Academic Success provides resources for student achievement at UNK and beyond. To that end, Academic Success houses seven services that can help students earn better grades, graduate on-time, and become life-long learners. Resources include Student Support Services, a federal TRIO program; Disability Services; University Foundations classes; Study Skills classes; a Computer Lab; Supplemental Instruction (group tutoring); and the Learning Commons (Tutoring and Writing Center). Academic Success urges students to register for support services, enroll in transition classes, develop an accommodations plan, and/or sign-up for peer tutoring as early as possible. It is never too early to start planning for success. Moreover, taking full advantage of the available resources not only helps students perform academically, but also connects them with a diverse group of fun, interesting and engaged peers and staff.

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.

eCampus at UNK has been meeting the educational needs of placebound, nontraditional adults for more than three decades by offering quality, affordable programs. UNK offers the same quality distance and online degree programs and courses that are offered on the campus. The majority of the eCampus courses are taught by credentialed faculty with Ph.D.s who are committed to teaching excellence. eCampus supports faculty and students with numerous support services to ensure that online offerings provide students with a quality educational experience. These include training for online faculty, course consultations, test proctoring, as well as a wide range of resources to help students succeed with their online education.

As part of the eCampus unit, Video Services provides a wide range of video related services to the UNK community. Among these are interactive videoconferencing, desktop videoconferencing, streaming video, taping, and duplicating. In addition, Video Services oversees the delivery of Cable TV services to the campus.

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, instructional design, and multimedia services; and administrative application development.

A variety of platforms support administrative, instructional and research functions for faculty, staff and students. All students have UNK email accounts. BlackBoard is utilized for development and management of web-based courses.

A general-purpose student computer lab is maintained in the Nebraskan Student Union. 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.

A wireless data network is available to students, faculty and staff in all campus buildings.

Accessible workstations for students with disabilities and special needs are available in the Nebraskan Student Union lab. Students with disabilities and special needs should contact the Office of Academic Success 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, located in Room 115, Otto Olsen Building, 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 5 pm on Monday through Friday, but assistance is available 24x7. After hours phone calls are routed to an answering service, which also responds to emails and offers live chat. (See the Helpdesk link at http://its.unk.edu).

All of the residence halls offer network access to students in each room. With a wired or wireless connection to the UNK network, students who have their own computers can access campus computing resources and the Internet from their residence hall room.

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

The University of Nebraska at Kearney Institutional Review Board (IRB) is an independent committee comprised of faculty from a variety of academic divisions, individuals with medical expertise, and community members. The role of the IRB is to protect human subjects who participate in research and to ensure that research conducted by UNK students, faculty, and staff complies with federal regulations.

The three general ethical principles that underlie the regulations concerning human subject research are: respect for persons, beneficence, and justice. These principles guide IRB review of research conducted at UNK:

Respect for Persons - Prospective participants in research must be given enough information about the nature of the research, what is required from them, and the potential benefits and risks of participating to allow them to make an informed decision about whether or not to participate.

Beneficence - Research involving human subjects must maintain a favorable balance between benefits and risks. Many types of risk must be considered, including physical harm, psychological harm, harm to one's reputation or employment status, and financial harm. In any risk-potential situation, the benefits should outweigh the potential risk. Subjects must be aware of potential risks before consenting to participate in the research.

Justice - Researchers should fairly select subjects for research participation. Fairness refers to the subjects as individuals as well as to subjects as members of any social, racial, sexual, or ethnic group.

At the individual level, subjects cannot be selected only because they are favored by the researcher or disliked by the researcher (for example, only those failing a class are invited to participate). Additionally, certain groups should not be more burdened than others with being research subjects. On the other hand, groups should not be excluded from research because of prior beliefs or because they are difficult to reach as research subjects.

Depending on the research method and subjects, IRB review is conducted at three levels: exempt, expedited, and full board. Researchers should submit their protocols to the IRB prior to data collection. Researchers also must complete a training program. The link to the training, submission guidelines, and forms for IRB review are available at: http://www.unk.edu/academics/gradstudies.aspx?id=3003

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

The library building was originally constructed in 1963, and an addition was completed in 1983. It provides seating for more than 900 students, including group study rooms, lounge seating, and individual study carrels. In recent years further changes have been made, including the addition of two computer labs and coffee shop.

The library provides access to a wide range of computer-based information resources, including the library's catalog, numerous indexing and abstracting sources, and more than 45,000 full-text periodicals. A new online reference service provides telephone and e-mail reference service during scheduled hours, along with 24/7 "chat" reference through a partnership with 650 other academic and public libraries worldwide. Several large online reference collections make this reference information available to distance students as well as to those who use the library on-campus. The online portion of the library never closes, and these electronic resources are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, to UNK students anywhere in the world who have a computer and reliable access to the Internet. The library's homepage http://library.unk.edu offers University of Nebraska at Kearney users access to general information about the library, including library hours, and its information resources.

Numerous computer stations are available throughout the library. 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. Also, located on the second floor of the library, is the campus Writing Center and other academic support services in a new "Learning Commons."

The collection consists of over 280,000 print volumes and 93,000 non-print items encompassing a wide range of materials. The Library subscribes to about 1,200 periodicals in print (magazines, journals, and newspapers). It is an official government depository for more than 277,000 U.S. documents, which represent publications of U.S. governmental agencies. The library is also a depository for documents from State of Nebraska agencies. A Special Collection includes titles on Nebraska history and the history of the American West. The library houses the University Archives, comprised of materials concerning the history of UNK and related information about its faculty, staff, administration, and students. The Regional Instructional Materials Review Collection (RIMRC) makes instructional materials available for review by University of Nebraska at Kearney students and area educators.

