Announcer: Welcome to the Lied Center for Performing--
♪ In the heartland ♪
♪ Where the spirit will seek within ♪
♪ The noble few and the noble who ♪
♪ Strive to live with integrity ♪
♪ My pride lies in the heartland ♪
♪ Where the honor stirs deep within ♪
♪ The chosen few and the chosen who ♪
♪ Heed the call of their destiny ♪
♪ Nebraska ♪
♪ Where the future will always be ♪
♪ In the hallowed halls of the ivy walls ♪
♪ That will stand through eternity ♪
♪ Nebraska ♪
♪ Yea, the scarlet and cream shall be ♪
♪ The heart of the heartland ♪
♪ Heart of my heartland ♪
♪ And always home to me ♪
♪ Nebraska ♪
♪ Where the future will always be ♪
♪ In the hallowed halls of the ivy walls ♪
♪ That will stand through eternity ♪
♪ Nebraska ♪
♪ Yea, the scarlet and cream shall be ♪
♪ The heart of the heartland ♪
♪ Heart of my heartland ♪
♪ And always home to me ♪
♪ Nebraska ♪
♪ Alma mater ♪
♪ Nebraska U ♪
(audience cheering and applauding)
-: Please join me in giving a big round of applause
to the Big Red Singers for that great rendition
of the Nebraska hymn.
(audience cheering and applauding)
Can you believe it?
2019, the kickoff of what we have been dreaming about
as the year of the N150 has finally arrived.
A defining moment in the history of our university,
and what will undoubtedly be looked back upon
as a watershed inflection point for generations to come.
Welcome, and warmest Husker greetings to each of you
gathered here in the Lied Center, and to all joining us
virtually across our statewide campus of Nebraska,
the nation, and abroad.
Together, with our faculty, staff, students and alumni,
I've been eagerly looking forward to the kickoff
of what is sure to be a phenomenal
sesquicentennial year ahead for us.
As you know, we departed from our traditional annual address
in September, because we intentionally wanted this
to be a defining moment, an opportunity to reflect
on the historic accomplishments of the past 15 decades,
and to take stock of the palpable momentum
of our current status.
Today, I will ask each of you to take up the N150 challenge,
to reach for greater heights in UNL's future
through a doubled down, transformative,
integrated three part mission,
as a world leading, 21st century land grant university,
a university truly without walls.
150 years, by any measure of the imagination is a long time.
It spans six generations, and I know it's hard for us
to put into our heads and ourselves into the context
of our great, great, great grandparents' time.
Putting back to the time that was at the end
of the Civil War.
Imagine the bravado, the courage, the creativity,
and the outright grit that our founders had to have
to establish a university in 1869,
in a new state, in a new town named for a late,
great president, with very few people,
and even fewer resources.
We can only imagine that the era,
sparked with the sense of opportunity,
new land, new rail linking east to west,
and the opening up of an advanced education to the public.
Our founders and our national leaders of that time
were big thinkers, especially in bringing to the idea here
of having publicly accessible higher learning
for the masses.
The Morrill Act, or the Land Grant Act,
as it would come to be commonly known,
was truly revolutionary, designed to promote the liberal
and practical education of the industrial classes
into several pursuits and professions of life.
It challenged all of the conventional thinking,
leading up to that time.
It was bold, it was audacious, it was risky,
and it was visionary, and it imagined more prosperity
and inclusivity for all through the diffusion of knowledge,
and Nebraska's leaders knew then that this new state
would be visionary if the university grew up alongside it,
and that it would be an investment, not a cost,
for generations to come in the future,
not just them or their children,
but generations to come across time.
Robert Knoll captured the essence of this
in his 1995 book that we're familiar with,
The Prairie University, where he wrote,
The original charter deserves close examination,
for it broadened the provisions
of The Morrill Act.
It specifies that the object of the University of Nebraska
shall be to afford the inhabitants of the state
the means of acquiring a thorough knowledge
of the various branches of literature, the sciences,
and the arts.
This institution was established
for the inhabitants of Nebraska.
It was to reach out to all people, not just youth,
or the privileged class.
It was explicitly inclusive.
Section 18 of the original charter reads,
No person shall, because of age, sex, color or nationality,
be deprived of the privileges of this institution.
It was left to pioneering chancellors,
Benton and Fairfield to chart the unconventional course
of a new three part or three legged mission
of teaching, research, and outreach.
Classes were first offered in 1871 by five faculty
for 130 students, 110 of whom
were in Latin preparatory school,
only 20 who were pursuing collegiate work,
seven of whom were women.
All enrolled in the College of Literature, Arts and Science,
the original of the first of six colleges
called for in the charter.
Campus consisted of a single building,
the original University Hall,
which was the center of the early life of the university,
and fortunately, for us, to be overviewed
in our Charter Week in February,
by our own Kay Logan Peters, of University Libraries,
in virtual reality with NET.
From these humble and meager beginnings,
in each of the subsequent six generations,
up to the current day, our predecessors confronted
pressures, they confronted challenges from outside forces,
by employing vision and courage,
furthering the ongoing transformation of the university
to meet the emerging needs of our state, nation and world.
Now, we'll certainly take a deeper dive
into the history of the university over these 15 decades,
through a video we'll release
during Charter Week in February, but for now,
I'd just like you to quickly walk through,
generationally, the history of the university
with me, if you will.
Imagine, the silver 25th anniversary of the university,
celebrated in 1894.
Nebraska had emerged as one
of the Big Four state universities,
along with California, Wisconsin and Michigan.
Chancellor Canfield oversaw a growth spurt,
with 40 faculty, nearly 1500 students,
and the addition of the Culver farm on Holdrege Street.
Walking to campus at this time were Nebraska luminaries,
such as Louise Pound, Willa Cather,
future governor George Sheldon,
future dean of Harvard Law, Roscoe Pound,
founding botanist, Charles Bessey,
future Chancellor Samuel Avery,
and the future president of Purdue University,
William Westerman, amongst others.
