21 minute read
Devour
IN HUSKER COUNTRY
SCREAM
ShakesFEAR at the Haunted Temple Guests venture into a library to uncover a long-lost Shakespeare manuscript, but a cast of infamous characters stand in their way. From the Nebraska Repertory Theatre comes a scary, immersive performance experience on campus in late October.
EAT
Mary Ellen’s Food for the Soul The popular food truck often found serving the campus now has a brick-and-mortar restaurant in south Lincoln. Owners Charles and Lasunya Phillips have followed their passion project honoring Charles’ mother, the namesake, to its natural expansion. Patrons enjoy catfish, brisket and lots of Southern comfort food.
GRILL
Loeffel Meat Shoppe Drop football brats on the barbecue in support of the animal science program when you buy from Loeffel Meat Shoppe, located in the Animal Science Complex on East Campus. The variety of meat products — from shanks, to chops, to steaks — are primarily prepared and processed by university students, with all proceeds going back into animal sciencerelated instruction and programming.
BUZZ
Shel-Bee’s Honey Shelby Kittle’s bees are hard at work cooking up sticky sweetness for your slice of toast. The senior agricultural education major has kept bees and sold products for years, but is now making her honey dreams flourish with help from Nebraska’s Engler Agribusiness Entrepreneurship Program. Order her honey products at shelbeeshoney.com.
SIP
Dear Old Nebraska Brew Raise a glass to your alma mater. The Nebraska Alumni Association and Zipline Brewing Company have collaborated to bring you the easy-drinking American lager themed after our beloved fight song Dear Old Nebraska U. It’s on draft and in stores this fall. Proceeds from every case sold will help support alumni engagement programs.
READ
The Fishermen Associate Professor of English Chigozie Obioma’s debut novel explores the almost mythic childhoods of four brothers in 1990s small-town Nigeria. When the boys go fishing on the forbidden river and meet the local prophetic madman, their Cain and Abel-like story begins.
FALL
BIG BRAG
UNL and three partner institutions have received nearly $1 million to expand the Agricultural Genome to Phenome Initiative. The $960,000 award from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute for Food and Agriculture supports phase two of the three-year effort. The program won initial NIFA funding of $960,000 last September.
ARCHITECTURE
Building Diversity
COLLEGE AIMS TO ALTER RECRUITING TO REACH UNDERSERVED POPULATIONS
Jeremiah Brown (’21) has been the creative type for as long as he can remember. “I’ve always loved to draw,” Brown said. “But it wasn’t until my senior year of high school that I got interested in buildings.”
A Kansas City native, Brown grew up in apartments his entire life, which fueled his fascination with houses in particular. When he heard that his high school, Park Hill, was offering an architectural design class, he jumped at the opportunity to learn more about the field.
“I said, ‘I’m gonna actually try and expand my knowledge in it,’ ” he said. “I took that class and loved it — just the spectrum and knowledge encompassed in that class was really fun. So, I said, ‘I think this is something I really want my life’s journey and goal to be — to be an architect.’ ”
The next step was choosing a college. While attending a college convention during his senior year, he noticed Nebraska’s recruiting booth. A wrestler in high school, Brown decided to follow in the footsteps of someone he admired who had gone to Nebraska.
“I thought, ‘Oh man, that’s where my favorite wrestler went, so I’m going to go talk to them,’ ” he recalls. “I was talking to two guys (who) were actual wrestlers too on the team. It was just a coincidence.”
One of them mentioned Nebraska’s College of Architecture. It seemed like fate to Brown.
“He said, ‘Yeah, man, the university actually has a really good architecture program, so we strongly encourage you to apply,’ ” Brown said. “I did, and I got in. I visited the campus and I just fell in love with it. I’ve been in love with that campus ever since.”
What Brown most appreciates about the College of Architecture is what he describes as “the exponential growth and personal ascension” that students are able to reach. Although the college is among the smallest and most intimate at the university, its rigorous program packs a punch. Students are known for spending most — if not all — of their time at Architecture Hall, tirelessly working on studio projects and collaborating with their peers.
