N|150 University of Nebraska 1869-2019

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02/10/2019 Added

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Chancellor Ronnie Green highlights 150 years of history, from University of Nebraska's founding in 1869 to present day.

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[00:00:00.572](uplifting music)
[00:00:03.930]This year, 2019,
[00:00:06.010]marks the 150-year anniversary
[00:00:08.470]of the University of Nebraska.
[00:00:10.850]What a momentous occasion,
[00:00:13.050]and what an incredible opportunity to reflect on all
[00:00:16.330]the amazing things that have happened in that time frame.
[00:00:21.820]150 years, by any measure of the imagination,
[00:00:25.460]is a long time.
[00:00:27.050]It spans six generations,
[00:00:29.750]and I know it's hard for us to put into the context
[00:00:34.030]of our great-great-great-grandparents' time.
[00:00:38.870]Putting back to the time that was
[00:00:40.840]at the end of the Civil War.
[00:00:44.460]Imagine the bravado, the courage, the creativity,
[00:00:48.870]and the outright grit that our founders had to have
[00:00:52.190]to establish a university in 1869
[00:00:56.280]in a new state, in a new town with very few people,
[00:01:01.380]and even fewer resources.
[00:01:03.620]How fitting and exciting it must have been
[00:01:05.820]for the confluence of such newness to have come together
[00:01:09.290]in this special place, named for one of my personal heroes,
[00:01:13.780]the president who had signed the Morrill Act,
[00:01:16.000]passed only seven years earlier,
[00:01:18.320]during one of the most challenging times
[00:01:20.440]in our young country's first century of history.
[00:01:23.960]The Morrill Act, along with the Homestead Act
[00:01:26.940]and the emergence of the Transcontinental Railroad,
[00:01:29.730]opened up Nebraska in the west,
[00:01:32.150]making way for people to establish livelihoods
[00:01:35.110]on their own terms.
[00:01:37.150]The new state of Nebraska was granted 136,080 acres
[00:01:42.520]by the federal government
[00:01:44.150]from which to fund and build what was to become
[00:01:46.660]the state's land grant comprehensive people's university.
[00:01:51.766](exciting piano music)
[00:01:53.850]We can only imagine that the air,
[00:01:55.850]sparked with the sense of opportunity, new land,
[00:01:59.270]new rail linking east to west,
[00:02:01.840]and the opening up of advanced education to the public.
[00:02:06.840]Our founders and our national leaders at that time
[00:02:09.300]were big thinkers, especially in bringing to the idea here
[00:02:13.757]of having publicly accessible
[00:02:16.041]higher learning for the masses.
[00:02:19.510]The Morrill Act, or the Land Grant Act,
[00:02:21.870]as it would come to be commonly known,
[00:02:24.200]was truly revolutionary,
[00:02:26.850]designed to promote the liberal and practical education
[00:02:30.130]of the industrial classes in the several pursuits
[00:02:33.190]and professions of life.
[00:02:35.320]It challenged all of the conventional thinking
[00:02:38.400]leading up to that time.
[00:02:40.630]It was bold, it was audacious, it was risky,
[00:02:44.580]and it was visionary, and it imagined more prosperity
[00:02:48.000]and inclusivity for all through the diffusion of knowledge.
[00:02:57.290]Nebraska had already embodied this from the start,
[00:03:00.480]when, as a newly established state in 1867,
[00:03:04.280]it did so on the premise of the state's enduring motto,
[00:03:08.130]Equality Before the Law,
[00:03:11.330]and Nebraska's leaders knew then that this new state
[00:03:15.990]would be visionary if the university grew up alongside it,
[00:03:20.066]and that it would be an investment, not a cost,
[00:03:23.850]for generations to come in the future,
[00:03:26.410]not just them or their children,
[00:03:29.070]but generations to come across time.
[00:03:32.070]Little did they know how much the state's future
[00:03:34.590]would be directly dependent
[00:03:36.350]throughout its subsequent history
[00:03:38.370]on what they sought to establish.
[00:03:40.750]Unlike the path followed in most other states,
[00:03:44.020]one comprehensive university where the state university
[00:03:48.410]and the state agricultural college shall be united
[00:03:51.930]as one institution.