The medical college had taken off in the 1880s,
the Agricultural Experiment Station
had been founded in 1887,
with the implementation of The Hatch Act,
and Nebraska football had officially arrived in 1890.
(audience laughing)
Dorothy Canfield, precocious daughter of Chancellor Canfield
at the time, and a future novelist,
tried to capture the vibe of the time when she wrote,
Above all, it was new, it was crude because it was new,
and because it was new, both town and university
had the iridescent glamour of life beginning,
for which almost anything is possible because little
has yet been tried.
The very air over the campus was glittering bright
with what might be.
Imagine both the golden anniversary in 1919
and the 75th anniversary in 1944,
celebrated during very difficult times in the world.
Two world wars, an economic depression,
and a struggling farm economy saw declines in state support
for the university.
Buildings were decrepit.
Chancellors Avery and Burnett rightly realized
that the university could no longer support itself
solely on state funds, and they took measures
to preserve the financial integrity
of the land grant institution.
Tuition and fees began for the first time in 1923,
at one dollar per credit hour.
(audience laughing)
And the University of Nebraska Foundation was established
in 1936, to seek private and philanthropic support.
We also saw our reach extend during this period,
with the establishment of Nebraska Extension,
under the Smith-Lever Act of 1914.
In 1902, the Omaha Medical College
was added to the university.
In other education news in Nebraska during this period,
voters in Omaha approved taking over
the private Omaha University in 1930,
creating the city's first municipal university.
And in 1903, the legislature established
the State Normal College in Kearney,
which became the Nebraska State Teachers' College in 1921.
Back in Lincoln, a year after World War II ended,
enrollment doubled, with over two-thirds
of the new students arriving under the GI Bill.
New opportunities clearly appeared to be on the horizon.
Imagine the centennial mark in 1969,
under the leadership of Chancellor Cliff Harden.
No other 25 year period parallels the expansion experience
in this generation of the university's history.
Exponential growth and funding became available
from the federal government, for research.
A booming post-war economy, a significant increase
in college attainment under the GI Bill,
and substantial increases in support from the state
of Nebraska, primarily under Governor Frank Morrison,
drove the enrollment of the university
up to 19,000 students.
In 1961, and I'll tell my age here,
the year I was born, believe it or not,
the retirement benefits were offered to faculty
for the first time.
Major expansion of the physical campus occurred
during this period, both in Lincoln and across the state
in the Agricultural Experiment Station.
The iconic Sheldon Art Museum next door here
was constructed.
It also was the period where Husker Athletics
emerged as a preeminent force,
with Devaney's period of dominance soon to lead
to the 1970-71 National Football titles,
and an arrival of a person named Tom Osborne on the scene
and just as this generation was ending,
the University of Nebraska system was created,
as Omaha University was brought in
to the University of Nebraska,
to join the flagship campus in Lincoln,
and the medical college in Omaha.
Many of you were here as the university reached
its 125 year milestone in 1994,
which was a time of rapid change and growth
for the university, extending its reach globally.
The University system had added the UNK campus,
the Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources
at UNL was consolidated across the state in 1972.
UNL's enrollment peaked in 1981,
at just over 25,000 students,
and the graduate program had grown substantially,
from an influx of students from all over the world.
New research areas were developed,
particularly in agricultural life sciences,
and biotechnology arenas.
This beautiful facility,
The Lied Center for the Performing Arts,
was opened as a venue for the campus,
the city and the region.
Two of our senior academic leaders of the campus,
were, for the first time, accomplishment women's scholars.
Joanne Leitzel, leading Academic Affairs,
and Priscilla Grew, leading Research.
To the dismay of UNL faculty,
salaries experienced a period of significant loss,
relative to peers.
As the budget challenges in the 1980s were due
to what was one of the worst, in modern times,
agricultural economies.
Continuing its dominance, Husker Athletics
was now truly a dynasty, uniting the state with pride,
with major national success in football and volleyball,
track and field, bowling and gymnastics,
amongst others, which brings us to the present,
to 2019, and the close of now, this latest generation
in our history, led for 16 of those 25 years,
by Chancellor Harvey Perlman,
it was a time marked in remarkable growth
in creative activity across all nine, now,
of our academic colleges at UNL.
Research expenditures tripled during this time,
which led to being ranked as one of the fastest growing,
comprehensive public research universities in the country.
Significant physical expansion the campuses occurred.
I got here toward the end of this time,
and used to call it the time of cranes,
it seemed like, in Lincoln.
Too many construction projects, really, to list.
Joining the Big Ten Athletic Conference
and Academic Alliance in 2011,
was a major step forward,
bringing us into a league with the most prestigious group
of primarily public universities in the country.
And the university brought to life
Nebraska Innovation Campus,
on the former state fairgrounds for the first time,
to foster new public/private partnerships.
Now I know this has been a quick kind of walk
through those six generations, a snapshot,
if you will, review, but I hope that it describes for you,
and helps you wrap your head around how intertwined
the university and the development of our state
has been over these last 150 years,
and as I've said on every opportunity I've had the occasion
the last couple of years,
the University of Nebraska has been and will continue
to be the DNA of Nebraska and beyond,
and yes, that is something, truly, to celebrate.
Now, I can only imagine that our predecessors,
who built this great institution would be amazed,
maybe more likely blown away,
at the state of the university in 2019.
Out of one institution founded in 1869,
an amazing world leading four campus system has grown,
and while we don't lack for challenges,
certainly, like our predecessors did in their generations,
our university is, by all means,
exceeding our genetic potential, or said another way,
you're lifting or punching well above our weight.
UNL in 2019 is a large and complex enterprise
with a total annual operating budget of $1.3 billion,
and an estimated direct economic impact annually
on Nebraska of $2 billion.
