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Areas of excellence:
four more programs
added in second year
By Theresa Forsman
The area of excellence program, NU's approach to pro
gram review ?nd evaluation, has entered its second year
with four new areas added to the original six funded by the
Legislature in 1974.
The Unicameral and Gov. J. James Exon worked closely
with the university in developing the excellence program.
The Legislature this year approved funds totalling
$297,970 for the library collection which will be used to
upgrade the library holdings for eight of the designated
areas of excellence.
The areas of excellence for 1975 include Water Re
sources Management ($264,500), Music and Music Theater
($85,174), and the College of Architecture ($55,300).
An additional $25,000 was appropriated to the School
of Journalism, which received $75,000 in its first year as an
excellence area.
The other original areas of excellence and their annual
appropriations are Animal Science ($25,000), Chemistry
($86,000), Crop Physiology ($20,800) and Life Sciences
($127,500).
Non-traditional Education ($106,300), also was desig
nated an area of excellence, but is not included in the
libraries improvement program.
The original funds for the excellence programs were
designated for three years, but annual allocations will con
tinue tor as long as the Legislature permits.
In order to be considered for excellence funds, a pro
gram, department, school or college must draw up a three
year plan for achieving excellence. The plans include a self
study report and long-range goal statements.
These proposals are submitted by the college deans to
the Academic Planning Committee which reviews the goal
statements and recommends areas for excellence money to
the chancellor of each NU campus.
The chancellors make the final decision on which areas
will be designated as excellence areas.
Max Larsen, head of the Academic Planning Committee
when the original areas of excellence were chosen, said the
chancellors have the option to recommend excellence areas
other than those submitted to them by the committee.
There is no limit to the number of areas which may be
singled out for excellence money each year, Larsen, acting
dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, said.
Evaluations important
The key to the area of excellence program is the evalu
ation committees which periodically visit the excellence
programs, said R. Neale Copple, director of the School of
Journalism, who helped plan the area of excellence
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program.
The visitation committees-which include representatives
of institutions with similar departments, a member of the
Board of Regents, an appointee of the governor, a legislator
and a student-make annual reviews of each area's progress
and will submit final reports at the end of the three year
period. The final reports will assess the success of each de
partment in achieving its goal of excellence.
This is necessary, Copple said, since excellence cannot be
universally defined.
At the end of three years, Copple said, the evaluation
committees will recommend whether the areas of excel
lence program should be continued.
In its first visit to the campus, a visitation committee re
views an area's self-study report and determines whether
the goals and objectives are realistic in terms of institutional,
state and national trends and needs.
It then assesses whether the goals specified and the plans
suggested will lead toward excellence. After completing its
first evaluaticj), the committee makes recommendations for
modification in the area's self-study report and assesses
progress made toward achieving specified goals.
This process is repeated by the visitation committee at
the end of the second year, Copple said.
No new areas of excellence will be designated next year,
Larsen said. lie called this decision a political move, saying
NU President D.B. Varner did not want to ask the Legisla
ture next year for additional funds for the program.
Copple said the area of excellence program is a credit to
the state. He said he has seen no other program like it
which allows the public to look inside a university and
make recommendations that count.
By Liz Crumley
National recognition of UNL musical events in the last
three years is why John Moran, director of the School of
Music, believes music and music theatre were designated an
area of excellence.
These events included the performance of the Menuhin
family in December of 1973, the UNL symphony invitation
to play at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing
Arts in November of 1974 and the Lincoln world premier
of the opera "Napolean" in February of 1973.
The school receives $204,429 for three years, which will
go for three areas, Moran said.
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for all music majors and minors in undergraduate study, an
ongoing program of maintenance and replacement of prac
tice and performance instruments and an operamusical
theatre instruction and performance program.
Courses 'fragmented
The musicianship curriculum would encompass music
history and theory traditionally taught in six semesters
"regardless of the students' decision to become teachers,
performers, composers or scholars." The courses were
"fragmented", Moran said because theory, history and com
position were taught separately.
According to a music school report the curriculum will
provide an "alternative to the present system that tends tow
indoctrinate the young person in an elaborate set of fixed
beliefs. He will be constantly required to play an active
role in learning rather than the passive role many play in
the lecture-discussion type of class."
This innovative type of teaching, Moran said, involves
the use of student tutors. The school has wanted to start
the program for the last three years but lacked the money,
he said.
Total first year budget for the musicianship curriculum
is $33,260.
Primary investment
Instrument inventory is the primary investment for the
School of Music, according to the report.
Ultimately, by 1990, the plan would systematically eval
uate asjvl replace all equipment in yearly increments. Total
first year budget for this program is $ 1 6,950.
A full-time staff technician has been hired, Moran said,
for the maintenance and construction of instruments. His
duties include tuning, voicing and regulation of the 120
currently-owned pianos, rebuilding of the grand pianos and
the possible teaching of a course in piano tuning and repair.
The third area, operamusical theatre, would be a
development program, Moran said. Currently an active pro
gram, the cost of productions has become increasingly
prohibitive.
"It's (area excellence funding) a way of producing in the
theatre excellent, first-class, quality opera and musical
theatre providing the kind of thing generally not available
in the midwest," he said.
Total first year budget is $34,735.
Library acquisitions
improvement is goal
Although NU's library system has not been designated
as an area of excellence, eight of its collections have been
and will receive $237,970 for improvements, according to
Gerald Rudolph, dean of UNL libraries.
The Library Collection will use the money to buy
needed books and periodicals for the designated areas, he
said.
In the summer of 1974, the supportive proposal for
these areas was submitted to the Academic Planning Com
mittee on administrative request, Rudolph said.
Then it went to the UNL Chancellor, NU President and
Board of Regents for approval, he said. Final approval came
from the Legislature.
In designating the proposal, library staff worked with .
faculty members to decide which publications were needed,
Rudolph said. The average book cost found in bibliogra
phies was about $14.05, he said, and was used to compute
total cost.
The library submitted an area of excellence request for
more than $1 million, which Rudolph said he thought was
rejected because of that amount.
The $237,970 the Library Collection receives was fo.
one year. He said he hoped the amount would become a
fixed part of the budget to support future areas of ex
cellence. Three UNL branch libraries are running out of space,
Rudolph said. The College of Architecture soon will expand
and the Life Sciences library will move to its new building.
