The Colleges
Cosmic celebration During Durango Days
Mother Nature provided a once-in-a-lifetime show on Aug. 21, UNO’s first day of classes for the 2017-2018 academic year — the first total eclipse of the sun visible across North America in more than 60 years.
Omaha had nearly 100-percent totality of eclipse, necessitating UNO solar glasses for thousands of students, faculty and staff who experienced the eclipse together during Durango Days in the Pep Bowl.
The department of Physics, College of Education and Criss Library also provided a variety of viewing opportunities and educational displays as part of the eclipse.
Campus organizers later collected leftover glasses for Astronomers Without Borders. The group will distribute the glasses in South America and Asia prior to the next solar eclipse in 2019.
Chancellor travels to Northeast Nebraska
Representatives from UNO, led by Chancellor Jeffrey P. Gold, M.D., visited Columbus, Norfolk and West Point during two days last fall as part of a community conversation tour.
Daniel Shipp, vice chancellor for Student Success, and Omar Correa, associate vice chancellor for enrollment management, joined Chancellor Gold on the trip.
At each stop, the group held public forums that focused on program updates at UNO and UNMC, as well as future collaboration opportunities among the campuses and state.
Campus continues to grow, change
The last half of 2017 was a time of significant change and Maverick momentum when it came to the look of campus.
Summer began with a major change on the Dodge Campus: the removal of the radio broadcast tower that had been located south of the College of Public Affairs and Community Service building since 1972.
The following month, work began on a new addition to the Strauss Performing Arts Center, which also marked its 45th birthday in 2017. The project is four decades in the making as the original plans for Strauss had to be altered due to complications with construction. The addition is scheduled to be complete in September 2018.
In August, the new Pacific Street Garage featuring more than 1,200 stalls opened for use. Along with the new garage, Parking Services rolled out a significant change to its permit system. All parking permits became digital and new options became available for daily and hourly parking via online purchase and the Park Omaha app.
Just south of the new garage, UNO’s opened its newest housing unit in September, Scott Crossing. That brings the total number of beds on campus to more than 2,000.
Attached to Scott Crossing is Maverick Landing, a one-stop-shop for the needs of prospective students and their families, as well as a study space for current students and faculty. Maverick Landing officially opened in October as part of UNO’s homecoming festivities.
More changes lie ahead for the UNO campus with the announcement of a new addition to the Biomechanics Research Building, which opened in 2013. The privately funded, $11.6 million project will more than double the building’s size and connect all three levels, providing new laboratories, instructional space, offices and collaborative space.
UNO professor spearheads low-cost prosthetics project
In July, a team of University of Nebraska researchers led by UNO Professor Jorge Zuniga began a two-year project funded by the Nebraska Research Initiative to provide low-cost prosthetics for children whose families cannot afford them.
With the help of 3D printing technology, six professors from UNO, UNMC, UNL and UNK hope to dramatically increase access for children in need.
The clinical research effort is the first of its kind attempted in the United States.
“This is a true Nebraska collaboration that will impact the lives of hundreds here in the state and thousands across the world,” Zuniga says.
UNO Assistant Professor Mukul Mukherjee is the second UNO faculty member on the project.
Marion Marsh Brown Lecture Welcomes Lee Child
In April, Lee Child, best-selling author of the “Jack Reacher” series, will speak at Baxter Arena as part of the Marion Marsh Brown Writers Lecture Series.
In addition to being a household name, Child is one of Omaha’s most popular authors as measured by Omaha Public Library circulation.
The free event is in its third year. Tickets can be picked up at the Baxter Arena box office or online at events.unomaha.edu/leechild.
The Marion Marsh Brown Writers Lecture Series is presented by Marion’s son Paul Brown, his wife Djel Ann, and their children, Randy, Scott and Marietta Luellen.
Marion served as a professor of English at UNO (then Omaha University) from 1954 through 1968. She wrote more than 15 books and is best known for her young adult literature. The series celebrates her life and work by bringing a well-known author to UNO each year. Previous speakers included best-selling authors John Grisham and Cheryl Strayed.
MMBLTACC
In February, UNO will host the Midwest Bisexual, Lesbian, Gay, Transgender, Ally College Conference – also known as MBLGTACC.
The student-organized event is the largest LGBTQIA+ college conference in the nation. UNO earned the right to host following a proposal at last year’s conference in Chicago.
This year’s theme, “All Roads Lead to Intersectionality,” focuses on empowering queer and trans Midwest college students to celebrate their identities.
The conference will include speakers, workshops, entertainment and more.
Record Enrollment/Retention
UNO continued its “Maverick Momentum” into the 2017-2018 academic year, achieving a record-breaking incoming freshman class for the third-straight year and enrolling the second largest graduate class in the university’s history.
The 15,731 students enrolled at UNO for the new academic year includes 12,624 undergraduates, 2,105 of whom are incoming freshmen, and a graduate class of 3,107, including 723 new students.
The addition of nearly 3,000 new students, undergraduate and graduate, for 2017-2018 comes on the heels of a new alumni cohort of 3,123 recent graduates, maintaining the success of the 2015-2016 graduating class, which was the largest in UNO’s nearly 110-year history.
New Chair, Proposed Center Honors Goldstein Family
On Oct. 20, representatives from UNO joined members of the Omaha community to celebrate two additions to the campus in honor of Leonard and Shirley Goldstein.
In July, the University of Nebraska Foundation announced the creation of the Goldstein Family Community Chair in Human Rights, made possible by support from Leonard and Shirley’s children: Donald Goldstein, Kathy Helm and Gail Raznick. The post will be filled by Assistant Professor of Religious Studies Laura Alexander.
This is the first community chair for UNO in a humanities-related field.
Earlier in October, the NU Board of Regents approved the creation of the Leonard and Shirley Goldstein Center for Human Rights at UNO. The center will be a nonpartisan, nonsectarian organization that promotes the understanding of human rights issues through teaching, research, creative activity and community engagement.
The center will be made possible and supported annually through a permanent $2 million endowment at the University of Nebraska Foundation by the late Shirley Goldstein, who died earlier this year. Her husband Leonard died in 2012.
The additions are the latest in a decades-long relationship with UNO, beginning with the Shirley and Leonard Goldstein Lecture on Human Rights, which was founded in 1997 to focus attention on the plight of people from around the world who suffer from abuse.
— Compiled by University Communications