N2025 Conversations | Aim 4: Broadening Nebraska's Engagement

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04/07/2022 Added

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In the fourth of a six video series, University Of Nebraska-Lincoln deans discuss progress on the N2025 strategic plan. The conversation explores Aim 4: Broadening Nebraska's Engagement.

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[00:00:05.460]It's exciting to be here today to talk about the
[00:00:08.100]N2025 engagement goal. While this won't be a
[00:00:11.430]surprise, one of the things we found out through
[00:00:13.410]our discovery process is that our university
[00:00:15.960]values engagement quite highly. We are connecting
[00:00:19.110]with communities, schools, businesses and
[00:00:21.330]industry, as well as other stakeholders to help
[00:00:24.000]them solve problems and create better lives for
[00:00:26.220]Nebraskans. There are three parts to our
[00:00:29.100]engagement, goal: community, and global and
[00:00:31.320]alumni. Each of these have different focuses and
[00:00:34.380]are connected. I'm going to begin the discussion
[00:00:36.750]today with community engagement, and then turn it
[00:00:39.120]to Josh Davis and Shelley's Zaborowski for global
[00:00:42.180]and alumni engagement. Our first major charge
[00:00:46.080]related to community engagement is acquiring the
[00:00:48.720]Carnegie Classification for Community Engagement.
[00:00:52.050]This classification recognizes those institutions
[00:00:55.410]who have made extraordinary commitments to
[00:00:57.510]engagement. Obtaining this credential puts you now
[00:01:00.750]in line with other Big Ten institutions that have
[00:01:03.510]already received the designation and our partners
[00:01:06.480]at UNO and UNMC. Even more important than
[00:01:10.590]obtaining the designation is really the process
[00:01:13.560]that our campus is going through and collecting
[00:01:15.420]data to find out how we are currently engaging
[00:01:18.570]gaps where we can improve and of course of action
[00:01:21.390]for next steps. One point to note is that
[00:01:25.350]engagement is clearly about the co-creation of
[00:01:28.560]solutions and knowledge. It's not about your
[00:01:31.410]university coming to answer, but rather coming in
[00:01:34.590]as a partner. It's all of us working together. To
[00:01:38.940]meet this and a co-creator team has been working
[00:01:41.820]to collect data and get the information needed for
[00:01:44.910]the Carnegie application. This has been an
[00:01:47.310]incredible team that has been working diligently
[00:01:50.670]with many of you alongside of them to get what we
[00:01:53.400]need. Now, there have been some aha moments along
[00:01:57.120]the way. UNL is a distributed system that is very
[00:02:00.390]engaged. How do we capitalize on our resources to
[00:02:03.810]best meet the needs of our stakeholders and
[00:02:05.610]partners? And how do we help our entire system to
[00:02:09.300]see their role in engagement? There are
[00:02:11.790]outstanding examples of engagement already
[00:02:14.250]occurring. The State Museum partners with
[00:02:16.770]researchers from UNL and other organizations to
[00:02:19.320]host its monthly Sunday with a scientist programs.
[00:02:22.350]The Public Policy Center is partnering with K
[00:02:24.600]through 12 schools to implement a new statewide
[00:02:27.090]anonymous reporting system. Students from a
[00:02:29.970]variety of disciplines work in communities across
[00:02:32.790]the state to not only bring their expertise, but
[00:02:36.120]also engage in helping solve problems. We could go
[00:02:39.240]on and on. Another exciting thing is that many
[00:02:43.320]faculty are engaged in this kind of work and
[00:02:45.330]excited. For some it's why they chose to be in a
[00:02:48.000]land-grant system. This work also fits hand in
[00:02:51.810]hand with the other aims of the N2025 strategic
[00:02:55.290]plan. For example, how does this work fit? And how
[00:02:59.130]do we better partner with the engagement aim and
[00:03:01.740]the experiential learning aim? How do we include
[00:03:05.340]excellence and diversity? And how can UNL's
[00:03:08.010]engagement more clearly contribute to a campus
[00:03:10.710]where every person and every interaction matters?
