University of Northern Iowa UNI ScholarWorks UNI Today UNI Alumni Association Winter 2002 Northern Iowa Today, v86n1, Winter 2002 University of Northern Iowa Alumni Association Let us know how access to this document benefits ouy Copyright ©2002 University of Northern Iowa Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.uni.edu/alumninews Part of the Higher Education Commons Recommended Citation University of Northern Iowa Alumni Association, "Northern Iowa Today, v86n1, Winter 2002" (2002). UNI Today. 40. https://scholarworks.uni.edu/alumninews/40 This Newsletter is brought to you for free and open access by the UNI Alumni Association at UNI ScholarWorks. It has been accepted for inclusion in UNI Today by an authorized administrator of UNI ScholarWorks. For more information, please contact [email protected]. hanges in the economic and political climate have created challeng s for the University of orthern Iowa. The rapid transition from economic expansion to recession is trouble om a much for its swiftnes a for its magnitude. niversities thrive on stability. Our mi ion is to provide a safe place for maturing minds to explore the wonder of th worlds of place, idea and value . While we exp ct and nurture the chang that accompanies such exploration, changes that bufi t th univer ity from th out id an be een a threats to our mission. In my thirty-five years as a member of a university faculty, I have not een before a reversal of fortunes as precipitous as tho e een this fiscal year. I has coped remarkably well. Th university, with the support of its Board of Regent , has made the commitment to maintain the quality of its programs for the long term. In the short t rm, no actions w r tak n that would interfere with th progress to graduation of any students currently enrolled. Faculty and taff at I have worked even harder to minimize th impact on students. This i made even more significant wh n one realizes that peopl at U I have routinely outp rformed the resources that upport them. Receiving mid-1 vel per-student support from both state appropriation and tuition, I has continued to perform a on of the nation's best public comprehen ive universitie . The only explanation that occurs to me is that U I people make up the differenc . For all the challenge , good things continue to happen at I. A new Honors Program is under way; w have broken ground for a $16.9 million addition to our science building, Mccollum Hall; we have made it past 80 percent of our goal of 75 million in the fir t two years of our five-year Student's First capital campaign; and football and volleyball teams advanced to post-season tournaments. Iowan make it through winter every year. ome winter are tougher than others. This year' fiscal wint r i a tough one, but I will make it through, perhaps even have a little fun along the way, and emerge with its reputation not only intact, but with its degrees mor valuable than ev r. - UNI President Robert Koob The University of Northern Iowa magazine Volume 86, Number 1 Winter 2002 Editor: Gerald Anglum Art Director: Elizabeth Conrad LaVelle Photography: Gerald Anglum, Randy Dar t, Craig Kelchen Other Contributors: Michelle Coleman, Susan Cornell, Gwenne Cu lpepper, Vicki Grimes, Denton Ketels. James O'Connor, Ma1y Reidy, Carole Shelley Yates 2 Good news persists despite tough budget times Class Notes Editor: Kathy Calhoun UNl's character and people persevere Director of Alumni Relations: oreen Hermansen 4 Honors Program gets under way Challenging and nurturing students No11ber11 Iowa Today, clistJibut cl to all alumni, parents, faculty and staff, and oth r fri ncls of , i published four times a year in the spring, summer, fall and winter by the Office of University Marketing & Public Relations, 127 6 Reaching out to businesses and communities Gilchrist Hall, University of orthern Iowa, Cedar Falls, Iowa 50614-0017 and the Division of UNI programs transfer economic development and teclmology expertise Dev lopm nt. The Office of Univer ity Marketing & Public R lations (319) 273-2761 invites letters to the editor, as well as suggestions and contributi ns for articles and class notes. 8 Students First Campaign gains momentum Send address changes to Northern Iowa Today, Major gifts made to McLeodUSA Center Office of Alumni Relations, 204 Commons, University of Northern Iowa, Cedar Falls, Iowa 50614-0284. Third class postage paid at Cedar Falls, Iowa 50613. 10 Faculty profile: Mark Grey The University of orthern Iowa is a member &tending a welcome to new Iowans of CASE, the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education. Northern Iowa is an equal opportunity educator and employer with a comprehensive plan for affirmative action. 