physical health, substance abuse issues and employment. For example, in the section on “Malcolm X and Employment,” they reflected on the words of Malcolm X:

Only by being two people could I have worked harder.” Was the work that Malcolm X did purely physical (doing daily job tasks) or do you think he had to mentally work (managing his thoughts) at maintaining his employment? How will you have to work at managing your thoughts to maintain employment? Lukowski graduated from the program in December 2009.

The thing about the Transformation Project, Lukowski says, is that no one is telling you what to do or how to do it. You have to come to the conclusions yourself. You have to change yourself — from within.

The class also made him think about what he really liked to do (“messing with cars”) and to think through whether it was possible to get a job in that area, given his skills and background. “I figured out, for my background, they’re more likely to accept a felon in the automotive industry. So my ultimate goal now is to create my own auto detailing and accessory shop.”

“I told him that I thought it was cool that somebody would think about the less fortunate, you know what I mean? Because a lot of people in society, once you make that first mistake, a lot of people in society are just ready to do away with you.” The Transformation Project is on its third class. The hope is that it will become a model for re-entry programs across the nation. It appears to be working so far, says Nicole Kennedy, the project’s manager. Some of the graduates of that first class are back in the community and doing well. They’re working. Staff members see them in Wal-Mart and elsewhere with their kids. When Kennedy sees them, she asks how their lives are going. “I’ll get a phone call every now and then from a participant — ‘Hey, I’m just calling to tell you that I got a promotion at work.’ So we have some anecdotal stuff coming in,” she says.

Lukowski feels prepared for the struggles To reach that goal, he will take classes in he’ll face on the outside. auto detailing at Metropolitan Community College when he gets reTo have once been a criminal is no disgrace. leased, which he expects to happen To remain a criminal is the disgrace. this March. Malcolm X. As of January Lukowski was being “I think if it wasn’t for that class, it might housed at the Community Corrections have been an idea in my head for a few days Center, just north of OCC. He praised the or a few months, and my first little incident Transformation Project and the man who when I was wronged, I’d probably just say, made it possible, John Morgan, a Minneapolis ‘Forget it.’” businessman and UNO alum who, like Lukowski, had grown up in north Omaha. He feels ready to transform. He thought it was amazing that Morgan had given $1 million of his own money to fund it. The two met last spring at a news conference announcing the project.

“I’ve seen the struggle that they explained about Malcolm X and I’m like, ‘Damn, if he can do it, you know — I ain’t too much different from him.’”

PHILANTHROPY MATTERS

UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA AT OMAHA

$112,963,307

367

91%

new funds have been established during the campaign to support UNO.

$150 M

UNO CAMPAIGN PRIORITIES • Building the educated work force of tomorrow • Engaging our community

of UNO campaign gifts are from Nebraska households/organizations.

• Enriching campus and community life

44% 8,061

of new funds to the UNO campaign support student scholarships.

individuals have made donations to UNO during the campaign.

3 out of 4 students at UNO apply for financial assistance.

The Campaign for Nebraska is a four-campus fundraising campaign benefiting the University of Nebraska.

campaignfornebraska.org

All statistics as of November 30, 2010. The Campaign for Nebraska began in July 2005 and will conclude December 2014.

Attracting the best to be the best

Faculty are a College of Communication, Fine Arts, and Media campaign priority.

Students in the UNO College of Communication, Fine Arts and Media (CFAM) are learning every day from award-winning musicians and designers, professional actors and directors and accomplished artists, authors and journalists. These educators are providing students top quality academic experiences through dynamic teaching and creative activity. For CFAM to remain the best, it must have the best faculty. Through the Campaign for Nebraska CFAM seeks to create endowed faculty chairs and professorships in each academic area. This support will strengthen the college’s ability to attract or keep the very best faculty. And with the best, the possibilities are endless. To learn more contact Renee Reding at 402-502-4119 or rreding@nufoundation.org.

the colleges

Ganging up on Gangs UNO researchers work extensively with law enforcement and community groups to help curb ‘an emerging problem’ Three members of UNO’s academic community who research and work on metro and Nebraska-focused gang issues talk common sense. And, yes, gang activity can be found beyond Omaha and Lincoln. Columbus, Crete, Lexington and other smaller communities have growing problems. Gangs exist, the faculty members say, because gangs offer something — belonging, safety, an income and more — to people who have few options. They also say that Omaha and other areas of the state need to continue to work on ways to reduce gang violence and influence. “There’s a lot of different factors that go into creating the problem of gun violence, but one of the things we know nationwide is that gangs play a large role in terms of increasing the amount of gun violence in cities across the country,” says Associate Professor Pete Simi, who does research on youth and adult street gangs in the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice. Also in the school, Professor John Crank focuses on gang issues but with a greater focus on the law enforcement side. Each

community with a gang presence deals with its own particular issues. In some areas the problem is violence. In others, it’s drug distribution or other criminal activity. “Tentatively, we can say Omaha has what’s called an emerging gang problem,” Simi says. In places where gangs are decades older and established, like Chicago or Los Angeles, they are more likely to have vertical, hierarchical organizations. Omaha gangs, even though they date back to the 1980s, remain more horizontal and decentralized. Crank says that the metro area law enforcement has a listing of more than 3,500 gang members and associates. “But it’s not too hard to get on that list, either,” he says. Of those, about 300 would be the hardest core members. Both professors and Hank Robinson, director of UNO’s Consortium for Criminal Justice Research (CCJR), agree that a young person who joins a gang does so to gain something they don’t have — and that gain is not necessarily connected to crime or drug money. “Kids don’t join gangs to become some kind of hardcore, tattooed, drug-running, gun-running thug,” Robinson says. His CCJR works in partnership with Columbus, Nebraska’s T4C (Time for Change), a relatively new organization that aims to limit and reduce gang activity and involvement throughout that community. For many, gangs offer a group of peers and friends and security, he says. Sometimes it’s as basic as food.

Gangs in Omaha are often thought of as being primarily present in the city’s African-American and Hispanic communities on the north and south sides, but they have a citywide presence. For years, there was a large and significant gang west of 72nd Street — the 95th Street Crips. In places like Columbus and other central and western Nebraska towns and cities, gangs have tended to be Hispanic and tied to immigration. That pattern has roots in earlier eras, Simi says, giving the example of the children of Irish and Italian immigrants of the last century. “It was that second generation. The kids that were kind of caught between the parent culture, the old ways, the traditions and trying to kind of assimilate,” he says. Feeling marginalized, especially now with the state’s ongoing immigration debate, is a contributing factor for joining a gang. Whatever the location, Crank describes gang life as “a nightmare.” He says his work with the police and community groups does not have an impact on tactics that law enforcement uses, but that the university can raise public awareness and help evaluate the success of anti-gang efforts. “It’s not like we can go out there with a bunch of answers because those answers don’t exist,” he says. “We’ve got some interesting ideas. We have some pretty good ideas about what works somewhat and some things that don’t work.” Omaha City Councilman Ben Gray sees UNO’s involvement on the gang issue as critically important. Omaha had 34

the colleges

A Fashionable Statement Photo by Tim Fitzgerald, University Relations

UNO student supports MADD by organizing Fashion Victim event

homicides in 2010. People from community organizations and agencies, churches, business people, academic experts, law enforcement and concerned citizens from the Omaha community come together weekly to discuss violence intervention strategies at meetings coordinated by Empower Omaha. Gray says that kind of global effort is needed. Like the UNO faculty members, he says trying to lock people up does not address the economic and social issues that give gangs a foothold. Robinson says he sees a community’s efforts — whether it’s safe after-school activities, job opportunities or training, or counseling and mentoring — as the real way to “out-recruit” gangs. “It’s a competition,” Robinson says. Says Simi: “One of the things we do know pretty clearly about gangs is that they thrive in pockets where there’s high levels of poverty and social disorder and just a lot of social instability.” Gray agrees with that, and adds that while he’s not sure the gang issue in the city is getting better or worse, he does feel that the ongoing discussions have greatly improved the relationship between the community and the police. He also says he believes Omaha will get a better handle on issues of violence, and points to the fact that there were no murders on the north side of Omaha between May and October. “My personal belief is that the answers are through reinvestment and rebuilding,” Crank says. “They lie in the economic sphere.” — Tim Kaldahl, assistant editor

UNO senior Amy Wieczorek was left heartbroken, devastated and looking for answers after losing two friends to a drunk driver in 2007 — Morgan Hohnbaum and Josh Milana, both of Grand Island, Neb. “Burying my friends was the hardest thing I have ever done,” Wieczorek says. Sadness and sorrow transformed into action and awareness in 2009 when Wieczorek, a community health major, devoted her efforts to organizing Fashion Victim, an annual fashion show to raise funds for MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Driving) in Nebraska. A part-time model and busy undergraduate at UNO, Wieczorek recruited friends, community members and Eta Sigma Gamma, a health education honorary organization at UNO, to help with what quickly became a very personal cause. The first Fashion Victim event in August 2009, held in UNO’s College of Public Affairs and Community Service Collaborating Commons, featured remarks from Sally Ganem, the First Lady of Nebraska; Matt Davison, a former Nebraska Cornhusker who supports drinking and driving education; Justin Reese, a UNO student who was seriously injured when struck by a drunk driver in 2008; and Chuck Elley, a Nebraska State Trooper.

Local retailers and fashion designers loaned clothes for the runway show, which featured more than 30 UNO student models. As the Miss Nebraska ANTSO (American National Teenager Scholarship Organization) titleholder, drinking and driving prevention and awareness is Wieczorek’s platform. Since the death of her two friends, Wieczorek has been determined to make a difference. At ANTSO Nationals in July 2010, Wieczorek was the first Miss Nebraska titleholder to place in the Top 10 based on her platform. “I want to be a role model before a fashion model,” Wieczorek says. In 2010, the annual fundraiser brought in $6,000 in cash and in-kind donations, with all proceeds given to MADD Nebraska in honor of Hohnbaum and Milana. The annual fundraiser is free to attend, but donations are accepted at the door. In 2010, the event outgrew its original home at UNO and moved to the former Holiday Inn Convention Center at 72nd and Grover Streets in Omaha. Nate Bock, a counselor with the UNO Counseling Center, says student engagement is a positive byproduct of the annual Fashion Victim event. “We always like to see our students get involved in prevention activities surrounding the issues they struggle with and face,” Bock says. “Amy has had the vision to address this topic as an ongoing event each year. Making the event an annual one only adds to the strength of the message it sends and is important when considering the effectiveness of prevention.” — Wendy Townley, University Relations

Graffiti-be-gone UNO’s Association of Latino American Students (ALAS) again partnered with the Neighborhood Center for its annual Graffiti Abatement on Oct. 30 in south Omaha. Each year, participants clean walls, fences and street signs that have been vandalized with graffiti.

the colleges

Lifting the veil of darkness on White Power Movements Professor’s American Swastika explores Skinheads, Neo-Nazis and others Toss any stereotypes about what you think a Skinhead might look like out the window. Because a Skinhead — or, more appropriately, a White Supremacist — could be your neighbor, classmate, coworker or church member, says American Swastika author Dr. Pete Simi. Simi, an associate professor in UNO’s School of Criminology and Criminal Justice, wrote American Swastika with Dr. Robert Futrell, a sociology professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. The two draw on more than a decade of research and interviews, from the infamous Hayden Lake Aryan compound in Northern Idaho to private homes in Los Angeles to hate music concerts around the country. “They’re constantly vilified and getting the short end of the stick,” Simi says. “So, I wanted to get their perspective.”

His most interesting encounter, he says, was witnessing a white power baby shower. In the book, the authors explain the history of the movement and describe the several different clans operating in the United States, including the KKK, the Aryan Nation, Skinheads and others. At gatherings, there is always an attempt to try to unify different branches of the Neo-Nazi movement. They also discuss ways White Supremacists cultivate, maintain and spread their beliefs — largely under the radar of most Americans. Yet if you want to learn about them, they’re accessible. “They’re very open to having outsiders attend because it is an opportunity to get the word out,” Simi says. “White and willing to listen — their assumption is they can convert you.” California has the most active Neo-Nazi scene in the United States. During the summer of 2004, Simi spent five-weeks with a Neo-Nazi family in Southern California. Simi says white supremacist prison and street clans have grown recently. Public Enemy No. 1 — or PEN1 — has more than 21,000 members. They’re activities revolve around organized crime like meth trafficking and counterfeiting.

The book is getting good press. In November American Swastika was named CHOICE magazine’s Outstanding Academic Title of the Year for 2010.

“Their [White Supremacists’] strategy is not to conform or declare war on the system,” he says. “Within the last 10 years a key leadership vacuum has left the movement very decentralized.”

The book was a long time in the making. Simi started doing fieldwork on the Neo-Nazi movement in 1997. He gained close looks at the everyday activities of the white power movement, even spending five-weeks living in a white power home and attending Neo-Nazi events in the Southwest.

This has led to growth in the Neo-Nazi white power music scene via the Internet. Simi and Futrell take readers through the hate music scene, from underground bars to massive rallies, examining how the Internet has shaped communication and created disturbing new virtual communities.

“I thought it was really important from the beginning to make firsthand contact with folks,” Simi says. “Most of us have familiarity with these groups based on movies, TV shows and newspaper articles — things of that nature. But I didn’t really have first-hand contact with members of these types of groups.”

White supremacy has been more visible recently in at least two instances. Simi points to news of a wife who killed her Neo-Nazi husband. Police found that he had a type of biological weapon in his possession. There also have been connections between NeoNazis and the Tea Party. Simi wrote about that in American Swastika’s preface.

Through descriptive case studies, Simi and Futrell examine hate in the home, talking with parents who aim to raise “little Hitlers” and discussing the impact home schooling and cultural isolation can have on children. The authors also describe Aryan crash pads, Bible studies and rituals.

“Neo-Nazi’s are making efforts to infiltrate the Tea Party movement,” Simi says. “Most involved with the Tea Party are not Neo-Nazi’s; however, there is some degree of overlap. It’s an indisputable fact that this is happening. Some Tea Party members don’t appreciate that, but it is what it is.”

“Observing their events, spending time with people in their homes and observing how they raise their kids and what they do on a daily basis in their lives,” Simi says. “What their lives look like. You don’t get that from reading their propaganda.”

Helping with Hope — Becky Bohan Brown, University Relations

— Becky Bohan Brown, University Relations For more information on the topic, email Simi at psimi@unomaha.edu

UNO students partner with the Hope Center for Kids to assist at-risk youth Some say location is everything. Considering that, the Hope Center for Kids couldn’t have picked a better spot. Located at 2200 N. 20th Street in Omaha, the Hope Center for Kids for 10 years has been fulfilling its mission by changing “the tide of hopelessness” for Omaha’s inner-city youth. The center offers a safe place to stay after school, a daily hot meal program,

educational support, mentoring, social skills training, Bible studies, job creation and economic development. Even a weekend skate adventure. More than 1,000 youth ages 5 to 19 are served, and the Hope Center’s impact is significant. Of the high school seniors it assists, 92 percent graduate from high school — nearly twice the statewide 47-percent graduation rate for African-American youth. Of the high school graduates, 69 percent go on to college. UNO is among the Hope Center’s key partners. The UNO Service-Learning Academy and the Hope Center began collaborating through a semester-long project that

the colleges

London Bridges

A UNO Criminal Justice program is still going strong after four decades Mind the gap. The tube. Blimey. Lift. Just a few British terms that have become familiar to UNO students over the last 39 years. Thanks to Jim Kane and a phone call. In 1972, Kane, a professor in UNO’s Criminal Justice program, took a group of 10 UNO students to London to study the British criminal justice system. Kane, who passed away in 1991, had no itinerary arranged for the students. But he did have the phone number of London police officer Anthony Moore. Moore came through with arrangements for the students — as he has every year since. During that time, more than 2,000 students from UNO, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Chadron State College have attended UNO’s London Study Tour. It’s not just criminal justice majors making the trek, either. In recent years political science and communication students also have hopped the pond. Bill Wakefield, a longtime professor in UNO’s criminal justice program, led his first London trip in 1978. He became director of the London Study Tour and made more than 30 trips there. He stepped aside as director of the program in 2008. Wakefield, whose wife, Ellen, is from England, will make his last trip to London It’s this kind of this spring.

Brennan has numerous UK connections, most notably working as former Prime Minister Blair’s intern. The London Study Tour is the culmination of a semester-long comparative criminal justice class taught each spring. About 100 students will attend this year’s tour May 8-22. “This is such a great experience for the students,” Brennan says She says many students have never traveled like this before and they get to see criminal justice sites such as the British courts, a police training academy, a working police station and the prison system. Brennan is one of several faculty members from UNO, UNL and Chadron State who administer and accompany the students on the trip. She says cooperation is a key to the success of the London program. A lot of this cooperation is due to the long-standing relationships and extensive follow-up UNO has with British agencies.

experience that students will talk about for the rest of their lives.

“The students are still young people wanting to explore and experience another culture and people,” Wakefield says. “We make every effort to help them expand their knowledge and we encourage a lot of independent exploring to such locales as Paris, Ireland and Scotland.”

Students have seen popular London tourist sites and much more. That includes a behind-the-scenes tour of the Prime Minister’s residence at 10 Downing Street and of Buckingham Palace to watch the changing of the guard ceremony. In 2008, Dr. Pauline Brennan took over as London Study Tour director. An associate professor of criminology and criminal justice, charged UNO students with building a curriculum at the Hope Center. Today, kids and teens from the center volunteer alongside UNO students for service projects in the community. “We’re long-term partners with the Hope Center for Kids,” says Dr. Kathe Oleson Lyons, assistant director of UNO’s Service-Learning Academy. “At different points we’ve come together and partnered with them on service-learning projects.” One such project includes service-learning classes that designed specific projects to help develop the Hope Center’s business plans to benefit North Omaha youth.