[00:03:14.730]While there's much success, there are also some
[00:03:16.770]areas where we need to build and grow. While
[00:03:19.470]incredible work is occurring. The process for
[00:03:21.630]collecting these stories is not institutionalized.
[00:03:25.050]Much is unreported? What kinds of systems do we
[00:03:28.020]need to put in place where we can capture that
[00:03:30.090]kind of work and make it useful? Another major
[00:03:33.330]issue that arises is the lack of consistency about
[00:03:36.450]how we recognize engagement work? How do we reward
[00:03:40.680]engagement work when it comes to promotion and
[00:03:42.720]tenure? And if it is rewarded, what can we do to
[00:03:45.990]standardize the ways we document that work? What
[00:03:49.260]professional development is needed for faculty,
[00:03:51.570]students and staff to make us better in this area?
[00:03:54.990]Here's what you can expect next, the co-creator
[00:03:57.900]team will continue to meet; the Carnegie
[00:04:00.360]application is due in April of 2023. And our goal
[00:04:03.570]is to have it ready this fall. We will also be
[00:04:06.570]developing an engagement collaborative that
[00:04:08.850]represents the colleges and centers for the
[00:04:11.250]purpose of really providing a mechanism to share
[00:04:13.830]information with units as well as get feedback
[00:04:16.410]data and ideas. We're working on a process to
[00:04:19.590]collect stories. While we know we can't highlight
[00:04:22.080]all the stories that we have, we do want to
[00:04:24.270]capture what is happening and celebrate that work.
[00:04:27.660]The engagement aim of N2025 really has called on
[00:04:31.260]us to do more to bring the world to Nebraska and
[00:04:34.410]Nebraska to the world. We have taken this charge
[00:04:37.230]seriously and have developed a global strategy
[00:04:39.780]called "forward together" to really help make this
[00:04:42.120]happen. We've been working to redefine what a
[00:04:45.780]global experience is for our students, really what
[00:04:48.750]global engagement means to them. And we're doing
[00:04:51.600]that by increasing the number of opportunities for
[00:04:53.880]global experiences on our campus, in our
[00:04:56.370]community, and virtually as well. The forward
[00:05:00.480]together strategy puts international partnerships
[00:05:03.270]really at the center of everything that we do.
[00:05:05.880]We've worked very hard over the last few years to
[00:05:08.340]maintain existing international partnerships
[00:05:11.100]across Asia, Sub Saharan Africa, and really all
[00:05:14.220]around the world. But now as hopefully travel
[00:05:17.370]becomes a little bit easier, we really need to get
[00:05:19.290]out there to energize some of these relationships,
[00:05:21.930]and to create some new ones as well. In order to
[00:05:25.980]really expand our global engagement, we have to
[00:05:28.560]also do better to recruit the best and brightest
[00:05:30.900]from around the world. And that means our faculty,
[00:05:33.480]staff, students, and scholars as well. And not
[00:05:37.620]just recruit them, but invest in supporting them
[00:05:40.320]and retaining them, to keep them at UNL. Finally,
[00:05:46.350]building a culture of global engagement, and
[00:05:48.960]really weaving it throughout our mission areas,
[00:05:51.390]requires the people, the operations, the
[00:05:54.030]infrastructure to really do it. Well. Over the
[00:05:57.090]last year with support from a donor, we've been
[00:05:59.910]renovating Pound Hall to create a global education
[00:06:02.640]center, this center will be completed by the end
[00:06:05.160]of the year. And it really will anchor our global
[00:06:07.620]engagement for years to come. And it'll allow us
[00:06:10.470]to better serve the students, faculty and staff in
[00:06:13.710]our community.