Three campuses in Lincoln, more than 43,000 acres
of campus state-wide, and programming in all 93 counties
across our great state.
Our more than 6300 world leading faculty and staff
support our nine academic colleges
that offer 175 undergraduate majors,
and 168 graduate degree programs.
Our students continue to excel in international
and national competition.
Our faculty are respected across the world,
in a variety of fields.
Our amazing staff provide incredible service,
and our over 200,000 living alumni in Nebraska
and around the world, are leaders in every sector.
Our belief in, and principle core value of access
to the highest quality education, as originally envisioned
by those founders we talked about,
has never been stronger.
In a time where the number of high school graduates
is lagging nationally, our enrollment
in the past three years has been
at historically record levels.
This academic year, we enrolled 25,820 undergraduate,
graduate and professional students.
This growth is even more significant when you consider
that in calendar year 2018,
we added more to the new ranks of our alumni
from 5,529 graduates than ever in our history,
including 422 doctorates, an almost 10% increase
in total degrees over the last two year period.
It brings our total number of graduates,
over that 150 year history now
to 290,102 Nebraska degree holders.
A quick review of our student body reflects our continued
land grant commitment to affordable access
to the highest quality public education.
Our student body is the most diverse in our history,
with our student scholars coming to us from 136 countries
around the world, nearly every state
in the United States, and all 93 counties
in the state of Nebraska.
We enrolled the largest number of non-resident students
in our history, now with 33% of our student body
coming from outside of the state of Nebraska.
We continue to increase the numbers of minority students,
now at upwards of 15% of our student body,
and we continue to see high levels of enrollment
of first generation students to our campus.
This year, welcoming and supporting as First Huskers,
a total of 1,091 new first-gen students,
nearly 23% of our first year class.
And lastly, I'm immensely proud that UNL ranks
among the best universities in the country
for veteran and military student success.
And led by, and I would do a shoutout,
impressively, by our colleagues at UNO.
I'm very pleased that we are participating
in the American Public and Land Grant Universities,
Center for Public University Transformation,
together with seven of our Big Ten colleague institutions,
to share and to scale best practices
to improve graduation success.
As you've heard me say before,
every non-completed degree is a lack of a fulfilled promise
and it's a true economic cost,
and we must keep razor-sharp focus on working to reach
our stated graduation rate goal of 80%.
I'd like to point out several points
of shining light to you.
In our efforts to grow and strengthen our student body,
and our partnerships across Nebraska, first,
we continue to expand our reach to access
through the very successful
Nebraska College Preparatory Academy,
and the results there speak volumes,
with the current graduation rate in that program at 89%.
This fall, we announced the significant new partnership
with Grand Island Public Schools,
through a $13.6 million Department of Education
Gear Up Promise Grant,
together with 15 partners, working with the complete cohort
of 6th and 7th graders in that school district,
to prepare them for a university education.
You may have seen 14 buses of students from Grand Island
converge on our campus just before the holidays,
for them to get their first taste
of that opportunity ahead of them.
We're proud to be the primary partner in this effort
and I can hardly wait to see the firstfruits of it
with the incoming freshman class of 2024.
Secondly, we should be very rightfully proud of our efforts
to keep a Nebraska education affordable.
Our Board of Regents and our university administration
have worked hard over the past six years
to keep our annual tuition increases well below
the national norm.
We remain, together with the University of Iowa,
the best tuition value in the Big Ten,
and our students, upon graduation,
have 23% less student debt than the national average.
A significant step to increasing access
to the university is the new Husker Scholars program,
enabled by $5 million in annual scholarship support
from Husker Athletics, for students not competing
in intercollegiate athletics.
I can't begin to tell you how transformative
and totally unique this program is.
In its first year, 3,068 of our students are supported
on Husker Scholars, under five new scholarship programs.
93% of these students are from Nebraska,
40% of them are the first generation in their families
to attend a university, and 65% of them have high identified
financial need.
We should also be very proud that Husker Athletics,
due to the best fanbase in America,
and the strong leadership of athletic director Bill Moos
and his team is one of very few
select NCAA Division I programs nationally that pays
the full cost of attendance for all scholarship athletes
without any financial support from the institution,
the state, or the student body.
And while on this subject,
we certainly have something celebrate.
I'd also like to salute our amazing Husker volleyball team,
who, as you know, has been in the Final Four of the NCAAs
in three of the last four years,
being the national champion in two of those last four years,
an amazing accomplishment and one of the best examples
of grit and glory that I can certainly imagine.
Give them a big round of applause.
(audience cheering and applauding)
I'm also very pleased that University of Nebraska
President Bounds is leading exploration of new ways
to bring together public/private partnerships
between the private sector of philanthropy
of the state and the university,
to enhance our monetized student support,
particularly for high academic achieving students
in Nebraska.
A recent example of this is the establishment
of the NU Teacher Scholars,
completely funded in its first cohort
by the Bill and Ruth Scott Foundation of Omaha
enabling 40 full four year scholarships
for outstanding students to pursue degrees
in elementary and secondary education.
This program and parallel programs at UNK and UNO
is intended to encourage some of the very best
and brightest young people from Nebraska
to pursue teaching degrees.
What a win/win for our students, for our state,
and for the university.
I'm also very excited that the University Honors Program
will be relocating this coming academic year,
to the Knoll Residential Center Complex,
to allow needed expansion and growth
in that signature program, and it's particularly fitting,
in that Professor Knoll, who we talked about a moment ago,
was instrumental in the predecessor
to the University Honors Program, Centennial College,
that some of you will remember,
that was established in 1969,
and the demand for our world-renowned
Raikes School of Computer Science and Management
continues to grow.
We plan to increase to 60 students per cohort,
from the roughly 40 we're at today, in the years ahead.
