University of Nebraska Kearney

Programs of Excellence Funding
at the University of Nebraska at Kearney
Fiscal Year 2006 Report

C.  Equipment for Priority Programs.  $87,690

1. Title of the Project:  Business Laboratory 
     
   

   Responsible Persons:

   Charles McGraw, Director of Computer Technology, CBT. Mr. McGraw is supervised by CBT Dean Bruce Forster.

   Brief descriptive narrative, including accomplishments and goals: 
   The Business laboratory provides the business office tools that graduates will need and use in their career paths, and it is essential for this lab to be up to date and well equipped with hardware and software.

   Measures of impact resulting from Programs of Excellence Funding:
   Number of Students Benefited: About 1400 students in the College benefit from having state of the art computer equipment and software.

   Expenditures: $27,018.

2. Title of the Project:  CDIS Equipment and Service Agreements 
    
   

   Responsible Persons:

   Dr. Kenya Taylor, Chair, Department of Communication Disorders Marilyn Hadley, Dean

   Accomplishments and goals:
   The equipment that has been purchased allows faculty to model state of the art technology used in the speech language pathology profession. Preparation of CDIS students is enhanced as is service to clients.

   Measures of impact resulting from POE funding:

   • Publications:  1 refereed journal article, and 1 refereed abstract
   • Presentations: 10 national conference presentations by 4 faculty membersEducational Innovations: Equipment purchased has allowed faculty to prepare students with state-of-the-art skills and knowledge.
   • Number of Students Benefited: 60 undergraduate majors and 32 graduate students benefit from the technology this year
   • Enhanced Services to the State: With support from the POE funding, approximately 80 clients in the clinic and 250 clients at off-campus locations are provided services
   • Accreditation: The Council on Academic Accreditation in Audiology and Speech-Language Pathology’s Council on Academic Accreditation (CAA) noted this year: "The program has made good progress towards recruitment and retention of doctoral faculty. Please continue to update the CAA on the status of hiring additional doctoral level tenure-track faculty. The CAA offers congratulations on the program's priority status. It is obvious that the program has improved and benefited significantly from this designation for additional resources." 
      
   Expenditures: $13,000. $3,000 yearly required calibration of all speech and audiometric equipment. Also provides replacement earphones for the clinical and all portable audiometers.

   $10,000 Nasometer II System (includes phonetogram, auditory feedback, real-time EGG analysis, real-time spectrogram, phonetic simulation program, respiration, phonation, and prosody simulation, and animation of muscle vectors for articulation).

3. Title of the Project:   Exercise Science Equipment and Service Agreements
    
   

   Responsible Persons:

   Dr. Kate Heelan College of Education Marilyn Hadley, Dean

   Accomplishments and goals:
   Service agreements for the Lunar DPX-IQ duel energy X-Ray absorbtiometry unit (DEXA), and the Sensor Medics 2900 metabolic cart were purchased to maintain the technology in the Human Performance Laboratory. These units are used for research, service and classroom demonstrations. The additional funds were combined with one-time funding for enhancement of laboratory instruction of PE 310. During the 2005-2006 academic year students have had the ability to use technology for educational enhancement.

   Measures of impact resulting from POE funding:

   • Additional extramural funding acquired: Dr. Brown has submitted external grants in 2005-2006 that have been enhanced by the quality of the technology available to us in the HPL. In addition, Dr. Heelan has collaborated with Iowa State University and has submitted an external grant that is projected to be funded in May 2006. This grant is dependent on a quality DEXA machine.
   • Publications: Dr. Heelan has had four publications in the past two years from data collected on the DEXA machine. In addition, a masters thesis and two undergraduate research projects have been completed in the last year from the Sensor Medics 2900 metabolic cart.
   • Presentations: There will be 4 presentations at the American College of Sports Medicine National Convention in June 2006 from data collected from these machines.
   • Educational Innovations: Dr. Brown is able to use the HPL technology to provide students with hands-on exercises that prepare them for upper-level coursework in Exercise Science.
   • Number of Students Benefited: 150
   • Enhanced Services to the State: Equipment is used for the UNK Employee Health and Wellness Programs for health screenings and education.

   Expenditures: $13,500.

   $8,500 Service agreements for the Lunar DPX-IQ duel energy X-Ray absorbtiometry unit, and the Sensor Medics 2900 metabolic cart were maintained for quality technology in the Human Performance Lab. $5,000 was combined with other funds to purchase a BIOPAC system to allow students with non-invasive laboratory exploration of electromyography, pulmonary function, aerobic exercise physiology and blood pressure.

4. Title of the Project:  Musician Posture Chairs.  $34,172 
        (refer to Section K.2. Music Excellence Program)

See also:

A. Title of the Project: Biology Faculty – Distance Education. $45,902
B. Department Excellence Discretionary Expenditures. $123,000

D. Exercise Science: Human Performance Lab Coordinator. $25,000
E. Faculty (new) Salary Enhancements. $100,000
F. Graduate Assistant Stipends. $57,400
G. Multimedia/Visual Design, including Student Facutly Collabortive Research. $118.810
H. Sponsored Programs Office Assistant Director. $37,500
I. Social Work Faculty. $40,265
J. Manangement Faculty/grant writer for College of Business and Technology. $50,454
K. Undergraduate Research--Student Faculty Collaborative Reserach. $386,710