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Ronnie Green Author

09/02/2021 Added

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Ronnie Green talks about the first week of fall semester, the recent Garth Brooks concert, August commencement, Athletic Director Trev Alberts first few weeks on the job and a new student tailgate event for select home football game days.

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[00:00:00.260]Nebraska 811 says, go dig red, before you dig,
[00:00:03.440]always call or click 811 to have your utility lines marked,
[00:00:06.930]it's free, it's easy, and it's the law.
[00:00:09.320]We welcome you back Sports Nightly here
[00:00:10.610]on a Monday night.
[00:00:11.443]What a treat for us to welcome into the studios,
[00:00:13.810]the chancellor of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln,
[00:00:15.340]Ronnie Green.
[00:00:16.400]What do you think of our little digs here, you like these?
[00:00:18.380]Well, you know what, Greg, I walked in and I said,
[00:00:20.427]"So this is where you're at now."
[00:00:21.810]And I thought, "Wow, I'm gonna be able to come over here
[00:00:24.460]and I'm gonna be able to call over here and say,
[00:00:26.510]so Sharpe, how are they coming on to go big project?"
[00:00:28.910]Because you're looking right out at it.
[00:00:30.350]Sure am, actually, well, they're moving a lot of dirt,
[00:00:32.060]moving a lot of things around here.
[00:00:33.670]I'm surprised we were able to get you today.
[00:00:35.200]First day of class, exciting day, isn't it?
[00:00:37.100]It is a very exciting day to welcome all of our students
[00:00:41.270]back to the university.
[00:00:42.680]Our campus has not been buzzing like this for quite a while,
[00:00:46.550]even though we had everybody back in town
[00:00:48.660]for classes last year, not like this,
[00:00:51.620]not like all of them being back in the classrooms together,
[00:00:55.600]being able to be here and to be able to see that happen.
[00:00:58.370]Sorority rush happened last week, and to see all
[00:01:00.960]of those young women here on campus.
[00:01:03.270]Band was gearing up last week, we're gearing up
[00:01:05.740]for athletic seasons and all of our fall sports, certainly.
[00:01:10.120]So it's just really, really cool to see the campus
[00:01:13.900]back fully alive again.
[00:01:16.830]We obviously we're still in a pandemic, right?
[00:01:19.090]We're still kind of sorting our way through this part
[00:01:22.060]of the pandemic and we're doing that safely and doing it
[00:01:24.820]with our students and our faculty and staff safely.
[00:01:27.320]But I can honestly say I've never looked forward
[00:01:30.307]to the start of a semester, as much as this one.
[00:01:33.700]And to be able to see all of those nearly 25,000 students
[00:01:37.390]back on our campus is really a blessing.
[00:01:40.450]You were here on the edge of Memorial Stadium
[00:01:42.650]with our studios.
[00:01:43.840]How nice is it gonna be here in about 10 days
[00:01:46.000]to have a full crowd to watch Husker-
[00:01:47.580]Well, absolutely.
[00:01:48.930]You know, we had a wonderful event here,
[00:01:51.380]a couple of wonderful events on campus,
[00:01:54.140]all within a period of about 24 hours here,
[00:01:56.410]about a week ago, a little over a week ago when we had,
[00:01:59.840]I think a big morale boost for the state of Nebraska
[00:02:04.410]is what I really felt that during the Garth Brooks concert
[00:02:08.430]on the night of the 14th, you know,
[00:02:10.000]when we had this place packed with people and to be able
[00:02:15.320]to see an awesome musical spectacle like he
[00:02:18.250]and Trisha put on was just something else
[00:02:22.480]to see that happen.
[00:02:23.810]We had graduation that day too.
[00:02:25.589]Yeah.
[00:02:26.422]And we had August commencement where we had some 600
[00:02:29.340]new grads, a little over 600 new grads that we added
[00:02:32.800]to the university's graduates historically.
[00:02:35.080]But we also offered the opportunity for graduates from 2020
[00:02:40.890]when we weren't able to have in-person ceremonies to be able
[00:02:44.090]to come back and to participate in the commencement.
[00:02:47.170]And we had almost 700 of our 2020 grads come back
[00:02:50.720]and join us that Friday and Saturday.
[00:02:53.120]So, you know, those were great events,
[00:02:55.780]but of course gearing up here shortly
[00:02:58.770]for having this stadium full of people back
[00:03:01.800]for the Fordham game coming up soon,
[00:03:04.720]Really excited about going to Illinois this weekend
[00:03:07.270]and having the chance to visit that campus
[00:03:10.580]and come away we hope with a great victory
[00:03:12.650]for the first first game of our football season.
[00:03:15.670]Soccer is off to a great start,
[00:03:17.270]volleyball's getting started, you know, the Red-White game
[00:03:19.690]the other night, Devaney was a spectacle to behold,
[00:03:23.170]you know, it was cool to watch John Cook stand there
[00:03:26.567]and be amazed, right?