Since its inception, the Raikes School has produced
172 real-world software solutions through its design studio,
including the amazing success story
of the state's most significant new startup venture
in recent times, the impressive Huddle Enterprise,
based here in Lincoln.
And before leaving the teaching mission,
I would like to specifically applaud the establishment
of The Center for Transformative Teaching
by Academic Affairs.
This center will collaborate with educators
across programs and departments in the university,
to promote instructional strategies,
and pedagogical practices that will enhance
our students' learning outcomes and success.
I also would like to applaud the work of Academic Services
and Enrollment Management, who are bringing together
services later this year in Canfield,
to provide our students with more
of a one stop shopping experience in terms
of registration and scheduling and financial services.
And lastly, congratulations to two
of our outstanding faculty, Professors Erin Blankenship
from Statistics, and Professor of Chemistry, Jason Kautz,
for being recognized by the University of Nebraska
this past year as recipients of the Outstanding Teaching
and Instructional Creativity Award.
Please give them a big round of applause.
(audience cheering and applauding)
As one of America's Carnegie Highest Research Intensive
public universities, the generation of knowledge
through research, discovery and creative activity
is a key fundamental priority of our education mission.
Following a competitive national search,
we were very fortunate to welcome Bob Wilhelm this past year
as our new Vice Chancellor
of Research and Economic Development,
and Bob hit the ground running.
I saw him out here earlier, sitting in the front row,
by hiring Deb Hamernik and appointing her
as Associate Vice Chancellor,
and implementing the strategic planning process
for the Office of Research and Economic Development
this spring.
While federal research funding in recent years
has certainly been stagnant, at best,
and consequently, I should say, very hyper-competitive,
our faculty have been successful in continuing
to lead cutting-edge research and discovery
across a wide array of disciplines.
This past year, we passed $308 million
in total research expenditures across the campus,
reflecting a 25% increase over the last decade.
In 2018, UNL sponsored researched managed $265 million
in sponsored programs, including a record $171 million
in federal funding, a 75% increase over the last decade,
with the strongest leadership coming from our faculty
across all areas of agriculture, food and water security,
early childhood education and development,
physics, nano and material sciences,
and social and behavioral sciences.
And the significantly growing
University of Nebraska National Strategic Research Institute
portfolio draws upon our research and creativity
in chemistry, as we saw today, in the press,
physics, engineering, social sciences, and space law,
in partnership with various agencies throughout
the Department of Defense.
And even though it's unlikely that we will see increased
funding availability at the federal level
in the near term, I do believe that there are
considerable opportunities for us to broaden
our research base of funding through the advancement
of P4 partnerships, bringing together public
and private and philanthropic partnerships.
And we certainly have initiated a number of these
in recent years, as you see on the screen behind me,
and they're poised by much success,
including many of these that are cross-campus initiatives
and cross-institution initiatives, even outside,
with partners outside and across the country,
like the Nebraska Food for Health Center,
anchored at Innovation Campus, with full partners
at UNO and UNMC.
Several innovation additional efforts are being led
by Vice Chancellors Boehm and Wilhelm, with Microsoft.
In the areas of precision agriculture,
education and health, and by NSRI,
we just mentioned a moment ago, with Boeing and others.
We continue to see successful commercialization
of our research through InuTeq ventures,
which together with UNeMed, was named
in the top 100 entities globally for patents in 2017.
Last year, UNL's licensing income passed 5.1 million,
with five new startup companies formed,
and 31 new technology licensing agreements executed
upon our research portfolio.
Nebraska Innovation Campus, designed to provide
a new environment, as you know,
for collaborative research,
experiential learning and economic development
is now seven years into its 25 year development timeline.
I'm very pleased, if you've been there,
you'll see the new Rise Building is about to open,
anchored by Virtual Incision, a startup company,
emanating out of Nebraska Engineering, Shane Farritor
with partners from UNMC, and one of 15 startup companies
that have been at NIC.
This facility now brings our total footprint
at Innovation Campus to 454,000 square feet,
and is home to 30 partners, 16 university affiliates,
and 551 employees and student interns.
And we are also very excited, I should say,
about the plans of the U.S. Department of Agriculture
to relocate their two major research agencies
outside of the D.C. Capital region,
and we're working very aggressively with partners
across Nebraska to try to make Innovation Campus
the home for one or both of those agencies.
Now I could certainly cite numerous examples
of individual excellence for the research
and creative activity of our faculty
across all nine of our academic colleges,
but there are a few that deserve special mention
this afternoon.
Biological Systems Engineer professor, Angie Paneer,
was awarded a National Institutes of Health
Directors New Innovator award,
the first UNL faculty member to receive this honor.
Professor Margaret Jacobs, Chancellors Professor of History
and Direct of Women's and Gender Studies
in the College of Arts and Sciences is one of 31 scholars
and whether selected for a very prestigious
Carnegie Fellowship, the first ever from Nebraska.
Professor Yongfeng Lu,
of Electrical and Computer Engineering was awarded
the Outstanding Research and Creative Activity award
by the University of Nebraska this past year,
for his outstanding and prolific work in laser-based,
material processing characterization and imaging.
Professors Paul Black of Biochemistry,
Roger Bruning of Educational Psychology,
David Hage of Chemistry, Jim Lewis of Mathematics,
and Jay Storz of Biological Sciences,
all were named to the prestigious
American Association for the Advancement of Science
fellow award.
Biochemistry Professor Emeritus Don Weeks,
and his collaborators were recognized
by Nature Biotechnology,
leading journal in the field internationally,
for their Herbicide Resistance patent
being the most cited gene patent in the world in 2018.
The university's outreach and engagement mission,
that third leg of the three mission stool
also continues to be a national leader,
with Nebraska Extension engaged in all 93 counties
across the state, in areas ranging from agriculture
and agribusiness to natural resource conservation,
to youth development, STEM education,
community development and vitality,
human nutrition and wellbeing and manufacturing.
