KRVN Chat with the Chancellor

Ronnie Green Author

08/23/2021 Added

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Ronnie Green talks about the August commencement ceremonies, the special evening in Memorial Stadium with a recent Garth Brooks concert, the uptick in activity campus with more and more students arriving on campus for move-in and positive momentum for the university. Green also recaps a recent forum with Rep. Jeff Fortenberry and Rep. Glenn "GT" Thompson to discuss the future of agriculture.

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[00:00:00.280]Bryce Doeschot with the Rural Radio Network
[00:00:02.200]and our weekly Chat with the Chancellor program.
[00:00:04.250]This week we are joined
[00:00:05.083]by the Chancellor of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln,
[00:00:07.050]Dr. Ronnie Green.
[00:00:08.490]Dr. Green. Welcome back to the studio.
[00:00:09.870]Great to have you here!
[00:00:10.970]Good to see you Bryce.
[00:00:11.890]We've got lots to cover on this week's episode,
[00:00:14.110]but first let's look back on the August commencement
[00:00:16.450]with 2020 and 2021 graduates.
[00:00:19.130]I believe there was something, nearly 700 graduates
[00:00:21.850]or degrees conferred to students.
[00:00:23.730]That's always a special time on campus, isn't it?
[00:00:25.850]It is Bryce, and this one was even more special for us
[00:00:29.240]coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic.
[00:00:31.980]As we've been experiencing in the last several months,
[00:00:35.070]we had talked to our 2020 graduates,
[00:00:38.770]where we weren't able to have ceremonies in May of '20
[00:00:41.740]and December of '20, that when we had the opportunity,
[00:00:46.020]that they would be able to come back
[00:00:47.920]and participate in commencement exercises.
[00:00:50.540]So last weekend,
[00:00:52.010]we had our regular scheduled August commencement.
[00:00:55.490]It's our smallest commencement of the year,
[00:00:57.200]but still a big and important one.
[00:00:59.730]So we did have a number of our 2020 graduates
[00:01:03.130]join our August 2021 graduates.
[00:01:05.980]Had a total of 688 new degrees in our August graduates
[00:01:11.800]were conferred last weekend in graduate ceremonies on Friday
[00:01:15.150]and undergraduate ceremonies on Saturday.
[00:01:17.520]And we had another, almost 700 of our 2020 graduates
[00:01:21.510]come back to participate in those ceremonies as well.
[00:01:25.240]It was great to see them, and to see their families,
[00:01:27.770]and to have the chance to celebrate with them
[00:01:29.730]at Pinnacle Bank Arena.
[00:01:31.290]Our graduates in those ceremonies represented students
[00:01:35.320]from every county in the state of Nebraska,
[00:01:37.450]from 40 countries around the world,
[00:01:39.720]from 38 states here across the United States.
[00:01:43.350]And so, just really pleased with those graduates.
[00:01:48.090]They had the opportunity to hear from
[00:01:50.050]University of Nebraska system president, Ted Carter,
[00:01:52.630]who was the commencement speaker
[00:01:54.160]for the undergrad ceremony last Saturday.
[00:01:56.990]He talked about thinking globally,
[00:01:58.820]about the importance of civic discourse and civil discourse.
[00:02:02.110]Committing the graduates,
[00:02:03.470]asking them to commit to being their best selves.
[00:02:06.530]And moving forward as one of the best commencement speeches
[00:02:09.230]I think I've heard in my career from Ted,
[00:02:11.490]and was really pleased with that last Saturday.
[00:02:14.230]And then at grad commencement, the day before,
[00:02:16.440]where we had our doctoral candidates
[00:02:18.240]and award our masters in professional degrees,
[00:02:21.630]Dan Linzell was the commencement speaker.
[00:02:24.520]Dan is one of the Associate Deans
[00:02:26.240]of our College of Engineering,
[00:02:27.510]is a world renowned civil engineer,
[00:02:29.890]been on our faculty for a number of years.
[00:02:32.730]And he addressed the graduates,
[00:02:34.470]which is a big honor for him.
[00:02:36.350]We always select a faculty member
[00:02:38.300]to speak to graduate commencement,
[00:02:40.480]so he was honored in that way.
