Digital Commons Network^™

Honoring Careers: Developing Professional Aspirations In Honors Programs, L. Benjamin Boyar

Honors in Practice Online Archive

This essay builds on previous arguments in honors for greater representation of preprofessional disciplines. Drawing from a focused honors accounting initiative, author explores how video interviews with alumni—created through an iterative process of outreach and collaboration—can effectively bridge intellectual inquiry and career preparation. Alumni narratives help students critically examine professional trajectories, connect current coursework with broader academic and societal contexts, and produce tangible outcomes, such as conference presentations and journal publications. By showcasing these diverse career trajectories, this approach reassures students in both preprofessional and traditional disciplines, demonstrating the relevance of their academic pursuits while ensuring honors education remains intellectually …

Microcredentials For Honors Healthcare Students: Translating Academic Achievement To The Resume, Tina C. Melamed, Belinda Deal, Steve Myers

Honors in Practice Online Archive

In healthcare disciplines, honors students need opportunities to develop research skills in line with current trends and advanced degree requirements. The authors present a pilot program offering a series of online, self-paced microcredentials to enhance scholarly and clinical research competencies. Instructional modules in three areas (introduction, research tools, applied scholarly communication) include activities and assessments for demonstrating competency. Each student works with a faculty member to develop a specific topic and apply elements of scholarly communication and documentation such as research methodology, APA style, data analysis, implications for clinical practice, and directions for future research. Successful completion of microcredentialing culminates …

Honors In Practice, Volume 21, 2025: About The Authors, National Collegiate Honors Council

Honors in Practice Online Archive

About the authors, Honors in Practice, volume 21 (2025).

Military Forensic Archaeology: The Process And Recovery Of U.S. Missing-In-Action (Mia) Service Personnel, William Belcher, Luann Wandsnider, Ella N. Axelrod, Finn Kennison, Alicia Lawson

Department of Anthropology: Faculty Publications

The United States (U.S.) Department of Defense's (DoD) Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) is the largest skeletal identification laboratory in the world and receives several hundred cases per year for identification related to Missing-in- Action (MIA) U.S. service members. While there are various sources for these accessions, by far the largest source is through unilateral or bilateral (done in cooperation with another governmental entity or nongovernmental organization) as well as public-private partnership excavations. While the DPAA-style military forensic archaeology follows archaeological principles and recording standards, the work is goal-oriented, evidence/trace-driven, and time-constrained— a common occurrence with cultural resource management sites …

All For One And One For Gall: Getting Kids Excited About Plant-Insect Interactions, Natalie D. Tessicini

Department of Entomology: Distance Master of Science Projects

Insect biodiversity is on a decline globally. In order to care about insects, the population must know about them. Creating interest starts with young children and students, using age-appropriate resources and lesson plans. Ensuring that future generations are curious about entomology and not driven away from it is integral to building a future where the public protects the environment. I will add to the available tools by creating my own non-fiction children’s book on under-explored entomology topics.

2025 Extension Highlights

Lancaster County, Nebraska Extension: Reports

The work and programs highlighted in this report are a sample of how local residents count on Nebraska Extension in Lancaster County to:

• Strengthen Nebraska Agriculture & Food Systems

• Inspire Nebraskans & Their Communities

• Enhance The Health & Wellbeing Of All Nebraskans

Annual Report: Nebraska Extension In Lancaster County, January 1, 2025 Through December 31, 2025

Lancaster County, Nebraska Extension: Reports

Lancaster County Extension information from 2025. Contents include:

1) About Extension - mission statement, leadership and program area overview;

2) Staff and Programs - staff directory, 2025 program highlights and impact reports;

3) Financials - summaries of 2024-2025 expenditures and current fiscal year 2025-2026 budget; and

4) Media - website and social media information, samples of the Nebline newsletter and local newspaper articles.

The Bone Lady: Life As A Forensic Anthropologist: Book Review, Dakota Taylor

Nebraska Anthropologist

Review of The Bone Lady: Life as a Forensic Anthropologist (2000) by M. H. Manhein.

The Black-Market Commodification Of Human Organs And Bones: A Marxist Perspective, Erik Schulz

Nebraska Anthropologist

The trade and treatment of human remains, while seemingly straightforward, have increasingly become subjects of ethical and moral debate. Over time and in light of recent events, questions have emerged regarding the appropriateness of how human remains are handled and exchanged. This paper examines these issues through the lens of Marxist framework and the perspective of forensic anthropology. The objective is to provide contextual understanding and encourage a reevaluation of current practices, particularly within academic settings, to ensure that human morals, dignity and ethical standards are upheld.