In 2008, shortly after he retired as an inspector with the London Metropolitan Police, Moore was presented with a Founders Award by the criminal justice department. Wakefield and Moore may not play the parts they once did, but the tour remains in good hands.

“I work on the following year’s trip while I’m in London and other relationships have been established by Bill and maintained over the years,” Brennan says. “The UNO students are fortunate that this university supports this kind of program. The academic component is absolutely important, but it’s more than that. “It’s a perfect marriage … learning in an academic setting and through an amazing experience. I wish all classes could merge the academic setting with the experience of a trip like this.”

In order to continue to fund these projects, UNO students write grants and engage local business to support the programs. “Seventy-five percent of incoming students indicate that they want to be involved in the community while at UNO,” Oleson Lyons says. “UNO students get an opportunity to see the vitality that sustains a nonprofit because it’s part of their coursework.” UNO also has used the Hope Center for Kids’ facility and partnered on volunteer projects such as MLK Day and a cleanup during the Service-Learning Academy’s Three Days of Service. Some of the record-757 volunteers who

— Tim Fitzgerald, University Relations

assisted in the 2010 Three Days of Service came from the Hope Center. Oleson Lyons says UNO students gain just as much as those they are assisting. “Students from classes are overwhelmed at the beginning,” Oleson Lyons says. “Each student is serving and learning how it can become an impressionable-transformational experience. Each one [student] leaves an imprint on your heart knowing you’ve created an opportunity to learn, grow and transform their way of thinking about service learning.

To learn more about the Hope Center for Kids, visit http://hopec.cfwebtools.com

ATHLETICS

Fight-Free College hockey is leading the way in banishing fisticuffs — Dave Ahlers, UNO Athletic Media Relations

Anyone who follows sports has heard the old joke — “I went to a boxing match, and a hockey game broke out.” But the author of that joke will need to do some editing for the 21st century game. Long a refuge for spontaneous pugilism and other bad behaviors, hockey gradually is changing its image to one that emphasizes the speed and skill of the players. That, in the end, gives fans what they really want to see — goals. Currently, fighting is permitted at the sport’s highest level, the National Hockey League, but even there, it’s becoming rare. It’s also allowed in major junior hockey and in U.S. junior hockey, which acts as a feeder for American college programs. College hockey in the United States, though, does not allow fighting. Players who do are suspended. UNO hockey Head Coach Dean Blais, who played at the University of Minnesota and in the professional Central Hockey League, says the days of fighting’s prominence in hockey are swiftly coming to an end. “Hockey now is getting to be more of a finesse game, less of an intimidator game,” Blais says. “Quite frankly, the players that can’t play in the NHL that can’t fight have to hone their skills to play a little bit because the referees don’t like it. They think it’s no part of the game. “No matter what the fans think and want, it’s not part of the game anymore.” Blais says that back when he played professionally, the attitude was much different.

The rules Any college player who fights in a game gets a 5-minute major penalty for fighting and a game disqualification. That means he is ejected from that game and disqualified from playing in the next one. If his conduct is bad enough, he can get multiple disqualifications for the same offense. With each subsequent disqualification comes another game missed. If he were to fight in backto-back games, his second DQ would net him a two-game disqualification, meaning he’d miss his team’s next two games (and so forth for each new DQ).

“Twenty-five years ago, you either fought in the minors or you didn’t make it. You were considered soft or not dedicated enough. Back then, you did have to fight. It was a big part of the game. “You think of the Broad Street Bullies, the Philadelphia Flyers, and hockey people at that time thought that’s why they won two Stanley Cups. Right now, it’s a thing of the past.”

Disconnect Dr. Bill Wakefield, a professor in the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice and UNO’s faculty athletic representative (FAR) to the NCAA, says that in his role as FAR, he’s attended many meetings with college hockey referees and head coaches and found that none think the college game is any lesser by not allowing fighting.

“We would have some of these informal discussions, and they’re quite happy that it does take that direction,” Wakefield says. “You might imagine that a coach, being a former hockey player, would like to be a little bit more liberal toward the fighting. The ones that I’ve run across, and these are big names in the field, I never got that impression from them.” As a professor who has hockey players in his classes, Wakefield says he can’t imagine a greater disconnect than having a player as a student and simultaneously cheering for him in a fight. “I want to cheer them on because of their skills and training and discipline and all of the things they work so hard at as college student-athletes to achieve,” Wakefield says. “I would hate to see that come to a halt because of fighting on the ice or getting hurt when they have that whole future ahead of them.”

Hurts the games — and players Blais agrees, noting that the size and strength of today’s hockey player makes injuries from fighting more likely. “I’ve seen guys get career-ending injuries from a fight — not necessarily from the punch that was delivered but from the fall afterward … the separated shoulder, the blown-out knees from one player falling on another player. “Certainly, there have been concussions, lost teeth, broken noses and eye injuries off fights. Hockey’s violent enough with the speed of players skating over 30 miles an hour, pucks traveling over 100 miles an hour. We don’t need fighting. I think we have a good game now, although the fans like to see a good fight now and then, it’s certainly a thing of the past.” While there will always exist a faction of hockey fans who go to the rink simply to see two players drop the gloves, their legion are dwindling. Nowhere is the benefit of fighting’s absence more evident than in college hockey. UNO ranked fourth in the country last season in attendance, drawing an average of nearly 6,900 to Qwest Center Omaha. UNO fans and those of teams ahead of them in the rankings — Wisconsin (15,048), North Dakota (11,654) and Minnesota (9,881), all members of the WCHA — are demonstrating that most hockey fans would rather see a good game than a good fight.

ATHLETICS

Large Gift to Benefit Mav Hockey The UNO hockey program recently received the largest gift in its history — a gift that will be used to enhance its future. The gift (UNO Athletics did not release its amount) was made by Ron and Connie Brasel of Omaha through the University of Nebraska Foundation. The lifelong hockey fans have supported the Maverick hockey team since the program’s inception. “When UNO’s program began we wanted to see what the college hockey experience was like,” says Ron. “We absolutely fell in love with the college game. We’ve been hooked on UNO hockey since day one at the Civic Auditorium.” UNO played its first hockey game in October 1997 and now is in its 14th season. It was not only their love of the game that motivated the Brasels to give, though. Ron says that they’ve had the opportunity to meet studentathletes (“an incredible bunch of kids”) as well as UNO Athletics staff and hockey coaches. He says it was upon meeting them that he and Connie “really saw the fire and passion for the program.”

Coach Tim Nelson: Golf Nut Golf Coach Tim Nelson has the Mavs aiming for a third straight MIAA title Only a true golf nut could look out the window in Nebraska in winter and envision a round of golf on a local course. So, you’re either one of those nuts or you’re Tim Nelson (’80), UNO’s golf coach. Nelson has been at the helm of UNO golf since its fourth year, 2003-04, and since then has had more than his share of success. Nelson has led the Mavs to four conference titles and three first-place finishes in the NCAA Regionals. UNO is the two-time defending champion in the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association. “I enjoy everything about this job,” Nelson says. “As a teacher and a coach, I enjoy seeing the players grow and improve.” The Omaha native and graduate of Central High School came to coaching golf in a roundabout way. He played football and baseball at Central and later was drafted in 1966, serving four years in the Air Force at Offutt Air Force base. While there, he worked at the base course and later became assistant pro at Happy Hollow Country Club after serving his tour. Nelson became a Class A member of the PGA in 1972 and today is one of the few PGA pros coaching Division II college golf in the region. He started as a volunteer coach at Creighton and was the head coach at the College of St. Mary the year prior to taking the UNO job. UNO won four of its six fall tournaments, and Nelson now has his team preparing for the spring season, including a run at a third straight MIAA title.

“It ultimately was the passion at UNO for hockey that inspired us to make the gift,” Ron says. UNO hockey Coach Dean Blais says the Brasels have been “tremendously” generous to Maverick hockey over the years. “It’s because of supporters like the Brasels that our program continues to grow on the national scene,” Blais says. “We cannot thank the Brasels enough for their ongoing commitment to UNO hockey.” Trev Alberts, UNO athletic director, says the Brasel’s gift will benefit the hockey program in many ways. “Because their gift is directed toward enhancing the future of Maverick hockey, our program will be enhanced today and in the seasons to come,” Alberts says. Ron believes the gift will enable Maverick hockey to become a top-tiered program. “We are extremely proud of what UNO has become and very pleased to be in a position to help,” he says.

Want to support Maverick Athletics? The One Fund has been established to benefit all UNO teams. To support your favorite Mav sport, call Terry Hanna at (402) 502-4106 or email thanna@nufoundation.org. See more at www.OmahasTeam.com

athletics

A Class Act UNO’s Heather Pohl is scoring points on and off the court Crunch time applies to more than just basketball for Heather Pohl. The junior forward and leading scorer for the UNO women’s basketball team not only thrives when the game is on the line, but also when it’s time to crack down on school work. “The great thing about basketball is that it allows me to concentrate and focus on school work when I have free time, because I know I can’t be putting things off,” Pohl says. “When I don’t have basketball or school, that’s crunch time for me. That’s when I know I have to be productive, and I work pretty well under pressure.” Off the court, Pohl is a two-time MIAA Academic Honor Roll member. After she graduates with her degree in speech pathology she would like to work in a

hospital and possibly at a school later in life. “I really enjoy working with kids,” Pohl says. “There is a huge variety of options with speech pathology, so I’ll keep my options open.” She does just that on the court. She entered conference play averaging 14.5 points per game and scored a career-high 24 points against Missouri S&T Nov. 18. Playing on a Maverick team that has only one senior and three juniors — two of whom are transfers — Pohl has served as a leader for the young Mavs this year. “I always like coming into a leadership spot,” the Millard West graduate says. “I’ve been here for two years now. I know the system and the coaches. I just try to give as much help as possible.” — Bonnie Ryan

Brothers (Up) in Arms UNO’s Torrian Harris jump-started a special senior season when he took on his brother and nationally ranked Michigan State It didn’t take long for UNO basketball player Torrian Harris to make himself a memorable senior season. In fact, the goodtime memories began before the season officially started. Harris, a guard from Saginaw, Mich., is among the Mavericks’ leaders, averaging 13.8 points, 6.2 rebounds and 2.2 assists per game in January. He emerged as a veteran force early in the 2010-11 season, registering his first career double-double with 20 points and 10 rebounds against Rockhurst. But one of the most exciting moments of Harris’ career came in an exhibition game Nov. 8 when UNO traveled to Michigan State. For some, the game was a chance to play against a Final Four contender at East Lansing’s storied Breslin Center.

For Harris, it had a special twist — the opportunity to play against his half-brother, MSU’s Draymond Green. Harris and Green last took the court together as teammates at Saginaw High School, after which Harris went on to Lansing Community College. This time, they lined up for tipoff, the 6-foot-6 Green going against his 6-1 brother (with a 41.5-inch vertical jump). Michigan State won 102-72, but Harris made a major contribution with 13 points, five rebounds, three assists and a block. The Mavericks have leaned heavily on Harris as a starter this season as they pursue a second straight MIAA championship. He’s joined by fellow seniors Tyler Bullock, Jeff Martin, Aaron Terry and Matt Starks. Harris had a hand in the Mavs’ 2010 conference crown, scoring 26 points with nine rebounds in the opening round. “Torrian played well down the stretch and in the MIAA Tournament as a junior, which built his confidence,” Head Coach Derrin Hansen says. “That parlayed into

the consistency and success he has shown this season. “His athleticism allows him to guard all the perimeter positions, and he can attack the basket with his jump. He’s just a player who finds ways to get things done for our squad.” — Bonnie Ryan

GET TO KNOW

he answered

we asked

Which superhero crime fighter would you like to be and why? Spider Man. I relate to a nerdy high school student transformed by a radioactive spider bite.

THE BEST ADVICE I EVER RECEIVED Pointing at a section of library books, my dissertation director advised, “Choose wisely. That’s how many books you can read in a lifetime.”

David J. Boocker Dean, College of College of Arts & Sciences

MY FAVORITE WEEKEND HANGOUT: My couch. THE SECRET TO HAPPINESS IS: Watching children grow up. Also the secret to gray hair. MY FIRST JOB: Convenient store clerk at 7-Eleven.

we asked

Which superhero crime fighter would you like to be and why?

I would choose to be part of a team of superheroes, like the Fantastic Four or the Justice League. Even if I had my own superpowers, it would be much more enjoyable to work with other superheroes to accomplish a goal.

answered Patty Patton-Shearer UNO Women’s Basketball Coach

I would be Batman because he has lots of cool toys. He also gets to be a normal guy by day and an anonymous crime fighter by night. The other advantage is Batman wears a mask. I never understood how Superman’s identity remained hidden by just wearing glasses.

answered Chris Bober (’00) Businessman, former NFL player, president of Building Blocks Foundation

The superheroes that were most popular when I was a child spring to mind first: Superman, Batman, Shazam. All of these characters have a special place in my heart because of the ways they could transport me to different parts of the world doing noble things. As a child it was all about the special powers they had but now I appreciate these characters for their ability to help those in need.

I was a huge Batman fan as a kid. Not only did Batman keep Gotham safe from crooked villains but Bruce Wayne was a ladies man, billionaire and philanthropist. He was really just a regular guy who made a difference in a really big way. Oh, and it’d be awesome to roll up to places in the Bat Mobile!

answered Juan Casas Associate professor, psychology

Batman because Batman is Bruce Wayne. He is a very smart and successful businessman. Bruce is not content to be wealthy, but unselfishly risks his life as Batman to protect his city and its citizens. It would also be cool to be Bruce because of his innovative use of technology in his pursuit of the bad guys. From the Bat Suit, to the Bat Mobile to the Bat Plane, Bruce has awesome equipment that helps keep the citizens of Gotham safe.

answered Kevin Munro (’86) Chairman of the Board, UNO Alumni Association

answered Keith Fix Student and co-founder, DailyMav.com Text, photos by Jenna Zeorian

Hacking Away It’s 4 o’clock

in the mornin g. Do you know where your data is?

By John Fey Har ry the Hacker does, and he’s armed with the know-how to stea l a company ’s secrets and assets with the click of a mou se. If he’s successfu l, the dam age to a company, government agency or mun icipa lity could be incredible. Cyberhacking is grow ing at an alar min g rate, and no busi ness, individual or country is immune. Take, for example, the recent confident ial cables relea sed by Wik iLea ks. After that, suspected Wik iLea ks sympath izers comprom ised websites belonging to Visa, MasterCard and PayPal in a campaig n dubbed “Operation: Payback.” All of it could put individuals — including U.S. mili tary personnel — in danger. Helping fight such computer thievery is the UNO -based Nebraska Universit y Consortiu m on Information Assu ranc e — NUCIA (pronounced “new-sha”). Form ed in 2001 and adm inistered by the Colle ge of Information Science & Tech nology, it has an inter national presence. But, as NUCIA ’s recently retired founding director note s, dista nces don’t mea n what they once did. “Once you’re connected to the Internet, there is no distance,” says Dr. Blaine Burnham . “It’s somethi ng people don’t understan d. “Somebody stea ls your car, you notic e that. But if somebody stea ls your data, you don’t know it’s gone.” With much more to replace than a set of new wheels. McA fee, the world’s large st dedicated security technology company ,

estimates that lost intellectual property and expenditures for repairing the damage costs businesses as much as $1 trillion glob ally. And more than money is at play. Man y of the nation’s waterworks and elec tric grid computer networks are outdated, and the resources to protect them are lack ing. Terrorists could para lyze a city if they tapped such systems. With so much at stake, it’s no wonder that hack ing has gone from the “just havi ng-fu n” teen personified by Matt hew Broderick in “Wa rGames” to career crim inals and cartels. “It’s not the pimply faced boy behi nd this,” Burn ham says. “The Russians decided to make a busi ness out of this. The Russ ians in particula r are in it for the money and are doing fine, than k you very much.” China also is a major player in cybe r crim inal activ ity, Burn ham says. “The Russians are after money,” he says . “The Chinese are after intel lectual capi tal that they can turn into their own reso urces. The identity thef t numbers are stag gerin g.”

When, Not If

Threats materialize as soon as a conn ection to the Inter net is made, says NUCIA ’s new director, Dr. Will iam Mahoney. “If you’re a company that has a web presence, someone will have attempted to hack into your machines — period ,” Mahoney says. “You can put a new com puter on the Inter net, and someone will be ping ing it or poki ng it or prodding it in a half hour, if that.” He points to two factors at play. “One is that the web pages and softw are that hand les them keeps getti ng mor e complicated. More complicated equa ls more bugs,” Mahoney says. “Second is just the rise in the number of companies with some presence on the web.” The first factor is analogou s to coun terfeiting. As counterfeiters adva nce in skill , governments change the notes to mak e them harder to copy. Then the coun terfeiters get better.

Dr. William Mahoney

Dr. Blaine Burnham

“Advances in hack ing sometimes are adva ncing faster than the defense,” Mahoney says.

Information a ssurance is a highly dynamic spa ce. Keeping up w trends, techn iques and me ith security thodologies is a must, and U NO’s profess ors, curriculu and resource m s have prove n crucial toward doing so.

Photo by Bryce Bridges

— Derek Pecka, senior

And they ’re after whatever information is avai lable, he adds. “Credit card acco unts with names is an obvious cand idate .”

