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ACADEMIC RESOURCES

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ACADEMIC SUCCESS

Academic Success is a collaboration of offices that provide academic assistance. The Learning Strategies Office offers transition and skills classes, a computer learning lab, testing accommodations, and other services that support academic and life long learning. Student Support Services is a grant funded program targeted on students who meet criteria for participation. Participation is limited to students who work actively with the program that is mandated to enhance academic performance, persistence, and graduation.

CENTER FOR TEACHING EXCELLENCE

The mission of the Center for Teaching Excellence is to enhance undergraduate education by providing services and resources to encourage and support excellent teaching. The Center coordinates teaching and learning workshops, symposia, and small group discussions designed to assist faculty in promoting active learning, understanding learning styles, and assessing student learning. In addition to offering individual and confidential consulting services for instructors, the Center also disseminates instructional information.

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY SERVICES

Information Technology provides administrative and academic technology-based services to the campus and provides support for the campus network. Available services include technical assistance and desktop support for faculty and staff, training for faculty, staff and students using a wide variety of computing resources, Internet access, hardware and software configuration and purchasing assistance, server support, web development and multimedia services and administrative programming support.

A variety of computing platforms support administrative, instructional and research functions for faculty, staff and students. Access to IBM/MVS and DEC/VMS is available. Lotus Notes is used for email. BlackBoard is utilized for development and management of web-based courses. Information Technology Services manages servers running Windows, Unix, Linux, and OS X operating systems to support computing resources for the campus.

A general-purpose student computer lab, open 24 hours a day during the academic year, is maintained in the Nebraskan Student Union. The lab contains both Macintosh and Windows-based machines with Internet access. A lab monitor is always available to provide assistance. Small computer labs are also maintained in each residence hall. Two general-purpose labs are located in the Calvin T. Ryan Library. General-purpose labs provide access to a standard suite of software, including browsers, word processing, and spreadsheets. There are student computer labs, some with Macintosh computers and some with Windows-based computers, located in each of the academic buildings, maintained by individual departments.

Accessible workstations for students with disabilities and special needs are available in the Calvin T. Ryan Library. Students with disabilities and special needs should contact the Learning Strategies Office for information regarding these workstations.

A computer store in Room 113, Otto Olsen Building, offers full retail services for those wishing to buy computer equipment, including configuration advice and demo units. Contracts with major vendors provide attractive educational discounts, with sales limited to faculty, staff, and students of UNK.

The Help Desk is available to answer questions, resolve problems and provide information about computer use and network services at UNK. Training sessions and hands-on assistance are offered for faculty, staff, and students wishing to learn more about many aspects of technology. The Help Desk is staffed from 8 am to 8 pm on Monday through Thursday and 8 am to 5 pm on Friday.

All of the residence halls offer network access to students in each room. With this connection to the UNK network, students who have their own computers can access all campus computing resources, including library databases and the Internet from their residence hall room.

Administrative software includes SAP for financial management and payroll and SIS Plus, a student information system from Systems and Computer Technology (SCT). Web access to student information and registration is provided for students. A Diebold system validates campus ID cards for meal plans and for network printing.

Two sets of guidelines, the University of Nebraska Policy for Responsible Use of University Computers and Information Systems and Guidelines for the Use of Computing Resources at the University of Nebraska at Kearney, apply to faculty, staff and students at UNK.

THE MUSEUM OF NEBRASKA ART (MONA)

The Museum of Nebraska Art is unique among art museums because its collection is focused specifically on the visual arts heritage of Nebraska. It includes pieces by Nebraska artists as well as artworks featuring Nebraska subject matter by artists from all over the world. A Kearney landmark, its turn-of-the century, neo-classic structure, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, provides a beautiful home for the collection. Located in Kearney Centre, the downtown area, MONA is an important bridge between the University, the community, and the citizens of the State.

MONA is a living, breathing laboratory for the appreciation of the arts. University of Nebraska Kearney students enjoy opportunities to broaden their academic experiences because of their association with MONA. Literally thousands of elementary, middle school, and high school students from Kearney and surrounding communities enhance their art studies each year by visiting MONA. Many visitors enjoy MONA by attending exhibitions, special educational workshops, lectures, and musical performances. Web and distance education programming provide connections to the Museum beyond central Nebraska. With no admission fee and convenient parking, MONA is an artistic treasure readily available to all.

LIBRARY

The Calvin T. Ryan Library staff, in partnership with the classroom faculty and other members of the UNK community, provides students with opportunities to develop skills that support their current educational pursuits, to further their career opportunities, to enrich their personal lives, and, ultimately, to prepare them for lifelong learning.

The library building consists of the original structure constructed in 1963, with an addition section completed in 1981-1982. It provides seating, including group study rooms, lounge seating, and individual study carrels, for more than 900 students. In recent years several additional changes have been made, including the addition of two computer labs, and more recently, an Internet café.