Review Of The Land Of Open Graves: Living And Dying On The Migrant Trail, Maggie M. Klemm

Nebraska Anthropologist

The Land of Open Graves: Living and Dying on the Migrant Trail (2015), authored by Jason De León, is a crucial and important read which examines the United States’ contemporary immigration policy. The federal government program, Prevention through Deterrence, aims to prevent illegal immigration through expanding border enforcement. Instead of deterring people, this program pushes them to the hostile terrain of the Sonoran Desert. The author of this text argues that the desert is utilized as a tool of border enforcement as it perpetrates violence to those who attempt to cross the border, as well as their loved ones. …

Review Of Digging For The Disappeared: Forensic Science After Atrocity, Abigail Vaughn

Nebraska Anthropologist

Since the field's development, individuals and communities involved in and affected by international forensic investigations have been confronted with many political and ethical dilemmas. The book, Digging for the Disappeared: Forensic Science After Atrocity (2015), by Adam Rosenblatt, attempts to identify and articulate the various debates surrounding humanitarian forensic work. In doing so, the author focuses on four key areas; the purpose of such investigations, the stakeholders and expectations involved, and what may realistically be accomplished. While sympathetic to the perspective of forensic practitioners, Rosenblatt presents the positions of all parties in an unbiased manner, introducing the reader to …

Review Of The Land Of Open Graves: Living And Dying On The Migrant Trail, Lillie Turpin

Nebraska Anthropologist

Jason De León’s The Land of Open Graves: Living and Dying on the Migrant Trailis (2015), a raw and unwavering multidisciplinary exploration of the human cost of United States border policies, and this review reflects on his ability to meld ethnography, archaeology, forensic science, and narrative. De León exposes the brutal realities of the Sonoran Desert, where the U.S. policy of Prevention Through Deterrence (PTD) turns the landscape itself into a weapon. PTD directs illegal immigration away from more populated areas and instead towards the harsh deserts found occupying the border. De León holds a commitment to honoring the …

Should Human Remains Be On Display In Museums?, Erik Schulz

Nebraska Anthropologist

The debate of should human remains be displayed in museums, exhibits, classrooms, and other public areas has been a topic of discussion in recent years. This article aims to explore the positives and negatives of displaying remains through scientific racism, decolonization, ethics, and forensic anthropology. Although these characteristics may not always be present in a collection, they are common concerns, and they are also not the only concerns for displaying remains. The objective of examining this issue from multiple perspectives is to propose viable solutions for the ethical and appropriate display of human remains. This research will be geared more …

Future Of Bse Days 2025: Growing A Regenerative Bse, Derek M. Heeren, Santosh Pitla, Jennifer R. Keshwani, Mark Stone

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Presentations and White Papers

The Future of BSE Days 2025: Growing a Regenerative BSE brought together over 150 faculty, staff, students, and partners to envision the next quarter-century of the Department of Biological Systems Engineering. The event emphasized regeneration—not only of resources and ecosystems, but also of ideas, learning models, and relationships. Across seven major sessions—three Spark Talks and four Pillar Workshops—participants explored how BSE can thrive amid technological disruption, demographic change, and societal transformation.

Key Outcomes

Redefining Impact: This session challenged participants to evolve from counting outputs to valuing relationships, collaboration, and community well-being.

Adaptive Learning Models: This discussion introduced design studios, micro-credentials, …

Transitive Pedagogy In Creative Teaching: The Lived Experiences Of K–6 Teachers Who Intentionally Adapt For Creativity, Rebekah Marie Andersen

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Theses and Other Student Research

Creative pedagogy in the K–6 classroom is being increasingly recognized as an essential tool for increasing student engagement, practicing critical thinking, and fostering higher-order learning. However, research gaps in creative pedagogy are contextualized accounts of teacher thinking, planning, and enactment of strategies for student creativity. This study explored the lived experiences of teachers as they constructed and enacted creative lesson adaptations and how they identified and supported creative behaviors in students. An interpretative phenomenological analysis was employed, involving semi-structured think-aloud and stimulated recall interviews with five K–6 teachers who consistently adapt instruction to promote student creativity. Findings revealed that; (a) …

Program And Proceedings: Nebraska Academy Of Sciences 1880–2025, 145th Anniversary Year, One Hundred-Thirty-Fifth Annual Meeting

Nebraska Academy of Sciences: Programs and Proceedings

Program

Aeronautics and Space Science

Biological and Medical Sciences

Biology

Chemistry

Earth Sciences

Science Education

Anthropology

Applied Science and Technology

Physics and Engineering

Forensic Sciences

Ecology, Sustainability, and Environmental Science

Maiben Lecture: Mary Ann Vinton, "State of the Academy"

