UNL College Directory
University colleges diverse in mission, philosophy,goals
By Mindy Wilson
Staff Reporter
Agriculture
It’s more than just agriculture.
The College of Agricultural Sci
ences and Natural Resources deals
with a broad array of academic pro
grams, said Donald Edwards, the
college’s dean.
“It serves agricultural, foods,
agribusiness and natural resource pro
grams,” Edwards said.
Much of this variety has just re
cently been implemented, Edwards
said.
In the past two years, he said, the
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and changed the name of the college.
Now the college, which has 1,260
undergraduate students and 525 gradu
ate students, offers 21 majors, Edwards
said.
The college also offers many out
side opportunities, he said. It encour
ages interns hips, Edwards said, and it
has an active alumni association that
continues to work with students after
graduation.
One of the goals of the college, he
said, is to help at-risk students.
“We feel that every student who
enters this college should graduate,”
Edwards said.
And after they graduate, students
have ample opportunities for jobs,
Edwards said. But, he said, students
need to be flexible in the type of job
they arc looking for and the area they
want to live in.
*
Architecture -^j^
The College of Architecture is one
of a kind — at least in Nebraska.
Joseph Luther, assistant dean of
the College of Architecture, said the
college offers the only professional
architecture program in the entire state.
The college has about 425 under
graduate students and 125 graduate
students, Luther said. This number is
kept small by high admission stan
dards, as students need to have an
ACT score of 22, a SAT score of 970
or finished in the upper one fourth of
their graduating high school class to
be admitted to the college.
These higher standards lead to a
“fast-paced and competitive college,”
Luther said. Many students arc turned
away, he said, but the quality of edu
cation is higher because classes arc
smaller.
“The program is very narrowly fo
cused on architecture,” Luther said.
To become a professional archi
tect, he said, students must complete
127 hours on the undergraduate level
and an additional 52 hours of graduate
work.
While working toward a degree,
Luther said, students concentrate on
two areas — art and science. This
gives them a balance between their
right and left brains, he said.
And the college offers students
outside opportunities, Luther said,
such as a placement program for in
ternships and international exchange
programs. The college has a women’s
program, he said, and is starling a
chapter of the National Organization
of Minority Architects this year.
Arts
& Sciences
Diversity. Thai’s what students get
in the College of Arts and Sciences.
Anne Kopera, the coordinator of
advising for the college, said this di
versity is an advantage.
The college offers more than 50
majors and minors, Kopera said,“from
dance to math to psychology.”
The diversity of this broad, liberal
arts college gives students a wide va
riety of c lasses to choose f rom, Kopera
said. And after graduation, she said,
there arc numerous options students
can pursue with their degrees.
The college, which has 4,600 to
4,700 students, is the oldest and larg
est college at the university, Kopera
said. It acts as a service college to all
the other colleges, she said, in that
students from other colleges meet gen
eral requirements by taking classes in
the arts and sciences college. This
provides a basic education for all stu
dents who graduate from UNL, Kopera
said.
Business
Administration
What makes the College of Busi
ness Administration unique?
According to Nancy Stara, the
college’s associate dean, it’s thcclose
relationship the college has with the
business community. This relation
ship is then passed on to the students,
she said.
Dvcc B uss, the col lege ’ s d i rector of
advising, said the college, which has
over 3,(XX) undergraduate students and
offers nine majors, keeps good rela
tions by working closely with several
corporations in the area. The corpora
tions sponsor workshops in which stu
dents learn to enhance their leader
ship skills, she said.
Also, these corporations often in
vite students to visit and see how the
businesses operate on a day-to-day
basis. Buss said.
Besides these benefits. Buss said,
the college offers other opportunities
to students through study abroad pro
grams, as well as with the more than
17 student organizations within the
college.
Currently, the business college is
undergoing somcchangcs. There have
been some alterations in the curricu
lum, including allowing students to
have minors in certain non-business
areas. Buss said.
And, Buss said, the college is build
ing onto its facilities. The new addi
tion, she said, will have more class
rooms and space for students to study,
and will be open within the next year
to year and a half.
Journalism
The intense dedication of its stu
dents makes the College of Journal
ism outstanding, said Will Norton Jr.,
the college’s dean.
The journal i sm col lege offers three
areas of study — advertising, broad
casting and news-editorial. Each of
these areas require a large commit
ment on the part of the student, Norton
said.