[00:03:55.100]Robert Knoll captured the essence of this
[00:03:57.580]in his 1995 book that we're familiar with,
[00:03:59.960]The Prairie University, where he wrote,
[00:04:03.190]the original charter deserves close examination,
[00:04:06.410]for it broadened the provisions of the Morrill Act.
[00:04:10.140]It specifies that the object of the University of Nebraska
[00:04:13.970]shall be to afford the inhabitants of the state
[00:04:17.250]the means of acquiring a thorough knowledge
[00:04:19.990]of the various branches of literature,
[00:04:22.110]the sciences, and the arts.
[00:04:25.460]This institution was established
[00:04:27.280]for the inhabitants of Nebraska.
[00:04:29.810]It was to reach out to all people,
[00:04:31.640]not just youth or the privileged class.
[00:04:35.740]It was explicitly inclusive.
[00:04:39.340]Section 18 of the original charter reads,
[00:04:42.460]no person shall, because of age, sex, color, or nationality,
[00:04:47.500]be deprived of the privileges of this institution.
[00:04:52.210]It was left to pioneering chancellors Benton and Fairfield
[00:04:55.400]to chart the unconventional course of a new
[00:04:57.710]three-part or three-legged mission
[00:05:01.060]of teaching, research, and outreach.
[00:05:04.820]Classes were first offered in 1871 by five faculty
[00:05:09.900]for 130 students, 110 of whom
[00:05:14.270]were in Latin preparatory school,
[00:05:16.440]only 20 who were pursuing collegiate work,
[00:05:20.020]seven of whom were women,
[00:05:22.590]all enrolled in the College of Literature,
[00:05:24.890]Arts, and Science, the original of the first
[00:05:27.490]of six colleges called for in the charter.
[00:05:31.830]Campus consisted of a single building,
[00:05:34.520]the original University Hall,
[00:05:36.120]which was the center of the early life of the university.
[00:05:40.336]From these humble and meager beginnings
[00:05:43.050]in each of the subsequent six generations
[00:05:45.420]up to the current day,
[00:05:47.240]our predecessors confronted pressures,
[00:05:50.130]they confronted challenges from outside forces,
[00:05:53.620]by employing vision and courage,
[00:05:55.800]furthering the ongoing transformation of the university
[00:05:59.100]to meet the emerging needs of our state, nation, and world.
[00:06:04.460]I'd just like you to quickly walk through,
[00:06:07.210]generationally, the history of the university with me,
[00:06:10.700]if you will.
[00:06:13.110]Imagine the silver 25th anniversary of the university,
[00:06:17.190]celebrated in 1894.
[00:06:20.210]Nebraska had emerged
[00:06:21.340]as one of the big four state universities,
[00:06:24.360]along with California, Wisconsin, and Michigan.
[00:06:29.220]Chancellor Canfield oversaw a growth spurt with 40 faculty,
[00:06:32.860]nearly 1500 students,
[00:06:35.180]and the addition of the Culver Farm on Holdridge Street.
[00:06:39.830]Walking the campus at this time were Nebraska luminaries
[00:06:42.870]such as Louise Pound, Willa Cather,
[00:06:46.320]future governor George Sheldon,
[00:06:48.470]future dean of Harvard Law, Roscoe Pound,
[00:06:51.260]founding botanist Charles Bessey,
[00:06:53.960]future chancellor Samuel Avery, amongst others.
[00:06:58.420]The medical college had taken off in the 1880s.
[00:07:01.430]The Agricultural Experiment Station had been founded in 1887
[00:07:05.141]with the implementation of the Hatch Act,
[00:07:08.150]and Nebraska football had officially arrived in 1890.
[00:07:14.440]Dorothy Canfield, precocious daughter
[00:07:16.940]of Chancellor Canfield at the time and a future novelist,
[00:07:20.420]tried to capture the vibe of the time when she wrote,
[00:07:23.880]above all, it was new.
[00:07:26.900]It was crude because it was new.
[00:07:29.594]And because it was new, both town and University
[00:07:32.990]had the iridescent glamour of life beginning,
[00:07:36.880]for which almost anything is possible
[00:07:38.770]because little has yet been tried.
[00:07:41.590]The very air over the campus was glittering bright
[00:07:45.410]with what might be.
[00:07:49.350]Imagine, 1919, as the university reached
[00:07:52.980]its golden 50th anniversary,
[00:07:55.530]led by Chancellor Avery in a difficult time
[00:07:58.190]in the university's history,
[00:07:59.970]punctuated by three major challenges.