Friends of Science Awards: David Crouse and Daniel Sitzman

When One Door Closes: Legal Education And Racial Justice After Students For Fair Admissions, Michael I. Meyerson

Nebraska Law Review

In Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. President & Fellows of Harvard College, the Supreme Court ruled that the Equal Protection Clause and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibited colleges and universities from using race as a factor in admissions decisions. Many have feared that this ruling portends the end of racial diversity in higher education. Law schools, however, can choose to treat this decision as creating a fresh opportunity to pursue racial justice in a comprehensive and meaningful way. Most of the early scholarly writing on Students for Fair Admissions focused on either its …

Incentivizing Accelerated Federal Student Loan Repayment, A Small Change, Steve Lydick

Nebraska Law Review

This Comment suggests incentivizing accelerated repayment as a practical solution to provide relief to stakeholders in the federal student loan program. By using its existing legal authority, the Department of Education can permit borrowers to satisfy their loan obligations through partial overpayments. This strategy allows borrowers to play a more active role in expediting their loan repayment, benefiting both the borrowers and the Department.

I. Introduction

II. Postsecondary Education and Federal Student Loans ... A. Student Loans & the Federal Government: World War II through 2005 … B. Expanded Student Loan Repayment Options from 2005 to Today

III. Federal Student …

Tax Compliance, Social Norms, And Influencers, James Alm, J. A. Soled, Kathleen Delaney Thomas

Nebraska Law Review

While attaining perfect tax compliance is unachievable, more can and must be done. In the past, the country has relied primarily on a traditional system of sticks (e.g., audits and penalties) and carrots (e.g., refunds and whistleblower awards) to help narrow the “tax gap,” or the difference between what taxpayers owe in taxes and what they actually pay. Now, in the social media era, Congress and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) should look beyond these traditional enforcement mechanisms. To achieve an even higher voluntary compliance rate, this Article advocates for policymakers to invest greater resources to enhance the social norm …

Uncle Sam And The Sea: An Administrative Red Herring, Heather Haratsis

Nebraska Law Review

“The law must be stable and yet it cannot stand still.”¹

Compared to the Old Man and the Sea, the administrative state’s situation does not seem all that different.² The idea of the administrative state has been around since the birth of civilization. There has always been a need for caretakers to protect the best interests of their people. While the administrative state is a testament of our society’s resilience and loyalty to the idea of one union providing for public good; it has become the Santiago.³ An administrative state is only as good as its …

Absolutely Unnecessary Immunity, Eileen Prescott

Nebraska Law Review

Prosecutors, like judges, cannot be sued for their professional misconduct in most jurisdictions. As long as their actions are sufficiently tied to their job duties, their actual malice does not matter, even if they had demonstrable malice—a prosecutor could bring baseless charges against an ex-spouse specifically to harass them, with absolute immunity from suit. This immunity allows prosecutors to abuse the power of their office without civil recourse. In theory, absolute immunity aims to protect the office by resolving cases simply and quickly, but in reality, courts get bogged down litigating whether a prosecutor’s specific action was sufficiently tied to …

Who’S Afraid Of Little Old Me? The Record Industry: Protecting Creativity And Promoting Artists’ Rights Through A Narrow Scope Of 17 U.S.C. §§ 103 And 114 Rights For Derivative Works, Margaret Fouberg

Nebraska Law Review

This Comment explores the growing conversation surrounding artist rights and music ownership, catalyzed by Taylor Swift’s public dispute with Big Machine Records. Swift’s efforts to reclaim her work have spotlighted the complexities of U.S. copyright law, particularly the distinct rights afforded to sound recordings versus musical compositions under the Sound Recording Act of 1971. By examining derivative works and their required standard of originality, this Comment argues that a narrow interpretation of copyright protections for derivative works, as outlined in 17 U.S.C. §§ 103 and 114, is essential for fostering creativity and safeguarding artists’ rights. Through an analysis of legislative …

A Judiciary Without Trust?, Brandon J. Johnson

Nebraska Law Review

Public hand wringing over waning faith in the Supreme Court, this Essay contends, mistakes symptom for cause. The real crisis is not distrust but the Court’s persistent failure to earn trust in the first place. Trust is a feeling; trustworthiness is a record. This Essay adopts a common understanding of trustworthiness that evaluates the demonstrated ability of the trusted party to protect the vulnerable trusting parties, and analyzes the Court’s trustworthiness against that yardstick. From Dred Scott, Plessy, and Korematsu to modern “shadow docket” interventions and undisclosed donor funded travel, the Court has too often shown itself untrustworthy …

Not The “Mere Creature” Of Big Tech: The Constitutionality Of Parental Consent Laws For Minors’ Social Media Accounts, Kat Turco