Into the Fray

NUCIA-trai ned counter-c yberhackers are on the frontlines of such combat in the serv ice of governmenta l and corporate entities. NUCIA graduates have land ed key Inter net secu rity positions with the Trea sury Department, the Inter nal Reve nue Serv ice, the Department of Com mer ce and military branches. Loca lly, UNO alum ni and students in the field work for Con Agra and other major companies. “What we do here in the college is educ ate people in information assu rance and send them off into the real world to solve problems or attempt to solve problems ,” Mahoney says. He defines information assu rance usin g the acronym CIA — confidentia lity, integ rity and avai labil ity. Ten years ago the prog ram didn’t even exist. But times have changed. Mah oney cites the tran sformation of med ical

records from paper to elec tron ic as an example. Patients want records to rem ain confidential while being completely accu rate and insta ntly avai lable. “It was no big deal unti l we started mov ing a lot of stuff like assets in this envi ronment,” Burn ham says. “When you started to convert game icon s and gam e context into a com mod ity that can be sold into the marketplace, it changes the rules.” Interest in the NUCIA program is grow ing — there currently are around 50 students enrolled. The National Security Agency has nam ed NUCIA a Center of Academic Excellenc e in Information Assurance Education. The college doesn’t necessar ily charge for serv ices rendered, but a student work ing on a particula r project for a company does receive a stipend for time outside the classroom . The universit y itsel f even is a client, NUCIA on occa sion perform ing a secu rity systems audit of UNO.

Opportunities and Advice

Off campus, UNO has been praised for its cybersec urity graduates, says NUCIA assistant director and senior tech nolo gy research fellow Stephen Nugen. It’s also been chal lenged to produce more. The opportun ities are numerou s. “Cyb ersecu rity extends beyond the busi ness world,” Nugen says. “It tran scends into national defense.” Pecka is compliance manager for Gord man s in Oma ha. He oversees operation s relat ed

information assu rance major

to the integ rity of company informa tion systems and implementation of all secu rity tech nologies. “As a large, publ icly-traded retai ler, our networks and appl ications are under a constant threat which requ ires care ful analysis and protection,” Pecka says . The risk is not limited to Fort une 500 companies or large government syste ms, either. Fort unately, NUCIA can help . Mahoney says sma ller busi nesses that set up even a simple website open them selves to cyberattacks. He says it’s most importa nt that a com pany update its software, including the lates t secu rity patches. “It always amazes me to see in the new s exploits that were ‘old’ a year ago,” he says. “The reason they are still around is that people get lazy and don’t keep their softw are up to date, so old bugs are just as good as new bugs as far as the bad guys are concerne d.” Nugen says busi nesses shou ld consider them selves as stewards of their cust omers’ cred it card information. “Because if you’re not, and the customers find out, they ’re going to leave you.” And after that, even the cyberhackers won’t care to visit. Need cybersecurity help? Contact NUCIA today. Online: http://nucia.ist.unomaha.edu Email: webadmin@nucia.unomaha.edu Phone: 402-554-4902

Identity theft is on the rise — and so is the fear of being a victim

Getting Personal Photo by Bryce Bridges

By Don Kohler

Bryce Bridges can certainly get around. An Omaha-based photographer, Bridges has captured stunning images in cities around the world, including a stint in Qatar for much of 2010. About 10 years ago, though, Bridges was getting around and didn’t even know it. He traveled the United States in a rented U-Haul truck, spent thousands of dollars along the way in malls across the country, and even cashed payroll checks from a major oil company. But while Bryce Bridges was on his spending spree, Bryce Bridges actually was home safe. He had become a victim of identity theft — and had to spend six anxious months piecing his life back together. “I cannot explain the initial pain and inconvenience and the concern I had for going into serious debt,” Bridges says. “It took me a long time to convince bank detectives and creditors that this was not me, and I really did not know who I could turn to and who would be on my side.”

The Crime of Our Time A growing number of people have experienced the same financial discombobulation and emotional pain. According to a 2009 report by the Federal Trade Commission, 21 percent of the 1.3 million complaints to the FTC involved identity theft claims, more than any other category. Identity theft occurs when someone illicitly uses your personal identifying information — like your name, Social Security number or credit card number — to commit fraud or other crimes. The FTC estimates that as many as 9 million Americans have their identities stolen each year. In a 2009 Gallup survey about crime, 31 percent of respondents said they worry frequently about being the victim of identity theft, tops in a list of a dozen crimes. “In reality, that number should be 100 percent,” says William Mahoney, assistant professor for the Nebraska University Center of Information Assurance (NUCIA). His department, located at the Kiewit Center, was established in 2001 to research and improve information assurance awareness (see article beginning on page 22). While NUCIA works more closely with commercial, governmental and educational institutions on computer information security, Mahoney says he has monitored the impact that the Internet and viral media have had on identity theft. “This may show my age, but I think a problem with the younger generation growing up in the Internet world is that they do not care about security,” Mahoney says. “Privacy is not a concern. There does not seem to be a concern about sharing all of your personal information with everyone else in the world. Like it or not, Facebook and other mediums are leaving you open to identity theft.”

Mahoney says posting personal information on Facebook or Twitter, or reading e-mail on an unsecured wireless network, are common ways people are victimized. “You could be sitting in a Starbucks reading your e-mail, and someone could be sitting 50 feet away and reading all about you.” He points to a friend who was victimized by identity theft to the tune of $70,000 in credit card debt. “It took him 18 months to clear things out,” he says. “Another problem with this crime is that laws do not do much other than protect you from creditors, and it is up to you to prove your innocence and to wipe the slate clean.”

Low Risk, High Reward Michael Johnson, a research assistant and graduate student in UNO’s School of Criminology and Criminal Justice, agrees that the deck is stacked against victims of identity theft. Johnson’s doctoral research is focusing on the policing of identity theft, including documenting what issues law enforcement agencies face with this crime and what strategies can be taken to combat it. Johnson’s research project included interviews with 25 agencies in a seven-state region, with emphasis on police departments in urban communities with a population of 100,000 or more people. “Identity theft is essentially a case that oftentimes is unsolvable for law enforcement officials,” says Johnson, whose own father was a victim of the crime. “Police have been moving more toward helping the victim and toward teaching, educating and prevention of this crime. The problem is that it has become the crime of choice because it is low risk and high reward, and the punishments are lower for non-violent crimes.” Johnson points to three forms of ID theft that often stymie law enforcement officials: • Current account fraud; • New account fraud — the opening of a new account; and, • Reverse identity theft — someone gives a false name when arrested for a crime. “Part of the issue with identity theft is that the definition is so broad,” Johnson says. “There is everything from financial fraud to stealing someone’s name and making purchases. It is a challenge for law enforcement.”

Protection and the Police Bridges had his ID stolen when his expired driver’s license was stolen from a dumpster behind the a department of motor vehicle office. He later was able to convince a local investigative news reporter to tackle his story and bring the crime to the forefront. Johnson says there are other ways to get help if you are a victim of identity theft. The Fair Credit Reporting Act of 2003 legislated that financial institutions must respond to a victim’s claim of identity theft or fraud within four days after receiving a police report. According to the FTC, 27 percent of identity theft victims filed police reports in 2003. That rose to 63 percent in 2009. “Prior to 2003, policing agencies were confused as to who would take care of identity theft cases,” Johnson says. “Because of the 2003 legislation, agencies are required to take reports in cases of identity theft and that allows the victim to file promptly with financial agencies. Every police agency I have interviewed said this reporting process is on the rise. “With my research, I hope to take a good look at policing methods, because there is not much out there for strategies to combat identity theft, and the police need help.” The uptick in this new crime wave also has driven more students to Mahoney and the NUCIA program. Graduates typically enter the field of computer security management and have landed jobs with notable agencies such as the National Security Agency and the Department of Treasury. “Computer security has been around for 30 years, but with the whole ecommerce revolution, this field has taken off like crazy,” Mahoney says. Like Bryce Bridges in a U-Haul.

Identity Integrity

Steps you can take to protect your identity — or recover it if stolen Protecting your identity, say UNO staffers who deal frequently with ID theft, begins with common sense. “There are some obvious steps that you can take to protect yourself,” says William Mahoney of UNO’s NUCIA department. Whether obvious to you or not, here’s advice Mahoney and other experts recommend:

Shred It

Firewalls, Software and Patches

“You should take all your mail that comes with your name and address on it and throw it in a shredder,” Mahoney says.

Maury Pepper, a UNO graduate (’67) who is co-founder and a vice president with WorldVistA, an open source electronic health record company, recommends a trio of steps to protect against identity theft.

Privatize Social media sites such as Facebook and LinkedIn default to a no-privacy setting. “That is the worst thing you can do,” says Mahoney. “You should only be allowing close friends and family members onto your private pages.”

Credit Checks, Alerts & Freezes UNO grad student Michael Johnson recommends checking your credit report once a year to monitor potential identity theft issues. “One of the worst things that could happen is to have someone open a new account in your name, so it is important to monitor your credit.” Free credit reports available through a government service can be accessed at annualcreditreport.com. The Federal Trade Commission recommends placing a fraud alert or credit freeze on your credit reports. A fraud alert requires that potential creditors must either contact you or use what the law refers to as “reasonable policies and procedures” to verify your identity before issuing credit in your name. A credit freeze will prevent potential creditors and other third parties from accessing your credit report at all, unless you lift the freeze or already have a relationship with the company.

When Wireless … If using a wireless network, says Mahoney, check your settings and make sure your computer is set on the encrypted mode to block access to hackers. Change your password frequently, too.

Forget Phishing Don’t reply to emails asking for banking information (a practice called “Phishing”). “They do not come from the bank,” Mahoney says.

“The three most important safeguards are a firewall, anti-virus software and keeping system software patches up to date,” Pepper says.

Look for the Lock Make sure that online sites asking for personal information are encrypted. Mahoney says to look for the padlock icon on the top of the browser and that the site starts with “https” instead of “http.”

Copy, Don’t Click on Links Don’t click on web links in emails — the URL address you see might not be the actual site to which you will be taken. Instead, Mahoney recommends, cut and paste the link into a browser.

Paying for Protection What about identity theft prevention products or services? The FTC on its website advises caution: “Many people find value and convenience in paying an outside party to help them exercise their rights and protect their information,” the FTC website notes. “At the same time, some rights and protections you have under federal or state laws can help you protect your identity and recover from identity theft at no cost. Knowing and understanding your rights can help you determine whether — or which — commercial products or services may be appropriate for you.” Other ways of minimizing your risk of identity theft, detecting ID theft, and defending and recovering from this crime can be seen on the FTC website, www.ftc.gov. — Don Kohler

Piracy It didn’t take long for one UNO student to receive a response to his Facebook status that questioned, “Anyone know where I can download some free music?” Within minutes, three of his friends replied, offering websites to illegally download songs. By the end of the day, he had eight responses. Digital piracy, the unauthorized use or reproduction of copyrighted material, which includes downloading music without paying for it, is nothing new. The crime’s prevalence exploded in 1999 with the creation of Napster, the first online service to allow public media file-sharing.

Patrol By Jenna Zeorian

Illegal downloads remain a problem on and off campus

Today, there are hundreds of file-sharing websites. People talk about them, swap links, upload and download. They burn CDs and DVDs and share them with friends. They post songs and clips to YouTube, ignoring the site’s clearly stated copyright policies. These acts are costing the music and movie industry big bucks. The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) reports that piracy causes $12.5 billion in economic losses each year in the music business alone. These acts also are a violation of federal law — piracy is stealing. So why do people do it — often blatantly? “I would guess some people do it because they don’t know any better,” says Robb Nansel, president of Saddle Creek Records, an Omaha-based independent record label. “And other people do it because they don’t have the money.” Lack of awareness and lack of money are characteristics typically assumed of copyright violators and may be what led the RIAA, in search of such violators, to go after one specific group of people — college students. In 2007, the RIAA led a nationwide sting that targeted students on college campuses whose networks listed highest in association with illegal file downloads. At the time, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln was No. 3 on its list. More than 60 UNL students received letters from the RIAA stating they could either pay a settlement or be sued for illegally downloading music. Students who settled out of court paid $3,000; those who did not faced minimum damages of $750 for each copyrighted recording. Following the sting, many universities across the nation implemented or increased preventative measures for digital piracy on their campuses. Steven Lendt, director of information technology infrastructure at UNO, says the university has taken measures such as monitoring types of network traffic and allocating small amounts of network bandwidth to deter piracy on campus. The

topic also is covered in new student orientation. Measures such as these have kept piracy reports low at UNO. “Our office receives reports of illegal downloads on campus about once every two months, with one-third of those for digital copyright violation,” says Lendt.

Copyright violators who are caught by the university for using its network to download are blocked from access to the network, informed of the violation and asked to remove the copyrighted content, says Lendt. Repeat violations are rare, but if they occur the issue is reported to the university’s department of academic affairs to determine what action should be taken. Consumers of pirated products aren’t the only ones who have faced consequences. Recently, the producers have, too. In November, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), a division of the Department of Homeland Security, initiated a phase of federal piracy crackdown. The ICE seized websites that facilitated piracy as well as sites that sold counterfeit products — 82 in total. A new bill, the Combating Online Infringements and Counterfeits Act, also was approved by the U.S. Senate in November and is making its way through Congress. The bill would allow the government to shut down sites that are “dedicated to infringing activities.” While the fight against piracy may be picking up, the consequences of years of unpunished piracy have already taken its toll on artists, employees and businesses in the media industry. Nansel says Saddle Creek Records has felt the impact. “The industry definitely feels like it’s in a state of confusion these days. Filesharing has become so mainstream that it really has negatively impacted our ability to generate revenue from our releases,” he says. “And while that isn’t really the point of Saddle Creek, it is essential for us to continue doing what we do.” Nansel explains that Saddle Creek can’t “rely on any sort of sales expectations at this point” and has had to become more conservative with how its marketing dollars are spent. He remains optimistic, though. “We are continuing to release records that we enjoy from people that we consider friends. We hope to still be doing that once the industry has sorted itself out,” he says. “There are plenty of reasons why people should support the artists they like. Paying for music is one way to do that.”

What’s showing on TV news isn’t always what’s happening on the streets.

Crime Time But is that just what we want?

By Kevin Warneke

Perception vs. Reality An Omaha man has been shot, and a local television station leads with the story on its 10 p.m. newscast. No surprise, says David Krajicek, long-time crime reporter and author of crime-related books. (see page 50) As expected, says Dr. Jeremy Lipschultz, an expert in media and society. Local broadcast newscasts, they say, tend to focus on violent crimes. And that can have consequences in the safe confines of our home — a public that develops a misguided sense of reality regarding the prevalence of crime in their neighborhoods and communities. “It’s not just broadcast media, although I find it flagging when I turn on local news and see four or five or six crime stories leading a broadcast,” says Krajicek, a UNO graduate who worked five years at the Omaha World-Herald and has served as a police bureau chief for the New York Daily News. During a recent visit to Omaha, Krajicek recalls, he watched a local news station air a litany of crime stories “with no context — for example, a note that crime is down. “Popular culture is awash in crime, from video games to TV,’ Krajicek says. “Crime has become our entertainment.” Lipschultz, chairman of UNO’s School of Communication, says he’s willing to give the local media a little leeway when he discusses why they focus on crime — especially during weekend news broadcasts. After all, government is shut down, and many businesses are closed. Traditional news sources dry up on weekends. Plus, crime coverage sets local news broadcasts apart, he says. When local news stations can deliver reports from the latest crime scene — especially when it’s live — they are delivering a product with visuals that no one else is providing.

But at what cost? Are we becoming a nation of crime-a-phobics? Perhaps. From a national perspective, Americans believe crime is on the increase. According to an October 2009 Gallup poll, 51 percent of Americans say there is more crime in their area than a year ago — up from 44 percent in 2008, but similar to results in 2006 and 2007. The reality is otherwise. Dr. Candace Batton, director of UNO’s School of Criminology and Criminal Justice, says crime rates nationwide started to climb in the mid-1960s and peaked in the 1980s. Violent crimes — murder, rape, assault — peaked in 1992, she says. Since then, there’s been a drop in violent crime. According to the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting Program: • An estimated 1.32 Dr. Jeremy Lipschultz million violent crimes (murder and non-negligent manslaughter, forcible rape, robbery and aggravated assault) occurred nationwide in 2009, a decrease of 5.3 percent from the 2008 estimate. • The 2009 estimated violent crime total was 5.2 percent below the 2005 level and 7.5 percent below the 2000 level. • There were an estimated 429 violent crimes per 100,000 people in 2009.

It’s a formula that’s been driven by consultants over the years. Most important, it works. It attracts audiences.

Property crime offenses also are on the downswing. According to FBI statistics, in 2009 there were an estimated 9.3 million property crime offenses nationwide, down 4.6 percent from 2008. From to 2009 to 2005 there was an 8.4 percent drop in property crime.

It’s the old adage, “We’re getting what we want, but is it what we need?”

Illustration by Tom Kerr

News So even though a person is nearly nine times more likely to be victimized by a property crime than a violent crime, the chance of being a crime victim at all isn’t very high. “We’re not likely to be victimized by crime,” Batton says, “but we still worry about it.” Dr. Russ Smith, professor in UNO’s School of Public Administration, has studied resident perceptions of crime in northeast Omaha. Through its Weed and Seed program, the city targeted six hotspots in the area and monitored crime trends and public perception there. While drug arrests declined in those areas, Smith says, residents viewed drugs as more of a problem. While crimes involving weapons increased in this area, Smith reported, concern for gun violence remained flat. One reason for public misperception about crime, Smith says, is what people see on television. The media may report an increase in crime in one area of a community, but residents from another area in the community — where, for example, that type of crime has decreased — perceive that the problem is also theirs. “Some nights it’s ‘Oh my goodness. Can we have something else?” says Smith, who routinely watches the 10 p.m. newscasts. “Can we have some other (type of) news?’”