In fall 2020, Brown was working in the studio of Salvador Lindquist, assistant professor of landscape architecture. For his Architecture 410 Collaboration Class, he was tasked with reimagining a selected site in South Omaha, which is home to a large Black and Latinx population and has been rapidly changing in recent years.
Brown and his groupmates created a social condenser — a technical term that’s essentially a community gathering space. Often, these social condensers are intentionally built in and around vacant terrain. For Brown, the project underscored the real-world implications of architecture and design. It’s not just about creating functional and aesthetically pleasing buildings — it’s also about factoring in how people will engage with them in their day-to-day lives.
“It was probably my most challenging studio,” Brown said. “Because you have the two sides of architecture: your physical and your metaphysical, which is more conceptual.”
South Omaha is just one example of an area gentrification has affected. The landscape of historically Black and minority-majority neighborhoods is shifting nationwide. One recent study from Stanford researchers finds that these populations are often left with fewer options of places they can move to compared to their white counterparts.
This phenomenon makes it more critical than ever for the next generation of architects to reflect
the communities for which they’re designing and creating. The industry, however, remains relatively monolithic. According to a 2019 Membership Demographics Report from the American Institute of Architects, the makeup of AIA members is 67% white, 2% Black, 5% Hispanic or Latinx, 6% Asian, and less than 1% Native American, with 18% not reporting.
“It is no secret that our professions have historically underrepresented minority populations and we as a culture, as a society and as a profession, need to do better,” says Dean Katherine Ankerson. “It starts in elementary school with outreach and exposure to introduce the exciting and impactful professions affecting the built environment, talking to young people from all backgrounds to ignite interest.”
Over the last two years, the college has reassessed the role it plays in changing the industry at large. As part of its strategic plan, the college aims to increase diversity by 5% in student demographics by making changes to recruitment and enrollment strategies that allow for greater flexibility, accessibility and recruitment of underserved populations to College of Architecture programs.
“Especially in the wake of the Black Lives Matter movement, our faculty, staff and especially our students were motivated to make a real difference for substantive change,” Ankerson said. “We have several bloggers and student mentors representing diverse backgrounds, and those individuals have said they are excited to serve as role models in their communities. It’s important that the next generation of students can see themselves, here, making a difference.”
Brown is one of those student bloggers. It’s an opportunity he welcomes not just because he can be an example for prospective students, but also because it provides him with a platform to share his work. “There are so many studios, and to be able to showcase what project you’re working on is a good feeling,” he said.
The college is also home to a local student chapter of the National Organization of Minority Architects (NOMA). Like all student organizations at the college, NOMA has a representative on the Student Advisory Board, which provides a conduit for students to voice their concerns and a place where students work collaboratively on solutions. The college frequently sponsors student trips to attend NOMA’s national conventions. Pre-pandemic, NOMA student members attended the National Career Fair in Chicago, where they answered questions from potential students at Nebraska’s recruitment table.
“Our recruitment and retention efforts are expanded with financial support aimed at supporting a diverse array of students in our college as they pursue degrees in architecture, planning and design,” Ankerson said.
While architecture — like countless other professions — isn’t a level playing field for all just yet, Ankerson said the architecture community at Nebraska is doing its part to make sustainable change. “It is our hope that the next generation of architects, designers and planners will work in a world where equality, equity and social justice are commonplace,” Ankerson said. “Where everyone in every community has access to affordable housing, clean air, dependable transportation and a quality of living better than what came before them, and where job opportunities are inclusive and equitable for all.” —Mekita Rivas
Jeremiah Brown (’21) worked as a student blogger who reached out to future students of color.
FALL
AGRICULTURAL SCIENCES AND NATURAL RESOURCES
Group Reignites
DORMANT ORGANIZATION SUPPORTING MINORITY AG STUDENTS RISES UP
According to 2020 enrollment numbers, just 9.7% of undergraduate students and 9.1% of graduate students in the College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources (CASNR) are minority status — relatively low percentages compared to other colleges on campus.
While the university has made progress in promoting diversity and inclusion, minorities are still underrepresented in colleges of agriculture, demonstrating the need for the college to relaunch its chapter of Minorities in Agriculture, Natural Resources and Related Sciences (MANRRS). This national society will officially re-launch its chapter at Nebraska this fall.