Nebraska 4H continues to lead the nation,
wherein more than 3/4ths of the counties in Nebraska,
one in every two age eligible youth are members of 4H.
Additionally, each of the academic colleges
across the university have elevated their engagement with
and across the state,
in everything from community architecture projects
to Arts Across Nebraska,
from the Nebraska Center for Children, Families and the Law,
to the Rural Futures Institute's
Community Serviceship program.
Numerous specialized clinical and entrepreneurship
partnerships are offered through all
of our nine academic colleges,
for the citizens of the state.
And turning to our physical infrastructure,
we celebrated this past year the completion
of several facilities projects,
highlighted by the Memorial Mall Loop Phase I project
here on campus, several Outstate projects
in the Experiment Station,
and the long-planned, and now celebrated
Student Health Center UNMC Nursing Complex,
a beautiful partnership between UNL,
UNMC and Nebraska Medicine.
The stunning new exhibits from the 4th floor renovation
of Morrill Hall, will open next month
as part of Charter Week,
and renovations to what we often called,
on campus, and we've just about gotten rid of it now,
Old CBA, now Pound Hall,
(audience laughing)
are nearly complete, with additional space and expansion
badly needed for our College of Arts and Sciences.
We have a number of major construction projects
currently underway, included the new
gymnastics training facility addition to the Devaney Center,
complete renovation of the Nebraska East Union,
green space recreation on the former Cather Pound site,
and relocation of the UNL Dairy Store in Philly Hall,
the renovation of the former Nebraska Bookstore
into the Johnny Carson Center for Emerging Media Arts,
and the dance program of the Hixon-Leed College
is scheduled to be completed by August,
just in time for the arrival of the inaugural class
of the new Carson Center.
By the end of our N150 year,
several major facilities projects will be underway,
including the conversion of the C.Y. Thompson Library
into the East Campus Student Learning Commons.
Phase I of Nebraska Engineering Facilities planned rebuild
of the Scott Link and renovation
of the Scott Engineering Center.
Construction of a completely new Mabel Lee Hall,
for our College of Education and Human Sciences,
construction of a new Nebraska Food for Health Center
Gnotobiotics Mouse Facility, on East Campus,
and renovation of Organic Chemistry labs
in an ongoing rolling wave of facilities in that building,
and we are actively fundraising for the $85 million
Phase II expansion of the Nebraska Engineering Initiative,
which will build a new wing to the East of Othmer Hall,
across 17th Street, and I'm very pleased to note
that our conversations have been very well received
up to this point.
It's our goal to complete the fundraising for that effort
during 2019, so that these two phases can be done
somewhat in parallel to one another.
These two facilities projects,
along with building of faculty in the college,
are a major part of the University of Nebraska
system's number one prioritized effort
in building Nebraska Engineering
to a new Big Ten level of impact,
all carefully partnered with private industry,
and exceptionally led by Dean Lance Perez,
who I see over here in the audience.
No institution can be successful without high performing,
committed people, and I've had the opportunity
over the last several months, as the campus knows,
to visit with each college in every major unit
across the campus, so I've seen that depth
and that breadth of excellence on our campus.
I'm so proud of our hardworking
and committed faculty and staff,
the best anywhere, in my mind in higher education,
and I'm equally proud of our exceptional
UNL Senior Leadership Team,
led by Executive Vice Chancellor Donde Plowman,
and Vice Chancellor of the Institute of Ag
and Natural Resources and Vice President
of the system for the same, Mike Boehm,
and with a host of recent high impact
senior leadership appointments across this last 18 months,
and across the university,
combined with the current important searches for our deans
of the College of Arts and Sciences,
the College of Education and Human Sciences
and University Libraries, we will enter
this next academic year
in a very strong leadership position.
It's particularly gratifying to see several years
of work and planning coming to fruition
in elevating inclusive excellence as a priority
at the university.
We are eagerly looking forward to Marco Barker,
joining us on April 1st at the university's first
Vice Chancellor of Diversity and Inclusion.
And I can't stress how critically important
this position is for our university,
as we move forward, nor how pleased we are
to have attracted someone of Dr. Barker's caliber to it,
much due to the efforts and commitment
of an exceptional search advisory committee in that search,
led by Professor Kwame Dawes.
Marco will join our team on April 1st
that includes Gwendolyn Combs in Academic Affairs,
Charlie Foster in Student Affairs,
and Karen Kassebaum in Business and Finance,
to aggressively lead our efforts forward across all aspects
of UNL, to enhance diversity and inclusive excellence.
Additionally, I've charged the Chancellors Commissions
on the status of people of color,
on sustainability, and on the status of women,
to elevate their work in 2019.
I'm also pleased to announce
that a 4th Chancellors Commission has been added
to this group on the status of Sexual and Gender Identities,
with overall leadership facilitation
being provided by Dr. Combs.
Now while we certainly have much to celebrate
in the momentum of the university as we've outlined
across our missions here,
we must also be conscious of the larger environment
around us, and the considerable, what I would call headwinds
for higher education.
This is kind of timely, isn't it?
(audience laughing)
Both nationally and locally,
funding and budget pressures,
political, or potential federal policies, excuse me,
changes, related to immigration status and Title IX.
Declining international enrollments in higher ed
across the U.S., increased racist behavior,
and additional concerns about mental health issues
on campuses all present challenges,
and while these headwinds have, indeed, been stiff at times,
we have been and continue to be steadfast
in our efforts to confront them,
and to prevent any interruption of our momentum.
While making budget reductions
from constrained state appropriations,
we have been very fortunate to have prevented
significant elimination of any core academic programs.
