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PAGE 2: Commuter plane crash kills 68 in Indiana
One in ad
endorses
regent
By Nick Wlltgn
Staff Reporter
Four students appeared in a cam
paign commercial for Regent Robert
Allen of Hastings, but only one said
he intended to endorse the candidate.
Andrew
Loudon, presi
dent of the Asso
94 ciation of Stu
dents of the Uni
versity of Ne
braska, appeared
in the commercial
withASUN sena
tors Paul Cain and
S h a w n t e 11
Hurtgen and former ASUN senator
Kim Arms.
The commercial shows Allen
speaking to Loudon and then to the
other three students by Broyhill Foun
tain.
Only Cain, a senator for the Col
lege of Arts and Sciences, said he
solidly supported Allen'selection bid.
“I do support his candidacy," Cain
said. "I was in the union and I saw
him and I recognized who he was,
and he just wanted to know if I’d be
interested."
Allen is running for re-election in
the 5th District race against Robert
Prokop of Wilber.
Loudon, who represents the stu
dent body on the University of Ne
braska Board of Regents, said Allen
asked him at a meeting to help find
good locations to shoot commercials.
Loudon, who said he would have
done that for any regent, is not offi
cially endorsing any candidate.
‘‘Of course I know Regent Allen
through the Board of Regents,"
Loudon said. ‘‘He has been very help
ful to student concerns."
But Loudon said it wasn’t his place
to publicly favor certain regent can
didates.
Hurtgen, Government Liaison
Committee chairwoman, also said her
appearance was not an endorsement.
‘‘Basically, it seemed more like a
session of talking to him than a com
mercial," she said. "I just happened
to be there when I met him. They
asked me if I wanted to go out, and I
did, but it wasn’t a planned episode."
JtfV HaNer/DN
Mol Thornton riarw a audio with Wi Concopts In Qoomotry claoa Friday In Bo—y Hall — ho todwi about a pantograph.
Thornton, a profoccor of inathaniatlcs and statistics, waa named Nebraska's Professor of the Year by the Camagla
Foundation for tho Advancement of Teaching.
UNL professor named best of year
By Julia Sobcxyk
Staff Reporter
Nebraska’s professor of the year
has no perfect formula for teach
ing success. But he does have some
guidelines.
Mel Thornton, a University of
Nebraska-Lincoln mathematics
and statistics professor, was named
Nebraska’s professor of the year
recently. The award, administered
by the Carnegie Foundation for the
Advancement and Support of Edu
cation, recognizes excellence in
undergraduate teaching at Ne
braska colleges.
Thornton, who has been teach
ing at UNL since 1969, did not
expect to receive the award.
“I was quite surprised,"
Thornton said. "I had not thought
I'd be chosen as Nebraska’s pro
fessor of the year. I’m very
pleased.”
After 29 years of teaching,
Thornton said successful teachers
should have certain qualities.
“If I think about what makes a
successful teacher, it’s excitement
about the subject," he said. “If
you’re not excited about helping
people learn, you can’t be as effec
tive for the students.”
One of Thornton’s successes at
UNL is a math course aimed at
students who may be worried about
taking math.
Thornton said he designed Con
temporary Mathematics 203 to
teach math-shy students the prac
ticality of mathematics.
“The idea is to get students to
see new kinds of math other than
algebra in high school,” he said.
“It’s a modem kind of mathemat
ics. It's all around us."
Thornton uses a practice com
mon to English classes to get to
know his students — a weekly
journal.
"I know more about the stu
dents. I read their comments," he
said. "At the beginning of the se
mester, students would say things
that let me know they were math
anxious."
"By the middle of the semester,
they are amazed that math has
different implications, and they can
understand its use."
Thornton said his relationships
with students made teaching wortn
while.
"I get great satisfaction from
talking to students after gradua
tion and having them tell me what
we did together made a differ
ence.”
But the best part of teaching, he
said, is being able to teach a sub
ject he loves — math.
"I’m sometimes amazed people
pay me to do something I enjoy
doing.”
Thornton said he loved to teach.
But it’s not easy.
”1 get frustrated when 1 have to
try to understand how a particular
student’s mind in working,”
Thornton said. “I get frustrated
when I can’t reach them.”
Thornton said he had some ad
vice to offer students about being
successful at UNL and after col
lege.
"Be motivated. Work hard. Be
excited about what you’re doing.
“My pet peeve is when people
say, ‘When I get out in the real
world.’ UNL is the real world. It’s
part of your real life.”
UNL research programs experiencing increased growth
BgWhmmmp
Senior Reporter
At universities nationwide, research is grow
ing like a weed.
And at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln,
officials are doing all they can to make sure the
evolution remains firmly rooted and blossoms.
A recently released annual report from the
Office of Sponsored Programs states that UNL
received a record $76.3 million in grants and
contracts during the 1993-94 fiscal year. More
than half of that — $40.7 million — went to
research.
Don Helmuth, associate vice chancellor for
research, said that as UNL continued to expand
its research base, the university will have to
make difficult decisions about where to invest.
"We are very competitive and becoming
more so as time goes by,” he said. “But there’s
no such thing as a university that is competi
tive in all fields.”
Most of the research funding, $19 million,
goes to the Institution of Agriculture and Natu
ral Resources (IANR).
Sharon Davis, director of sponsored pro
grams, said I ANR had a history of being the top
dollar getter for many years. And with good
reason. Funding from the U.S. Department of
Agriculture composed the largest portion of
federal grants to the university.
Helmuth said agencies granted IANR a lot
of money because it is one of the top agricul
tural research institutions in the country.
Other areas experiencing increased growth
and attention are material sciences, such as
electrical engineering, physics and chemistry,
Helmuth said. Physical and social sciences
also are growing, he said.
UNL ranks ninth of 11 peer institutions in
spending for research and development, ac
cording to a report released by the office the
institutional research and planning. Nation
ally, that ranking is 69th of tne top 100 institu
tions. The University of Minnesota ranked first
in the peer group for the 1991 fiscal year, and
third nationally, with almost $331.5 million in
expenditures. UNL spent $87.5 million.
Helmuth said research investment at UNL
had doubled in the last decade. With the open
ing of the George W. Beadle Center for
Biogenetics Research, the university should
see figther funding leaps in the future, he said.
The center isn't scheduled to be in full
operation until next spring, and the cycle to
receive grants takes about a year, Helmuth
said.
Though it’s impossible to estimate the per
centage of possible growth, Helmuth said the
center would make the university a more at
tractive grant recipient.
Davis said the increased funding UNL re
ceived already had an impact at the university.
In the spring 1994, the Carnegie Founda
tion for the Advancement of Teaching reclas
sified UNL as a Research I university, or
among the premier research institutions in the
United States. The amount of grants and con
tracts played a major role in that, she said.
"That’s a real plus for our faculty that
they’ve been able to secure those dollars,”
Davis said.
The annual report provided the following
breakdown of funding for fiscal year 1993
1994: Instruction, $6.8 million; Public Ser
vice, $ 12.2 million; Administration, $6.1 mil
lion; Student Services, $800,000; Student Fi
nancial Aid, $9.7 million.
IANR is the only department that sends its
requests directly to the agencies allotting funds,
and not through the UNL office, Davis said.
The office only receives the proposals after the
fact, she said.
In all other cases, the office receives pro
posals and reviews them for budget accuracy
and compliance with various university poli
cies.