Tuesday Morning Update: TMU 8(13), December 13, 2011

PR business ethics program wins Nebraska award. School of Communication public relations students were recognized by PRSA Nebraska with a Paper Anvil Award of Excellence for their annual workshop in September, "Business Ethics: Taking the High Road." Omaha PR professionals joined students in discussing case studies. Maverick PR/PRSSA also received an Award of Merit for the "Elmwood Fitness Park" program, as well as for "Dress for Success."

Two School of Communication undergraduates, Tyler Barton and Billy Grenfell, traveled with the High Five tour of Wounded Warriors family support project to produce a series of videos.

By Tyler Barton

By Billy Grenfell

Journalism group projects published in student newspaper. Instructor Kevin Warneke's news writing and reporting students received experience by publishing two special sections in the Gateway. The sections focused on the renovation of Roskens Hall and on entertainment venues near campus. School of Communication students had a total of 15 bylined stories. Additionally, the Suburban Newspapers executive editor Ron Petak assigned each student a story for possible publication in Gretna, Bellevue, Ralston and Papillion newspapers. Student John Karhoff was the first to have his story published, and others are slated for future editions.

For the latest news, please visit the UNO School of Communication Facebook page, and follow @CommUNO on Twitter.

UNO Forensics wins the Showcase. UNO's speech team dominated the Dec. 3-4 Showcase tournament at Kearney, which featured many nationally-ranked public speakers and squads. UNO individual champions included Traelon Graham (poetry on Sunday), Tessie Stednitz (oral interpretartion on Saturday and Sunday), Stephanie Larsen (informative on Sunday), Lauren Ackerman (prose on Sunday), Tunette Powell (persuasion on Sunday), Cole Evans (prose on Saturday), and Stephanie Henderson (after dinner speaking on Saturday), as well as numerous other placing finishes. Follow individual and team results at UNO Forensics on Facebook during every weekend of competition. Our competitive public speakers, fifth in the nation with four national champions in 2011, are challenging for another top national finish in 2012.

Next issue: School 2012 Priorities

Alumni news. Shannon Stawniak has been promoted to project manager for brand and image management at the Omaha Chamber of Commerce.

Excellence in action. A new student organization focusing on conflict coaching and mediation has been approved at UNO. Professor Shereen Bingham is advising the group, which hopes to expand its student membership. Bingham was also recognized for her National Communication Association paper, "Screening for Domestic Abuse in Child Custody Conflicts: Mediator Reflections on a Pioneering Practice in Alternative Dispute Resolution." It was presented in November at the international conference in New Orleans. *** Instructor Mike Whye has a four-page spread of photographs depicting scenes across the U.S. in USA Today's Dec. 6 Go Escape magazine. The pictures show scenes in Alabama, Iowa, Idaho, South Dakota, New York, Wisconsin, Florida and Michigan.

Courtesy Mike Whye and USA Today

School of Communication Director Jeremy Lipschultz has been appointed to the Association of Schools of Journalism and Mass Communication (ASJMC) Administrative Issues Committee. Lipschultz has a social media panel scheduled for the upcoming Association of Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC) international meeting. He also was interviewed by KETV about the sale of the Omaha World-Herald newspaper to Berkshire Hathaway. *** UNO Forensics visited Hugh Reilly's Literary Journalism students to perform dialogue. "What better way for my students to learn about the power of dialogue than to see it demonstrated in such a fresh and meaningful way," Reilly told Coach Abbie Syrek and Assistant Coach Cameron Logsdon.