NUFlex Open Computer Lab Available Today

Only one more day remains for 2010 NUFlex enrollment. Since this year's enrollment is online only, Human Resources will hold its final open computer lab today, Dec. 3, for employees requiring a computer or additional assistance.

The lab will be offered in 007A Roskens Hall (lower level) from 3 to 4:30 p.m.

Go to http://firefly.nebraska.edu and log in for online NUFlex enrollment, which ends Friday, Dec. 4. For password help, contact ITS Customer Service Helpdesk at 554.4357.

Arts and Sciences Speaker Series Continues Tonight with English Lecture

The UNO College of Arts and Sciences Centennial Speaker Series continues tonight, Dec. 3, with a lecture by Marc Manganaro, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Gonzaga University since 2007. His presentation is titled "The Road from Omaha: Reflections on a Life in the Not-So-Ivory Tower" and will begin at 7 p.m. in the William H. and Dorothy Thompson Alumni Center. Read more.

The Miracle Worker Continues on Stage Tonight

The Department of Theatre will present the final performances of William Gibson's The Miracle Worker, directed by Cindy Melby Phaneuf Dec. 3-5 in the UNO Theatre, Weber Fine Arts Building.

The house opens at 7 p.m. with a 7:30 p.m. curtain for all performances. There will be a talkback session held in the theatre after the Dec. 4 production. UNO will provide a sign language-interpreted performance on Dec. 5. Read more.

myBlackboard Courses to Be Archived

Tired of seeing old courses dating back as far as spring 2004 in myBlackboard? In order to continue to have enough available space on the server for future semesters, Information Technology Services (ITS) has started to archive and purge Blackboard courses that are more than six semesters old. This means that by the end of the fall 2009 semester, the oldest courses will be fall 2007. Older courses will be archived and stored on backup media.

Users needing continued access to materials in courses prior to the fall 2007 semester, can request a development course through E-BRUNO and copy materials from the older course into the developmental course. Because developmental courses are intended for creating new course materials and preserving old materials, developmental courses will not be archived and purged from Blackboard.

Contact ITS Customer Services at 554.4357 or unohelpdesk@mail.unomaha.edu with questions.

Criss Library To Extend Hours for Prep and Finals Week

Criss Library will pilot extended hours for prep and finals week this month.

"We are pleased to offer students this additional time," said Audrey DeFrank, acting dean of libraries. "We will track and evaluate student usage during this time to determine the feasibility of extended hours in subsequent semesters."

The library will stay open two extra hours until 2 a.m. Sunday through Thursday during prep week (Dec. 6-10), and Sunday through Tuesday of finals week (Dec. 13-15) to allow UNO students additional research and study hours.

Prep and Finals Week library hours:
Dec. 6: Noon to 2 a.m.
Dec. 7-10: 7 a.m. to 2 a.m.
Dec. 11: 7 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Dec. 12: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Dec. 13: Noon to 2 a.m.
Dec. 14-15: 7 a.m. to 2 a.m.
Dec. 16-17: 7 a.m. to midnight
Dec. 18: 7 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Holiday Card Program to Benefit Scholarship Funds

The Faculty Senate and Staff Advisory Council (SAC) have teamed up once again to sponsor the annual Holiday Card Program. The deadline to contribute has been extended to Friday, Dec. 11.

All interested faculty and staff are encouraged to donate the money they would normally spend on greeting cards for colleagues to one of two scholarship funds at UNO - the William Gerbracht Memorial Scholarship Fund (recipients are children of faculty and staff) or the General Scholarship Fund. Additional donations are also welcome. In return, a seasonal greeting that acknowledges contributors will be distributed to all UNO departments the week of Dec. 14.

Those who wish to donate should send a check (payable to UNO) to Cashiering/Student Accounts, 109 EAB, by Dec. 11. Donors should designate one of the two scholarship funds listed above and indicate the name or names they wish to appear on the seasonal greetings card.

Click on http://www.unomaha.edu/enotes/2009/img/holiday_card.pdf to access a donation form.

For more information, contact Monica Bayles at 554.2977.

Printed Test Scanning Results to be Discontinued

On Monday, Jan. 4, Information Technology Services (ITS) will discontinue printing individual student results from scanned tests. UNO faculty will continue to retrieve these results through E-BRUNO for faculty and, if needed, print them in their department or office.

For more information about test scanning go to: http://its.unomaha.edu/testscan.php or contact ITS Customer Services at 554.HELP (4357) or unohelpdesk@unomaha.edu.

Kwanzaa Celebration Dec. 4 in the MBSC

Faculty, staff and students can attend the annual campus Kwanzaa celebration Friday, Dec. 4, from noon to 1:30 p.m. in the Milo Bail Student Center Ballroom. The event will highlight African traditions and American customs and will include free food.

The name Kwanzaa comes from a Swahili phrase meaning "first fruits." In ancient Africa, the time to harvest fruits and grains was a time of celebration.

For more information, call 554.2711.

Nebraska Biomechanics Core Facility to Host Stroke Recovery Talk Dec. 4

The Nebraska Biomechanics Core Facility will host a talk on Friday, Dec. 4, by Randy Nudo, the Marian Merrell Dow Distinguished Professor in Aging at the Kansas University Medical Center in Kansas City, Kan. Nudo will present "Brain Machine Interfaces for Modulating Recovery After Stroke" from noon to 1 p.m. in 206 Health, Physical Education and Recreation Building.