Giving What’s Asked For Some stations have tried just that. WBBM in Chicago, for example, tried to focus on other topics, including issues-oriented and public service coverage. “The ratings tanked,” Lipschultz says. “People didn’t watch.” Lipschultz and colleague Dr. Mike Hilt studied the content of local television newscasts for their book Crime and Local Television News: Dramatic, Breaking and Live from the Scene. The authors wrote that crime news, particularly violent crime, “is a staple for local television news.”

The two cited one study which estimates that 14 percent of local news coverage focuses on crime, most of which could be considered of the sensational type. Another study estimates the figure at 18 percent, when the category is crime and law. Their study of 17 news stations during a week of broadcasts in October 1999 found that these stations led with crime-related stories 33 percent of the time.

Why? People prefer the “fast-food” version of television news, Lipschultz says, where viewers don’t chew on the content for long. Stations are quick to move on to the next crime story, with little follow-up about the previous night’s offerings, he adds. And as important as what local media does is what it doesn’t do. The local media often fails to tell important stories, Lipschultz says. He recalls President Clinton once said that the U.S. Senate vote on arms control during his tenure was the highlight of his presidency. Lipschultz’ study of news content coincided with the approval of the agreement. The story led the national news early evening, but was pushed further into the broadcasts by late evening. Crime stories replaced the arms control vote in the lead position, Lipschultz recalls. “Those stories (arms control) don’t really get told,” Lipschultz says. “Instead, there’s been a shooting in north Omaha. We go there because we can. We go there because the crime scene tape is up. Reporters can stand out there in the dark and tell a story. It’s happening right now. We can promote that.” Social media doesn’t make competing any easier for local television news. Local news must be visual and they must be timely, Lipschultz says. “It’s the old adage, ‘We’re getting what we want, but is it what we need?’”

Jenna shifts in her chair, eyes downcast, biting her lower lip. Her body language shouts “guilt,” and soon the words confirming just that will follow. So does an expression of sorrow and a promise to make things right. Not long before, the 16-year-old west Omaha girl and two friends broke into a classmate’s house and trashed it — a continuation of bullying activity they had engaged in for a year.

Restoring Order By Tom McMahon

Courts, schools and the workplace are turning more and more to Victim Offender Mediation Today, the victim and her parents confront Jenna — about the broken lamps, broken furniture and a young girl’s broken psyche. But they’re not alone. With them is a mediator from the Concord Center’s Victim Offender Mediation (VOM) program.

It’s a familiar situation to Shereen Bingham (left), a UNO College of Communication, Fine Arts and Media professor who for six years has been bringing together victims and their offenders. She does so through the Concord Center. Her goal is to bring peace of mind to both parties. “Mediation is really a misnomer,” Bingham says. “The offender has already admitted guilt. It is more a conversation than mediation, where we hope to bring healing for the victim and have the offender take responsibility and provide restitution.”

Rising in Popularity Unlike the criminal justice system, victim offender mediation focuses on restorative justice rather than retribution. Thirty years ago, restorative justice consisted of a handful of VOM centers. In fact, the field did not even have a name. Today, such programs are widely utilized worldwide, not only in criminal justice settings, but also in schools, the workplace and in societal interventions after mass violence. The Concord Center, the approved center of the Nebraska Supreme Court’s Office of Dispute Resolution for Douglas and Sarpy counties, coordinates the VOM program in addition to other mediation efforts. Cindy Tierney, the center’s executive director, says Heartland Family Service contracts with her agency to provide the service. Bingham is one of several facilitators the center uses to conduct the process. Thus far, all VOM offenders are referred from the juvenile justice system. However, Tierney says, her office has been approached by adult court about possibly applying the model to some of its cases. “It is part of a diversion program where some crime has been committed,” Tierney says. It can be a powerful healing process and a wake-up call to teens who may be headed down the wrong path.” Howard Zehr, a national leader in the restorative justice movement and professor of restorative justice at Eastern Mennonite University, writes that VOM differs from other processes — such as alternative dispute resolution — in the participating parties’ moral balance. He states that in VOM and other restorative justice mediations there is a moral imbalance that must be acknowledged. “Someone has caused harm and someone has been harmed, and that fact is placed in the center of the encounter,” he writes on his blog at http://emu. edu/blog/restorative-justice By contrast, in alternative dispute resolution mediation, a moral balance between the two sides is assumed. Zehr argues that using terms such as mediator may be inappropriate in VOM. “Someone who has lost a child through murder and is being invited to meet the person responsible, may find (this language) offensive,” he writes. Additionally, in a process like VOM, a facilitator’s stance is “balanced partiality,” according to Zehr. While facilitators must care equally for and support all parties, they cannot be neutral or impartial about the harm done to the victim.

Emphasis on the Process Bingham says the process is equally or even more important than the outcome. While realistic and workable agreements are important in restorative justice conversations, VOM embraces the emotional level, too. Understanding expression of feelings and telling of stories is critical to the process, she adds. Proper preparation is critical to a successful conversation, Bingham says. She and her co-facilitator meet with offender and victim separately prior to a joint meeting. Often, juveniles’ parents also are included. Bingham says it is important that the offender admit wrong and take responsibility. “If they don’t, we would be re-victimizing the victim.” If offenders take responsibility in their individual sessions, the facilitators then brainstorm with them about ways to make the situation right. In Jenna’s case, the restoration consisted of a verbal and written apology, replacement of damaged items using money she earned, and a promise to leave the victim alone. Following the session with the offender, the facilitators meet the victim alone. If the person is a juvenile, parents also may be present, although Bingham says victims usually are adults. “I have the victim tell their story and ask how the offender’s actions offended them. I also attempt to gauge how the victim is feeling and to prepare the offender accordingly. Sometimes the victim is very angry and the offender needs to be ready for that.”

A Help to Courts Sarpy County Juvenile Court Judge Lawrence Gendler is a VOM supporter. He has seen impressive results. “Several years ago we had two boys that vandalized a storage facility,” Gendler says. “They worked off their restitution and did so well the victim hired them afterwards.” Gendler says it is important for offenders to realize how their behavior negatively affected the victim. And it is equally important for victims to know they were not targeted because of who they are, which is usually the case. Most acts are random, he adds.

Interested in Victim Offender Mediation? See more of what the Concord Center offers at www.concord-center.com

Gendler typically uses VOM when there are significant damages or where the victim has suffered and a meeting could provide benefits. He has ordered the process be attempted in motor vehicle homicides and situations where monetary damages were several thousand dollars. VOM has not had a significant impact on Gendler’s court caseload, because it is not used that often. But when it is used in a case, the impact on that case is very positive, he says. “I am a strong supporter of VOM and I wish we had more funds to adequately support it statewide,” Gendler says. He advocates for extending the process to some incarcerated adults as a condition of parole. “I don’t think it can be overemphasized how important it is for victims to have this opportunity and for offenders to learn from it.”

It Takes a Neighborhood

Hard to Forgive

Granting forgiveness might not seem fair, but holding on to a grudge might do more harm than good Is revenge really sweet?

That’s the thinking behind a service offered through UNO’s Neighborhood Center’s Neighborhood Accountability Boards. NABs are designed to help non-violent youth offenders find mentors who can help them turn things around.

That is debatable, but failing to forgive sours one’s soul, according to UNO College of Education Associate Professor Franklin Thompson. He says refusing to forgive tends to hurt the offended far more than the offender. Research tends to support his premise.

According to the program’s website, “The idea is to connect young people and neighborhood leadership so that the youth have an opportunity to make restitution to the community they harmed, while providing the desperately needed manpower needed by neighborhood associations and connecting the youth to engage positive adult role models who can teach them to have a meaningful impact on their community.”

Lisa Scherer, industrial-organizational psychologist and UNO associate professor, says people who are unforgiving risk increased physical problems as well as emotional and spiritual upset.

Learn more at www.unomaha.edu/ncenter or call the Neighborhood Center at 402-561-7582.

Thompson, who is black, is particularly interested in forgiveness as it relates to African-Americans. The educator and Omaha City Council member says forgiveness has been a missing piece of the race relations discourse.

“If I am mad and hold a grudge, I may believe I am making the other person suffer,” Thompson says. “But that is usually not true. The anger is working on you.”

She is studying forgiveness as it relates to workplace discord. Her research and practice have led Scherer to question whether forgiveness interventions might stem counterproductive workplace behaviors and enhance employee wellbeing. “Incivility, sabotage, harassment, bullying, verbal abuse and even physical aggression and violence in the workplace are spiraling out of control,” Scherer says. “Often these behaviors represent a response to perceived transgressions and injustices that too often result in retaliatory behavior.”

“We can have all the reparations, social programs and degrees, but until we forgive there will always be an emotional, mental and spiritual illness.”

Sometimes, Surprise Endings

While forgiveness may benefit the offended and help promote a more civil society, it is not an easy process. As Shakespeare wrote, “The quality of mercy is not strained.” You cannot force negative feelings to go away or twitch your nose and forgive.

Not all VOM referrals have a conversation, she says, generally because the victim decides not to meet the offender. Facilitators may also decide the dynamics are such that the victim could be re-victimized. “About 80 to 90 percent of offenders want to proceed with the conversation and about 60 percent of the victims,” Bingham says. If the facilitated meeting does not occur, the case is referred back to juvenile court for some other disposition. Victim and offender discuss what appropriate restitution should be. The juvenile offender may get a job in order to pay the victim. Sometimes the offender performs the victim’s yard work or some other task. An admission of wrongdoing is always part of the conversation. “Sometimes the two actually get close. Some of the (adult) victims want to help the offender stay on the right path.” Gendler says an extreme example of VOMs benefit is demonstrated by a couple whose son was killed by a drunk driver. As a result of the VOM process and a condition of parole, the offender and couple traveled the state speaking out against drunk driving. “They became so close the parents bankrolled the offender’s college education.”

“It takes time,” Thompson says. Blowing your top is a natural precursor to forgiving, he adds. Scherer notes forgiveness requires an act of will. It does not deny the wrong committed, nor does it excuse or condone it. She says forgiveness is a decision to let go of resentment and revenge. Mayo Clinic Chaplain Katherine Pederman at www.mayoclinic.com writes that changing the offender is unnecessary. She suggests thinking about how forgiving can change your life — by bringing you more peace, happiness and emotional and spiritual healing. Drawing on faith or a higher power and talking to others who have forgiven can help. “Forgiveness takes away the power the other person continues to wield in your life,” Pederman writes. — Tom McMahon

By Meghan Townley

Prescription Drug Abuse is on the rise — especially among youth

Mike began his quick descent into drug addiction with a conscious choice: pop prescription pills given to him by a roommate. After that, however, the choice wasn’t all his.

What followed for Mike was a sevenyear on-and-off battle with narcotic painkillers, mainly oxycontin, but also morphine at times. He began at 19, his roommate providing prescription drugs procured from various sources, mainly other drug addicts selling the prescriptions to pay for their own addictions.

Once the physical dependence starts, it’s pretty much game over. — Mike,

marijuana as the nation’s most prevalent illegal drug problem, according to the ONDCP.

Prescription drugs, notes the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), typically are a 20-something Midwesterner acquired illegally from family and friends. With his connected roommate, says Mike, drugs were just a phone call away. Doctors also are a common source, either through forged prescriptions or “You do it just a couple of times, and before you know it by “doctor shopping” — going to multiple doctors to obtain you are doing it every day,” Mike says. “Once you get the multiple prescriptions. The Internet, drug dealers and physical dependence, you can’t get out of bed or go to theft also are ways abusers acquire prescription drugs. work with out it.” Illegal prescription drugs became what Mike lived for — and he’s not alone. During the past 10 years, abuse of painkillers to get high has increased more than 400 percent, according to the Department of Health and Human Services. The problem, notes the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), is “increasingly prevalent among teens and young adults.” When University of Iowa football star receiver Derrell Johnson-Koulianos was arrested in December, the seven drug-related charges included possession of marijuana, cocaine — and prescription drugs.

Big Business, Big Problem The legal side of prescription drugs is big business. Sales generated $300 billion in the United States in 2008-09, a 5.1 percent jump over the previous year. That figure, though, doesn’t include black market sales. University of Michigan studies in 2009 found that about 7 million people were taking addictive prescription drugs not prescribed by their doctor. Pain relievers — most notably Vicodin — were the most commonly abused drugs, followed by tranquilizers, stimulants and sedatives. That puts prescription painkillers second only behind

Dr. Ally Dering-Anderson, a faculty member at the University of Nebraska Medical Center College of Pharmacy, notes that would-be drug thieves even target the open houses of homes for sale. They’ll open cabinets — a perfectly acceptable action during a home tour — looking for prescription drugs (she recommends homeowners take prescription drugs with them or hide them). And who’s on the receiving end of all these drugs? Often a young adult. The NSDUH study notes that those aged 18 to 25 are three times more likely than those 26 and older to abuse prescription drugs. Rural teens are 26 percent more likely to use prescription drugs for non-medical purposes than their urban counterparts (according to the JAMA Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine). Many states, Nebraska not included, have Prescription Monitoring Programs to help reduce prescription drug scams. Such programs help monitor the flow of prescriptions to and from pharmacies, though they do not address the sharing of medications. Officials with the Nebraska State Patrol hope to establish a Prescription Monitoring Program by 2012.

Treatment On a positive note, prescription drug abuse is easier to treat than addiction to street drugs such as methamphetamine or heroine, which have higher rates of relapse. But treatment is not without challenges. Typically, prescription drug abusers are prescribed medication such as Naltrexone.

I needed a support structure, I could not have gotten through this by myself. Naltrexone is in a class of medications called opiate antagonists that work by decreasing the craving for the drug. Opiate antagonists commonly are used for recovering alcoholics and must be used along with counseling sessions or an addiction treatment program. Mike says few people — including his girlfriend — knew he was abusing prescription drugs. Confessing to it, though, made recovery easier. “I was ashamed, but my family let me know that they are there for me and there is nothing to be ashamed of,” Mike says. Lori Wiles, a 1984 UNO graduate and executive director of Wiles Counseling and

Assessment, says patients need to focus on overall life changes, as well as addressing the issues that contributed to the abuse in the first place — past abuse or trauma, unresolved grief, family or origin issues. Treatment usually consists of five months of primary treatment followed by five months of continuing care. The patient has total control over whether a friend or family member accompanies them through treatment, but it is recommended. Mike no longer associates with people from his past life and is in a Methadone maintenance program, which includes professional counseling sessions. The regular doses of Methadone keeps Mike stable and free from cravings while easing him off his painkiller addiction. He hopes to taper his Methadone doses and to be completely free from it one year from now. Looking back, he sees that first step to illegally take prescription drugs as the most dangerous — and advises others against doing the same: “If you have done it, don’t do it again,” Mike says. “If you have never done it, don’t even try it once because you will lose control.”

Proper Disposal of Prescription Drugs Prescription drug abusers often illegally acquire medications from family and friends. Getting rid of prescription drugs that are no longer needed can help that problem. Dr. Ally Dering-Anderson, a faculty member at the Nebraska Medical Center College of Pharmacy, recommends that the expiration dates on all prescription and over-the-counter drugs be checked at least twice a year. “If the product is expired, if you can’t find the expiration date, or if you can’t remember what it treats, dispose it,” Dering-Anderson says. Proper drug disposal is simple. Dering-Anderson recommends these steps: Get an empty milk or ice cream container. Add coffee grounds or kitty litter. Pour the drugs you no longer need or want into the container. Recap and throw into the trash. “Do not pour unwanted drugs down the sink nor flush them,” Dering-Anderson says. “Water treatment plants are not designed to handle drugs in the sewage system.” — Meghan Townley

‘Study Drug’ Use on the Rise Cramming for tests late into the night has taken on a new meaning in this new century. For some students, the age-old practice of procrastinators includes a new twist — cramming “study drugs” for all-night stimulation. Study drugs include Adderall and Ritalin, prescribed for individuals with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADD/ADHD). They are illegally shared, bought and sold on college campuses to help students stay awake and focused while cramming for a test or completing a paper at the midnight hour. The National Institute of Health (NIH) reported on the phenomenon in “Nonmedical Use of Prescription Stimulants among College Students: Associations with ADHD and Polydrug Use.” The study explored nonmedical use of stimulants among 1,253 first-year college students, comparing nonusers, nonmedical users, and medical users of the prescribed stimulants. Nearly one-fifth — 18 percent — engaged in nonmedical use of prescription stimulants (NPS). Those most likely to use the stimulants for nonmedical purposes were male, white and a member of a fraternity. Sorority members also were likely users. The study found that even prescribed users — those students who are medicated for ADD/ADHD — abuse their own medication, taking

higher doses to feel an increased effect. Some even crushed and snorted their medication to get high. There are legal consequences, of course, for such abuse. But students who abuse study drugs might not be considering the possibly dire consequences to their health, too. Dr. Jeffrey Baldwin, professor of Pharmacy Practice and Pediatrics at Nebraska Medical Center, says that students might be taking medications to which they are allergic. The dose might also be too much for their height and weight, or the non-prescribed medication might react adversely with a prescribed medication being taken. For an additional high, some students combine study drugs with alcohol — another no-no, says Baldwin. “Alcohol can change the way some drugs are broken down in the body, leading to increased or decreased drug effects,” Baldwin says. Smoking also can cause unexpected reactions. “Nicotine in tobacco is a stimulant, so may interact with this increased stimulation, causing insomnia, irritability, tremors or possibly even convulsions at very high levels,” Baldwin says. — Meghan Townley

Neighborly Advice UNO helps neighborhoods keep the streets safe By Megan Schmitz

It can happen in any neighborhood, really: unfamiliar cars suspiciously trolling the streets; graffiti sullying the walls of vacant homes and businesses; burglaries becoming commonplace.