“Our hope is for MANRRS to provide a sense of belonging, community, personal and professional development for students with underrepresented identities, allowing them to focus on their career aspirations and academics throughout their college experience,” said CASNR Dean Tiffany HengMoss.
MANRRS is a national society that welcomes undergraduate and graduate student members of all racial and ethnic groups with the goal of fostering minority involvement and excellence in agricultural sciences and related fields. The re-establishment of the UNL chapter is one of several student- and college-led efforts to improve diversity, access, and inclusion among students in characteristically underrepresented fields.
Along with its affiliation with the national MANRRS network, the chapter will offer professional development and networking, mentorship, social connection and opportunities to attend regional and national conferences, according to Heng-Moss.
The president of the UNL chapter is animal science major Terra Lewis, and the chapter’s faculty adviser is Roberto Cortiñas, assistant professor of practice in the School of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences.
“Essentially, we were put in place not only to be able to put minority students in connections with those career fields but also to spread the awareness that it’s OK to be different and it’s OK to want to thrive in a predominantly white industry being a person of color,” Lewis said.
Marianna Burks, an instructor in the School of Biological Science, who also works with student services, can speak to the power of the MANRRS network and community for students pursuing degrees in agriculture. Burks served as president of an earlier MANRRS chapter at Nebraska in the late 1990s and early 2000s while earning her bachelor and masters’ degrees in animal science.
Burks credits attending the national conferences and networking with industry leaders at the organization’s events for helping her land two federal internships — one with the Bureau of Land Management and the other with the United States
OVERHEARD
—SHEMSA NDAHIRO
IRIBAGIZA, an integrated science major from Kigali, Rwanda. Iribagiza’s parents instilled in her that she is a strong woman, so now she’s dreaming big, advocating for and helping others find their voice.
Geological Survey — during her college days.
“That is what provided our few members with internships, with being connected with corporations, industry and opportunities to get connected with federal agencies. That was what kept us engaged and gave us purpose,” said Burks.
Ultimately, Burks was offered a federal agency position but opted to stay at the university to do research, teach and support minority and first-generation students pursuing science degrees. This spring, Burks was awarded one of UNL’s inaugural Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Impact awards.
The MANRRS re-establishment initiative was led by the late Dr. Nicole Frerichs, assistant dean for student success in CASNR, in partnership with students, faculty and the CASNR student success team. The chapter was approved by the Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources as a Registered Student Organization in fall 2020.
On the national level, MANRRS partners with agriculture colleges across the United States to develop synergistic relationships between minority students and professionals within academic institutions, the government and other agricultural industries.
The initial idea of MANRRS was brought about in the early 1980s by Dave Weatherspoon, a student at Michigan State University. As a minority student himself, he identified the need for a support system for minority students in agricultural disciplines. In collaboration with a few like-minded individuals, Weatherspoon created the organization with the mission of “changing the face of agriculture, natural resources and related sciences.”
Lewis, UNL’s chapter president, is enthusiastic about the fact that the group will connect minority students interested in agricultural and natural resources with a network of like-minded counterparts with experience in the field.
As a newly recognized student organization, the group has several projects on its agenda, with its first task making sure students are aware of the organization and attracting students to become involved.
“Basically,” Lewis said, “our long-term goal is to start youth groups as well, which would go along with putting chapters in high schools and middle schools, continuing to spread the awareness that it’s OK to be a person of color and want to do something that is geared toward non-minority individuals.”
—Divine Mbabazi
FIRST LOOK
College of Engineering students will soon have the space to think bigger: 181,500 square feet in the $97 million privately-funded Kiewit Hall slated to open fall of 2023. Omaha’s Kiewit Corp. gifted $25 million toward the project rising near 17th and Vine streets. The new building will be an academic hub for undergraduate students and will host Lincoln-based construction management programs, classrooms, instructional labs, Engineering Student Services, maker spaces and an outdoor plaza. It’s part of a $172 million expansion and facilities transformation — look out for Scott Engineering Center’s renovation as well as a rebuilt Link.