[00:08:03.200]The first was what to do with the physical campus.
[00:08:06.360]The student population had outgrown the original deeded
[00:08:09.700]four-block city campus,
[00:08:11.610]and the buildings were described as decrepit.
[00:08:14.660]Charles Bessey had advocated moving the university
[00:08:17.680]to the east campus on Holdridge Street,
[00:08:20.410]but this was opposed by city business leaders,
[00:08:23.370]resulting in an expansion east to 14th
[00:08:26.350]and north to U Streets.
[00:08:28.830]The second controversy occurred in relation
[00:08:31.170]to un-American anti-war sentiment of faculty
[00:08:35.010]during World War I, and even though the Great War
[00:08:38.380]had ended the year prior to the anniversary,
[00:08:41.050]the immediate time period ahead saw a rapid decline
[00:08:44.660]in financial support for the university
[00:08:47.130]as the farm economy struggled.
[00:08:49.600]The state-elected leadership was unwilling
[00:08:51.560]to invest in the future, while at the same time,
[00:08:54.550]the university enrollment was mushrooming to 7000,
[00:08:58.070]on its way to 12,000 by 1927.
[00:09:03.020]Imagine the 75 diamond anniversary in 1944,
[00:09:07.240]capping a generation of economic and academic depression.
[00:09:11.230]The combination of the stock market crash of 1929,
[00:09:15.110]followed by the Dust Bowl era of the Great Depression,
[00:09:18.150]Prohibition, and resulting social moors,
[00:09:21.620]and then capped by the fighting of World War II,
[00:09:24.780]made for a tough row, financially, for the university,
[00:09:28.260]with major budget reductions in the face
[00:09:30.470]of increasing student numbers,
[00:09:32.580]lagging faculty salaries, and subsequent loss of talent.
[00:09:36.980]Conflict between the College of Arts and Sciences,
[00:09:39.650]an emphasis on the emerging professional colleges,
[00:09:42.660]was about to erupt.
[00:09:45.000]Said Chancellor Avery in 1922,
[00:09:48.176]"I can imagine Dr. Benton speaking of the infant university,
[00:09:52.157]"Dr. Fairfield on the growing university,
[00:09:54.787]"Dr. Canfield on the booming university,
[00:09:57.437]"Dr. Maclean on the great university,
[00:10:00.157]"Dr. Andrews on the modern university,
[00:10:03.267]"but all of these periods are passed
[00:10:05.537]"and there seems to be nothing now to do
[00:10:07.857]"but to talk about the University in retrenchment."
[00:10:13.040]Tuition and fees began for the first time in 1923,
[00:10:17.730]at $1 per credit hour,
[00:10:21.110]as the university could not support itself
[00:10:23.240]solely on state funds.
[00:10:25.810]Nonetheless, there was notable progress
[00:10:28.330]in academically organizing the university,
[00:10:31.120]setting the stage for more directed research.
[00:10:33.880]The Prairie Schooner was established,
[00:10:35.900]the Nebraska Union was built,
[00:10:37.930]and of course, football continued to build unity
[00:10:40.670]for the state, both as a source of pride and obsession.
[00:10:45.380]Chancellor Burnett rightly recognized
[00:10:47.480]that support for the university was going to need to come
[00:10:50.270]from more than the state appropriation,
[00:10:52.950]and thus the idea leading to the establishment
[00:10:55.460]of the University of Nebraska Foundation was born.
[00:10:59.490]While enrollment had declined to fewer than 5000 students
[00:11:03.290]at the time of the 75th anniversary,
[00:11:05.610]much due to the war, this was to quickly change
[00:11:08.810]as the war ended a year later,
[00:11:11.010]and more than double that number arrived in 1946.
[00:11:14.760]With over 2/3 of the new students arriving
[00:11:18.016]under the G.I. Bill,
[00:11:20.710]new opportunities clearly appeared to be on the horizon.
[00:11:25.870]Imagine the centennial mark in 1969,
[00:11:28.540]under the leadership of Chancellor Cliff Hardin.
[00:11:31.546]No other 25-year period parallels the expansion
[00:11:35.360]experienced in this generation of the university's history.