[00:06:14.810]So my charge today is to give you a short update
[00:06:17.810]on our alumni engagement. Before I do that, I
[00:06:21.020]wanted to just clarify that while we think about
[00:06:24.080]alumni as our primary target audience, we like to
[00:06:27.680]talk about it in terms of alumni and friends. We
[00:06:31.220]work with students, our future alumni, we work
[00:06:34.250]with their families and parents, we work with
[00:06:37.580]community and business partners and donors. So
[00:06:40.370]when we talk about the alumni family, we're really
[00:06:42.410]not just talking about alumni. When we think about
[00:06:45.560]engagement, we think about this advancement
[00:06:48.140]continuum. So moving people along the continuum,
[00:06:52.730]from whatever their entry point is, to the
[00:06:55.760]eventual investment in the university. And that
[00:06:57.950]investment is is time, talent, and treasure. So
[00:07:01.220]it's our job to get more people into that
[00:07:04.130]continuum, as well as move them along. Here are
[00:07:08.060]the four categories of alumni engagement, and just
[00:07:11.240]a few examples of how each of those categories
[00:07:14.060]comes to life. And I do want to say that I know
[00:07:18.590]the Alumni Association is not the only ones doing
[00:07:21.320]this. There are so many wonderful examples of
[00:07:25.100]engagement happening everywhere on campus, in all
[00:07:28.250]of the nine colleges, in all of the student
[00:07:30.710]affairs units, in arts and athletics. So really,
[00:07:34.910]we see everyone as our partners in this engagement
[00:07:37.490]continuum. We want to develop a system to measure
[00:07:41.990]and quantify this. And we've started to pilot this
[00:07:45.110]with our own Alumni Association efforts. And the
[00:07:48.080]next step is really to involve all of you in a
[00:07:50.570]conversation about how we can quantify that with
[00:07:53.810]the things that you're doing, and provide
[00:07:56.570]reporting to you that's helpful in the things that
[00:07:59.150]you're doing in your colleges to help you measure
[00:08:02.180]progress and grow engagement holistically as a
[00:08:05.660]university community. The last thing I just wanted
[00:08:09.020]to comment on, we talk a lot about growing the
[00:08:11.540]number of donors, and that is certainly important.
[00:08:14.060]Giving is a very critical piece of engagement in
[00:08:17.270]the university. And as you know, we just came off
[00:08:20.240]the Glow Big Red 24 hours of Husker giving, which
[00:08:23.060]is a great success. Blew those goals right out of
[00:08:25.280]the water. So thank you, and congratulations. But
[00:08:27.680]again, that's just one step. And we want to look
[00:08:29.600]at all of those people who gave, many of whom are
[00:08:32.330]first time donors, and how do we continue to
[00:08:34.700]engage them? How do we build that relationship?
[00:08:37.700]Let's find out what are their interests and their
[00:08:40.280]passions, and how we can keep moving them along
[00:08:42.920]that continuum, and make sure that we retain them
[00:08:45.650]as annual donors and engage them in other ways as
[00:08:48.000]Well, thank you, Kathleen, and Josh, and Shelley,
[00:08:48.320]well.
[00:08:53.730]for the leadership you're providing in the
[00:08:56.100]engagement aim. Of course, as a land-grant
[00:09:00.000]university, we fully understand, you know, the,
[00:09:04.410]the tripartite mission of land-grant universities,
[00:09:07.590]which is education, of the next generation, in
[00:09:11.010]particular, research and creative activity and
[00:09:14.730]scholarship and contribution to knowledge in the
[00:09:17.550]world, and engagement with the people of Nebraska,
[00:09:22.320]especially, but even beyond. So what's happening
[00:09:28.110]in engagement around UNL.
[00:09:31.080]In our Community and Regional Planning Program, we
[00:09:34.470]have students that work with communities in the
[00:09:39.420]state to again do some real world planning as
[00:09:45.120]applying their expertise that they've learned and
[00:09:48.210]the skills and using them within the communities.
[00:09:51.690]And so, last fall, for instance, our UNL students
[00:09:56.820]and the Southeast Nebraska development district
[00:10:00.120]partnered with community members on a downtown
[00:10:02.940]revitalization plan for David City. If we look at
[00:10:07.320]our global area, we were able to use this pivot as
[00:10:14.220]a positive direction for the students and the
[00:10:17.340]faculty. And we utilized what we learned from that
[00:10:21.120]pivot to do some remote learning with the AIA Rome
[00:10:27.480]Center, and developed a partnership with them and
[00:10:31.830]affiliation that's going to last for several years
[00:10:35.490]that our third and fourth year interior design
[00:10:38.670]students can have a focus on adaptive reuse and
[00:10:44.430]historic preservation and cultural heritage,
[00:10:48.330]through interaction with a group in Rome.