As well as the two computer labs, numerous computer stations are available throughout the library. Furthermore, wireless computers can be used almost anywhere in the building. Students may check out laptop computers at the circulation desk for use within the library. Other services in the library building include the campus Writing Center and the Adaptive Technology Center (to assist physically challenged students). Both are located on the 2nd floor of the library.

The library collection consists of over 250,000 print volumes and 75,000 non-print items encompassing a wide range of materials. It subscribes to about 1,250 periodicals (magazines and journals) and newspapers in print. It is an official government depository for more than 275,000 U.S. documents, which represent publications of U.S. governmental agencies. The library is also a depository for documents for the State of Nebraska. A Special Collection includes titles on Nebraska history and the history of the American West. The library contains the University Archives, which comprises of materials concerning the history of the institution and related information about its faculty, staff, administration, and students. Also, the Regional Instructional Materials Center makes available instructional materials for review by University of Nebraska at Kearney students and area educators.

The library provides access to an increasingly a wide range of computer-based information resources, including the library's catalog, numerous indexing and abstracting sources, as well as several thousand full-text periodicals. The library' s homepage http://rosi.unk.edu/ offers University of Nebraska at Kearney users access to both general information about the library, including library hours, and to a large amount of information resources.

In addition to the rich collection within the building and access to electronic information resources, the library's Interlibrary Loan Services identifies and provides access to the resources of other libraries in the state, region, and nation.

The nine library faculty members and sixteen support staff are dedicated to making the library an integral part of students' careers at UNK in a numerous ways, including acquiring and organizing information resources in a variety of formats, providing classroom instruction on the use of library resources, consulting one-on-one with students at the reference desk, and ensuring good quality areas conducive to study.

PLANETARIUM AND OBSERVATORY

These facilities are operated by the Department of Physics and Physical Science, which offers coursework in astronomy. In addition to use of these facilities for UNK classes, both are used to provide programming for the public. In the 2002-2003 year, there were 83 Planetarium shows for the public, including 46 for public school groups. The Observatory is also open for regularly scheduled nights of public viewing. All shows are free, including a special Christmas presentation.

SPEECH, LANGUAGE AND HEARING CLINIC

The Speech, Language and Hearing Clinic is the center for BSE program in Communication Disorders and MSE program in Speech/Language Pathology. It offers a site for the integration of professional coursework with extensive practical experience for those students choosing this major.

The Clinic offers clinical services in consultation, evaluation, and remediation for both students, faculty, and area residents. Services are available for communication disorders related to articulation/phonological problems, language delay, stuttering, voice problems, hearing loss, cleft palate, cerebral palsy, mental retardation, laryngectomy, and language disorders secondary to head injury and stroke. The Clinic is open Monday through Friday from 8am to 5pm and selected evenings.

TESTING CENTER

The Testing Center, located in College of Education Building, provides Computer Based Testing and Paper/Pencil Testing for a wide array of areas. Our Computed Based Testing system delivers both linear exams (all items are presented in order) and adaptive tests (the computer uses the candidate's response to each item to deliver subsequent items and ends when the computer is able to make a pass/fail determination).

Computer Based testing is offered year round, Monday through Saturday, by appointment only. Paper/Pencil testing is conducted on specific published dates with pre-registration required. Study materials are available for certain programs.

The Testing Center services are available to all University of Nebraska students as well as students from surrounding Colleges and the general public.

The following Computer Based Tests are currently available through the Testing Center:

CLEP      College-Level Examination Program
GRE      Graduate Records Examination
GMAT   Graduate Management Admissions Test
NBPTS   National Board for Professional Teaching Standards
PRAXIS   Professional Assessments for Teachers
TOEFL   Test of English as a Foreign Language

The following paper/pencil tests are currently available through the Testing Center:

ACT      Residual American Testing Program (Valid for admission to UNK ONLY)
DANTES   Defense Activity for Non-Traditional Education Support
GRE Subject Tests   Graduate Records Examination
LSAT   Law School Admissions Test
PRAXIS   Professional Assessments for Teachers

WALKER ART GALLERY

The Gallery, located in the art wing of the Fine Arts Building, is used for student art shows, including senior and graduate thesis exhibits, faculty work, and the shows of visiting artists. Programming is continuous and year-round.

WRITING CENTER

The Writing Center, open to all UNK students, provides free tutorial services to encourage and support student writers. Located on the second floor of the Calvin T. Ryan Library, the UNK Writing Center is open during the day and many evenings throughout the year. Help is provided in a one-on-one session in all areas of writing, such as pre-writing, organizing, composing, revising, and editing.

To use this service, students can either schedule an appointment or drop-in when openings are available. Students can also use the Digital Online Submission program. The online version of the UNK Writing Center can be used in a number of ways. Students can schedule a virtual real-time appointment, submit papers for comments, take guided tutorials, view a library of tips, or ask tutors questions.

The Writing Center website can be found at http:www.unk.edu/acad/writing_center/

DOS Program information can be found at http:www.unk.edu/acad/writing_center/index.php?id=880

12 Jul 2006

ugradcatalog@unk.edu