[00:02:42.500]He's a fisherman, and talked about
[00:02:45.230]you'll use the analogy of fishing to keep on fishing,
[00:02:49.130]and to be able to do that throughout their careers.
[00:02:51.540]So great commencement last weekend,
[00:02:54.250]celebrating both with these new August grads,
[00:02:57.540]as well as with a lot of our 2020 grads.
[00:03:00.170]We expect to see more of those 2020 grads
[00:03:02.850]come back in December and join the December commencement
[00:03:06.510]as well as probably next May, as well.
[00:03:09.380]Sounds like a great celebration.
[00:03:10.640]I should also mention,
[00:03:11.580]it was a busy weekend on campus that evening,
[00:03:13.460]had Garth Brooks at Memorial Stadium.
[00:03:15.740]Have you had a chance to reflect on that
[00:03:17.550]with the busyness of this week?
[00:03:18.745]Yeah! So, you know, you think about,
[00:03:20.790]we had a wonderful grad commencement on Friday afternoon,
[00:03:24.060]and then Garth Brooks had his soundcheck event
[00:03:27.100]in the stadium on Friday night;
[00:03:29.910]where students and faculty and staff
[00:03:31.850]were able to come and be on the field with him,
[00:03:33.860]I think, for about two hours--
[00:03:35.333]Wow!
[00:03:36.166]of a time period.
[00:03:37.030]So that was a wonderful event on Friday,
[00:03:39.160]and then commencement, that we were just talking about
[00:03:41.470]and excitement of that in PBA on Saturday morning,
[00:03:45.810]followed by a wonderful concert in Memorial Stadium.
[00:03:49.200]One of the things I'll remember
[00:03:51.410]for a long time was that concert.
[00:03:53.900]Not only because of Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood
[00:03:57.340]and the excellence they have as entertainers,
[00:04:00.900]and my favorite, one of my favorites as well,
[00:04:03.390]you know, from my own personal history.
[00:04:05.490]But just the feeling of unity that was there
[00:04:09.100]in that stadium on Saturday night,
[00:04:13.000]it, it was, I'll just describe it.
[00:04:16.267]It was a moment of morale, a real morale boost, I think,
[00:04:20.080]for a lot of people to be able to experience that together.
[00:04:23.810]And be able to experience it
[00:04:25.120]in that kind of unique way in Memorial Stadium,
[00:04:28.250]first time we've ever done anything like that.
[00:04:30.780]So at that level, and that magnitude of--
[00:04:34.460]Garth said many, many times
[00:04:36.030]it was unprecedented in his career
[00:04:38.620]and he never experienced anything like it.
[00:04:40.990]He used that phrase over and over again during the concert.
[00:04:45.159]And I happened to be down on the field by the stage
[00:04:49.380]at the very end of the concert
[00:04:51.360]when he came out and did his encore of American Pie.
[00:04:54.220]Now, you know, for an old seventies guys,
[00:04:56.407](laughter) sixties and seventies, yeah!
[00:04:59.453]Hearing the stadium sing that together,
[00:05:03.100]in the way that they did.
[00:05:04.790]It was just, it was a special evening.
[00:05:06.800]Absolutely.
[00:05:07.633]having Garth Brooks and Trisha here at the university.
[00:05:11.020]Busy weekend last weekend,
[00:05:12.560]and things aren't gonna slow down here, Chancellor Green,
[00:05:14.510]because this Monday,
[00:05:15.470]classes start here for the fall semester.
[00:05:17.950]Gotta be a good feeling
[00:05:18.783]to have those students back on campus.
[00:05:20.470]Another real big morale booster here.
[00:05:22.760]Talk about some of the things going on here
[00:05:24.400]with the fall semester.
[00:05:25.490]Well, we're very excited.
[00:05:27.080]You know, this past week has been move-in week on campus
[00:05:30.200]and the escalation of activity on campus
[00:05:34.040]and people on campus has sped up throughout the week.
[00:05:37.120]Most of our freshmen
[00:05:38.720]and many of our sophomores back on campus
[00:05:43.419]by mid-week.
[00:05:44.252]Sorority rush underway,
[00:05:45.960]the marching band, you know, preparing for their shows
[00:05:51.190]coming up very soon here,
[00:05:52.560]with our first home game on Labor Day weekend.