We are well into our implement at the university system
of streamlining services across informational technology,
human resources, facilities management and planning,
travel, and procurement, and I want to especially thank
our staff and leadership in these areas for what is hard
and difficult work, as we have reorganized
and significantly reduced FTE.
As the state legislature has gotten to work,
and I see a number of our legislative senators here today,
appreciate you being here,
as they've gone to work this past week,
and hearing from the governor earlier today
in the State of the State address,
I'm optimistic going into this current and next
upcoming budget biennium setting cycle.
The university has forwarded
a modest budget increase request
that will hold spending flat, but will allow us
to address faculty and staff salary increases,
and it's been encouraging to see the support
of Governor Ricketts and legislative leadership
to the budget proposal thus far.
We do remain mindful of the economic impact
of decline in trade of agricultural commodities,
and other commodities that are important
to manufacturing in our state,
as well as the state's need to address voter approved
Medicaid expansion in the future.
I'm certainly eager to see us moving forward as a campus
into the final planning for implementation
of a new budget resource allocation model.
As many on the campus know, a university committee
reviewed this in depth in 2017,
and recommended that we move toward
a hybrid responsibility center management approach
to budget allocation.
RCM based budgeting allows increased transparency
in the budget decisions,
enhanced stewardship of decentralized resources,
incentives for academic entrepreneurship
and a database foundation for resource allocation.
The campus will be engaged as the model is developed
this year and the campus leadership will be vetting it
during the first half of the coming academic year.
With our current incremental model being shadowed
by this model during the next fiscal year,
to allow us beginning in fiscal year '21,
to implement this moving forward.
I thank Interim Vice Chancellor Nunez
and the Executive Leadership Team,
in advance for bringing this to fruition,
because I consider it to be amongst our very highest
short term priorities.
As well documented by the press,
this past year, the university administration
was placed on the censure list of the AAUP.
And while we have clearly stated that we do not agree
with this assessment or the process used to reach it,
I'm encouraged by and support the leadership
in joint engagement of the Faculty Senate,
the local AAUP chapter, and the administration
in working through an ad hoc committee
to review our policies and procedures,
and recommend any helpful changes in moving forward.
Even in societal times of division,
and seemingly declining civility and decorum,
we will strongly adhere to our stated core values
regarding academic excellence, rigor and freedom,
with dignity, respect, civility, inclusion,
and freedom of expression, and we will live those values.
We will not accept harassment, intimidation, racism
or hate-filled behavior or actions.
(audience applauding)
Our students said it best.
Our students said it best this past year,
when they said, last spring, hate will never win here.
And I'm very proud that we are taking
a national leadership role through the creation
of the Big Red Resilience Program
and our enhanced counseling
and psychological services programming under the leadership
of interim Vice Chancellor Laurie Bellows,
and the team in Student Affairs,
coupled with very strong leadership
from our student government in ASUM.
Now as part of N150 year, and the desire to enhance
our national reputation, we're also significantly
escalating our efforts to share our university's story.
Front and center to this will be helping Nebraskans
understand our commitment to and impact on this great state
through the more than six to one return on investment
that we routinely deliver from state investment.
We'll also be working diligently to bring national awareness
to the plethora of amazing things that happen
across this campus.
Celebrating the 150th anniversary, entering this year,
can and certainly should be a wonderful opportunity
for all of us, as faculty, staff, students, and alumni
to reengage with our mission.
Charter Week, beginning on February the 11th
will provide many opportunities for our students,
our faculty and our staff and I strongly encourage you all
to take advantage of those and to participate.
Those of you here in the Lied Center today will receive
a copy of all of the activities spanning that Charter Week
which is just around the corner, incidentally,
starting on February 11th.
Those of you that are not here,
I would encourage you to be able to go to the website
at N150.unl.edu to see that full range of activities
for Charter Week and the year.
I hope you will each read Dear Old Nebraska U,
the wonderful new book just recently published
by the University of Nebraska Press, now available,
in honor of our sesquicentennial,
and I'd like to just do a quick shoutout
to Kim Hachiya, Craig Chandler, and Ted Kooser,
for their efforts on this wonderful book.
Please give them a big round of applause.
(audience cheering and applauding)
Looking back over the past 150 years,
and taking stock of where we are today, as we've done,
we can confidently say that UNL is in a period
of sustained momentum, and we are poised
for a tremendous future ahead.
That sentiment is the basis for our new branding efforts,
culminating in our new tagline, as you have seen,
In Our Grit, Our Glory.
Simple words that hearken to the grit of our founders,
the generations of work and achievement
within our university community that have led us
to this tremendous place that we enjoy today,
and combined with that, there's the roll up our sleeves
and get it done attitude that will propel us
to greater glory in the future.
So now, I'd like to shift the focus a bit,
and talk with a little bit about that vision
for the future.
On the occasion of the Chancellor Investiture
a couple of years ago, I made this statement.
Nebraska and the world demands that we must be a bold,
engaged, audacious, accessible and vibrant
people's university, student centered,
continually research innovating and developing,
and never more outward reaching in our impacts
to be Nebraska's 21st century people's university.
We must be open to change, and evolution,
as the world around us continues to change so rapidly.
We need to consider unconventional ideas
and not constrain ourselves by being tied
or wedded to the traditional norms.
We must challenge ourselves in our thinking.
If we can't invent, innovate and create
at a university, where can we?
With this is a charge.
We formed the Nebraska 150 Commission this past year,
to envision UNL's boldest aspirations,
and to broadly determine what must happen to achieve them.
I specifically charged the commission
to take a 25 year, like we've done today,
generational view in their visioning,
recognizing that strategy and implementation would follow.
It was understood, at the outset,
that this certainly was not the first time
that the university had engaged in visioning,
but it is the first time in over 20 years
that this has happened across the full breadth of UNL.