If those are familiar images in your neighborhood, perhaps it’s time to fight back with a neighborhood watch program (NWP), more than 900 of which are established in metropolitan Omaha. And not just in areas heavy with crime. While some might see such watch groups as “nosy neighbors,” NWPs in Omaha are making a difference. “Crime prevention is a community initiative,” says Theola Cooper, crime prevention specialist with the Omaha Police Department. “It’s a community’s responsibility to be involved.” For help, many turn not just to police, but also to UNO and its Neighborhood Center.

Collaborations Fighting Crime Administered by UNO’s College of Public Affairs and Community Service, the Neighborhood Center is a collaborating commons open to neighborhood watch programs, neighborhood associations, homeowner associations and other nonprofit groups. A “one-stop neighborhood resource,” the Neighborhood Center can help establish groups, create bylaws and offer technical support. “Neighborhood watch programs clearly diminish crime,” says Ron Abdouch, executive director of the Neighborhood Center. “And neighbors looking out for each other is the best way to deter crime.” UNO became the fiscal and administrative agent of the Neighborhood Center in 2001. The program has flourished and soon will become an independent organization with an amicable separation from the university. The Omaha Police Department also is a key player with NWPs.

OPD assigns four non-officer crime prevention specialists as the primary contacts and coordinators of Omaha’s neighborhood watch programs. The specialists encourage neighbors to get to know one another, work side-by-side with community leaders, and help plan safety awareness and community bonding events. The police department also helps form and maintain NWPs. Often, the life of an NWP is in flux. “Neighborhood watch programs typically form after a crime in a neighborhood has occurred, prompting neighbors to take action,” says Bridget Fitzpatrick, crime prevention specialist of the Northwest precinct. “It seems once they have resolved the issue and feel safer, they get complacent and don’t stay as diligent or get together as often. “Then people tend to get uninterested and the group can fall apart.” Unfortunately so, since NWPs aren’t just about stopping crime. “Neighborhood watch is much more than reporting criminal activity,” says Mark Langan, retired police sergeant and captain of a NWP in northwest Omaha. “It’s about keeping our neighborhood safe from all kinds of dangerous stuff.”

Time for Technology Like, perhaps, shock-busting potholes. Or a house on the verge of collapse. That’s where the Neighborhood Center can help beyond issues dealing with crime. The Neighborhood Center offers numerous programs and services for neighborhood groups, including assistance with printed communications and volunteer service projects, help with

mailings, provision of graffiti removal kits, and more. Often, technology is at play. The Neighborhood Center can provide portable GPS devices to locate and document areas with problems such as graffiti and potholes. The data collected helps the City of Omaha determine priorities for city improvements. Neighborhood Scan (pictured) allows neighborhood leaders to “scan” properties with a pocket PC in order to document address or code violations, infrastructural imperfections and necessary repairs. Follow-up communication is sent to the property owner with a catalog of nonprofit organizations and programs that can help remedy problems. The Neighborhood Center also can help neighborhoods establish and design websites on established platforms, and it has a security camera project. The Omaha Police Department, meanwhile, uses crime-mapping websites to alert citizens of where crime is happening, along with Facebook posts to blast immediate news. Langan alerts neighbors in his watch program by email whenever crime or suspicious activity occurs. “With our group being 75 families strong it’s very important to utilize technology,” Langan says. And an even better resource — UNO’s Neighborhood Center.

Starting a Neighborhood Watch Program Forming a group often starts with an individual. Here are six steps toward creating a neighborhood watch program: 1

Call the Community Resource Center at 402-444-6144 or go to www.opd.ci.omaha.ne.us, the Omaha Police Department website.

Define block parameters.

Maintain a roster of neighbors’ contact information.

Create a telephone tree or email group.

Elect a watch block captain.

Schedule regular meetings. Call UNO’s Neighborhood Center at 402-561-7582 or visit unomaha.edu/ncenter for help establishing bylaws, or with other neighborhood-related assistance.

But Wakefield’s expertise in assessing the effectiveness of drug courts points to the role of UNO’s School of Criminology and Criminal Justice in making the streets a little safer — and prisons a little less crowded.

Preventing Bad Behaviors It’s not the kind of crime fighting that makes for riveting primetime TV or a votepandering political sound bite. Yet UNO’s work has proved essential in helping law enforcement personnel, prison administrators and social service agencies find ways to prevent crime and reduce the number of repeat offenses. “People are starting to worry that some of the harsh policies from the 1980s and 1990s are not feasible,” says UNO criminal justice professor Lisa Sample. One of those is wholesale incarceration. You can’t support that many people in prison anymore

As dwindling resources strain prison budgets, UNO professors work to prevent first-time and repeat offenders from living a life behind bars. By Greg Kozol

According to U.S. Department of Justice statistics, state and federal prisons and local jails had custody of some 2.3 million inmates in June 2009. It was the kind of conversation that happens every day: How’s school going? What are your plans? Routine campus chit-chat, perhaps, to a casual observer. To Bill Wakefield, though, it was much more. A criminal justice professor at UNO, Wakefield was speaking with a student who had graduated from an Omaha metro-area drug court — and now was graduating from college. Without the treatment program, the student very well could have followed an all-too-familiar cycle of addiction, an everexpanding criminal rap sheet and a life squandered behind bars. Instead, the “nice young man,” as Wakefield calls him, was embarking on the next stage of his drug- and crime-free life with a sociology degree in hand. “He kept clean,” Wakefield says. Without the program, though, “I’m afraid he would have gone down a pretty bad road.” To say that one professor was solely responsible for steering a young offender from a life of crime ignores the impact of judges, law enforcement officers and social workers, not to mention the young man and his family.

Sample says budget constraints are forcing policy makers to consider alternatives to prison. In this environment, UNO professors are evaluating programs aimed at both preventing crime and reducing recidivism rates. Their efforts are winning converts. Wakefield says drug courts, which offer court-supervised substance abuse treatment rather than prison, initially met with resistance from prosecutors who feared it was an “easy way out.” But it became evident that the crime problem couldn’t be addressed without dealing with the drug problem. One UNO study showed that 80 percent of state prison inmates have serious drug or alcohol issues. Wakefield has worked with drug courts in three counties to help determine which offenders are best candidates for treatment. He also examines how to use peer support to prevent relapse and how to deal with the growing problem of methamphetamine addiction. Sometimes the issue is simple, like how to use a better method of testing on Mondays to see if offenders consumed alcohol on weekends, in violation of drug court rules.

“We try to follow and track,” Wakefield says. “The most common relapse comes in the first year.”

Other initiatives are broader in scope. Sample is assessing a program that prepares inmates for a return to society after prison.

Creston Ashburn, a UNO graduate who studied under Wakefield and who now is a Sarpy County Drug Court coordinator, worked with Wakefield and UNO staffers from 2005 to 2008. The UNO contingent reported on observations they made about the drug court.

Sample says the public doesn’t realize that the average prison sentence is 18 to 24 months. Only about 10 percent of prisoners serve a life sentence.

“The information they provide was very valuable in making the court what it is today,” Ashburn says. “As a criminal justice community, we are very fortunate to have such a great program that the School of Criminology has to offer the different agencies in the Omaha metro area.”

The Avenue of Alternatives Another UNO professor, Pete Simi, channels an academic interest in the organizational structures of criminal gangs into practical data for law enforcement and social service agencies. Simi is helping track gang activity, allowing for more efficient use of police resources. “Assuming you have a gang problem, then you have to target your efforts,” he says.

I would see our role as helping prevent bad behaviors. UNO criminal justice professor Lisa Sample He also assessed Omaha’s gang problem for a grant that seeks, among other things, to keep juveniles from joining a gang. He said gangs are connected to as much as 70 percent of gun violence, so juvenile intervention enhances public safety over time. His research found that job training, economic opportunity and family support are just as important as police enforcement in limiting the reach of gangs. “You’ve got to have alternatives,” Simi says. “With gangs it’s interesting because you’ve got this organization that is in some ways like a family. It becomes a pseudo-family.”

Without a focus on re-entry into society, a revolving door of release, arrest and incarceration becomes likely, she says.

Reality, Practicality That doesn’t mean every inmate deserves a second chance. Researchers accept the reality that prison is the best place for some offenders. “There are people not interested in staying out of trouble,” says Hank Robinson, director of the school of criminology’s research consortium. “The point is to figure out which ones aren’t the bad apples.” Sample agrees, recalling an interview with a juvenile with “no emotion in his eyes” following a gun crime. “I’m not sure how you fix that,” she says. “I’m not one of those bleeding hearts.” She simply views the problem from a practical standpoint — most prisoners eventually get out and society has to deal with that. Consider sex offenders, a population that Sample’s research has found to be no more likely to re-offend than other prisoners. Sample is working with one sex offender who was released after serving 10 years for first-degree assault of a child. In many ways, he’s a model ex-prisoner. He has remained crime-free with the help of a social support network. He is willing to share his experiences with law enforcement officers, which helps them learn more about sex offenders and how to prevent future assaults. But, in preventing crime, the real world is more complex than a TV show. “He will be the first to tell you his thoughts about children will not go away,” Sample says. All the studies in the world will never be able to tell if this particular sex offender will commit another crime. But Sample believes UNO’s research makes it less likely. “We’ll see, I guess,” she says.

A Jury of Their Peers Teen courts ease strain on the justice system — without sacrificing impact on offenders Landen Weisbeck and his friends aren’t the first teens to steal a city stop sign. While seeming like a good idea at the time, he now regrets the decision. His experience in teen court helped. “I knew it was wrong,” the 16-year-old PapillionLaVista High School sophomore says. “Someone saw us and called the cops.” He and his friends received a ticket and the option to attend teen court and a decision-making class. Weisbeck appeared before a jury of teens, whose role was to administer punishment. A Creighton University law student acted as judge. Weisbeck’s defense counsel and prosecutors were other teens who received special training to act in these roles. He admitted guilt, which is a prerequisite to appearing in teen court. Weisbeck spent about 25 minutes on the stand. He says it was a humbling experience and a wake-up call to think before he acts. Nicole Allison, Sarpy County Teen Court coordinator, says peer feedback can have a powerful effect on juvenile offenders. “It can be much more effective than having an adult lecture them.” Allison says teen courts target 12- to 17-year-olds with a minor first offense. The intent is to divert basically good kids from getting into deeper trouble. Those who successfully participate and perform their “sentence” have the crime removed from their record. In addition to helping the teens, she says, the teen court also frees the juvenile court system to handle more serious cases. While it may be a less intimidating experience than juvenile court, teens usually feel tense and some fear when they take the stand. “It is tough to go before your peers and admit your guilt,” Allison says. The jury assigned Weisbeck to serve on two teen court juries as part of his consequence for taking down the stop sign. He says the decision was fair and the experience a positive one. “The whole experience was very interesting. I would recommend other teens volunteer to serve on the court to see how our system works.” — Tom McMahon

Photo by Eric Francis

With his super spectrometer, a UNO professor helps bring a would-be cop killer to justice

He may not have any super powers, but Dana Richter-Egger does have a super spectrometer. And with a call for help from the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office in 2006, he joined the league of Omaha crime fighters.

by Leo Adam Biga

By day, Richter-Egger is more about busting complex math and chemical equations than he is about busting bad guys. He’s an assistant professor of chemistry at UNO and director of its Math-Science Learning Center.

A sophisticated trace element analyzer that enables sensitive measurements in many fields, the ICP-MS is housed in Durham’s Advanced Instrumentation Laboratories. It was purchased in 2004 in part with a $100,000 grant from the National Science Foundation.

Four years ago, though, Christine Gabig, a forensic scientist in the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office, asked for help that only he could provide. Specifically, Gabig needed assistance determining whether glass fragments found at the scene of a crime matched shards found in a suspect’s car.

UNO’s general chemistry students use it to measure area lead contamination levels and to perform drinking water analysis. Gabig, a UNL graduate, learned of the ICP-MS while taking a quantitative chemical analysis course at UNO taught by Egger.

The crime occurred on Dec. 5, 2005. An Omaha Police Department undercover officer was in an unmarked vehicle on a north-side street when a car pulled up parallel to his. The driver then pointed a shotgun at the officer through an open window. The officer ducked for cover, firing several rounds through his own open driver-side window at the fleeing car. A suspect in the case emerged when a man sought medical treatment at a hospital for gunshot and glass wounds. DNA linked him to the car with shattered windows but prosecutors needed evidence that definitively put him at the scene as the driver. Gabig did initial tests on the glass fragments in her lab, but they were inconclusive. “I knew I needed more detailed analysis,” she says, “and I immediately thought of Dana and ICP-MS.” The Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometer, that is.

The complex machine could help her answer a seemingly simple question — whether the glass fragments came from the same source.

Help in the Haystack “ICP-MS really provides the best detection limits,” Richter-Egger says. “It’s going to find the smallest needle in the haystack relative to other techniques available. That provides the ability to look at and compare a great many more elements. It’s like being able to identify more points on a finger print to look for the match.” The more data points tested, the stronger the case. Gabig’s experience studying under Richter-Egger made her comfortable with the prospect of collaborating with the professor. “I really respected his knowledge and I thought the (math-chemistry) program was fantastic,” she says. “I learned so much that was directly applicable to what I was doing here at the sheriff’s office. Also, I made contact with these great chemists who can help me.”

Further bolstering her confidence, she says, was the knowledge that ICP-MS results are “fully accepted in the courts.” The methods were based on standard procedures provided by the American Society for Testing Materials. “That went a long ways to helping me feel good about what we were going to do,” Richter-Egger says. “After all, there’s somebody on the other end of this thing that is going to be in court and we’ve got to be sure we do our diligence and do a good job. “Whatever the data is I want to make sure it is the highest quality possible so that when that evidence is presented it is accurate and that it helps to lead to the right decision in the courtroom. That weighed pretty heavily on my mind as we were considering this.”

Case Closed In their research, Gabig and Richter-Egger discovered that manufactured glass in vehicles can be pinpointed to within 100 feet of a production line. That information, says Richter-Egger, meant that “if we could find there’s not any difference between these two glasses then that says a lot about the likelihood they actually came from the same window.” The glass first was dissolved in acid and added to a controlled solution. The ICP-MS then required precise calibration. The instrument evaporated water in an ultra high vacuum and applied electric fields to separate atoms by mass. The device provided a spreadsheet readout of the elemental differentiation.

Cold Cases

In her report, Gabig concluded that glass fragments from the suspect’s car and the scene “likely came from the same source” based on ICP-MS test results and statistical analysis that showed a high probability of a match. In the end, the suspect took a deal, pleading to one felony assault count and one terroristic threat charge. Since the case did not go to trial, Gabig did not testify. The forensic scientist and the professor collaborated on a slide presentation for a UNO chemistry department seminar. Gabig has also used the presentation to educate law enforcement agencies about trace evidence analysis. Might UNO and CSI work together on another case? “I could envision this happening again,” Gabig says. “Making use of data analysis at the university is a big benefit.”

Learn more about the Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometer, including animations, at http://water.unomaha.edu

And while that might not have been Angela (Harbison) Moore’s girlhood fantasy, it became just that while attending classes at UNO, graduating in 2001 with a degree in chemistry. Today Moore works as a forensic technician for the Newport News (Va.) Police Department conducting crime scene evidence analysis. It’s a career choice the former Goodrich Scholar says was inspired by work she did with UNO chemistry department faculty. “We were doing a lot of neat stuff in Dr. Richard Lomneth’s bio chemistry lab that was applicable to forensic science,” Moore says. “It really piqued my interest. It was a turning point.” Dr. Frederic Laquer also was influential. “He taught me how to be a true chemist, how to document things, and to this day I still think of him every time I do all the little things properly,” Moore says. “It’s a great batch of professors at UNO. They’re very rigorous.”

Photo Kelly Wells, Newport News Police Department, Forensic Services Unit

Richter-Egger says it’s a process whereby “electronics, engineering and chemistry meet.” After crunching the numbers and consulting UNO statisticians, he and Gabig went back and forth over the data, questioning each other and crosschecking information.

It’s not every girl who grows up dreaming of becoming a “bloodstain pattern specialist.”

Hot on the Trail of

Moore later began forensic science graduate studies at George Washington University, but with her Air Force husband stationed at Offutt Air Force Base she transferred to Nebraska Wesleyan. While in grad school she worked as a chemist at UNO, preparing solutions for use by students in the Durham Science Center labs. In 2007 Moore joined the CSI team in Newport News, where she’s a bloodstain pattern specialist. The unpredictability

of when crime happens means her schedule is forever fluid. “You can literally be at a scene and be called to another scene,” she says. It’s a job that demands “intense curiosity and attention to detail” and the ability to multitask. Her work entails doing bloodstain analysis at crime scenes and in the lab, writing reports, assisting with autopsies, and testifying in court. She works the cold case unit. She also teaches college courses and makes presentations. “I like to get into a lot of things,” she says. “I always try to challenge myself to be the best I can be in life.” Next year she will attend the National Forensic Science Academy in Tennessee. “I’m pretty excited about that.” Nothing is more satisfying then when her work helps solve a case. She says her bloodstain pattern analysis led to a man being charged with murder years after the incident. In another instance she extracted DNA evidence that helped convict a serial rapist. Some cases linger with her. “Once they go to court there’s resolution and I feel better about them,” she says. “The child ones are really hard to deal with sometimes. But at the same time I feel like we’re helping people out. “When I’m at a scene with a deceased person I feel it’s the shell of a person left over. Their spirit is someplace else. The body is to be utilized as another piece of evidence that can speak for that person.” — Leo Adam Biga

Tweet Discreet

Password Perfect

Prepare the Way

For Fires in the Kitchen

As insignificant as Facebook status updates or Tweets might seem, they can reveal critical private information. For instance, a check-in on foursquare at Wells Fargo tells the world where you bank — potentially damaging information to scammers and thieves.

