People and Perspectives on the Plains

The University Honors Program at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln invites us to come up in April for a great conference. Dr. Karen Lyons (klyons2@unl.edu, 402-472-5425) has announced the schedule below. Contact her with all questions about registration, submissions, payments, shuttles, and so on.

Immediate Past President David Lawless is updating the rules for the Dennis Boe Award for excellence in undergraduate research. You may download the 2008 rules for the Boe competition here.

Conference deadlines:

• Februry 1 -- Registration. $60 until Feb 1, $70 thereafter, paid by credit card, purchase order, or check.
• Also February 1 -- Paper submissions. Send to klyons2@unl.edu or 118 NRC, 540 N. 16th St., Lincoln NE 68588-0659
• March 23 -- Room reservations at Holiday Inn downtown in Lincoln. Conference rate is $99 per night including breakfast. Add $5 per additional person per room. Call 402-475-4011, mentioning that you're part of the GPHC conference.
  

Friday, April 3

 2:00 pm  ©City As Text exploration around Lincoln, for those who wish to arrive early.  The exploration will conclude with a de-briefing at 4:30.

6:30 pm  Dinner Friday evening is “GFL”, Good Food Local, prepared especially for us by the Cather-Pound-Neihardt dining staff.  

Saturday, April 4

8:00 a.m. - noon, 1:00-3:00 p.m. Sessions, including a poster session, director’s meetings and DIH.

3:00 p.m. visits to two campus museums:

• The internationally renowned International Quilt Study Center, opened in March of 2008.  Containing over 2400 quilts, it houses the largest collection in the world.  The state-of-the art center allows for viewing of quilts on display as well as virtual tours of the collection.  Staff will be on hand to answer questions.  For more information see http://www.quiltstudy.org/
• The Tractor Test and Power Museum.  Housing a multitude of tractors, the museum is home to world’s first  tractor testing laboratory.  Exhibits include the Historic Tool Room and an original dynamometer.  For more information, see http://tractormuseum.unl.edu/
• As both museums are on our East Campus, Saturday evening dinner will take place  there, and tentativelywill be a pizza buffet, followed by a make-your-own sundae bar featuring the UNL Dairy Store’s own home-made ice cream. 
  

Sunday, April 5

Sessions, if necessary, will continue Sunday morning.

The Great Plains Honors Council serves collegiate honors programs in Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma and Texas. Coordinating its activities with the National Collegiate Honors Council (NCHC), the Great Plains organization promotes the flow of information, ideas, fellowship and professional encouragement throughout its member programs. Our spring regional conference always emphasizes student presentations and the region-as-text.