Faculty notes
Advertising
Stacy James is completing a book written by the late UNL journalism grad and benefactor, Col. Barney Oldfield, and Charles "Tex" Thornton, founder of Litton Industries. James and Oldfield were in the final proofing stages for the book when Oldfield died in late April. Oldfield wrote the manuscript in 1989. He was in charge of Litton Industry's international public relations for more than 20 years and had promised his former boss he would write the Litton story. James hopes the book will be completed by this summer.
She is also working with the City of Lincoln, Downtown Lincoln Association and Wiese Research Associates. James, Nancy Mitchell and Phyllis Larsen serve as faculty supervisors for an independent study class of seven advertising undergrad and graduate students in the research, planning and production of an advertising and public relations campaign to promote parking in downtown Lincoln. The campaign is a collaborative effort with private and public entities, such as the City and the DLA, plus UNL and Ampco System Parking of Cleveland, Ohio.
Phyllis Larsen earned her public relations accreditation through the Universal Accrediting Program. The APR is a mark of distinction for public relations professionals who demonstrate their commitment to the profession and to its ethical practice. Testing focuses on broad knowledge of communications theory, management science and ethics, a strategic perspective and sound professional judgment.
She had a book chapter, called "Teaching the Large Lecture Course in Public Relations," accepted for the third edition of Learning to Teach, a book published by the Educator's Academy of the Public Relations Society of America.
She received a UCARE grant, working with an undergraduate student on a research project to explore the cause of declining membership in UNL fraternities. She made presentations on media relations to the Metro Community College Board of Governors and administrative staff and a presentation on public relations to build audiences for the Lincoln Arts Council. She worked with undergraduates and graduate students to create communication kits for the Northern Prairies Land Trust, a new nonprofit organization in South Dakota.
Nancy Mitchell is on the editorial review boards for two national journals: Journalism & Mass Communication Educator and Journal of Advertising Education.
She was elected to the UNL Academic Planning Committee for a three-year term and has received another grant, worth $25,000, to help fund the Health Behavior Research partnership, a collaborative project with Marc Kiviniemi of the UNL Psychology Department. As part of the project, she is working with health communications to convey messages about health.
Mitchell, Stacy James and Phyllis Larsen are collaborating with the Downtown Lincoln Association, City of Lincoln, UNL and Ampco Parking to promote parking downtown. They have recruited students to help.
Broadcasting
Rick Alloway has been a guest on Kent Pavelka's KKAR/Omaha morning show four times during the spring to discuss media issues like coverage of the D.C. sniper and the war with Iraq. Alloway was the lead source in a piece by L. Kent Wolgamott on broadcast coverage of the war in Iraq that ran in the Lincoln Journal Star in the "A.M. Sunday" Section on May 4. He interviewed the nationally known a cappella group Five O'Clock Shadow live in the KRNU studios on April 18 as part of his weekly a cappella radio show "Vocal Chords."
Laurie Thomas Lee had a journal article accepted for publication in the Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal. The article, titled "Can Police Track Your Wireless Calls? Call Location Information and Privacy Law," analyzes the current legal protection for cellular telephone location privacy and will appear in the Fall 2003 issue. Lee is currently serving as president of the Academic Freedom Coalition of Nebraska and as chairwoman of the AEJMC Membership Committee.
Jerry Renaud spent most of the year working on the Cuba project, which grew out of a visit to Cuba by several faculty and nine journalism students in January. One segment of the hour-long documentary aired on NETV's "Nebraska Statewide" on May 23. The entire documentary will appear on NETV some time this summer. He also hopes to market it to other locations around the country.
He was accepted to a weeklong seminar at the Poynter Institute in Tampa, Fla., in February to discuss "Convergence for College Educators." He was accepted into the Honor Society of Phi Beta Delta at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. The society honors those with strong international involvement and academic excellence.
Tom Spann completed his second year of a three-year term on the Academic Senate Executive Committee. He also served on various ad hoc subcommittees formed by the president of the senate. He is a member of the Lincoln Arts Council Advisory Committee and will probably be helping in the production of promotional audio and video materials for the group next fall. He organized a program and hosted a meeting of the Society of Broadcast Engineers in Andersen Hall.
He continues to work with Larry Walklin to improve the college's "museum" displays of broadcast production equipment throughout the building and to establish a media archive and restoration center for the preservation of audio and video materials currently stored in obsolete media formats.
Larry Walklin was appointed by senior Vice Chancellor Richard Edwards to the university committee to determine the application of a unified portal for the Blackboard System (used for courses and related university messages). He was one of three faculty members chosen to make a presentation to the Board of Regents about distance education. He spoke to Leadership Lincoln about future challenges for civic leaders to communicate through the mass media
News-editorial
John Benderwas on leave during spring semester, doing research for a book about the NPA, et al., v. Stuart case, a landmark freedom of the press Supreme Court case.
Charlyne Berens served on an accrediting committee for the journalism program at Arkansas State University in February. She also served on the search committee for a UNL dean of undergraduate studies through the fall and into the spring semester. She received a UCARE grant to work with a student to study the effects on campus newspapers of free daily papers available to students. She spoke to Leadership Lincoln about news judgment and how media make decisions. She and Kevin Smith, a UNL political science professor, led a public policy workshop on media and politics in early June, sponsored by UNL's Public Policy Institute.
Mike Stricklin was elected to the international board of Partners of the Americas, which sponsors 60 sister state relationships between the United States and Central America, the Caribbean and South America.
Joe Starita served on the Faculty Senate during spring semester. He coordinated all of the college's entries in the annual Hearst Competition, where the students finished third. He visited high schools in Nebraska and Washington, D.C., to recruit promising students. He organized and led a student reporting project to Cuba in January and served as the liaison between the college and NETV's "By The People" project to coordinate discussion of the Cuba trip. He was keynote speaker at Omaha Westside's annual journalism banquet.
George Tuck was selected as the Nebraska state coordinator for the nationwide America 24/7 week-long shoot in May. He was responsible for helping select photographers, coordinating their assignments and photo transmissions and for following up on captions. Some of the photos will appear in the national book, but the majority will appear in the state book to be published in November of 2004. This spring, he completed two years as chairman of the University Curriculum Committee. He produced photographs of custom-made furniture for a woodworker's brochure. His Flat Places and Interesting People exhibition opened in May at the U.S. Consulate in St. Petersburg, Russia, and will run until next year. He was one of five UNL faculty selected to make three motivational and informational presentations to Lincoln high school juniors. This was part of the Admissions Office recruiting of scholars.