Nudo is recognized internationally for his work on the effects of rehabilitative training on functional plasticity after stroke. He also serves as director of the Landon Center on Aging and is a professor in the Department of Molecular and Integrative Physiology. He frequently speaks at national and international symposia on stroke, neurology, physical therapy and rehabilitation.

Nudo received a bachelor's degree in psychology from Pennsylvania State University and a master's degree and doctorate from Florida State University in Tallahassee, Fla. He held a postdoctoral position in the Department of Physiology at University of California at San Francisco and then joined the faculty of the Department of Neurobiology and Anatomy at the University of Texas Health Science Center-Houston.

He has served on the faculty at the University of Kansas Medical Center since 1997 and is the principal investigator on a National Institutes of Health (NIH)-funded project to study neural mechanisms of functional recovery after stroke, now in its 18th year of support. He also is the principal investigator for a $3.5 million NIH-funded, multi-institution Translational Research Center to optimize a new form of cortical electrical stimulation therapy to improve recovery after stroke.

For more information, call 554.2573.

HPER Addition and Renovation Project Reminder

The exterior stairs on the east side of the Health, Physical Education and Recreation (HPER) Building are for emergency egress only. Pedestrians are not allowed west past the bottom of the stairs nor in the construction area between the Sapp Fieldhouse and the HPER Building. This area is a hardhat area, restricted to construction personnel only.

Facilities Management and Planning staff appreciates the UNO community's continued patience through out the project's construction.

For more information, contact Audrey Buckley at 554.4104.

Campus Holiday Open House Dec. 9 in MBSC

Chancellor John Christensen, Senior Vice Chancellor Terry Hynes and Vice Chancellor Bill Conley invite faculty and staff to attend UNO's annual campus holiday open house. The event takes place Wednesday, Dec. 9, from 3 to 5 p.m. in the Milo Bail Student Center Ballroom.

Click on http://www.unomaha.edu/enotes/2009/img/holidayopenhouse09.pdf to view a special invitation from Chancellor Christensen and the vice chancellors.

Those planning to attend should R.S.V.P. by the end of today, Dec. 2, to Bob Cairns at 554.2311 or rcairns@unomaha.edu.

ITS to Offer "Web Templates: Widgets!" Course

Information Technology Services (ITS) staff will host a "Web Templates: Widgets!" course on Thursday, Dec. 10, from 9 to 11:30 a.m. in 007B Roskens Hall.

Widgets are modules of code that can be used with UNO Web templates to increase the design of college and departmental Web pages with audio, video and other special features.

This hands-on class will teach attendees how to use the Calendar, I Want to:, Now Hear This-Multi, UNO Tube-Single, RSS and Mavr Widgets, which will be used with the WTA_01 Web template.

Requirements:

- Must have attended the basic Web template class;

- Must have a test site setup; and

- Must have access to the Dreamweaver software.

To register for this training:

- Go to http://api.unomaha.edu/calendar.php;

- Select the correct month, and click "Go";

- Click "Register" next to the event;

- Enter a personal SAP personnel number (this is the six-digit number on all UNO employee check stubs and UNO photo IDs);

- Click "Sign Up"; and

- Click "OK" to confirm the SAP personnel number.

For more information, contact ITS Customer Services at 554.HELP (4357) or unohelpdesk@unomaha.edu.

Deadline Approaches for Cumbre Submissions

Submissions will be accepted through Saturday, Dec. 12, for individual papers and presenters for The Fourth Cumbre of the Great Plains. The Office of Latino/Latin American Studies (OLLAS) at UNO will host the conference Thursday through Saturday, May 13-15, at Embassy Suites in Omaha. The event's theme is "Human Mobility, the Promise of Development and Political Engagement." The conference will bring together scholars, policy-makers, and non-governmental and community representatives interested in exchanging views about the failures and successes of economic development and its impact on immigration. Read more.

UNO Bookstore Reminds Faculty to Submit Spring Book Orders

The UNO Bookstore staff would like to remind faculty that book orders are due for courses offered during the spring semester.

Faculty may submit information to the bookstore through campus mail, via fax (554.3220) or through the bookstore Web site at http://www.unobookstore.com/textbook_adoptions.asp.

For more information, contact Scott Dickey at 554.2541.

Call for On-Campus Pedagogical Support Activities

The University Committee for the Advancement of Teaching (UCAT) announces the availability of Pedagogical Activity Grants for university-wide pedagogical activities to enhance teaching/learning at UNO.

Examples of possible activities, but not limited to these, are: guest speakers, workshops and book discussions. All applications should connect to one or more UCAT themes. Visit http://www.unomaha.edu/ucat for a link to UCAT themes.

The committee is accepting proposals on a monthly basis now through April or until funds are expended. The committee will fund grants up to $500 for each award. Proposals are due by the 21st of each month. Application forms are available on the UCAT Web site (http://www.unomaha.edu/ucat/). Applicants should submit one hard copy and an electronic submission of the application. Electronic submissions should be in rtf or MS Word document formats and should be sent as an e-mail attachment to Alice Woll (awoll@unomaha.edu). Hard copy submissions should be sent to the Center for Faculty Development in ASH 202.

For more information, contact 2009-10 UCAT Chair Kath Henebry at 554.3153 or khenebry@unomaha.edu.