[00:11:40.040]Exponential growth and funding became available
[00:11:42.620]from the federal government for research,
[00:11:45.470]a booming post-war economy, a significant increase
[00:11:48.520]in college attainment under the G.I. Bill,
[00:11:51.580]and substantial increases in support
[00:11:53.550]from the state of Nebraska,
[00:11:55.150]primarily under Governor Frank Morrison,
[00:11:57.930]drove the enrollment of the university
[00:12:00.400]up to 19,000 students.
[00:12:04.400]Believe it or not, there was even talk
[00:12:06.530]of capping enrollments for the first time.
[00:12:09.180]This was a time of great civil unrest,
[00:12:12.020]with anti-Communism and the Cold War,
[00:12:15.040]the dawn of Civil Rights,
[00:12:16.960]groundswell for equal rights for women,
[00:12:19.700]beginnings of government social programs,
[00:12:22.270]the beginnings of the environmental movement,
[00:12:24.610]and the growing controversy surrounding the Vietnam War.
[00:12:28.850]In 1961, the retirement benefits were offered to faculty
[00:12:33.190]for the first time.
[00:12:35.910]Major expansion of the physical campus occurred
[00:12:38.610]during this period, both in Lincoln and across the state
[00:12:42.240]in the Agricultural Experiment Station,
[00:12:44.950]which was really no coincidence,
[00:12:46.717]as Chancellor Hardin came in 1955
[00:12:50.250]from a great land grant tradition
[00:12:52.230]at Michigan State in Perdue,
[00:12:54.400]and desired full engagement and connection
[00:12:56.870]to the entire state.
[00:12:59.160]The iconic Sheldon Art Museum
[00:13:00.740]next door here was constructed.
[00:13:04.100]It also was the period where Husker Athletics emerged
[00:13:07.510]as a preeminent force,
[00:13:09.540]with Devaney's period of dominance soon to lead
[00:13:12.500]to the 1970-71 national football titles,
[00:13:16.990]and arrival of a person named Tom Osborne on the scene.
[00:13:22.070]And just as this generation was ending,
[00:13:25.030]the University of Nebraska system was created,
[00:13:28.060]as Omaha University was brought in
[00:13:30.040]to the University of Nebraska to join the flagship campus
[00:13:33.600]in Lincoln and the medical college in Omaha.
[00:13:38.630]A special aspect of the hundredth anniversary
[00:13:41.250]was the development of an innovative concept
[00:13:43.680]called the Centennial Educational Program,
[00:13:46.660]commonly called Centennial College.
[00:13:49.530]This inter-disciplinary early learning community
[00:13:52.640]individualized approach eventually led
[00:13:55.820]to the University Honors Program in the late 1980s.
[00:14:01.320]Many of you were here as the university
[00:14:03.700]reached its 125-year milestone in 1994,
[00:14:07.807]which was a time of rapid change and growth
[00:14:10.640]for the university, extending its reach globally.
[00:14:16.040]The university system had added the UNK campus.
[00:14:20.180]The Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources at UNL
[00:14:23.410]was consolidated across the state in 1972.
[00:14:28.283]UNL's enrollment peaked in 1981,
[00:14:31.630]at just over 25,000 students,
[00:14:34.650]and the graduate program had grown substantially
[00:14:36.990]from an influx of students from all over the world.
[00:14:41.200]New research areas were developed,
[00:14:43.380]particularly in agricultural life sciences
[00:14:46.000]and biotechnology arenas.
[00:14:48.770]This beautiful facility,
[00:14:49.980]the Lied Center for the Performing Arts, was opened
[00:14:52.790]as a venue for the campus, the city, and the region.
[00:14:56.571]Two of our senior academic leaders of the campus were,
[00:15:00.290]for the first time, accomplished women scholars,
[00:15:04.190]Joan Lietzel leading academic affairs
[00:15:07.240]and Priscilla Grew leading research.
[00:15:11.080]To the dismay of UNL faculty,
[00:15:13.610]salaries experienced a period of significant loss
[00:15:16.110]relative to peers, as the budget challenges in the 1980s
[00:15:21.690]were due to what was one of the worst,
[00:15:24.434]in modern times, agricultural economies.
[00:15:29.290]Continuing its dominance,
[00:15:31.160]Husker Athletics was now truly a dynasty,
[00:15:34.190]uniting the state with pride with major national success
[00:15:38.430]in football and volleyball, track and field,
[00:15:41.210]bowling, and gymnastics, amongst others.