Nebraska Law Review

A growing number of states have passed laws requiring social media platforms to obtain parental consent before granting accounts to minors to combat rising mental health issues, cyberbullying, and screen addiction. Although well intentioned, every such law has been enjoined in the lower courts, and the Supreme Court has yet to address whether laws requiring parental consent for minors’ social‑media accounts violate the First Amendment. This Comment argues that lower courts have miscast such statutes as content‑based speech restrictions requiring strict scrutiny under Brown v. Entertainment Merchants’ Association. Parental consent laws differ from the content-based statute at issue in …

The Self-Erasure Of The Eeoc In Bostock V. Clayton County, Nicholas B. Mauer

Nebraska Law Review

During the decade before the Supreme Court decided Bostock v. Clayton County, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”) interpreted Title VII to prohibit employment discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation. Through informal adjudication, independent litigation, and nonacquiescence, the EEOC successfully etched its interpretation of Title VII into law without receiving Chevron deference. The agency made arguments about the meaning of Title VII that succeeded in lower courts and eventually at the Supreme Court. However, the majority opinion in Bostock never mentioned the EEOC’s near-decade of work. Thus, the EEOC’s role in Bostock is both a potential model …

A Study Of The Tap In Center Movement: How Collaboration In The Legal System Is Reducing The Negative Impact Of Bench Warrants And Restoring Justice In Communities, Patrick C. Brayer

Nebraska Law Review

While many aspects of the criminal legal system have been criticized for the harm judicial institutions inflict on communities, a unique legal initiative is garnering praise from observers across the nation. What started as a local effort to help residents withdraw bench warrants during the COVID-19 Pandemic has blossomed into four independent legal service centers in three separate Midwest metropolitan areas called Tap In Centers. The primary mission of the Centers is the recalling of bench warrants issued when criminal defendants fail to appear for court or pay a fine; however, the needs of the individual and the community guide …

2025-2026 Seed Book, Nebrasa Crop Improvement Association

Nebraska Crop Improvement Association Seed Guides

2025-2026 seed book, Nebraska Crop Improvment Association.

Where Honors Education And Faculty Development Meet, John Zubizarreta, Victoria M. Bryan

National Collegiate Honors Council Monographs

Development is a contradictory terrain, as seen in the persistence of multiple and conflicting goals, uneven and unequal outcomes, and varied definitions and approaches to teaching and learning in higher education. How might universities support faculty development as a process rather than as isolated educational events? This collection highlights inherent complexities and challenges in sustained professional development and presents new ways of supporting faculty and designing curricula to encourage learning-centered teaching, experiential learning, collaborative undergraduate research, progressive forms of assessment, and other dynamic, inspiring forms of instruction. Engaging in interdisciplinary thinking ranging from Education and Education Policy, Biochemistry, Philosophy, Environmental …

Honoring The First-Year Seminar: Exploring High-Impact Learning Experiences For The First Year In Honors, Anton Vander Zee, Trisha H. Folds-Bennett

National Collegiate Honors Council Monographs

Acknowledgments

Introduction: Strategies and Structures for the Honors First-Year Seminar, Anton Vander Zee

Westminster University: Program Profile, Richard Badenhausen

Keeping Company: Genuine Conversation as a First-Year Honors Seminar Pedagogy, Richard Badenhausen

Oregon Institute of Technology: Program Profile, Christopher J. Syrnyk Bringing the Idea of Ideas to Life, Christopher J. Syrnyk

College of Charleston: Program Profile, Trisha H. Folds-Bennett, Jesslyn Collins-Frohlich, and Robert Maynor

Disrupting Privilege: Community Engagement in the First Year, Trisha H. Folds-Bennett, Jesslyn Collins-Frohlich, and Robert Maynor

Virginia Commonwealth University: Program Profile, Christy Tyndall and Jacqueline Smith-Mason

Flourishing in the First Year and Beyond: Promoting Personal Wellbeing and …

Transforming Partnerships: Developing A Model For Experiential Learning In Honors, Grace Troupe, Tamy Burnett

National Collegiate Honors Council Monographs: Chapters

Although the collaboration between the University Honors Program (UHP) at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) and UNL's Center for Transformative Teaching involves several elements, this essay focuses on one element with significant impact: the development of curricular components and co-curricular programming facilitating students’ engagement with experiential learning. Experience-based education is learning that occurs through direct, hands-on experiences such as internships, research, education abroad, and teaching practicums. When UNL moved toward requiring experiential learning for all undergraduate students, the partnership between UHP and CTT was transformational in facilitating UHP’s building on its existing framework for experiential learning and thus serving as …