[00:10:52.720]In the College of Business, we've been focusing on
[00:10:55.510]engagement as part of our strategic plan. And so
[00:10:58.510]as it relates to the college where we've tried to
[00:11:00.760]focus on it is, is how do we engage students in
[00:11:04.600]with our business community, both locally and
[00:11:07.720]nationally. How do we engage with the business
[00:11:10.360]community to impact students, faculty and
[00:11:13.450]research, and then also how we can partner with
[00:11:17.890]local communities to make an impact. Where there's
[00:11:20.290]some unique things happening is, for us, we were
[00:11:24.040]getting ready to launch a partnership with LPS
[00:11:27.550]with Standing Bear High School for a business
[00:11:29.740]pilot program. I know CASNR kind of paved the way
[00:11:33.460]and, and then brought us along and connected us
[00:11:36.460]with Standing Bear. Our Center for
[00:11:38.680]Entrepreneurship is is launching a fellows
[00:11:41.590]program, where they're getting a commitment from
[00:11:44.440]our alums to engage either by judging
[00:11:48.880]competitions, or three two one pitch contest or
[00:11:51.460]new venture club, or venture competition, or
[00:11:54.670]they're coming to speak to classes, or they're
[00:11:56.500]making a financial contribution. So again, time
[00:11:59.890]treasure talent and in through the more formalized
[00:12:03.940]program in our Center for Entrepreneurship. And
[00:12:06.310]then we're trying to leverage our Center for
[00:12:07.780]Executive and Professional Development more. We
[00:12:10.630]have a very successful program with Bryan Health.
[00:12:13.900]It's called the Bryan Physician Leadership
[00:12:15.880]Academy. Bryan sponsors, independent physicians to
[00:12:19.780]come in and be educated around managing a business
[00:12:23.470]and then we provide the education. We're going to
[00:12:26.200]be taking that out west to Kearney and Grand
[00:12:28.720]Island, where we offer that program to physicians
[00:12:32.200]in those locations,
[00:12:33.810]I'll built on that from Sherri Jones in the
[00:12:36.690]College of Education and Human Sciences. And
[00:12:40.080]they're well known for the global experiences that
[00:12:43.530]they have that are developed with in-country
[00:12:46.110]partners that are well integrated into their
[00:12:48.870]programmatic curriculum to give students
[00:12:50.820]exceptional disciplinary and cultural learning
[00:12:53.460]experiences. But with the pivot, and with global
[00:12:56.130]travel disrupted due to the pandemic, they
[00:12:59.730]developed local partnerships that still provide
[00:13:03.030]students with global engagement. For example, in
[00:13:06.630]the fall of 2021, the Refinery partnered with the
[00:13:11.700]Department of Textiles Merchandising, and Fashion
[00:13:14.010]Design to connect students with entrepreneurs from
[00:13:17.700]diverse backgrounds. So one student described her
[00:13:20.550]experience as follows: Working with the refinery
[00:13:23.610]gave me better awareness of diverse cultures, and
[00:13:26.490]gave me the opportunity to interact with refugee
[00:13:29.220]and immigrant women, hearing their stories and
[00:13:32.040]learning more about their businesses was extremely
[00:13:34.590]motivating. I also found having a hands-on
[00:13:37.380]learning experience to be valuable in
[00:13:39.450]demonstrating the importance of diversity, equity
[00:13:41.940]and inclusion in the retail industry. Kathleen
[00:13:45.150]Lodl was speaking to a definition of engagement
[00:13:49.350]that could be used. And Sherri really promotes
[00:13:54.780]that as well. And says that she thinks it would be
[00:13:57.930]helpful for the campus to define engagement among
[00:14:00.660]its workload apportionment categories. The
[00:14:03.180]category of service doesn't really capture
[00:14:05.520]engagement, as described in N2025. The category of
[00:14:09.330]extension and outreach really is reserved for
[00:14:13.800]Nebraska Extension in many ways. And so that's,
[00:14:17.520]she's forwarding that as a charge to us.