The college requires students to
lake five core courses with long labs.
Each of these courses call for detailed
assignments that involve long hours
both in and out of class, but these
courses prepare students for their fu
ture careers, Norton said.
After these five core courses arc
completed, Norton said, the students
then take theory courses, which give
them a perspective on the meaning of
the skills and information they’ve al
ready learned.
The commitment that it takes to
complete the difficult courses helps to
make Nebraska graduates exceptional.
Norton said.
The journalism college, which has
about 1,000 students, is “always con
sidered one of the top colleges in the
country,’’ Norton said. When UNL
students compete against other jour
nalism students, they do very well,
and this brings alien lion to the univer
sity, he said.
This year, Norton said, the broad
casting and news-editorial depart
ments finished fourth and sixth, re
spectively, in national competitions.
And UNL had students gain three out
of 40 internships in the country given
by DOW Jones, while no other school
had more than one, he said.
Engineering 'nr
In the College of Engineering and
Technology, students are given a solid
foundation for the future.
Keny Shepherd, communications
coordinator for the college, said that
for this foundation, the college offers
a broad education, which is comple
mented by study in engineering meth
ods.
The result, Shepherd said, is that
students are taught to design systems
and processes to solve “problems aris
ing in any conceivable area of modem
life.*’These areas include the environ
ment, transportation, energy, com
munications and information process
ing, she said.
Hie college, which has more than
2,000 students, has a faculty that is
committed to providing a qua I ity edu
cation, Shepherd said. One way this is
accomplished, she said, is by keeping
the ratio of studcnts-lo-faculiy low;
the college's ratio is 12 to one.
Besides having outstanding fac
ulty, Shepherd said, the college also
has outstanding students. Its students
rank at the top of the Big Eight and
surrounding universities on the basis
of ACT and SAT scores, she said, and
after graduation, these students arc
recruited by government agencies,
industrial companies and the lop
graduate schools in the country.
Nursing
They’re in Omaha, Lincoln,
Kearney and Scoltsbluff.
Who arc they? They’re students in
the College of Nursing, which has
campuses in four locations.
According to the College of
Nursing’s Dean Rosalcc Ycaworth,
this attracts students to the college.
“We’re one of the few colleges that
gi ves them a choice of campuses,” she
said.
And, Ycaworth said, students come
to the college because of the reputa
tion of the faculty.
“They really care about the stu
dents,” she said.
During their training at the col
lege, which has 790 undergraduate
students and 135 students on the gradu
ate level, students gel a wide range of
experiences, Ycaworth said.
Students arc trained to care for all
ages, “from premature infants to the
cldcrlv,” Ycaworth said. Also, stu
dents learn how to give care in home,
hospital and nursing home situations.
she said.
After graduation, Yeaworth said,
the students of the college arc sought
after by employers.
“Our students are seen as valuable
by employers of nursing students,”
Yeaworth said.
Teachers
College
7-: m •
-
In the Teachers College, getiing
outside experience is important.
James O’Hanlon, the college’s
dean, said that besides student teach
ing, students get experience through
practicums. Students are required to
ha vc at least one semester of praclicum
experience, he said, but most have a
praclicum foraperiodof several years.
The col lege has about2,000 under
graduate students, O’Hanlon said. But
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on the graduate level who have al
ready received a degree from another
college and have come back to gel
their teaching certification, he said.'
Students in the college have an
advantage. O'Hanlon said, in that re
lations between teachers and students
arc close. The professors arc coaches
and mentors to their students, he said.
The college also has several out
standing programs, O’Hanlon said.
The special education and speech pa
thology programs arc strong, and a
new elementary program has received
national publicity for its quality, he
said.
Home
Economics T ^ ^
It’sabout caring for people, chang
ing lives and making a difference.
This is the College of Home Eco
nomics, said Karen Craig, dean of the
college. The programs offered in the
college are action -oriented, Craig said,
and they develop professionals who
are useful in everyday society.
The college, which has about 1,000
undergraduate students and 125 gradu
ate students, offers programs in con
sumer science and education, human
development and the family, nutri
tional science and hospitality man
agement and textiles, clothing and
design.
The programs arc related to cur
rent topics, Craig said, such as dietet
ics is related to healthy living and
fashion merchandising is related to
retailing.
"We use the basics as a framework
to build skills that people use to solve
problems ineveryday lifc,”Craig said.