BIG BRAG
The University of Nebraska will freeze tuition across the system and invest in strategic priorities including student aid, faculty competitiveness and building maintenance under the 2021-22 operating budget.
FALL
ENGINEERING
Engineering Their Futures
SCHOLARSHIP PROGRAM LINKS FIRST-YEAR STUDENTS TO A COMMUNITY OF SUPPORT
Wil Koumaka
BIG BRAG
UNL is part of a team of surface transportation research organizations led by ENSCO that was rewarded a $571 million contract by the Federal Railroad Administration to provide research, testing, engineering and training services at the Transportation Technology Center in Colorado.
In high school, Wil Koumaka knew he wanted to apply for scholarships that would help him pursue a college education in engineering.
When he learned about the Multicultural Engineering Program (MEP) at Nebraska, Koumaka knew that was the place for him.
“I decided to apply because I was searching through a lot of scholarships and it was great to find a scholarship program like MEP that supports minorities and students of color,” said Koumaka, a junior from Omaha with a double major in computer engineering and electrical engineering.
“I learned MEP would provide a coach who could help me transition into my college experience and my freshman year. I was glad there was a program like this because most scholarships don’t have someone there to support you along the way.”
The program is a cohort-based scholarship curriculum for incoming first-year engineering undergraduates on both the City (Lincoln) and Scott (Omaha) campuses. The program creates a community of support and promotes academic and career success for its students. Any incoming first-year student admitted to the College of Engineering is eligible to apply.
The students take classes and workshops together in their first year, keeping them connected throughout their four years in the program. Through the program’s events and activities, the students also have numerous opportunities to interact with faculty, staff, other current students and the industry.
“Rather than being based on a student’s academic performance, we aim to attract students who want to be leaders in the engineering community and want to uplift each other during their undergraduate programs,” said Jen Skidmore, director of student development in the College of Engineering.
This type of support system can be extra-valuable for many first-year engineering students, especially for those with responsibilities and other challenges outside of their academic careers.
“More than a few of our students — including many in Omaha on our Scott Campus — live at home and not on campus,” said Alma Ramirez-Rodgers, senior assistant director of student development in the college. “Some have to deal with other expectations from family because they’re living at home, and they feel responsible to help with their family if they can. Some have had to take a little hiatus from their studies.
“Knowing they have the MEP support network and connections, that can make all the difference.” —Karl Vogel
OVERHEARD
—JAYVEN BRANDT, from Kearney, is a secondary social science education major with minors in history, music, and human rights and humanitarian affairs.
BUSINESS
Freshman Isolation
STUDENT SEARCHES FOR ANSWERS IN A YEAR SHAPED BY PANDEMIC
BY CORRETA GAGNON KOUDJI
I did not have high expectations for my freshman year of college; there was a global pandemic taking place after all. Having heard such good things about the business program, I knew that the university was my best option. I had no real idea what I wanted to do or how I was going to get there. I had no idea what being a college student during COVID would be like. I had a glimpse of that in my last quarter of high school at Duchesne Academy in Omaha where my final classes were taken online, but I was hoping for more.
Even without a pandemic, I was not expecting to have much of a social life. I was more interested in joining clubs and going out with a friend every once in a while. I ended up joining the African Student Union and the National Association of Black Accountants. I was committed to avoiding fraternity and sorority parties and live out the academia aesthetic with a cup of coffee in my hand.
I was ready for all-nighters and, if not becoming besties with my roommate, at the very least learning to tolerate her. I was also prepared to be sent home a couple of months into the semester due the frequency of parties and subsequent quarantines that were being enforced.
My first semester, I had only two in-person classes. Those classes were the highlight of my week as I got to showcase great outfits and see classmates.
This experience was soon taken from me as I had to undergo quarantine for a month. I was upset, because my lifestyle was already as close to quarantine as it could be. This first quarantine came because one of my roommates got COVID.
Then the floor that I lived on was placed under quarantine for two more weeks. Floor three of Eastside Suites became something of a prison for me, and my mental health began to deteriorate, making motivation difficult to muster. Suffice to say, I did not attend any parties and the few connections that I did make felt disingenuous.