[00:03:28.480]To be able to see those fans back in Devaney
[00:03:31.580]and see the volleyball players so appreciative
[00:03:35.690]for the fan support to be there.
[00:03:38.532]We've got a really good volleyball team, may I say that,
[00:03:41.163]Yes, we do.
[00:03:42.360]And when you're looking at talent like that,
[00:03:46.820]and the kind of recruiting class that John has brought in,
[00:03:50.400]and to be thinking about who are we gonna play?
[00:03:53.466]We could play all kinds of combinations of people.
[00:03:57.210]So just a lot of excitement, soccer team's off
[00:03:59.590]to a great start, obviously.
[00:04:01.640]So we're just really excited to be back on campus,
[00:04:05.950]to see all this fall line ahead of us.
[00:04:11.010]You can tell I'm a little bit happy.
[00:04:12.631](both laughing)
[00:04:13.464]You know, there's a term, the lazy-hazy days of summer,
[00:04:15.710]that really wasn't the case around here.
[00:04:17.180]It was busy with things that are happening,
[00:04:18.840]including a big hire, the Athletic Director, Trev Alberts.
[00:04:21.760]Your thoughts about that.
[00:04:22.630]Absolutely, you know, your listeners will remember well,
[00:04:26.250]in late June when the decision was made by Bill
[00:04:29.560]and the university for his retirement and looking
[00:04:32.940]to the next leader of Husker athletics,
[00:04:35.500]a pretty pivotally important hire for us to lead athletics,
[00:04:40.560]especially at this time when there's so much
[00:04:44.060]kind of coming together all at one time
[00:04:46.480]in the collegiate sports world.
[00:04:48.090]If you think about all of the name image
[00:04:50.770]and likeness rollout that is occurring really as we speak
[00:04:54.710]this past month as that has come into play.
[00:04:57.330]And we think gonna be a very valuable thing
[00:04:59.290]for our student athletes already seeing that.
[00:05:03.420]All of the things around the NCAA,
[00:05:05.380]and what's the future of the NCAA going to look like,
[00:05:08.320]a little bit of talk about conferences
[00:05:10.040]and what conferences are gonna look like
[00:05:11.780]and some exciting things happen.
[00:05:13.540]And there are some exciting things I think we're gonna hear
[00:05:15.340]about, a little short period of time ahead as well,
[00:05:19.453]related to Big Ten.
[00:05:22.090]So exciting, all of those things to come together,
[00:05:24.300]we needed the right leader at the right time to come in
[00:05:28.250]to Husker athletics, and we found him in Trev Alberts.
[00:05:32.130]You know, Trev is no stranger to Husker nation,
[00:05:36.410]certainly from his own playing days here
[00:05:39.570]in the early nineties, but is a very accomplished
[00:05:44.520]Athletic Director in what he did at UNO,
[00:05:48.460]our sister institution up the road here in Omaha.
[00:05:51.470]And the history record he had there for 12 years
[00:05:54.680]as the Director of Athletics.
[00:05:56.400]And I've already seen it, you know, in him coming in
[00:05:59.450]this past month.
[00:06:01.529]I joked with Trev the day we announced his appointment
[00:06:04.210]here is the new idea.
[00:06:06.560]I said you're gonna start as the new Athletic Director,
[00:06:09.170]the same day I started at the university of Nebraska
[00:06:11.770]in 2010, and we'll, if there's any coincidence there,
[00:06:16.400]but he's already hit the ground running.
[00:06:18.950]He's doing great things, has already established himself
[00:06:22.170]as a leader in the Big Ten, hearing that from the conference
[00:06:26.280]and amongst the Athletic Directors in the Big Ten
[00:06:28.610]is just very, very pleased to have Trev and Angie
[00:06:31.520]and their family now engaged with Husker Athletics.
[00:06:34.610]Congratulations on the hire, as you said,
[00:06:36.500]he's been wonderful to this point,
[00:06:38.040]again, visiting with Ronnie Green, Chancellor
[00:06:39.520]of University of Nebraska-Lincoln here
[00:06:41.380]on Sports Nightly.
[00:06:42.610]It came out about a week or so ago that you've got
[00:06:44.850]a new opportunity for students for game days
[00:06:47.730]and experience on campus, which has kind of been missing
[00:06:51.260]in the past, tell me a little bit about this.
[00:06:53.280]Well, Husker Athletics has been talking
[00:06:55.420]with our Student Affairs division at the university
[00:06:57.690]the last couple of years about how could we strengthen
[00:07:01.740]the student experience for game days here at the university
[00:07:06.930]and have developed now for the first time,
[00:07:10.580]a big, massive student tailgate that we're rolling out
[00:07:14.470]with our first game coming up here in a little
[00:07:16.630]over a weeks time.
