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The College of
Public Affairs and Community Service is beginning its 35th anniversary
celebration with a housewarming party. As part of UNO's Centennial Homecoming
Celebration, CPACS is hosting the grand opening and dedication of its new
building Oct. 8 at 11 a.m.
The former
Engineering Building has been transformed into the home for the college,
whose various schools, departments, divisions and centers had been scattered
across the UNO campus since its inception in 1973.
"After 35 years,"
says CPACS Dean B.J. Reed (pictured), "we finally have a place to call home."
The structure was
totally redesigned, stripped to its foundation and modernized inside and out.
Reed says the CPACS Building incorporates the mission of the college — to
foster a comprehensive, high-quality learning environment, conduct research
and provide professional services to the community.
Open spaces
While the new look
of the building's exterior makes a strong first impression, the changes
inside are breathtaking. The long hallways and rows of anonymous classroom
and office doors of the building's 1957 high school design have been replaced
by open areas, seminar and meeting rooms, multi-use classrooms and offices
where the emphasis is on space separated by little more than light and glass.
The interior
includes a collaboration commons; open areas that allow for increased student
access to faculty; spaces to promote interaction between the departments and
faculty, students and the community; and the incorporation of community open
spaces that lead to labs and  classrooms.
The CPACS Building
mirrors the culture of the college, says Sara Woods, assistant dean.
"We are a
Ph.D.-granting college with many, many award-winning programs," Woods says.
"We wanted the building to be an open, interactive environment that
emphasizes our outreach."
State
support
The $14.2 million
renovation was funded with state support allocated during a three-year
period. Two additions totaling 20,000 square feet were funded by private
donations and cost approximately $4.43 million.
HDR Inc. provided
the architectural design. W. Boyd Jones Construction Co. was the construction
manager.
The work of art in
the CPACS Building atrium is a three-panel kinetic sculpture that complements
the building's themes of transparency, interaction and movement. The 4-by-8-foot
panels, or banners, are suspended from a single point in the ceiling. Each
banner is composed of small plates made of three materials: aluminum and two
forms of Lexan, smoky and clear. Lexan is a brand name for a polycarbonate
that resembles glass but is lightweight and unbreakable.
Designed by artist
Tim Prentice and selected from a number of submissions, the sculpture appears
to float in space, its banners and smaller plates turning with the changes in
air currents, simultaneously reflecting light and creating shadows.
College
'storefronts'
Elsewhere
throughout the building, the "storefronts" for each of the college's various
units will be glass partitions that, while echoing the themes of transparency
and openness, contain images that help convey to the viewer the particular
unit's mission, purpose and values. Selection and installation of these
storefronts is to take place in 2009.
It's a marvelous
new home for a college some were unsure would make it to its 10th
anniversary, much less its 35th.
Emeritus Professor
Peter Suzuki says he sensed mixed feelings from other colleges at UNO when
CPACS was still in its infancy.
Exciting
infancy
"The first years
were exciting years in the sense it was a pioneering effort," says Suzuki,
who retired from teaching Urban Studies in 2002. "But when I first came, I
sensed a lot of skepticism and envy from other colleges, particularly when it
came to funding.
"Nebraska Sen.
(Glenn) Goodrich had secured funding for the Goodrich Program, and Criminal
Justice, Social Work, Gerontology and Public Administration proved to be very
successful in obtaining grants to fund their work. That freed money for CPACS
faculty to travel to undertake research and to attend conferences to share
their findings."
Emeritus Dean
David Hinton is one of many people who credit founding Dean Hubert Locke as a
driving force behind CPACS' early successes.
"Hubert Locke is
the spirit of the college," says Hinton, who served as CPACS dean from 1985
until 2000. "He developed it, and the college retains it today."
Locke had served
as an urban education consultant to the Regents' Commission on the Urban
University of the 70s. Among its findings, the commission had recommended the
establishment of just such a college at UNO.
Locke's
vision
Locke says one of
the "many stellar early moments" of the college was the establishment of the
Goodrich Scholarship Program. The continued impact of the Goodrich Program,
along with the college's various research efforts, expanded service-learning
and other outreach to the community, exemplifies what the commission members
had in mind.
"I think the
college has far surpassed the initial vision," he says.
Today, CPACS
comprises the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice, the School of
Social Work, and the School of Public Admin-istration, which includes Urban
Studies and the Aviation Institute; the Department of Gerontology; the
Division of Continuing Studies; the Goodrich Program; the Center for Public
Affairs Research and the William Brennan Institute for Labor Studies. It
provides undergraduate, master's and doctoral programs.
Mission
expansion
Through the years,
CPACS' mission has become more timely and relevant. Its programs are
multidisciplinary and ranked among the best in the nation. Its faculty
collaborates as scholars and researchers and partners with community
organizations and agencies. Its students perform valuable outreach through
service-learning projects. Its graduates exemplify the college's commitment
and dedication to community service.
Some, like Theresa
Barron-McKeagney, have even found their way back to the college.
The youngest of 11
children born to parents who emigrated from Mexico, the Council Bluffs native
earned her Master's of Social Work degree from UNO in 1987. Today she serves
as director of the School of Social Work.
Taking a
leap
"It reminds me of
that television show 'Quantum Leap,'" she says. "Being here as a graduate
student, working in South Omaha, then coming back as part of the faculty and
now serving as the director. It's not like a quilt at all. It feels more like
a piece of fabric that's seamless."
The same is true
for Bill Wakefield. Back when Wakefield was a graduate assistant in the late
1960's, his office was on the second floor of what was then known as the
Engineering Building. This summer, Wakefield, who now serves the School of
Criminology and Criminal Justice as director of Community Outreach, moved his
office back into the building where he started — now the CPACS Building.
"I never dreamed
that would ever happen,' says Wakefield, who was hired as an assistant
professor of criminal justice in the fall of 1974. "Life really is a circle."
That, too, is
something worth celebrating.
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