12 Alumni profile: Whitey Bro On the cover: A compendium ofpbotos Teflon®is his game represe11tiJ1g an especially ricb array of academic. c11lt11ral and athletic developments over tbe past several montbs at UNI. For a key to what each photo represents, see the back cover. 14 College & University 19 UNI Alumni World Including Alumni Association news and Class Noles 32 Perspective: GBPAC enjoying success Steve Carignan Visit the university via the World Wide Web: www.uni.edu 1 here is no loubt about it I budget cuts, Regent universitie found T is a great place to be as ~inter they had taken an uncharacteri tically gets off to an unseasonably major hit. The damage assessment for pleasant start. I is sobering; the university's Good More than 14,000 students are on appropriation will be trimmed by 11 campus in the fo urth straight year of percent in one fiscal year. record enrollments. A new University President Robert Koob responded H nors program i providing talented forcefully to the cuts, saying they freshmen with more challenging and would have a "deva tating effect on engaging student experiences than the university." With enro llment news ever before. soaring and ambitiou goals to meet Unprecedented support from in the first year of a n w five-year alumni and fri nd i fu eling a strategic plan, the challenge for campaign for scholarships, programs university administrators would be to and building projects that will maintain th high quality that ha enhance the student experience for increasingly made I the despite generations to come . National news undergraduate choice for Iowa' publications have again recognized students. UNI for it academic quality and for University administrators have being a "best value for the tuition tried to minimize the impact on UNI dollar. " student in the spring semester. The Our athletes advanced to the most significant reduction is the tough volleyball Sweet Sixteen for the elimination of 146 of 240 adjunct second time in two years and to the faculty positions. This translates to semi-finals of the I-AA football 217 fewer class offerings for students championship , both with first-year in spring 2002. Tenured and tenure­ head coaches. The men's basketball track professors will as ume the larger team is off to a great start, proving teaching loads and larger classes. times that pundits' pre eason predictions Fewer classes, loss of electives can be very wrong. and a higher student-to-faculty ratio In short, it's great to be a Panther. will inevitably affect some students. It by Denton Ketels All of this fa ir weather activity is is an ironic counterpoint to I' happening in the eye of an economic planned request for 85 new storm that hit the state of Iowa's tenured/ tenure-track faculty positions budget hard in 2001. It swept through in the next legislative session. The the Iowa Legislature in the pring and request is based on the fact that the Adam Briddell, president of the UNI bl w through the gov mor's office number of tenured and tenure-track Student Government, addresses the again in the fa ll . B th times it re ulted faculty has b en fa r outpaced by November meeting of the Board of enrollment eve1y year since 1997. Regents. in deep, across-the-board cuts in state appropriations. In the aftermath of the University administration believes firmly that smaller clas sizes and faculty-student interaction is as important at the university level a it is in K-12; howev r, it is feared that the $2.2 million request that would close the student-faculty numbers gap could fall on deaf ears in the next legislative session. o far no UNI programs have been eliminated. That may eventually happen, too, if slowing state revenues bring more cuts next year. Presently, the money to maintain standards of excellence in the face of dramatic reduction in tate support will have to come directly from students and their families. The Board of Regents, 2 State of Iowa, voted in ovember for importance of funding for higher at the top of UNI's request-for-funding an 18.5 percent increa e in base education. We want to make a good list, as will full funding of tate- tuition that will become effective in impression so that the issue is on n gotiated salaries. 2003. representatives' minds when the Groups such as UNITE and Predictably, the biggest one-year legislature reconvenes." ITE's student chapter are extremely tuition increase in 32 years-a It may be small consolation to important in positively impacting whopping 62.3 percent hike occurred students and parents who'll be facing legislative decisions about higher in 1970-prompted reaction from steeper co t , but resident education. The parent organization students and earned front-page undergraduate tuition and fees at now ha about 150 members and is headlines in the press.