[00:05:55.440]So, just all of that activity and that buzz
[00:05:58.470]beginning to happen on campus in a way that we haven't had
[00:06:01.650]for a while, at that level, is wonderful to see.
[00:06:06.370]So we're so excited to welcome our students back,
[00:06:08.730]to welcome our faculty fully back, our staff fully back,
[00:06:12.420]to have a real, full, in-person experience this year.
[00:06:17.730]You know we, coming through the last 18 months like we have,
[00:06:21.610]you know, just having the feeling of being able to re-engage
[00:06:25.180]at that full level, can't be under described.
[00:06:29.610]How good that really feels for our community,
[00:06:34.220]and being able to welcome this new freshman class back,
[00:06:37.940]that is an equally-sized freshman class
[00:06:40.340]that we've been bringing to the university now
[00:06:42.290]for several years.
[00:06:43.830]And last year's freshman class,
[00:06:45.750]to be kinda welcomed back to the first sort of more like,
[00:06:50.220]you know, a normal year for the university
[00:06:52.740]is exciting for them as well.
[00:06:55.607]So, great to have everyone coming back,
[00:06:57.230]we're looking forward to a great year at the university
[00:07:00.060]and just the buzz is here.
[00:07:03.390]Speaking of that buzz,
[00:07:04.250]had a chance to step on campus a few weeks ago,
[00:07:06.250]and there's a lot of momentum
[00:07:07.590]in the form of different projects under way.
[00:07:09.523]Maybe let's hit on some of the construction projects
[00:07:12.050]and remodeling things that are happening on campus.
[00:07:14.160]Yeah. We've talked a lot about
[00:07:16.930]how we have a lot of pandemic immune momentum
[00:07:20.820]at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln,
[00:07:22.570]and that's absolutely true.
[00:07:24.950]Even though we've had the kind of time period
[00:07:27.210]that we've been through, we've really come through this
[00:07:29.890]in a way where our momentum has built at the university,
[00:07:32.950]rather than the reverse.
[00:07:35.100]We've had a lot of not only, you know,
[00:07:37.920]the in-person kind of year that we had last year
[00:07:40.640]when many were not able to do that,
[00:07:43.010]but a lot of things continue to grow and build
[00:07:45.610]at the university.
[00:07:46.610]So we've talked about before, I think on this program,
[00:07:50.670]the expansion effort that is underway
[00:07:53.390]for our College of Engineering,
[00:07:54.940]a very high need area for the university.
[00:07:57.290]We're the single college of engineering in Nebraska
[00:08:00.830]and the biggest in the region by far.
[00:08:04.460]And we have a major expansion that's occurring as we speak.
[00:08:07.780]190 million dollars of new facility development
[00:08:11.070]for our College of Engineering in Lincoln.
[00:08:13.740]The first phase of that, the Scott Engineering Center
[00:08:17.190]that our community will recognize,
[00:08:18.910]has been undergoing a full renovation.
[00:08:20.600]An addition to that facility will be finished
[00:08:23.730]in this calendar year, later this calendar academic year
[00:08:27.280]and early 2022.
[00:08:29.290]And we broke ground just a few weeks ago
[00:08:32.440]on the new complete instructional facility
[00:08:35.660]for our College of Engineering,
[00:08:36.960]what will be named Kiewit Hall,
[00:08:38.540]for the Kiewit Corporation, that will be completed in 2023,
[00:08:44.150]the largest building project in our history as a university,
[00:08:47.970]115 million dollar new, complete, instructional facility
[00:08:52.670]for our College of Engineering.
[00:08:53.670]So, excited about those big projects.
[00:08:55.770]The Go Big athletic project is on track
[00:08:58.400]and is now under construction.
[00:09:00.630]I just drove by our new track facility
[00:09:02.680]out at Innovation Campus earlier this week,
[00:09:05.810]and it's taking shape for that new facility.
[00:09:08.860]So, just excited about all of that construction
[00:09:11.510]that's occurring.
[00:09:12.520]We also had a record year this past year,
[00:09:15.230]even during a pandemic, in our research expenditures
[00:09:19.400]for the University of Nebraska-Lincoln,
[00:09:21.150]including our world-leading work in water and food security,
[00:09:24.640]and early childhood education, amongst others.