[00:14:20.930]And and just touching on that exact point in the
[00:14:23.300]College of Arts and Sciences. We've done just that
[00:14:25.460]with all of our units to make sure that engagement
[00:14:28.580]is incorporated into promotion and tenure
[00:14:31.010]standards and annual review so that they
[00:14:32.780]understand that excellence and engagement is
[00:14:35.210]something that we're looking for as a part of all
[00:14:37.100]of our annual review processes. So I think that's
[00:14:40.190]an important way of registering the importance of
[00:14:42.470]this as part of our mission. The other way I think
[00:14:44.720]that engagement has started to look in the College
[00:14:46.910]of Arts and Sciences recently is reflecting on the
[00:14:49.790]incredible amount of change and the rapidity of
[00:14:52.700]change in our world right now that we've really
[00:14:55.010]tried to bring our research expertise to bear on
[00:14:59.060]timely important public questions that brings
[00:15:03.050]together expertise in history and humanities in
[00:15:06.140]medicine or minority health disparities to address
[00:15:09.500]the racial disparities that have been revealed by
[00:15:12.650]COVID-19. And we've partnered with the Nebraska
[00:15:16.340]Public Policy Center to do more of these public
[00:15:19.070]engagement discussions, panels, and forums to
[00:15:23.240]address these kinds of issues. Some recent
[00:15:26.030]examples are a panel discussion on the 2020
[00:15:29.690]election results. We had a panel discussion just
[00:15:33.110]recently on redistricting in the state of Nebraska
[00:15:36.110]with members of both our political science
[00:15:37.970]department and state senators to talk about that
[00:15:41.420]issue from different perspectives. We are looking
[00:15:44.690]forward to having an upcoming dialogue on civil
[00:15:49.010]dialogue across differences, drawing both on our
[00:15:51.530]expertise in communication studies, and national
[00:15:54.380]experts who will come to campus and partner with
[00:15:56.270]us on that. So I think one of the things that a
[00:15:58.700]research university can do is highlight key
[00:16:01.340]questions of our time, illuminate it through the
[00:16:03.590]prism of our research, and in doing so engage the
[00:16:07.610]public in I think really important issues.
[00:16:10.070]I think one area where we can also focus on
[00:16:12.410]engagement is recognizing that there are gaps in
[00:16:15.170]our industries. And there are ways where we can
[00:16:17.630]fill in some of those gaps. So for example, in the
[00:16:20.780]College of Journalism and Mass Communications, we
[00:16:22.910]have the Nebraska News Service, it's one of our
[00:16:25.490]experience labs, where students are covering
[00:16:28.070]what's happening at the Capitol. They're covering
[00:16:29.780]stories across the state. And then we have about
[00:16:32.060]120 clients across the state, where community news
[00:16:35.840]organizations who don't have the resources to
[00:16:38.270]cover those stories, are able to publish our
[00:16:40.880]students stories free of charge. It goes out
[00:16:42.860]through the newswire. So they are able to get
[00:16:44.990]those stories about their local communities back
[00:16:47.600]into those local communities. We also have that
[00:16:50.570]same opportunity over on the agency side where you
[00:16:53.330]have nonprofit organizations that need to be
[00:16:56.600]promoting their organizations, they need those
[00:16:58.790]communication efforts. But they don't have the
[00:17:01.010]funding to necessarily hire big agencies to come
[00:17:03.860]in and assist them with that. Where our student
[00:17:06.290]run agencies were able to work with them. The last
[00:17:09.080]piece I'll see say is that we also have the time
[00:17:12.860]where we can focus on really important stories
[00:17:15.800]across Nebraska, that our news organizations today
[00:17:19.340]don't have. So our depth reporting programs are
[00:17:22.580]able to go out and cover climate change and its
[00:17:25.100]effects across Nebraska. We're able to look at
[00:17:28.430]important issues to our Native American
[00:17:30.230]communities that are not being covered by our
[00:17:32.270]current news organizations. And thanks to a
[00:17:35.960]wonderful gift from an alumni, a $4.65 million
[00:17:39.920]gift that will ensure that depth reporting
[00:17:42.530]continues at Nebraska, we're able to expand those
[00:17:45.830]course offerings and expand the stories that we
[00:17:48.890]can cover about Nebraska and fill in those gaps.