[00:07:18.940]It'll be kind of a student boneyard if you will,
[00:07:23.170]be carried out, you know, the venue for it
[00:07:27.310]will be the north side of the student union area
[00:07:30.330]on city campus.
[00:07:31.340]So the Meier Commons, as we've referred to it,
[00:07:33.780]they're north of the fountain of the Broyhill Fountain.
[00:07:36.910]And some 60 student organizations have already signed up
[00:07:40.520]to be part of this first event
[00:07:43.800]where they'll be inside the tent, so to speak
[00:07:47.320]or be inside the fences to be able
[00:07:49.380]to have a student experience on a student tailgate
[00:07:52.400]to join the great tailgating tradition that we have here
[00:07:55.230]at the university.
[00:07:56.530]We're gonna do that before four of our home games.
[00:08:00.150]So the Fordham games that I've already mentioned,
[00:08:02.120]the Buffalo game, the following week,
[00:08:04.000]homecoming with Northwestern, and then the Michigan game,
[00:08:06.690]the week after that in October.
[00:08:09.230]So really excited about that opportunity
[00:08:11.310]for our students kind of coinciding
[00:08:13.660]with all the student body being back on campus
[00:08:16.100]and having two real.
[00:08:18.800]Gotta be careful how I say this Greg, but, you know,
[00:08:20.640]we kinda have two freshmen classes this year.
[00:08:22.866]We do, yeah.
[00:08:23.699]We have last year's freshmen class that didn't get
[00:08:25.400]to experience all of this for the first time
[00:08:28.720]as sophomores back with us.
[00:08:30.440]And then our new freshmen class that we welcomed here
[00:08:33.490]the other night with our formation of the N
[00:08:36.510]on the stadium floor.
[00:08:38.920]They're both gonna get to experience that together
[00:08:41.140]and kinda see that as our dual kind of
[00:08:43.970]freshmen/sophomore classes.
[00:08:45.310]So excited for our students, pleased with that relationship
[00:08:48.470]and partnership with Husker Athletics and student affairs
[00:08:51.610]and pulling that boneyard together and looking forward
[00:08:54.640]to their first opportunity for that the morning
[00:08:57.510]of the Fordham game.
[00:08:58.343]I think that is fantastic.
[00:08:59.940]I think it's just been something that's kind of been missing
[00:09:01.750]for your student body.
[00:09:02.583]I think it's fantastic, congrats to all
[00:09:03.990]who were involved in that.
[00:09:05.050]I saw the students on Friday lining up to go take
[00:09:07.600]that picture.
[00:09:08.540]2025, the class of 20, I can't believe that.
[00:09:11.430]You know, Greg, I've worked for the last four years
[00:09:16.220]we've been working on this strategic plan
[00:09:18.040]that the university has it's called N2025,
[00:09:20.430]you can't be on campus and not hear about it.
[00:09:22.640]And it dawned on me while we were pulling doors back
[00:09:25.390]for the tunnel, you know, and the students to come charge
[00:09:28.450]in through there to form the N on Friday.
[00:09:31.020]This is the class of 2025.
[00:09:33.580]So there, I reminded them.
[00:09:35.350]I said, you're gonna be walking through the stadium,
[00:09:37.990]graduating in the stadium in 2025,
[00:09:40.910]that we've been working for a strategic plan
[00:09:42.950]for the last number of years.
[00:09:44.520]Kinda hard to imagine, hard to believe
[00:09:46.170]that's where we're gonna be here in a few short years,
[00:09:48.890]but to see them, you know, they kept coming and kept coming
[00:09:52.670]and kept coming.
[00:09:53.503]I looked over at my wife who was with me, I said,
[00:09:55.727]"Jane, this has gotta be one of the biggest
[00:09:57.720]freshman classes we've ever had."
[00:10:00.190]And then she reminded me,
[00:10:01.240]we added a few of the 2020s in there,
[00:10:02.980]so they could get to experience that too,
[00:10:05.580]you know, the incoming freshmen from last year.
[00:10:07.760]But they would walk up, they would walk into the stadium,
[00:10:11.570]their eyes would get really big, their phones would go up,
[00:10:15.606]and they would say, "How cool is this that we get
[00:10:18.670]to be at one of the greatest universities in the world?"
[00:10:20.967]"And we get to start right here on this football field."
[00:10:24.030]So exciting night to welcome them all.
[00:10:26.416]Great to see you, you're gonna join us every week
[00:10:28.810]in pre-game show, looking forward to that.
[00:10:30.200]We'll see you in Illinois.
[00:10:31.220]Sounds good.
[00:10:32.053]Chancellor Ronnie Green with us here on Sports Nightly.
[00:10:34.220]Buckle up, put that phone down.
[00:10:35.540]It's a reminder from the NDOT Highway Safety Office.
[00:10:38.620]We're back with our weekend winners next.

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