Change the administrator password on your wireless router.

Multiple light sources help the aging eye, and night lamps can help navigate a house at night. Also remove throw rugs and clutter to prevent falls. Make certain handrails, grab bars, etc. are installed properly. Local agencies on aging may have therapists or staff willing to do a home assessment.

Keep a dry chemical extinguisher in a closet close to the kitchen. Kitchen fires usually involve hot oil and are best extinguished by dry chemical extinguishers, which blanket and smother the fire with a nonflammable substance.

Wendy Townley (’02), assistant director, media relations

GPS Post emergency telephone numbers by phones and teach children how and when to call 911. Take a CPR course. And don’t put your home address in your GPS — if it gets stolen from your car, the thief will know where you live. Instead, use a nearby gas station, church, store or elsewhere as your GPS starting point. Tom McMahon, (’74; ’83), Medical Reserve Corps coordinator, United Way of the Midlands

Be Credit-Conscious Check your credit report several times a year using www.annualcreditreport. com, a free government service, to make sure there are no errors and that no accounts have been opened in your name without your knowledge. Beware of similar sites advertised as free but that have hidden costs. Mary Lynn Reiser (’93), co-chair, UNO Center for Economic Education

Avoid Financial Scams If something sounds too good to be true, it probably is. When in doubt check with family/friends about offers. Never sign anything without reading the fine print. If this is not possible, ask someone to help you. If someone approaches you to withdraw a large sum of money to bail out a family member from jail, win a prize or help catch a thief, check with your bank branch manager. The Nebraska Attorney General’s office has a Senior Anti-Fraud Protection program within their consumer protection division. Other resources are at www.ago.ne.gov/consumer Julie Masters, professor and chair, gerontology department

John Fiene (’92; ’01) associate vice chancellor for technology

Web Safety a Family Affair Electronic aggression/victimization is not just a peer-relations problem among youth — it is a FAMILY issue. Commonly made suggestions such as limiting children’s access to electronic mediums and becoming informed about the websites they visit are important, but at the root of safely managing and monitoring your child’s activities is establishing good communication between yourself and your child. Foster a relationship where children feel comfortable disclosing to you the kinds of activities they are engaging in and the way which they use different electronic mediums.

Julie Masters, professor and chair, gerontology department; Nick Stergiou, director of UNO’s Nebraska Biomechanics Core Facility

Robert W. Smith, chemistry professor

Juan F. Casas, director of Social Development Lab, psychology department

Sharks on the Street Don’t text and drive — you are far more likely to be seriously injured or die in a car accident driving to the beach than you are to be bitten by a shark. There are less than 100 shark attacks per year worldwide. To add to that safety margin, avoid swimming at dusk and dawn, which are peak shark feeding periods. Andy Dehart (’00), “Shark Week” advisor and director of biological programs, National Aquarium, Washington, D.C.

Get Friendly At home, I find it integral to know who my neighbors are, and how to get in touch with them, in case there is a problem that needs resolved or I need help. Janine M. Brooks, staff assistant, chemistry department

Beware Filthy Filters Omaha water IS safe to drink. However, if you use a water filter, change the filter regularly. Not doing so can actually be worse for you since filters act like a sponge, and the chemicals absorbed to the carbon filter can be re-released from the filter once it has reached capacity. Alan S. Kolok, director, Aquatic Toxicology Laboratory, biology department

14 Tips from UNO experts to keep you safe in a variety of situations Medicine Measurements

Grill Upwind

The best way to dose liquid medicines is to use a calibrated medicine dropper, spoon or syringe. Household teaspoons can differ by as much as 25 percent.

Where there is smoke, there is fat. Caution — grill smoke is heavy in airborne carcinogens, and studies have indicated that chefs and cooks often die of respiratory ailments and lung cancer. Watch the smoke from your grill — and don’t be downwind from a neighbor with smoke coming from their grill. Also:

Dr. Ally Dering-Anderson, College of Pharmacy, Nebraska Medical Center

From the Flu Guru During flu and cold season, avoid putting your hands to your eyes, nose and mouth — the most common entry points for viruses. Also, keep your immune system strong by getting enough sleep and doing whatever works for you to control stress — meditation, cuddling with your dog or cat, or having a few cups of green tea. Guoqing Lu, associate professor, department of biology

• Always use a temperature gauge to determine if food is cooked to a safe level; never go by color. • In preparing meats, fish or poultry, always follow instructions on handling, storing and cooking; avoid cross-contamination. • When cooking, wash hands with soap and water for 20 seconds (two verses of “Happy Birthday”). Richard Collins (’65), the Cooking Cardiologist (www. thecookingcardiologist.com)

By Lori Rice Steve McCoy is not a pilot (a disappointment to some when he tells them he works in aviation). But — unseen by many —the work he and others do on the ground is every bit as important to safety in the air as what is done by those in the cockpit. “You get on a plane and the pilot says ‘Hello’ and that guy is the face of safety for that flight,” says McCoy, who graduated in 2003 from UNO’s Aviation Institute and works as an operation supervisor at Eppley Airfield. “And, ultimately, he is responsible for the safety of that flight. “But what most people don’t see is that behind-the-scenes network of airline, airport and air traffic personnel that are all working in collaboration to ensure each flight is successful and safe.” And, thanks to UNO’s Aviation Institute, a large measure of aviation safety is in the hands of UNO grads. The institute, established in 1990, offers a professional flight track for pilots and an air transportation administration track that prepares students for positions that function on land. “The bulk of people working in aviation are not out there in aircraft as pilots,” says Dr. Scott Tarry, director of UNO’s Aviation Institute.

Ground Forces

Potthoff works at a Terminal Radar Approach Control Facility (TRACON) in Bellevue where the controllers cover a 110-mile diameter of airspace that includes Omaha and Lincoln. The airspace is divided into several sectors, with each air traffic controller assigned a sector to monitor the planes’ altitude, speed and destination. Potthoff coordinates landings and take-off efforts with other towers and controllers and communicates directly with pilots on issues related to weather, safety alerts and route information. “You have to be 100-percent focused the whole time,” Potthoff says. “Whether you are talking to one airplane or 20 airplanes.”

Security Forces Part of the integrated network of safety systems and checks always has included the issue of security checkpoints prior to boarding a flight. The recent introduction of Advanced Imaging Technology (AIT) — full body scans — has made national headlines due to what some perceive as its invasive nature.

The old adage is that 90 percent of aviation happens on the ground.

Tarry points to operations supervisors who care for runways, air traffic controllers who tell pilots what to do, and others who help control airline efficiency, scheduling and cost.

McCoy and 2009 UNO graduate Joe Rotterdam (both pictured, Rotterdam at left) are two of six operation supervisors at Eppley. They spend most of their days traversing the airfields and dealing with anything from tenant relations to airfield inspections. “We wear so many different hats out there, take on so many different roles and responsibilities … at times we can be the face of the airport,” McCoy says. “We do a lot of things in this job, but safety is our core function.” They handle issues such as making sure the airfield is clear of ice and snow, monitoring runway conditions, checking on lighting and other infrastructure that allows the airplanes to operate safely, and identifying possible wildlife hazards. They also coordinate efforts with on-site establishments, such as fire and rescue operations, in the event of an aircraft emergency. “There can be a lot of pressure,” says Rotterdam, who graduated with an air transport and administration degree. “But you fall back on your training and everything comes back to you.”

“The airport security manager is going to be sitting there under fire,” says Patrick O’Neil, a faculty member in UNO’s Aviation Institute and a retired U.S. Navy aviator with nearly 27 years experience. “Airlines complain about potential delays at security checkpoints; at the same time the airport is responsible for properly screening people. It’s tricky. It’s a tough, tough environment.”

Michael Kudlacz, recently retired federal security director for the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) of Nebraska, says that at the local level, passengers have been overwhelmingly supportive of the use of AITs. In place since June, less than 1 percent of passengers going through one of two AIT machines at Eppley have refused the scan. “The TSA is always reviewing their procedures based on threats,” says Kudlacz, a former general with the U.S. Air Force who received his bachelor’s degree from UNO in 1971. “But when you have people hiding non-metallic explosives on their bodies, there has to be a way to find that. The AIT gives us the best opportunity to be thorough and find items like that.” All of these aviation posts, Terry says, are highly structured and regulated — and for good reason.

Air Forces

“It’s important to remember that the system is not just the people working for the airlines, or people working for the FAA, or people working at the airports,” Tarry says. “It’s all of them and a lot more. What you do in those positions is critical to the safe and efficient operation of our air transport system.”

Rigorous training also was critical to Jess Potthoff’s career after he graduated from UNO in 2007 with a degree in aviation administration. He has spent more than a year training to become an air traffic controller.

O’Neil agrees. “It’s not only the pilot flying the aircraft,” he says, “but this whole supporting system of people and technology that is helping them get from point A to point B.”

Photo by Eric Francis

taking sides

A Case

Tort Reform Alan G. Thorson, MD, FACS

Tort reform is complex. But, like many complex problems, can be simplified by studying individual components. In general, reform results in the correction of faults, problems or inefficiencies (shortcomings). When goals are not met, shortcomings leading to failure should be identified. When shortcomings are identified, they should be corrected. The need for reform can be determined by the failure to meet goals. The process of reform is the identification and correction of root causes for that failure. Tort refers to a non-criminal act that wrongly causes harm to someone and is dealt with in a civil court. Liability is the state of being exposed or subjected to some contingency or reaction. In the case of tort, it is exposure to an adverse reaction resulting from an alleged harmful act that we are held responsible for. We are all liable for such acts and exposed to such reactions daily. The acceptable balance between such acts and subsequent reactions is defined by law and interpreted by our courts. Is our tort system adequately meeting society’s objective to maintain this balance? Reasonable goals of the tort system for medical liability might include the appropriate compensation of patients who have sustained injury, loss or damage as a result of a health professional’s failure to exercise an appropriate degree of professional skill in rendering medical treatment. That compensation should be provided by efficient, cost effective means. What really happens? Data from the Physician Insurers Association of America

(PIAA, 2009) show that in 2008, 65 percent of medical liability claims were dropped, dismissed or withdrawn, 25.7 percent were settled, 4.5 percent were decided by alternative dispute mechanisms and 5 percent went to trial, where the defendant prevailed 90 percent of the time. The same database shows that average defense costs per claim were $40,649, ranging from $22,163 among dropped, dismissed or withdrawn claims to more than $100,000 for claims going to trial. In a review of closed claims, no injury occurred in 3 percent. In 37 percent, there had been no error in medical practice.1 The same review showed that 27 percent of claims that did involve errors were not compensated while the same percentage of claims that were compensated did not involve an error. Earlier research that matched claim level data with hospital records was similar; only 15 percent of patients who suffered a negligent injury filed a claim, while negligence had occurred in only about 15 percent of claims that were filed.2 What’s the bottom line? The current system is costly and matches injured patients with deserved compensation poorly. Goals are not being met. We need to identify the shortcomings and then correct them. It is time to start the process of reform in a meaningful way. Details of proposed reforms are far beyond the scope of this discussion. However, one aspect has particular expediency within the context of health care reform and deserves mention. Evidence-based medical

practice has the potential to change health care reform from a costly expansion of services to a model for savings. To accomplish this, we must provide a safe harbor for doctors who follow evidence-based guidelines, leading the way for decreased costs associated with defensive medicine. Medical liability can serve as a model to address the broader question of tort reform in our society. The American Bar Association asserts a “goal of seeking a broader consensus on how more equitably to compensate persons injured in our society.” It further states that, “problems associated with medical professional liability are common to all areas of tort law and should be evaluated in the context of their broader implications for the tort system as a whole.” (ABA Policy on Medical Malpractice, April, 2006) Medical liability reform could play a leadership role in making our entire tort system more responsive to the needs of society as a whole.

Dr. Alan G. Thorson is chair of the Professional Liability Committee, Nebraska Medical Association. He is a clinical professor of surgery for Creighton University School of Medicine and University of Nebraska College of Medicine 1. Studdert, David M. et al. “Claims, Errors, and Compensation Payments in Medical Malpractice Litigation.” NEJM. 2006; 354: 2024-2033. 2. Weiler et al. A Measure of Malpractice: Medical Injury, Malpractice Litigation,and Patient Compensation (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1993)

taking sides

A Case

Tort Reform Professor Michael J. O’Hara, J.D., Ph.D. “Tort reform” proponents would have you believe that suing for hot coffee is a frivolous lawsuit and that such injured plaintiffs simply are looking for lottery-like payouts. Trial lawyers are characterized as evil moneygrubbers (unlike multi-national corporations that sell defective products or their insurance companies).

Orwellian doublespeak and doublethink permeate much of the discussion of tort reform. The purpose of doublespeak is to support and implement doublethink. In short, vocabulary sculpts thought. The vocabulary of “tort reform” is deliberately chosen to be subliminally persuasive. How so? Think about hot coffee. Does a “klutz” deserve money after spilling hot coffee on the “klutz?” Do you think that question exemplifies what is wrong with tort law? If so, then it’s quite likely you’ve just experienced Madison Avenue’s success in sculpting your mind. Did you know that coffee caused third-degree burns requiring multiple skin grafts and months of medical treatment? Is that what happened to you the last time you spilled hot coffee on you? That coffee was not merely reasonably hot. It was scalding hot. So hot the seller ought pay for the hundreds of thousands of dollars of medical bills caused by the seller’s negligence. Who’s at fault? The klutz for the spill; and, the seller for coffee so hot it chars skin.

They play fast-and-free with the truth. You might even call it jury tampering. Artful advertising by trade associations a la calls to talk radio and letters to the editor of newspapers sculpt the mindset of “the public” so that folks who might be called for jury duty arrive for service predisposed to believe particular falsehoods. Sure, it’s free speech, but is it morally pure? Legal doesn’t necessarily mean ethical. Most folks don’t spend much time thinking about what is an ethical profit. Most folks get by just fine with profit defined as total revenue minus total cost. But I am an academic whose education is in the law and in economics. It’s my job to think about what is an ethical profit. Sure, by stealing I can increase my revenues and decrease my costs. An ethical profit, then, requires a definition of stealing. And defining stealing is the crux of the question of tort reform. A tort is a civil wrong — like if I cut off your arm without your approval and without using anesthetic (let’s say in a car accident). Clearly there’s a cost, but who’s to pay — the defendant or plaintiff? And how do we allocate the ownership of your severed arm? A lawsuit answers questions of fact. What was the cause? Who was responsible for that cause?

Dr. O’Hara is a professor in the College of Business Administration’s Finance, Banking, and Law Department.

These questions of fact are decided by a jury of your peers. Not the government. Not the corporations. The People make those decisions. Are the proponents of “tort reform” telling a half-truth when they do not stress that tort reform necessarily involves a massive loss of liberty via a massive transfer of power from The People to the government? Why would somebody who buys lobbyists by the ton fail to mention that? “Tort reform” proponents favor the market system. These proponents virulently oppose government price controls on the things they sell. Is it half-truth hypocrisy for “tort reform” proponents to demand government-enforced price controls on the inputs they purchase, i.e., putting a cap on liability? Doublespeak. To them, “a jury of your peers” is just a bunch of fools who are not to be trusted with finding facts — like how much pain and suffering you experienced when I cut off your arm. Forewarned is forearmed. An open mind is the best defense against the doublespeak of “tort reform” proponents. The originators of this doublespeak are morally culpable. They hire Madison Avenue suits to thwart your ability to express thoughts. Please, speak carefully and purposefully. Avoid their buzzwords. Sure, you may at first be at a loss for words. But that’s good. Because when you feel that empty vocabulary you also will feel their oppression, and you will be better able to resist it and hang onto your liberty.

JUST FOR YOU

How to Hire a Lawyer A panel of four alumni attorneys advises how to select the right representation — pro bono By Scott Stewart

Most everyone loves a good lawyer joke — including lawyers. But how does a person in need of representation avoid hiring a joke of a lawyer? Doing just that can have costly ramifications — legal and financial. Omaha lawyer J. William Gallup, for instance, recalls a foreign doctor he once defended after that doctor already had pleaded guilty with another attorney’s representation. The original lawyer didn’t even bother to examine the discovery (evidence) of the case, Gallup recalls, yet collected a fee. “This lawyer got $75,000 and all he did was walk her over to the courthouse and plead her guilty,” Gallup says. “He didn’t do a thing. “She hired us to withdraw her plea.” Because so much can hinge on the outcome of a court case, hiring a lawyer can be a daunting task. To help — just for you — a panel of four UNO alumni with more than 150 years of collective legal experience provides some basic guidelines for hiring a lawyer. The panel’s advice boils down to four simple rules: assess the situation, do your homework, check references and be sure you’re comfortable with your decision.

Assess the situation The first question to ask is whether you even need a lawyer. Many people choose to represent themselves for simple, routine legal action — especially those looking to

The Panel Lou Anne Rinn (’77) is the associate general counsel for Union Pacific. She received her law degree from Columbia University. She specializes in economic and commercial litigation. She also is legal counsel for the UNO Alumni Association Board of Directors.