[00:17:52.200]And so we develop inclusive leaders who advance
[00:17:54.900]justice, solve problems, and serve with integrity.
[00:17:58.140]So when I think about those last three areas of
[00:18:00.300]advancing justice and solving problems, and
[00:18:02.310]certainly with integrity, it does frame some of
[00:18:04.710]what we're doing in the engagement sphere. When I
[00:18:08.160]think about solving problems, I think about the
[00:18:10.320]Nebraska Governance and Technology Center, which
[00:18:12.930]is a center that's jointly done with the College
[00:18:16.080]of Business and the College of Engineering, the
[00:18:17.850]College of Journalism and Mass Communications. And
[00:18:21.030]they're on the cutting edge of trying to solve
[00:18:23.220]real world issues related to technology and
[00:18:25.830]regulation. And they have, and they're working on
[00:18:30.570]bringing kind of our academic research--to Mark's
[00:18:33.510]point-- to the public in a way that's accessible
[00:18:38.220]and can make a difference. So they have a podcast
[00:18:40.980]called Tech Refactored, where they interview
[00:18:43.380]people working in research areas about how their
[00:18:45.570]research impacts real world events. Coming up in
[00:18:48.990]April, we'll have a conference on the intersection
[00:18:53.190]of technology and regulation and economic
[00:18:55.380]development, and looking at how emerging
[00:18:58.320]technologies are impacting rural America,
[00:19:01.380]particularly in Nebraska. And that conference, I
[00:19:04.740]think, is the epitome of using our research to see
[00:19:08.010]how it impacts our communities. And then finally,
[00:19:11.400]serving with integrity. We have a partnership with
[00:19:14.910]the Center for Children, Families and the Law at
[00:19:17.190]Arts and Sciences that has for five years, run a
[00:19:21.360]children's justice clinic at the College of Law,
[00:19:24.600]where our students engage in a really
[00:19:26.760]multidisciplinary educational program to learn how
[00:19:30.000]to represent children as guardians ad litem. And
[00:19:32.640]that center and that partnership has just received
[00:19:35.940]several hundred thousand dollar grant to bring
[00:19:38.220]that education to lawyers in rural Nebraska, where
[00:19:42.030]there's a real shortage of attorneys who know how
[00:19:45.780]and are able to represent children as guardians ad
[00:19:48.960]litem. And that children's justice education
[00:19:52.260]attorney education program will have its first
[00:19:54.900]cohort of attorneys who will spend a year going
[00:19:58.800]through the same educational program that our
[00:20:00.660]students have been through, which involves hearing
[00:20:03.150]from social workers and hearing about domestic
[00:20:05.310]abuse and substance abuse so that they can really
[00:20:07.860]represent children well. And in all of those
[00:20:10.890]areas, I think College of Law has really shown
[00:20:13.140]some leadership and bringing what we do at the
[00:20:15.810]College of Law out into the community. And I'll
[00:20:18.780]say one more thing. While we're talking about
[00:20:20.580]leaders, in conjunction with the College of
[00:20:22.530]Business, we'll have our third annual Women LEAD
[00:20:25.350]conference, where we're bringing in over 300
[00:20:27.900]people to talk about how attorneys, government,
[00:20:32.130]people who work in the government and business and
[00:20:34.200]philanthropy, how women can really lead in each of
[00:20:37.110]those spaces, and excited to work with the College
[00:20:40.530]of Business on that as well.
[00:20:41.940]ORED, of course, has has a lot of different
[00:20:44.250]support activity, that support that, to help the
[00:20:48.330]talent really make big wins in terms of
[00:20:50.940]engagement. So, you know, for example, the
[00:20:53.100]Innovation Campus, it continues to grow, and
[00:20:58.650]continues to draw more and more partners who are
[00:21:03.120]interested to be involved both on site but also
[00:21:06.990]just with, with the university in general, because
[00:21:09.300]they know about the Innovation Campus. The space
[00:21:11.700]that we have available for startup companies on
[00:21:14.100]the Innovation Campus, right now we're full up.
[00:21:16.560]Some of those are companies that are started by
[00:21:19.800]our students and our faculty. But more than that,
[00:21:22.560]they're companies that are coming from the
[00:21:25.410]economic community, mostly from the state of
[00:21:27.450]Nebraska, but some from afar.