[00:15:45.490]Which brings us to the present, to 2019
[00:15:48.250]and the close of now this latest generation in our history.
[00:15:53.310]Led for 16 of those 25 years by Chancellor Harvey Perlman,
[00:15:57.600]it was a time marked in remarkable growth,
[00:16:00.181]in creative activity across all nine,
[00:16:03.073]now, of our academic colleges at UNL.
[00:16:07.710]Research expenditures tripled, which led to being ranked
[00:16:11.000]amongst the fastest growing comprehensive
[00:16:13.270]research universities in the country in the last decade.
[00:16:16.930]Along with an expansion of commercialization
[00:16:19.430]of intellectual property and philanthropic support,
[00:16:23.160]significant physical expansion of the campuses occurred,
[00:16:26.660]and growth in enrollment and stature were experienced
[00:16:29.560]in agricultural sciences and natural resources,
[00:16:32.520]business, fine and performing arts,
[00:16:35.150]journalism and mass communications, and law,
[00:16:38.450]with overall enrollment reaching an all-time high in 2017.
[00:16:43.670]Significant physical expansion of the campus has occurred
[00:16:46.530]to match this growth,
[00:16:47.970]including substantial building in university housing,
[00:16:51.130]campus recreation, the Van Brunt Visitors Center,
[00:16:54.640]Jackie Gaughan Multicultural Center,
[00:16:56.972]Othmer Hall, Morrison Life Sciences Research Center,
[00:17:00.900]Jorgensen Hall, Prem S. Paul Research Center
[00:17:03.810]at Whittier School, Hawks Hall,
[00:17:06.460]Veterinary Diagnostic Center,
[00:17:08.280]Brace Hall, Behlen Research Laboratories,
[00:17:11.520]and the Student Health Center at UNMC College of Nursing.
[00:17:15.420]Joining the Big Ten Athletic Conference
[00:17:17.680]and Academic Alliance in 2011 was a major step forward,
[00:17:22.560]bringing us into a league with the most prestigious group
[00:17:26.140]of primarily public universities in the country,
[00:17:29.630]and the University Brought to Life
[00:17:31.270]Nebraska Innovation Campus on the former state fairgrounds
[00:17:34.790]to foster public-private partnerships,
[00:17:37.180]successfully opening phase one
[00:17:39.340]of a 25-year master plan in 2015.
[00:17:42.980]This was a generation marked by great success
[00:17:46.010]and continuing to lead the nation
[00:17:48.130]in academic and life skills success, reaching a total
[00:17:51.500]of 333 Academic All-American Athletes in 2018,
[00:17:56.910]as well as amazing growth of facilities
[00:17:59.550]and financial support.
[00:18:02.373]Now, I know this has been a quick kind of walk
[00:18:05.040]through those six generations,
[00:18:06.570]a snapshot, if you will, review,
[00:18:09.890]but I hope that it describes for you
[00:18:12.290]and helps you wrap your head around how intertwined
[00:18:16.440]the university and the development of our state has been
[00:18:19.210]over these last 150 years.
[00:18:23.580]Now, I know you're all familiar with the inscribed quote
[00:18:27.900]on Memorial Stadium, attributed to one of the most famous
[00:18:31.390]of all Nebraskans, William Jennings Bryan,
[00:18:33.880]from over 100 years ago.
[00:18:36.396]And you're familiar with that quote.
[00:18:38.790]It says that destiny is not a matter of chance,
[00:18:41.900]it is a matter of choice.
[00:18:44.360]The choices we make today are not just for us,
[00:18:47.000]for the generations in this room,
[00:18:49.190]or for the generations of our students in our classrooms
[00:18:52.340]and our recital halls and our studios and our labs
[00:18:54.800]and the field today.
[00:18:57.080]It's for the generations that are yet to come,
[00:19:00.240]and just as we stand on the shoulders of those
[00:19:03.130]who came before in these 15 amazing decades,
[00:19:06.595]they will stand on ours.
[00:19:09.070]What an awesome responsibility and opportunity.
[00:19:14.160]There truly is no place like dear old Nebraska U.
[00:19:19.099](peaceful piano music) (audience applauds)

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N|150 University of Nebraska 1869-2019

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