J. William Gallup (’57; ’61) is a criminal defense attorney who also has practiced as a city and federal prosecutor. He received bachelor’s and master’s degrees in education from UNO and earned his J.D. from Creighton University.

cut costs because of the recession (see sidebar). However, anytime your rights or freedom are on the line, the panel recommends hiring an educated, experienced attorney to do the work. “The smart thing to do is avoid it [selfrepresent] if you can,” Gallup says. “Once you get to the point of litigate, it’s time to get lawyers involved.”

Do your homework As with any major decision, take time to research your options. Gallup recommends what he says is the “definitive guide” for finding a lawyer — Steven Naifeh’s annual publication “The Best Lawyers in America.” Another resource is the peer rating service provided by Martindale-Hubbell. Mike Jones (’66) a partner in Ellick, Jones, Buelt, Blazek & Longo, advises to choose lawyers who receive Martindale-Hubbell’s trademarked “AV Preeminent” rating. Also, pay close attention to whether fees are reasonable and responses are timely, Jones says.

Check references Reputation is critical in the legal community. The best way to start finding a lawyer is to talk to people who have hired lawyers. “One of the first things I would suggest you do is ask your friends who may have had problems,” says Thomas Hagel (’72), a professor of law at the University of Dayton. Even lawyers do the same. Hagel says he hired a divorce lawyer he knew personally for years. Lou Anne Rinn (’77),

Mike Jones (’66) is a partner in Ellick, Jones, Buelt, Blazek & Longo. He received his J.D. from Creighton. His primary areas of expertise are estate planning, probate, corporate law and taxation. He is a former president of the UNO Alumni Association Board of Directors.

JUST FOR YOU associate general counsel for Union Pacific, asked colleagues for input when she hired divorce and estate planning lawyers. Adds Jones: “Omaha is not so big of a town. We mostly do know the other lawyers.”

Be sure you’re comfortable Hiring a lawyer is similar to hiring other professionals or technicians, Jones says. Make sure you will be happy with their services. “I’d go in and talk to them, just like you’d talk to a doctor or a plumber,” Jones says. “A lot of it is whether you like each other and understand each other.” You need to trust your lawyer to handle issues that have a significant impact on your life, Rinn says. It’s important they provide practical, disinterested advice — even if it’s not something you want to hear. “You need to have somebody who — while they identify with you and they’re loyal to your interests — can tell you when you, in fact, have unreasonable expectations,” Rinn says. Yes, there will be bad apples, as Gallup’s story illustrates. Yet, says Hagel, no other profession in the United States offers clients as much protection against unethical practices. Finding the right lawyer, though, is up to you — with pro bono help from Gallup, Jones, Hagel & Rinn.

A down economy has legal self-representation on the rise. Those who do should tread carefully, though, say experts

Pro Se: Going it Alone

Appearing “pro se” (“for yourself”) may sound intimidating. More and more people, however, appear to be going it alone based on a primary consideration — money. Statistics aren’t reported in Nebraska, but a 2009 national survey found three-fifths of judges saw an increase in self-representation as a result of the recession. “I do believe a lot of people end up representing themselves because of a lack of funds,” Thomas Hagel says. Also, do-it-yourself kits have proliferated in recent years and could be driving the pro se traffic. Mike Jones says using them is a judgment call — they can be useful for actions like an amicable divorce or a protection order. But, he says, if the situation is at all complicated, such kits likely are to have significant errors.

Thomas Hagel (’72) is a professor of law at the University of Dayton in Dayton, Ohio, where he also practices law and is a part-time judge. He received his J.D. from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and specializes in criminal and civil law. He is the brother of former Nebraska Senator Chuck Hagel.

By Scott Stewart

hire other lawyers if they’re involved in a part of the law of which they know little. “The law itself is very big, very complicated,” Rinn says. “And it’s getting more complicated all the time.” J. William Gallup says most judges dislike people representing themselves because they usually want the judge to be their lawyer, which usually doesn’t end well. “The judges don’t like it because they’re nursemaids to people who don’t know what they’re doing,” Gallup says.

Hagel says it’s particularly foolish to self-represent if you’re facing jail or a loss of liberty. Hagel says he’s always skeptical about Anytime you represent yourself, you’re taking a prefabricated forms. For example, he says a fillbig chance. “More often or not, if there’s a lawyer in-the-blanks divorce form might not request on the other side, that person who is representing a legal name change — forcing you to file a themselves is going to lose,” Hagel says. distinct action, and pay extra fees, just to get Those who do choose to represent themselves your maiden name back. have resources to guide them through the “What appears so simple turns out not to be,” process. The Nebraska Bar Association, for Hagel says. example, offers several brochures in English Lou Anne Rinn says self-representation can end and Spanish. The Nebraska Supreme Court up costing more in the long run. And is it real- also offers self-help information, and a legal istic to expect an understanding of a system for self-help desk is located in the Douglas County which attorneys train for years? Even lawyers Law Library.

BOOKMARKS

Crime Journalism American Style

Photo: Jill Ribich, Catskill Images.

Dave Krajicek’s first book criticized media portrayal of crime and the way politicians respond. But he didn’t want readers thinking he’d left police reporting to become “a snooty elitist.” Burly and bearded, he looks the part of a roughand-tumble guy from South Omaha who flipped burgers in his father’s tavern as a 12-year-old at St. Peter and Paul grade school, then tended bar while earning a journalism degree at the University of Nebraska at Omaha. In 1979, classmates who knew him as a Gateway editor weren’t surprised when they learned that he covered the cop shop for the New York Daily News. That’s where the son of mobster John Gotti pulled up to Krajicek’s car and warned, “I’m gonna start choppin’ off heads,” if the reporter didn’t quit “comin’ round here bodderin’ my mudder and brudder.” In an article about the incident, Krajicek quoted that dialect and tagged Junior a “Baby Mobster.” A handwritten complaint from Mrs. Gotti ignored that label, but insisted that her honors-graduate son spoke perfect English. Head-chopping threats suggest that some South O grit might come in handy. “Yeah, New York is a ballsy place, and you need some moxie to succeed,” Krajicek says.

My populist blue-collar credentials are impeccable. I come from a long line of bartenders and meat-packers.

But that’s old news, he reminds. As police bureau chief during the crack wars that led to a half dozen murders a day, he wrote in his first book, “I had grown cynical, abandoning the idealism that drew me to journalism.” So he left the newspaper in 1990 to teach at Columbia University, where he’d earned a master’s degree, regained perspective and wrote that book, Scooped! Media Miss Real Story on Crime while Chasing Sex, Sleaze and Celebrities. Now he’s a freelancer, living in the Catskills next to the Little Delaware River, where he’s fly-fishing when he’s not writing or playing gigs as front man, vocalist and trombonist for Blues Maneuver. And he’s author of a new book, Murder American Style: 50 Unforgettable True Stories about Love Gone Wrong. It’s drawn from the Justice Story columns he’s written twice a month for more than a decade in the Daily News. His “moral fables” of arrogant, ignorant but entertaining crimes seem

nicely summed up in the “overdue epiphany” of an aging wife murderer. He finally realized, “You know, you don’t have to resort to murder.” A book tour last fall brought Krajicek back to Omaha for reunions with former colleagues from the Omaha World-Herald. There, he described himself as “miscast” as a copy editor until the police reporter called in sick and night boss Carl Keith asked him if he could find police headquarters. His byline appeared on three crime stories the next day. By now, he’s appeared on Court TV, NBC’s “Today” and elsewhere as a police-reporting expert whose bylines have topped stories in many publications. The new murder book displays the storytelling that drew him to journalism after starting at UNO as a business major. But the earlier book found him thinking more about the consequences of what he calls “cotton candy crime stories.” Why should we care? They leave less room for “legitimate news about justice — sky-high prison budgets … wrongful convictions … high-tech gadgets to track citizens,” he says. And they obscure what he sees as the failures of the “lock ’em up” mentality. He led the way in fighting those trends when he co-founded Criminal Justice Journalists and coedits Crime and Justice News to continue focusing on problems in crime reporting. The current state of coverage? “The focus on silly celebrity crime stories has gone volcanic since I wrote Scooped!” — Warren Francke

BOOKMARKS AuthorS PETE SIMI, associate professor in the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice, and ROBERT FUTRELL, sociology professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas Book American Swastika, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 176 pages. Synopsis Explains the difference between movements such as the KKK, Aryan Nation, Skinheads and others. Also discusses ways White Supremacists cultivate, maintain and spread their beliefs, largely under the radar of most Americans. The authors draw on more than a decade of research and interviews, from the infamous Hayden Lake Aryan compound in northern Idaho to private homes in LA to hate music concerts around the country. American Swastika was named the CHOICE magazine Outstanding Academic Title of 2010. “The book’s subject is an important one that I hope more people read and learn about,” says Simi.

Know of a recently published book you’d like to see featured in Bookmarks? Tell us about it at www.unoalumni.org/bookmarkssubmit.

campus copies alumni authors

AuthorS HUGH REILLY,

Author SHERRY WRIGHT,

Associate professor of communication and class of 1978 and 1997, and KEVIN WARNEKE, class of 1994

Class of 1981

Book Father Flanagan of Boys Town: A Man of Vision, BT Press, 196 pages. Synopsis Father Flanagan was

ahead of his time. But how did he get there? Reilly and Warneke recount how a young Irish shepherd came to America and spent his life advocating for troubled youngsters, no matter race or creed. Thousands of troubled youngsters came to Boys Town looking for a home and left as young men, ready to contribute to society.

Book Somethin’s in My Water, iUniverse Publishing, 104 pages. Synopsis Poetry has been used as an outlet to express the inner affections of the hearts of those in love. Wright’s poems delve into relationships, but not just the romantic. Many of her works have a variety of meanings, leaving it to the reader to interpret each as they choose.

Author LINDA STRNAD JENSEN, Class of 1962, MS 1971 Book The Bow Wow Chronicles,

CreateSpace, 268 pages. Synopsis “The Lucky Few” is used to describe those born between 1929 and 1945. Is it true? Find out in this graduate’s memoir about growing up with three rough-and-tumble brothers in Omaha in the ’40s and ’50s. Provides an entertaining walk down memory lane for many, good historical references for others.

author APRIL L. WHITTEN, Class of 1994, MA 1997 Book Are We There Yet, Trailslady Enterprises, 110 pages. Synopsis In commemoration of the 150th anniversary of the California Gold Rush, Whitten traveled with a wagon train. The adventure changed her life. Are We There Yet? conveys to “children-of-all-ages” what a journey could have meant to pioneers, as well as some lessons learned along the way.

— Megan Schmitz

SIGHTS & SOUNDS

SIGHTS Scenes on and off campus October

Maverick Motorcade Homecoming began early Oct. 2 with a parade through Elmwood Park. Participants then wound through UNO’s campus, ending up at the Fieldhouse, where the UNO Alumni Association provided free lunch to more than 900 UNO alumni and friends. The UNO football team won for the 14th time in the last 15 homecoming games, whipping Emporia State 42-17. Photos: Tim Fitzgerald, University Relations

Photos: Tim Fitzgerald, University Relations

November

Salute to Veterans UNO graduate, veteran and former U.S. Senator Chuck Hagel was the keynote speaker at UNO’s Veterans Day Commemoration Nov. 11 in the College of Public Affairs and Community Service (CPACS) building. Also on hand was the UNO Air Force ROTC Color Guard and various UNO military and veteran faculty and student speakers.

On the menu: Service-Learning With a helping hand from UNO’s ServiceLearning Academy, culinary students at Omaha’s Blackburn Alternative Program served Wednesday lunches to senior citizens at Adams Park Community Center. Students like Keith Manning and Marteace Mayfield (pictured serving a Thanksgiving meal) also educate those who attend on nutrition and dietary needs.

December

Caps & Gowns Photos: Tim Fitzgerald, University Relations

More than 950 students received degrees during UNO’s winter commencement ceremony Dec. 17 at the Omaha Civic Auditorium. Kayla Childress from Pierce, Neb., presented the student commencement address. UNO has issued more than 95,000 degrees since its start in 1908.

SIGHTS & SOUNDS

Operation Holiday Cheer UNO’s Detachment 470 Cadets and members of the UNO Alumni AFROTC chapter were hard at work Dec. 13 — distributing holiday cheer. The cadets were at Offutt Air Force base serving several hundred desserts to enlisted personnel who live in the dormitories. The UNO contingent also picked up plates, collected table cloths, stacked chairs and put away tables.

Heard on and off campus

SOUNDS

Peer review

Graffiti-be-gone

Those who work with youth have a direct hand in their treatment and preventative care. But their peers — more specifically, their circle of friends — have a lot of influence. We were surprised by the evidence. It shows just how important friends really are to teenagers.”

It’s important to have pride in where you come from. So by cleaning up graffiti, we’re trying to help other people be proud of South Omaha or where they come from, too.”

University of Nebraska Medical Center Professor Melissa Tibbits speaking in December at “Preventing Alcohol Use and Abuse in Adolescents,” a colloquium sponsored by UNO’s College of Public Affairs and Community Service. Reported in Dec. 7 UNO Gateway.

From Korea to the Cubs In the next two or three years, I think there will be some South Korean major leaguers. They may or may not be regulars, but they will make the big league team. And afterward, we could have even more.” Former Mav baseball player Sung Min-kyu (’07), a South Korean minor league coach for the Chicago Cubs who works with seven South Korean players in the Cubs system. Reported Jan. 6 by Yonhap News Agency.

Gabriel Gutierrez, president of the Association of Latino American Students, which received the Community Service Outreach Reach Out Program of the Year from the UNO Student Organizations and Leadership Programs. Among ALAS efforts was its annual Graffiti Abatement in South Omaha. Reported in Dec. 7 UNO Gateway.

Atrophy and assets The financial crisis led a lot of advisors to say, ‘I really need to re-strengthen my marketing muscles.’ They had allowed them to atrophy. Now, because they aren’t bringing in enough assets from referrals to make up for the loss from the recession, they have to get out and market again.” Kirk Hulett, 1994 UNO graduate and senior vice president of strategy and practice management for Omaha-based Securities America Financial Corp. Reported in January Research & Research.

First step in long journey We have a long ways to go. We’re not ahead of this thing, but we are making headway. We’re not doing this just for something to do. We’ve got an issue and we need to deal with it.” Mike Fleming, co-chairman of T4C (Time for Change), formed to limit gang activity and involvement throughout Platte County. T4C is a partnership among UNO’s School of Criminology and Criminal Justice, local and state law enforcement, schools and community members. Reported in Dec. 9 Columbus Telegram.

CLASS

NOT E S

CLASS NOTES

Send your classnotes to www.unoalumni.org/classnotes Get your class note online — keep your fellow graduates up to date with a posting on the UNO Alumni Association Facebook site at www.facebook.com/UNOAlumni

JOHN E. MOTZKUS (BA)

and NANCY

CHRISTIANSEN (BA 1959) celebrated their

golden wedding anniversary in April 2010. They met in Dr. Stanley Trickett’s English history class in 1958, and were married in 1960. nmotzkus@yahoo.com

CAROLEE DISNEY ROBERTS has published

her first novel, The (Former) Predator and the Widow Next Door: A Season’s Fantasy. Roberts grew up in Omaha, graduated from Central High School and attended the University of Washington, where she earned her degree in education and history. While raising three children, the author enjoyed a long career as a school librarian. She lives in Iowa.

ALFRED E. POPE, Ph.D. (BGS) was a proud member

of the Pen and Sword Society during his time at UNO. Six months after graduation, he was assigned to the war in Vietnam. After spending several years traveling the world, Pope retired from the Air Force in 1974. He went on to receive a master’s degree in education administration, joined General Dynamics Corporation and worked as the manager of engineering personnel support/ industrial relations. While with General Dynamics he received his second master’s degree and a Ph.D. from Claremont University in California. In 1992, he retired from General Dynamics, moved to Florida and developed and taught a graduate course for the University of South Florida’s Executive MBA program, “How to Do Business with the Government.” Pope is still busy at age 82, gardening, swimming, biking, exercising at the YMCA and watching

beautiful sunsets while strolling on the beach with his wife of 57 years. Pope says he, “enjoys reading alumni biographies and is very impressed with the new buildings that have been built on campus since his graduation from UNO. Wishing all my former classmates the very best and proud of my education and time spent at UNO.”

LINDA PLACZEK (BS, MS 1975) is serving as president

of the Nebraska State Reading Association for 2010-11. She is also serving as lieutenant governor for Kiwanis Division 20 in the Metro area. Placzek says, “It’s impossible to keep a good woman down.” laplaczek@cox.net

professor in 1979 and served as department chair from 1984 to 1995. He also served as vice president for research and dean of graduate education at the University of South Dakota, and was a fellow on the South Dakota Board of Regents in 2003-04. Engstrom grew up in Nebraska and earned his bachelor’s degree in chemistry from UNO.

PATRICIA MAZZUCCA (BS) worked as a probation

officer for six years in northern New Jersey after earning her criminal justice degree from UNO. In 1984 she earned a master’s degree in social work, and was a school social worker in New Jersey for 24 years. Mazzucca now is retired from that field of work but is going into business as a New York City tour guide.