I asked Executive Vice Chancellor Donde Plowman
and Professor of History Will Thomas to co-chair
the commission, made up of more than 150 faculty,
staff, students, alumni and stakeholders of the university,
facilitated with leadership
from academic leadership associates and I might add,
they were given a relatively short timeframe
to complete their work, to submit their final report
by the end of calendar year 2018.
The commission quickly organized itself into a series
of seven working committees, as well as a mission
and steering committee, to study and to debate
a broad range of issues.
Throughout the nearly year-long journey,
the commission held numerous listening sessions
for the larger university and the state-wide community
to participate and to offer feedback,
hearing about values and capacities,
talents and opportunities and dreams and aspirations.
And I'm pleased to report to you that the commission,
through exceptional hard work and commitment,
delivered on their charge, and have now submitted
their final report to the campus,
that's being released for the first time
to the campus today.
At this time, I would like for Donde and Will,
all of the members of the N150 commission,
the staff who worked hard to support their work,
to please stand, and accept our gratitude
on behalf of all of the university.
Please stand. (audience applauding)
Now I could only begin to impart a brief overview
of the framework for the vision that is articulated
in the report, so I certainly will encourage you
to go online and study it at your leisure in full.
The commission sets forth a vision where UNL
is unparalleled among public research universities,
in access, in opportunity, in innovation,
and in lifelong experiential learning.
A future where we attract bold thinkers,
in the quest for knowledge and the search for truths
greater than ourselves.
The vision is framed around four core aspirations.
The first, that Nebraska students will co-create
their experience.
Common transformative learning experiences that equip
each student for their future,
will distinguish a Nebraska education.
Working together with faculty, staff and community members,
our students will co-create experiences
that spark curiosity, lead to demonstrated achievement,
and deepen the capacity for analysis and reflection.
Secondly, our research and creativity will transform
lives and learning, by advancing knowledge,
solving the world's challenges and deepening
our understanding of humanity.
We will enhance quality of life
in the state of Nebraska and beyond.
These innovations will shape the education
that we provide to undergraduate, graduate,
and professional students.
Thirdly, every person and every interaction will matter.
UNL will lead U.S. public universities in affordability
and accessibility to a world-class education.
Our university community will have a deep appreciation
for diversity, inclusive excellence,
and the contributions of each individual,
faculty, staff and student to the greater good.
We will attract, we will educate and support students
whose talent and work ethic will shape their communities
for decades to come.
And fourthly, we will build communities,
by serving as a catalyst for growth,
prosperity and cultural enrichment.
UNL will redefine partnerships between research communities
and their communities.
Now I know that's just a very quick overview,
but I'm gonna try to translate it for you, if I will.
To me, this vision is really a clarion call,
for us to be, as you heard me say earlier,
a transformative, world-leading, 21st century,
mission-integrated land grant university without walls.
Can you imagine having in place, as we approach
the quarter century mark, experiential,
cohort-based interdisciplinary learning,
from nearly 29,000 undergraduate,
graduate and professional students,
with an incoming first year class of 6500 eager students,
unimpeded by financial accessibility
under a new tuition model, with dedicated,
longterm research experiences,
focused on the big, wicked research problems,
a priority across the state and the university,
with community-based research across all colleges,
connecting every student
to real world challenges in Nebraska,
with connected, public/private partnership
internship opportunities outside the university
for every student,
with design thinking and coding fundamentally a part
of the experience, emphasizing imagination,
creative expression, and the convergence of disciplinary
and design thinking,
with integrated internationalization as the norm,
where inclusive excellence is inherent in community,
not aspirational, where students and faculty
challenge each other at equal levels
of rigor and excellence,
where students co-create their education,
but without barriers to being able to complete
their high value, Nebraska education
as undergrads in four years or less,
and where we are the first comprehensive
public research university to be fully developing
and integrating simulated experiential learning,
perhaps developed in partnership with IXL at UNMC?
A research and creative activity enterprise,
approaching $450 million, prioritized and resource-enhanced
around deepening commitment to solve wicked problems
and challenges important to Nebraska,
like feeding and growing a hungry world,
sustainably under a climate change with less water,
or understanding and enhancing early childhood development
for success or novelly combating infectious disease
and weapons of mass destruction,
or social and behavioral science,
to reduced income and health disparities,
or engineering the future enabled
with artificial intelligence and data analytics?
All seamlessly and directly tied to every student
in their educational experience on the campus,
with significantly higher levels
of public/private philanthropic partners
that we talked about earlier,
with strategic investment to interdisciplinary research
directed to hiring and competitive support
of doctoral students, with all aspects
of academic student and business affairs,
aligned in support of our priority research,
scholarship and creative activity, and with compensation,
career development and research opportunities
for graduate students and post-docs that surpass the norms
of the top 50 research universities,
with a completely integrated engagement mission
as a Carnegie Community Engagement designated
leading university, where every community
across Nebraska is viewed as a key part
of the university's extended campus for learning
and for research opportunities,
where engagement is a fundamental part
of every UNL community member's ethos,
where the capstone experience of every student
is aligned to a community partner and problem in the state,
where engagement is also defined with partnership
with private industry, and where Nebraska students
define engagement with their university
through a plugged in lifetime of continual learning,
and can we all imagine internally and dream of a 2025,
when the operations and the infrastructure
of the university are dynamically aligned and optimized
without walls, in support of the transformative,
integrated three part, land grant mission?
With a transparent budget research allocation model,
and process that incentivizes excellence,
smart growth, interdisciplinary work,
empowered to deliver on that three part mission,
with empowered decision making, and shared governance,
through an enhanced university faculty
and staff council, with family-friendly policies
and programs to ensure that UNL continues to be
a best place to work in higher ed,
and with a culture that builds a more sustainable
and resilient community for all citizens,
and then, lastly, with a highly-respected
talent management program for professional development
and engagement of our staff that leads the Big Ten.