[00:09:27.040]And we've continued to see that grow, excited about that.
[00:09:30.890]We've continued in patents and licensing
[00:09:33.760]and transfer of technology to industry.
[00:09:36.390]For the fourth year in a row,
[00:09:37.988]ranked in the top hundred institutions in the world
[00:09:42.240]in transferring technology through patents.
[00:09:45.510]Again, we were a top producer of Fulbright scholars
[00:09:48.260]amongst our students in the U.S.
[00:09:50.840]We had our largest graduating class in history in May,
[00:09:54.840]when we were in Memorial stadium for the first time
[00:09:57.240]with our commencement.
[00:09:58.220]So, exciting. We weren't expecting that.
[00:10:00.650]I think when we talked earlier this summer,
[00:10:02.450]we weren't expecting that to happen.
[00:10:04.960]We were really excited when it did,
[00:10:07.010]and we saw a record number of graduates in that class.
[00:10:10.760]We also have seen, this past year during COVID,
[00:10:14.280]our largest jump in a number of years
[00:10:17.850]in our graduation rate.
[00:10:19.490]In our six year graduation rate,
[00:10:21.150]that went up considerably during this time period,
[00:10:24.040]the highest we've had in many, many years.
[00:10:26.830]And our athletes are a part of that as well,
[00:10:30.070]including their academic performance
[00:10:31.990]ranking second in the Big 10,
[00:10:34.300]in academic success and graduation success this past year.
[00:10:38.180]So, just a lot to celebrate, a lot to be very proud of
[00:10:42.780]in the university community
[00:10:44.470]and in the state's university here at UNL.
[00:10:48.380]Even during these kind of challenging times,
[00:10:51.050]we've been in and coming into this great year ahead.
[00:10:54.240]On today's conversation,
[00:10:55.160]we've hit on some of the things
[00:10:56.360]that have happened at the past, here in the present,
[00:10:58.240]and of course, in the future as well.
[00:10:59.850]One of those things happening in the future
[00:11:01.050]is you had a chance to host a special guest on campus
[00:11:03.461]this past Friday,
[00:11:04.770]as you talk about that USDA center and building,
[00:11:07.750]that here in Nebraska Innovation Campus.
[00:11:09.400]Talk about that meeting you had.
[00:11:11.100]Yeah, so just yesterday, Congressman Thompson,
[00:11:16.070]GT Thompson from Pennsylvania,
[00:11:18.210]who is currently the Chair of the House Agriculture
[00:11:20.500]Committee in Congress was here, is here, I think,
[00:11:25.110]even today in Nebraska, visiting.
[00:11:28.090]And we hosted him.
[00:11:30.190]Congressman Fortenberry helped us to host a town hall
[00:11:34.650]yesterday with Ag leaders across the state, virtually,
[00:11:39.240]with Congressman Thompson.
[00:11:40.920]And much of the conversation was around the development
[00:11:44.240]of the new national Center for Regenerative Precision
[00:11:46.970]Agriculture under planning currently, to be placed at
[00:11:50.830]Nebraska Innovation Campus at UNL cooperatively,
[00:11:55.160]and in partnership with U.S. Department of Agriculture's
[00:11:57.850]Agricultural Research Service.
[00:11:59.410]So that planning is going very, very well,
[00:12:02.620]with initial funding for that effort
[00:12:05.340]being put in place much with Congressman Fortenberry's
[00:12:09.750]leadership in the House agricultural appropriations arena.
[00:12:13.370]And so, great day yesterday,
[00:12:16.050]hosting Congressman Thompson here
[00:12:18.850]and having further conversations
[00:12:20.380]about what that big national center will mean
[00:12:23.920]both for the University and for agriculture,
[00:12:26.870]as it develops here in the next couple of years
[00:12:29.430]at Innovation Campus.
[00:12:30.800]A lot of things happening, Chancellor Green.
[00:12:32.190]Sure appreciate you stopping by to share an update
[00:12:34.050]with our listeners.
[00:12:35.120]That is Chancellor Dr. Ronnie Green,
[00:12:37.080]chancellor of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln,
[00:12:38.600]joining us here on the Chat with the Chancellor program.
[00:12:40.850]I'm Bryce Doeschot, reporting on the Rural Radio Network.

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