BRUCE RAMGE (MBA)

was recently appointed by Gov. Heinemann as the Director of the Nebraska Department of Insurance (DOI). Ramge has more than 25 years of service with DOI, starting in 1984 with the department’s Insurance Market Conduct J. PATRICK ANDERSON Division as a market conduct examiner. (BA) retired as vice president In 1999, he became chief of market of corporate affairs from regulation. He spent nine years in the Stryker Corporation on Sept. role until his appointment as deputy 1. He now is volunteering as the director in early 2008. executive vice president of Area 2 for DIANNE HARROP (BA, the Boy Scouts of America. Anderson MS 1995) has worked as both and his wife, Cynthia, live in Portage, a scientist and practitioner, Mich., and would enjoy connecting with most recently employed in other UNO grads in that area. public health with the State of Nebraska 2patanderson@gmail.com as substance abuse prevention DAVID C. OGDEN (BS; manager. She also enjoys teaching MA 1990) co-edited Fame to various social science courses at a Infamy: Race, Sport, and the community college. dlhg0104@aol.com Fall from Grace published by SHARIF Z. LIWARU (BA) the University Press of Mississippi. was honored as one of the Ogden is a UNO associate professor of Omaha Jaycee’s 78th Annual communication and resides in Pacific Ten Outstanding Young Junction, Iowa. Omahans (TOYO) this year for his ROYCE ENGSTROM (BS) extensive work as the School was named the next Engagement and Attendance Incentive president of the University of Program coordinator through UNO and Montana by the Montana Building Bright Futures, as well as his Board of Regents. He began teaching in many leadership roles in the Omaha the University of South Dakota’s community. The Jaycees honor 10 men chemistry department as an assistant and women each year who have a strong

devotion to their community and to personal and professional development. Liwaru graduated from UNO with a degree in black studies.

JOCELYN NICKERSON (BGS, MPA 2001) once had

ideas of flying high as a commercial pilot, according to an article by the Lincoln Journal Star. Now, Nebraska’s first state director of the Humane Society of the United States gets an uplifting feeling from rescuing Pomeranian dogs. She got her UNO undergraduate degree in aviation and her master’s in public administration, with a concentration in aviation. Nickerson was born in Germany to Air Force parents and moved with them later to Bellevue. ANDREA PEREZ (BS) was one of

the educators selected to participate in this year’s LiftOff 2010 Summer Institute. 2010 marks the 21st consecutive year that teachers from around the country increase their knowledge of space education through the program. The workshops provide teachers the opportunity to spend a week working with professional scientists and engineers.

aperez@johnsoncity.txed.net

PAUL R. COATE (BA; MA 2007) is a professional singer/actor. In January 2011 he made his debut with the world-famous Minnesota Orchestra, singing the role of Monostatos in Mozart’s opera, “The Magic Flute.” Before moving to Minnesota in 2008, Coate worked for nine years as a radio announcer and manager at UNO’s Classical 90.7 KVNO and performed for many years with Opera Omaha, the Omaha Symphony and the Nebraska Shakespeare Festival. He has performed for many theatres in the Twin Cities, most recently in Theatre Latte Da’s production of “Evita” at the Ordway Center for the Performing Arts in St. Paul, Minn. Coate lives in Bloomington, Minn., with wife, KATHLEEN BAGBY COATE (MA 1999), and their two children, Gena (8) and T.J. (3). Kathleen is an instructor in the theatre program at Normandale

CLASS NOTES

Community College in Bloomington, where she just directed “The Arabian Nights,” a play by Nebraska-native Mary Zimmerman. TRACI HARRISON (BA) is the

director of recruiting at Northwestern Mutual in Omaha. She has the opportunity to give back to the university and recruit energetic and entrepreneurial students into Northwestern Mutual’s Top 10 Internship Program. “I am fortunate to have built wonderful relationships with past and current professors and employees at UNO, and continue to work closely with many classes and clubs each semester in finding top talent on campus,” Harrison says.

traci.harrison@nmfn.com

LIAM CUNNINGHAM (MS) graduated from UNO

with a master’s degree in Urban Studies. Cunningham belongs to the Northern California Appraisal Institute Chapter, and was awarded the George and Alberta Stauss Scholarship on Nov. 17 to help members obtain their Member Appraisal Institute (MAI) designation. Cunningham also is president of the appraisal firm LNM Equity Associates. liamcunningham07@att.net

CARLA J. O’DONNELLRIZZO (BS; MS 2008) was

a recipient of the Omaha Jaycee’s 78th Annual Ten Outstanding Young Omahans this year for her services as the program manager for Camp Fire USA Midlands Council, Inc. She also writes grants and represents the organization at community events. O’Donnell-Rizzo earned her degree in psychology and her master’s degree in social work. DAVID KROLL (MBA) is a project manager for Cargill Flavor Systems and is residing in Ohio with wife, Angie, and family. He and Angie also assist a friend who’s starting a business to manufacture board game cases. Learn more about it at www. beginnerbusinesswoman.info.

dkroll5555@gmail.com

WILLIAM SCOTT (BA) recently

moved his graphic design studio, Scott Creative, to an office space at 256 N. 115th St. With this new office space he intends to better serve the needs

of his growing list of small businesses that call on Scott Creative for the high-caliber print and web-based design for which his studio is known. scottcreativedesign@gmail.com

BETH RILEY (BGS)

received the Omaha Jaycee’s 78th Annual Ten Outstanding Young Omahans Award for her work as the legacy giving coordinator at the Child Saving Institute. She has extensive experience and dedication to the Junior League of Omaha, holding positions on their board of directors and numerous committees. The annual award is given to men and women between the ages of 21 and 40 who exude commitment to their communities. Riley received her bachelor’s degree in nonprofit administration at UNO, and is completing her last year of graduate school at the University of Minnesota.

AARON CROFT (BS) is a business process consultant for CareerBuilder, LLC, a global leader in human capital solutions. He works with organizations at the enterprise level, filling specialty and high turnover positions, devising social media and marketing strategies, and driving revenue. Croft recently won Rookie of the Quarter at CareerBuilder. He has lived in Scottsdale, Ariz., since February 2010. aaron.croft@careerbuilder.com

MARIELLA MEDURA (BSG) is working with Dr. Beth Ritter and other graduate students on The Fred LeRoy Collaborative Life History Project. Medura is awaiting approval to present her paper at the Society for Applied Anthropology Conference March 2011. mmedura@unomaha.edu

AARON ROUSE (MBA) is working full-time for the Hastings College Foundation, based in Omaha. Rouse is the assistant director of alumni development.

in memoriam 1963 Col. Robert P. Walker 1966 Raymond E. Cross 1968 Raymond Knight Carter, Jr. 1974 Vicki Kaspar 1982 Michael Joseph Delaney 2001 Joe Rewolinski 2007 Jonathan Guinn

CLASS NOTES PAXTON DANGER LEESLEY, son of Devon and Christy (Barrett, ’01) Leesley of Omaha.

AALIYAH VAISHALI TAYLOR ,

daughter of Nina and Trevor (’08) Taylor of Glen Burnie, Md.

AUTUMN ELIZABETH PRUNTY, JORDYN LINDA SCHULTE,

daughter of Veleka (Lindner, ’03) and Ryan (’05) Prunty of Omaha.

future ALUM

Submit a birth announcement (within 1 year of birth) and we’ll send you a certificate and an Ador-A-Bull T-shirt. Include baby’s name, date of birth, parents’or grandparents’ names and graduation year(s). Mail to UNO Magazine, 67th & Dodge Streets, Omaha, NE 68182-0010 or online at www.unoalumni/futurealums

ANDREW DAVID MEYER , son of Phillip and Nicole (Hernandez, 98) Meyer of Omaha and grandson of Ricardo Hernandez (’98) of Omaha. BRYSON LEE LANCASTER , son

daughter of Pam (Kuder, ’07) and Curt (’94) Schlte of Council Bluffs, Iowa. BLAYKE LAUREN REEVES,

daughter of Stephanie (Lewis, ’03) and Joshua (’04) Reeves of Papillion, Neb.

HARPER ANNELEIGH KASSUBE, daughter of Lesley and

John (’06) Kassube of Omaha. ALEXANDER JOHN VONDRA , son of Paul and Shannon (Van Emmerik, ’03) of Bennington, Neb. HENRY WILLIAM STREET, son of Amy Street (’09) of Council Bluffs, Iowa.

of Kari Keller-Lancaster (’04) of Omaha.

NOOR ELATTA , son of Khalid and

KASEY PARKER WILLIAMS,

SAMUEL WILLIAM RIKLI, son of

son of Matthew Hartman and Kaitlyn Williams (UNO student) of Omaha and grandson of Joleen Williams (’01) of Omaha.

Amy and Andy (’07) Rikli of Omaha. ACE BRADLEY WILKS, son

AVERY RAYNE HIGHTOWER ,

of Alicia and Joel (’00) Wilks of Sherwood, Ore.

daughter of Richard and Tabitha (’08) Hightower of Omaha.

ELIZABETH ANNE BENSON, daughter of Jennifer (Patten, ’04) and Tim (’08) Benson of Omaha.

DONOVINNE MICHAEL ABRAHAM, son of Brandy and

NEVAEH ELISE MILLERWILLIS, daughter of Lennard Miller

Philip (’07) Abraham of Omaha.

and Sara Willis (’04) of Lincoln, Neb.

CLASS NOTES

Sally (’99) Elatta of Omaha.

May we post your email address in the next UNO Magazine?

Last name while a student: Class Year: Address: City/State/Zip: E-mail: News:

ADAM WEISS (BS) is excited to have his first completed “signature piece” outside UNO’s new business college, Mammel Hall. The 12-foot-tall sand hills crane was completed two years after graduating UNO with his teaching degree. Adam likes traveling the world and drawing inspiration from nature. From carving marble in Italy to backpacking the black forest of Germany, he brings back hidden treasures that Mother Nature has to offer. Using these experiences, he combines age-old techniques with modern processes to form one-of-akind inspirational art.

SARAH MARIE JUNKER , daughter of Allison and Wade (’01) Junker of Omaha.

What have you been doing since graduating from UNO? Your fellow alumni would like to know! We welcome personal and professional updates and photographs for Class Notes. Send your news to Class Notes Editor, UNO Magazine, 67th & Dodge Streets, Omaha, NE 68182-0010; fax to (402) 554-3787; submit online at www.unoalumni.org/classnote

Name:

2008

AIDEN GREGORY ELLIOTT, son of Andrea and Andrew (’08) Elliott of Omaha.

Degree:

Phone:

Yes No

RETROSPECT

Over the years 1938

1948

1955

1969

1924 Robert Bagnall, branch director

1947 A teenage drunk driver in a speeding

with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, speaks on lynchings and race.

car slams into a hayrack during a Phi Sigma Phi fraternity hayride near Hummel Park. OU senior Freddie Freelin is killed and six others are injured.

1927 OU students face Northwestern University in a debate on Prohibition. OU students took the “dry” position.

1928 OU students present “The Color Line,” a religious play depicting race prejudice in America.

1928 OU football player Gilbert Edwards dies and three other players are injured when their car is struck by a truck from the Bee-Hive grocery store.

1934 A burglar attempting to open a safe in the OU bursar’s office shoots at OU night watchman Sam Cornett (he was uninjured).

1938 Night students help Omaha firemen put out a fire in the janitor’s room of Joslyn Hall.

1938 Students use branches from Hummel Park to help put out a fire at a campus bus stop.

UNO’s campus has been no stranger to matters of crime, safety and justice for all. Following are notable instances on the UNO campus over the years.

1948 Card playing on campus is prohibited by the president’s office upon recommendation of the student council and the faculty committee on student activities.

1955 OU starts National Safety Week with “Stay Alive in 1955” slogan 1955 Parking meters — 300 of them — debut on campus.

1955 OU student Carolyn Nevins is murdered on campus while waiting for a bus to take her home.

1969 Students stage a sit-in in the

Conyers threatens the safety of AfricanAmerican students attending the Aug. 16 commencement. Commencement is held without incident.

1980 A state patrolman shoots UNO student James Powell to death after a highspeed chase.

1983 Firozeh Dehghanpour, a UNO student

2004 The “My Doom e-mail virus” hits

from Iran, is found in Council bluffs, stabbed to death.

campus, though ITS-installed anti-virus software limits damage.

1987 A student senator threatens another student senator with toy pistol during a student senate meeting.

2008 A student notifies the university of graffiti in an Arts and Sciences Hall bathroom that threatens a Valentine’s Day bomb. No such bomb was found.

1997 An anonymous letter left with Black Studies Department Chair James

chancellor’s office to protest racism against black students.

1976 Campus Security reports that a moneybag containing $53,342 in checks and cash was “lost or stolen.” It last was seen in a Fieldhouse file drawer, where the cashiering department operated during registration week.

To discover more UNO history, visit the Gateway Collection, an online database of all Gateway student newspapers from 1922 to the present at http://library.unomaha.edu/research/gateway.php

A look at notable individuals connected to crime, safety and justice who’ve visited UNO’s campus.

THEY WERE HERE Thurman Arnold Feb. 1, 1942 Arnold, assistant U.S. attorney general, was introduced by the Gateway newspaper as the federal government’s “No. 1 trustbuster” prior to his two days of speeches for the Baxter Memorial lecture series. He spoke on “Free Enterprise During the War and After.” (photo 1) Clay Shaw Jan. 11, 1949 Shaw, later the only person prosecuted in connection with the assassination of President John F. Kennedy (he was found not guilty), spoke

See more than 3,700 university archive photos on UNO Criss Library’s photostream, www.flickr.com/photos/unocrisslibrary

at Omaha University’s World Trade Institute. Shaw at the time of his OU visit was manager of the International Trade Mart of New Orleans. He was portrayed by Tommy Lee Jones in Oliver Stone’s “JFK.” Byron “Whizzer” White Nov. 26, 1957 Then a Denver attorney, Byron “Whizzer” White spoke at the Omaha University football banquet, a natural tie given that he was an All-American halfback for the University of Colorado in 1937 and later played in the NFL. Eventually, he was appointed a Supreme Court Justice. (2) Bobby Seale Nov. 16, 1973 Black Panther Party leader Bobby Seale addressed more than 800 UNO students, telling them that, “Those who think they can drop out of the system should try dropping out of the universe.” (3)

Frank Abnagnale Sept. 5, 1978 A noted con man portrayed by Leonardo DiCaprio in “Catch Me If You Can,” Abnagnale spoke in the Peony Park Ballroom at a seminar hosted by the UNO Nebraska Business Development Center. His presentation, “You Catch a Thief,” was aimed at educating business people in the detection of “hot” checks, forgeries, counterfeit money and the tactics of con artists. “The man with the pen steals 10 times what the man with the gun even dreams of stealing,” Abagnale told the audience. John Dean March 7, 1975 Among the central Watergate figures, Dean spoke at the Civic Auditorium on behalf of UNO’s Student Programming Organization. “I want to share my bad judgments and mistakes with the public,” he told the audience. (4)

Thurman Arnold, Byron White, John Dean photos from U.S. Government

FOR FUN

Visual

Test your brainpower with these puzzles created by UNO graduate Terry Stickels (’76). An author, speaker and puzzle maker, Stickels’ FRAME GAMES is published by USA Weekend magazine and in 600 newspapers. For more information on Stickels, or to order any of his books, visit www.terrystickels.com

If fitted together, the two sections on top would make what larger shape below?

Puzzles taken from The Big Brain Puzzle Book created by Terry Stickels for the Alzheimer’s Association.

Logic One of five brothers ate a plate of cookies his mother had made for a party. All the brothers denied eating the cookies, but each made two statements about who did eat the cookies. In each case, one of the statements was true, one was false. After their mom heard the boys’ statements, she knew immediately who the culprit was.

Puzzles taken from The Big Brain Puzzle Book, created by Terry Stickels for the Alzheimer’s Association

Who was the guilty brother? Bart: It wasn’t Bruno Boone: It was Brit. It was Bret. It was Bret. Bret: It wasn’t Brit. Bruno: It was Boone. It wasn’t Bruno. It wasn’t Bart. Brit: It was Bruno. It wasn’t Bart.

StickElers Visual: Figure C. Now look at Boone’s statements: “It was Brit. It was Bret.” We already know it wasn’t Bret, so Boone’s second statement is false — making his first statement true.” Brit is the culprit.

Mathematics

Logic: Brit ate the cookies. Look at Bart’s statements. Let’s say his statement “It was Bret” is true. That means his statement, “It wasn’t Bruno” is false. That means it was both Bret and Bruno — a contradiction that cannot be true. This means neither Bret nor Bruno at the cookies. Mathematics: Turn both over at the same time. When the three-minute time is done, you have two minutes left in the five-minute timer. Start to mark your seven minute period from here. The instant the two minutes run out, flip the five minute timer over again to start another five minutes to add onto the two minutes for a total of seven minutes.

You have a five-minute timer and a three-minute timer. They are both of the hourglass variety where sand filtering from one chamber to another marks the time. How would you accurately mark the passing of seven minutes?

Answers

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• Affordable rates (discounts available). The Thompson Center • Centrally located free parking and easy to find. 67th & Dodge • 554-3368 For more information or to make a reservation, contact: www.thethompsoncenter.org Thompson Center Director Gina Ray at (402) 554-3368 or gray@unoalumni.org

You know what a degree from the University of Nebraska can do. Now imagine the possibilities with an advanced degree. Earn yours online at NUonline.com.

Connect to your potential. UNO Programs Include: Political Science Creative Writing Library Science Urban Studies

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速

inside 24

Getting Personal

The Wrong Prescription

Identity theft is on the rise — so is the fear of being a victim

The upsurge of prescription drug abuse among youth

CSI : UNO

A UNO professor helps bring a would-be cop killer to justice

www.unoalumni.org/unomag vol. 2, no. 1

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