100% of UNK Applicants Accepted for 2013 NCUR

The 2013 National Conference on Undergraduate Research (NCUR) will take place April 11-13 at the University of Wisconsin-LaCrosse. This year, all 21 proposals were accepted, for a 100% acceptance rate, up from 94% last year! Over 3,500 students from across the country applied to the conference this year. This continues a very positive trend of UNK's high acceptance rate at NCUR. The students will participate in oral and poster presentation sessions, joining with approximately 2,800 undergraduate students from institutions across the country.

Congratulations to these undergraduate researchers and their mentors:

- written in collaboration with John Falconer and Susan Campbell, Office of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity

Transition in Office of Assessment with New Assessment Director and New Office Location

I am pleased to announce the appointment of Dr. Beth Hinga as Director of Assessment.

Dr. Hinga completed her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in geology at Baylor University. She holds a Ph.D. in geophysics from Southern Methodist University. Prior to moving to Nebraska with her family, she served as associate professor and department chair for the Department of Chemistry, Geosciences, and Environmental Science at Tarleton State University in Texas. Beth has extensive experience in all facets of assessment. While at TSU she served on the university assessment committee and was responsible for annual review and evaluation of assessment plans, data and reports for all units in two colleges. In addition, she worked to bring the university into compliance with best practices for academic assessment by facilitating units as they developed measureable objectives, appropriate measures for assessment and strategies for triangulation of data. She is a proficient user of Weave Online software for assessment reporting.

The Office of Assessment has been relocated to 2124 Founders. Beth began her duties January 14. I believe she will do outstanding work in this position.

- Charlie Bicak, Senior Vice Chancellor for Academic and Student Affairs

Center for Teaching Excellence Temporarily Relocated

Due to the renovation on second floor Founders Hall, the Center for Teaching Excellence (CTE) is being temporarily housed in Dr. Forrest's departmental office in Copeland Hall 320E. The best way to reach Dr. Forrest is through her direct email, forrestk@unk.edu or her psychology office phone, 308 865-8192.

- Krista Forrest, Director of the Center for Teaching Excellence

International Studies Program to Sponsor Film Showing, Presentation and Book Signing of The Whistleblower

Kathy Bolkovac was a Lincoln police officer in 1999 when she took a position as U.N. International police force monitor in Bosnia-Hercegovina.  Originally hired by the U.S. subcontractor,  DynCorps, Kathy was rapidly disillusioned by the attitudes, behavior and poor job qualifications of some of her colleagues, but was soon even more disturbed to find that not only they, but United Nations peacekeepers, were implicated in sex trafficking activities in Bosnia.   Specifically, when Bolkovac and others at the human rights and “gender” desk in Bosnia sought to prosecute bar owners and sex traffickers in Bosnia, she found that her paperwork either mysteriously disappeared or became buried in bureaucratic red tape.  When she pressed the issue, Bolkovac was fired on obviously fictitious grounds of falsifying her time sheets.  Bolkovac successfully sued DynCorps for unfair dismissal but more importantly her story brought the issue of UN involvement in sex trafficking to the broader public, particularly once her memoir was made into a successful Hollywood film, The Whistleblower, starring Rachel Weisz. For more information, Please go to our website: www.unk.edu/intl_speaker/

Film Showing

The International Studies Program is grateful to the following units for their support of this presentation:

- Carol Lilly, Director of the International Studies Program

ADP Announces New Course Development Mini-Grant Opportunity!

The American Democracy Project is pleased to announce the availability of funds dedicated to supporting UNK faculty willing to develop a new general studies course, in the Portal (188), Democracy in Perspective, or Capstone (388) category, that addresses one of the following five American Democracy Project initiatives (a recent survey of more than 100 UNK undergraduate students indicated these five topics were of the greatest interest):

The application and additional information is attached and is also available online at http://www.unk.edu/adp/New_Course_Mini-Grant/  

In addition to focusing on one of the five ADP initiatives listed immediately above, priority will be given to proposals that involve faculty from two or more academic departments (credit hours/credit hour production sharing ideas can be discussed) and to proposals that explain how the New York Times will be used in the proposed course.      

Please note that permission to offer a new general studies course ultimately hinges on gaining approval of the General Studies Council. 

Questions welcomed! Contact Dennis Potthoff (potthoffd@unk.edu; 865-8814)  

- Dennis Potthoff, Coordinator of the American Democracy Project at UNK

Assessment Reminders for Faculty Teaching General Studies Courses in the Spring

General Studies courses offered in the spring (listed below) must be assessed using TaskStream.

All students taking a Foundational Core course (other than math), a Portal, or a Capstone, will need to purchase a TaskStream license. Information about the TaskStream requirement is given to incoming students at Freshman Orientation in the summer and on Transfer Days throughout the year. 

If you are teaching a GS course in the Foundational Core (other than math), a Portal, or a Capstone, please include on your syllabus the requirement to purchase a TaskStream license.  
 

More info on TaskStream for faculty and students (including deadlines and orientation) is available here.

If you have questions, please contact the General Studies Program office. 

- Daren Snider, Director of General Studies

Library Updates

Tax Forms Delayed 

Written by Rochelle Krueger, Government Documents Librarian
kruegerr@unk.edu  

Usually tax forms have arrived and are out on the government documents shelves and ready for people to use, but not this year.

The production of some 2012 major tax products, including Form 1040 and the Instructions for Form 1040, has been impacted by the recent passage of the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012. There is NO estimate or timeline as to when the products will become available on http://www.irs.gov or distributed in print. Instead, the forms will be available as the documents are published and trickle into the library.