I did, however, really like my advisers and therapist. My academic adviser in the College of Business, Mark Davis, was always honest with me about my options. My academic success coach, Robert Russell, would give me note-taking advice and then help me realize that I did not have to do it all. My therapist Dr. Falesa Ivory-Horton helped me make sense of the disarray in my mind.
As a consequence of having my first semester mostly online, I decided to do the same second semester. During my second semester I became a building and event coordinator at the College of Business. I cannot praise the people at the college enough. Since there were no events at this time, my main role was to sit at the front desk. I got to know most of the staff and faculty and eventually began to make friends. I finally got the interaction that I was missing, and the university began to feel like a second home.
As my freshman year drew to a close I realized that I needed to prioritize my mental health if I was going to succeed academically. I formulated a plan and talked to my advisers and therapist and other people whom I trusted to guide me in the right direction. I wish I would have had more time to understand myself and figure out what I wanted before entering college, rather than hoping that it would just come to me one day.
Drawing from the knowledge I gained in my Entrepreneurship and Clifton Strengths classes I have decided to give entrepreneurship a try. It is my desire that this current school year is filled with exploration, discovery and joy.
Correta Gagnon Koudji
BIG BRAG
For the fourth consecutive year, the University of Nebraska system is ranked among the top 100 academic institutions worldwide in earning United States patents.
FALL
ARTS AND SCIENCES
Game On
BIG BRAG
Support for human rights teaching and research programs at the university is behind gifts of more than $1.2 million from Robert Hitchcock and Melinda Kelly.
PROFESSOR HELPS CURTAIL NATIVE STEREOTYPES IN OREGON TRAIL UPDATE
Nebraska’s Margaret Huettl is helping erase stereotypes and expand historical accuracy through an update to the classic Oregon Trail video game.
Enjoyed by millions since its release in 1971, the text-based strategy game allows players to lead a wagon train across the 2,170-mile Oregon Trail route from Independence, Mo., to Oregon City, Ore. Much like a real wagon captain in the 1850s, players encounter a litany of perilous challenges — river crossing and critter encounters to supply shortages and disease outbreaks. Make the wrong decision and a hardship leads to a delay, damage or death (including the infamous dread of dysentery).
“I grew up playing the original green and black version on school computers,” said Huettl, an assistant professor of history and ethnic studies. “It’s nostalgic for me. It’s also problematic in the way it depicts Native people as threatening, encountered in the distance or saying things like, ‘You are not welcome here,’ in broken English.
“Natives were this scary force that lurked at the edges of the game — counted alongside dangers like rattlesnakes and dysentery.”
For many Indigenous people like Huettl (who is from Wisconsin and is a Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwe descendant), encountering negative depictions of Natives is nothing unusual.
“Particularly in popular culture there are very few positive or accurate representations of Natives,” Huettl said. “You don’t really think about it as a kid, but growing up Natives are constantly hit with negative connotations of our families. Too often, these depictions leave a lasting impact on self-worth and the value of our heritage.”
“There’s not a lot of data out there because — and this is not a surprise — Native people don’t just want to give out their information to anyone,” Huettl said. “But, if you are patient and ask the right questions to the right people, the source material exists. You just have to learn how to read colonial archives through Indigenous perspectives.”
Gameloft, a France-based video game publisher, has partnered with Apple Arcade to update and deliver Oregon Trail to the past, present and future generations of players. A large part of that work included a push to eliminate historical inaccuracies and stereotypes regarding Native American people.
“The design team was well aware that the game, as it existed in the past, had problematic representations of Indigenous peoples,” Huettl said. “They wanted to do better with this update, and they asked us to help eliminate the clichés and expand the historical accuracies.”
The team’s work included gathering historical data to create more appropriate names for game characters, expand roles for Native Americans and people of color, and more accurate depictions of Indigenous clothing, culture and adoption of modern technology (including their use of rifles rather than bows and arrows).
Each of the revisions is reflected in the game as it was released in the Apple Arcade earlier this year. It also includes a mini-game that includes a Pawnee family impacted by disease and moving to a winter camp and an acknowledgement of the many impacts westward expansion had on Indigenous peoples. The acknowledgement, which appears at the start of the game, was written by Huettl. —Troy Fedderson