The Interlibrary Loan/Document Delivery Division of the Library supports the research and instructional needs of the UNK community by providing access to materials not owned by the Library. This service is provided free of charge to UNK students, faculty, and staff.

The nine library faculty members and sixteen support staff are dedicated to making the library an integral part of students' careers at UNK by acquiring and organizing information resources in a variety of formats, providing classroom instruction on the use of library resources, and consulting one-on-one with students in the library, via phone, and online.

The Museum of Nebraska Art is unique among art museums, dedicated exclusively to telling the story of Nebraska through the art of Nebraska. MONA exhibits the work of a distinguished and diverse collection of artists including pieces by Nebraska artists as well as artwork featuring Nebraska subjects by artists from all over the world. A Kearney landmark listed on the National Register of Historic Places, MONA provides a fitting home for its collection of over 5,000 works. Located in downtown Kearney, MONA is a regional center for cultural activities where students enjoy opportunities to broaden their academic experiences through their association with the Museum and its collection. 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 as well. With no admission fee and convenient parking, MONA is an artistic treasure readily available to all.

These facilities are operated by the Department of Physics and Physical Science. The UNK Planetarium is Nebraska's newest star theater. The Planetarium's Zeiss star projector provides students and visitors with an indoor Universe where the sky is never cloudy. The lobby of the Planetarium features Nebraska's only Foucault Pendulum. The Foucault Pendulum was the first experiment that proved that the Earth rotated on its axis. The Observatory gives both visitors and science majors opportunities to explore the sky with state of the art telescopes and electronics. Both the Planetarium and the Observatory are used to teach our physics, astronomy, earth science, and teacher education courses. They also are used to offer presentations for visiting public and school groups. There is no admission fee for either the Planetarium or the Observatory. The Planetarium is handicap accessible; the Observatory, however, is not.

The Speech, Language and Hearing Clinic is the academic center for the B.S.Ed. degree program in Communication Disorders and the M.S.Ed. degree program in Speech/Language Pathology. It offers a site for the integration of professional coursework with extensive practical experience under direct faculty supervision for those students choosing this major.

The Clinic offers clinical services in consultation, evaluation, and treatment for students, faculty, and the general public. Services are available for both children and adults with communication disorders related to articulation/phonological problems, language delay, reading and writing challenges, stuttering, voice problems, hearing loss, cochlear implants, cleft palate, cerebral palsy, mental retardation, laryngectomy, and language disorders secondary to head injury and stroke. The Clinic is located in the west end of the College of Education Building. Clients may park in the lot coming directly off Hwy. 30 by the main doors to the clinic. The Clinic is open Monday through Thursday from 9am to 5pm, Friday from 9 to noon, and selected evenings.

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 Friday, 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:

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

The Walker Art Gallery is dedicated to serving the students, faculty and staff of the Department of Art and Art History, the University campus community and the Kearney region, by presenting exhibitions of accomplished visual expression. Three such exhibitions are presented each academic year, drawn from regional as well as national sources. Each of these exhibitions is selected for its educational and inspirational value to the students, as well as artistic merit and intent. As a rule, exhibiting artists and designers lecture on their work, or offer gallery talks.

The Walker Art Gallery devotes over half of its exhibition schedule to the UNK art students. There is an annual juried student art exhibition, and a series, each semester, of capstone senior exhibitions. The students are given the primary responsibility for the installation and deinstallation of their exhibitions, thus gaining invaluable practicum experience.

The Writing Center is located in UNK's new Learning Commons on the second floor of C.T. Ryan Library. The Center provides writing assistance at no charge 7 days a week to all UNK students, faculty and staff. Assistance includes one-on-one consulting, interactive workshops, and helpful resources, such as handbooks, handouts, and internet links.

Most one-one one consulting takes place face-to-face, with consultations lasting 30 minutes (for 1-3 pages) to one hour (for 4-7 pages). Visitors can bring any piece of writing at any stage in the writing process for help with pre-writing and drafting, generating a thesis, supporting ideas, organizing paragraphs, writing clearly and concisely, citing outside sources, editing for grammar and punctuation errors, and more. Many writers find it helpful to come as soon as an assignment is given, again when they reach an impasse of some kind, and then once (or twice) more when they are making their final revisions.

As an alternative to face to face consulting, UNK students, faculty, and staff can submit work electronically for eConsulting by using the WC’s Online Appointment book to upload papers. Writers receive feedback on one paper at a time, and submitted papers are reviewed on a first-come, first-serve. When reviewing a paper, the eConsultant uses margin comments to provide in-text feedback and suggestions, tailored to the writer’s listed concerns. The reviewed draft and a detailed summary of the eConsultant’s suggestions are then sent to the writer by return e-mail within two to four days of a submission.

All kinds of writers use our services, including highly successful writers who know that every writer needs a reader, less confident writers who want to improve their skills and learn new techniques, and writers learning English in conjunction with college level writing. In keeping with our goal to help all writers improve their own skills, writing consultants will not correct, edit, proofread, or write any part of the paper; they will help writers identify patterns of error and develop better options and strategies.

Since the Writing Center has boasted over 1,000 consultations every semester since 2002, appointments are strongly encouraged and are best made online. Visit www.unk.edu/acad/writing_center/ for exact hours and to make an appointment. All writers are allotted up to 120 minutes of assistance each week. Missing an appointment constitutes a no-show. Writers with three no-shows in a single semester are blocked from making appointments for the remainder of the term; they have to rely on walk-in availability.

Our interactive workshops address specific writing topics—such as revision strategies, proper punctuation, citation styles, and writing lengthy papers—in a lively small group setting. Our growing collection of helpful handbooks, handouts and links are available both at the Writing Center and via our website.