Now while this future may seem bold,
perhaps audacious in some spots,
and stretch beyond 2025 in some others,
now is our time to lead to new heights,
and I sense that the UNL community is extraordinarily eager
for this challenge.
In early February, I will be drawing together
an N150 strategy team, to roll up their sleeves
and to develop the initial five year implementation plan
for the vision.
I'll ask that team to complete their work by October 15th,
to enable it to be vetted across the campus,
and in place prior to our next
State of the University address during Charter Week in 2020.
Now I'm gonna ask you to put on your creative hat,
if you will, in closing here today.
Imagine, two children born tomorrow.
A baby girl in rural Nebraska,
a baby boy, perhaps, in urban Mumbai.
Both are able to access powerful early childhood education,
shaped by methods, utilizing the discoveries
and learnings of UNL,
sparking their early curiosity and their inquisitiveness.
As the girl grows, her farming family begins
to utilize drones to plant precise crops
for each inch of their land, and where diverse plants
invigorate each other for their maximum potential,
all enabled and facilitated by UNL.
Her 4H club works with UNL's College of Business,
to create a startup company,
which ultimately takes root and employs 10 people
in her rural community.
The young boy grows up in a world free from the worry
of mosquito born diseases, such as Zika and dengue fever,
aided by the research of UNL and UNMC microbiologists
and scientists.
His school utilizes programming on food science
and nutrition from UNL's global extension network,
which has been tailored to reflect Indian diets
and food staples.
Imagine when they come to UNL,
the young man pursues studies with a core emphasis
in music, robotics and food science.
Through the application of principles of harmony,
he works with a global team of UNL researchers
to advance artificial intelligence,
with application to food manufacturing.
He interns for a company that's developing systems
to deliver infant nutrition derived from fresh produce
into the heart of urban megacities.
The young woman seeks to be an advocate for human rights
and through a global partnership initiated
by UNL's College of Law,
she takes virtual undergraduate courses
with students around the world, from judicial clerks
at The Hague.
What began as the Drone Journalism Lab here at UNL
has grown into the use of artificial intelligence
and our young woman, from rural Nebraska
is part of a cohort students who will unearth
the rich history of a Native Amazonian tribe
for the first time.
In January of 2044, when they are 25,
and when our university celebrates its 175th anniversary,
and maybe our football team has just added
yet another national championship
to Coach Frost's long list of accomplishments,
our young people will be back on campus
to receive honors for their great efforts here at UNL.
Perhaps, the young man is part of a group of UNL researchers
awarded the Nobel Prize,
the first time an undergraduate student is recognized
for this glorious, scientific achievement.
Perhaps our young woman and her cohort of fellow students
is awarded a Pulitzer Prize.
Both continue to engage with their university
through microclasses, one or two a year
through the university, as they will throughout their lives
to access the latest discoveries or satiating
their curiosity on a new topic.
And perhaps, in 2069, one of them will stand
on this stage as Chancellor,
projected out to a global university,
and speak about the vision set in 2019,
and how that propelled the continued glory
of the university, uttering words similar to these,
in describing our time.
The university had the iridescent glamor of life beginning,
for which almost anything is possible,
the very air over the campus was glittering bright
with what might be,
and I know you're all familiar with the inscribed quote
on Memorial Stadium, attributed to one of the most famous
of all Nebraskans, William Jennings Bryan,
from over a hundred years ago,
and you're familiar with that quote.
It says that destiny is not a matter of chance.
It is a matter of choice.
The choices we make today are not just for us,
for the generations in this room,
or for the generations of our students in our classrooms,
in our recital halls, in our studios, in our labs,
in the field today.
It's for the generations that are yet to come,
and just as we stand on the shoulders of those
who came before in these 15 amazing decades,
they will stand on ours.
What an awesome responsibility and opportunity.
I hope to be fortunate enough
to be around 25 years from now.
You can, and for those of you that
that just made really nervous, relax.
I mean, probably, as the grandparent of a gaggle
of Husker students, hopefully, and a cheering alum.
At that time, I hope that our successors,
upon our quarto-centennial,
and I'll try to say that one, will look back
on this inflection point, and they'll say,
wow, they were not only thinking,
they were truly imagining the future.
There truly is no place like dear old Nebraska U,
thanks for everything that you have done in the past,
are doing in the present, and will do in the future
to enable its bold future.
Thank you very much.
(audience cheering and applauding)
(bright piano music)
♪ There is no place like Nebraska ♪
♪ Dear old Nebraska U ♪
♪ We'll all sing together ♪
♪ In all types of weather ♪
♪ For dear old Nebraska U ♪
♪ Hail to the team ♪
♪ The Scarlet and Cream ♪
♪ Cheers for a victory, echo our loyalty ♪
♪ So, on, mighty men ♪
♪ Run, triumph again ♪
♪ Fight on for victory ♪
♪ Hail the men of Nebraska U ♪
♪ I see this land of ours ♪
♪ From high on Chimney Rock ♪
♪ I see this from the roads below ♪
♪ I traveled east and west ♪
♪ I traveled north and south ♪
♪ And from all that I've seen ♪
♪ I've come to know ♪
♪ I'm glad to say that I am from Nebraska ♪
♪ I'm glad to say I'm from the Husker state ♪
♪ Where the air's so clean ♪
♪ The sky's so blue ♪
♪ You'll know it when you're passing through ♪
♪ Nebraska, that's my home state ♪
♪ From the rolling place of valleys ♪
♪ Ah ♪
(Ah's drowning out main melody)
♪ Don't mind the good life here in Nebraska ♪
♪ In Nebraska ♪
♪ Ah, ah ♪
♪ From the sandhills to the mining hall ♪
♪ There's lots of room to live and grow ♪
♪ Nebraska ♪
♪ Nebraska, that's my home state ♪
♪ There is no place like Nebraska ♪
(audience applauding)