For more information visit the IRS web site at the following URL or use the QR code below: http://www.irs.gov/uac/Newsroom/IRS-statement-on-tax-legislation-recently-passed-by-Congress 

Legal Research Sessions – Professor Sandra Placzek 

Written by Rochelle Krueger, Government Documents Librarian
kruegerr@unk.edu  

Sandra Placzek, Associate Director and Professor of Law Library at the Marvin & Virginia Schmid Law Library at the University of Nebraska - Lincoln, will give presentations on legal research on Thursday, January 24 at 9:30 am and at 2:00 pm. Both sessions will be held in the Curriculum classroom at Calvin T. Ryan Library. The sessions are open to UNK students, faculty and staff and the Kearney community.

In addition to her duties as Associate Director, Professor Placzek co-teaches the legal research component of First Year Legal Research and Writing at the Law School. We encourage you to let interested parties know about this opportunity. Contact Rochelle Krueger if you have questions.

2012 ‘State of E-Resources’ at UNK 

Written by Jon Ritterbush, E-Resources and Serials Librarian
ritterbushjr@unk.edu  

Each winter, the United States Congress receives a “State of the Union” report from the President. In the same spirit, the Calvin T. Ryan Library presents its “State of E-Resources at UNK” report:

As of December 31, 2012, the library provides access to:

• 82,773 unique, full-text e-journal titles (paid and free) – up from 79,326 titles in December 2011.
• 42,448 cataloged e-book titles – up from 14,635 titles in 2011.
• 216 databases (paid or free) including these new resources added in 2012:
  • Cabell’s Directories of Publishing Opportunities
  • Children’s Literature Review backfile (1976-2004) and Contemporary Literary Criticism backfile (1973-2009) in Literature Criticism Online
  • JoVE – the Journal of Visualized Experiments
  • Literature Resources from Gale
  • MarketLine Company Profiles
  • ReferenceUSA
  • SPORTDiscus with Full Text
  • VAST: Academic Video Online
  • World Data Analyst
  •  Over 25,000 ebooks from Ebrary’s subject collections in History & Political Science, Education, and the Humanities.
   

Stay tuned during 2013 as new additions to the library’s online collections are posted to In Brief Online.

Students and Faculty Participate in Study Abroad Opportunities During Spring 2013 Semester

Several UNK students are spending their Spring 2013 semester studying abroad. UNK has two faculty-led programs taking place in Peru and the Czech Republic.

Peru (UNK Semester Abroad) with faculty mentor Marta Moorman (HPERLS)
Universidad Peruana Ciencias Aplicadas - Lima, Peru 

Czech Republic (Nebraska Semester Abroad) with program director Brittany Musil (History G.A.)
Palacky University - Olomouc, Czech Republic  

Additional Countries 

In addition, seven students are earning credit studying abroad this spring in the following locations:

- written in collaboration with Ann Marie Park, Coordinator for UNK Study Abroad & Exchange Programs

Recognition

2012-2013 Department Chairs and Program Directors

- Office of the Senior Vice Chancellor for Academic and Student Affairs

Items to Note for Faculty and Faculty Committees

• Academic Affairs Committee
  The link to the CAP ("Course Approval Process") information is located on the Academic Affairs Committee page. CAP is the electronic approval system that allows department chairs to initiate course proposals (create, alter, inactivate, or discontinue). Worksheets for both the creation of new courses and the alteration of existing courses are available on the CAP web site for faculty members to use as they gather the information department chairs will need to submit requests.
  
  The form to alter a Catalog Course Description has been revised. Please note, in instances where a change in content is being requested through the CAP system, course description changes should be added to that request, and this form should not be completed.
  
  Department chairs initiate program proposals (create, alter, or discontinue) using a paper form, which is available on the Academic Affairs Committee page, along with instructions.
  
  The schedule of Academic Affairs deadlines for the 2012-2013 academic year is available on the Academic Affairs Committee page. The page also contains a committee roster and a link to the approved Academic Affairs minutes. Department or program chairs needing to make curricular changes should be aware of these deadlines and instructions.
   
• Faculty Handbook
  The online Faculty Handbook contains the most current policy information. The purpose of the handbook is to gather the documents and policies that inform and guide critical decisions, including the Collective Bargaining Agreement (2011-2013).
   
• Faculty Senate
  To keep faculty informed and in the spirit of shared governance, the Faculty Senate website contains links to the senate roster, meeting agendas and packets, meeting minutes of both the Faculty Senate and the Faculty Senate committees, and the Faculty Senate Constitution and Bylaws.
   
• General Studies
  The General Studies web site contains a description of the new General Studies Program effective for students entering UNK in the Fall of 2010. The site contains a list of the approved General Studies courses effective for the 2012-2013 academic year, a list of all of the approved Portal and Capstone topics, as well as lists of the Portals and Capstones offerings for the current semester.
   
• Graduate Council
  The Graduate Council webpage contains information regarding changes to graduate courses or programs, as well as a list of the 2012 Graduate Program Committees.
  
  The form to alter a Catalog Course Description has been revised. Please note, in instances where a change in content is being requested through the CAP system, course description changes should be added to that request, and this form should not be completed.

Deadlines Approach for Various Opportunities

Calendar of Events within the Academic and Student Affairs Division

Edited by Kim Elliott, Coordinator of Academic Publications  

A Publication of the
Office of the Senior Vice Chancellor for Academic and Student Affairs
University of Nebraska at Kearney
905 West 25th Street
Kearney, NE 68849
Phone: (308)865-8209  

For questions or submissions,
contact the Coordinator of Academic Publications at 8935 or academicpublications@unk.edu.