[00:21:29.430]Bob you touched on talent, and it reminded me of
[00:21:33.540]the community that we have. Yes, a land-grant
[00:21:36.450]university has an obligation for engagement. But
[00:21:40.500]really beyond that, we're in a community where we
[00:21:45.720]have people with inventive attitudes and a real
[00:21:48.450]desire to make a difference. And I think that's,
[00:21:51.930]that's remarkable and wonderful all at the same
[00:21:54.930]time.
[00:21:56.200]Student Leadership and Involvement and Community
[00:21:59.890]Engagement, they have been able to capture some of
[00:22:02.800]the great things that we've been doing over the
[00:22:04.780]past year. And, and this is amazing to me, given
[00:22:07.690]that we've had a couple of years of COVID. But
[00:22:10.990]over the past year, they've connected with 658
[00:22:14.800]nonprofits in the community. We have over 7000
[00:22:19.060]students who have volunteered their time and their
[00:22:22.690]talent to the local nonprofits with about 42,000
[00:22:26.500]hours of service provided. So that's the time and
[00:22:29.980]talent component of it. But we also have a couple
[00:22:33.460]of philanthropy groups or efforts going on and the
[00:22:39.310]IFC, our Interfraternity Council is currently
[00:22:43.060]raising funds to help sponsor the Bryan Cancer
[00:22:45.940]Center. So they've raised about $50,000 so far.
[00:22:49.690]And then the UNL dance marathon. So if you've not
[00:22:53.530]participated or seen that it's a pretty amazing 12
[00:22:57.220]hour event, they raised over $230,000 for the
[00:23:01.480]Omaha Children's Hospital, which impacts countless
[00:23:05.350]Nebraska families. And so it was a just a really
[00:23:09.070]fun event to be at too--I didn't dance. But I did
[00:23:13.570]get to watch some of the students dance. And some
[00:23:16.330]of the participants and the families were there.
[00:23:19.960]It's just an amazing opportunity.
[00:23:22.530]An area that I would lift up is the Rural Fellows
[00:23:24.420]Program. And that is an opportunity where we bring
[00:23:25.470]students from across the University of Nebraska,
[00:23:29.880]different majors, and they are partnered together
[00:23:33.060]with local communities to work on a problem that
[00:23:36.360]that community has. And this is a wonderful
[00:23:38.550]opportunity for us to extend our students learning
[00:23:41.790]beyond the classroom, help them to develop their
[00:23:44.850]career ready skills, such as Amy mentioned,
[00:23:47.220]looking through an interdisciplinary lens. Problem
[00:23:50.010]solving, critical thinking, team building, all of
[00:23:53.580]those things that we know are going to be
[00:23:54.870]essential for our students as they become the next
[00:23:57.240]leaders and professionals for our global society.
[00:24:00.480]And then we're also giving back to our communities
[00:24:03.300]in a very innovative and transformative way with
[00:24:06.120]our students being there to help our local
[00:24:07.830]communities here in Nebraska thrive and grow
[00:24:10.590]If Trev Alberts was here, he would say of course,
[00:24:14.220]that there is no place like Nebraska in terms of
[00:24:16.830]the engagement with Nebraskans, and with the
[00:24:20.970]greater university community beyond Nebraska than
[00:24:25.470]Husker athletics. And we certainly continue to
[00:24:29.280]have great success in that engagement and in the
[00:24:33.960]in the arena of sport, around the arena of sport
[00:24:37.020]and the success of our student athletes and of our
[00:24:39.870]athletics programs. It's a phenomenal thing that
[00:24:44.550]we're very blessed to have here at Nebraska.
[00:24:49.850]I was struck by Kathleen Lodl's comment in the
[00:24:54.650]summary earlier about how hard it is to capture
[00:25:01.070]all of the engagement that this great university
[00:25:04.130]does and continues to build on and do any given
[00:25:09.830]day of the week. It is impossible to capture the
[00:25:14.300]number of things that are occurring on our
[00:25:16.760]campuses that are directly engaging the public and
[00:25:22.190]benefiting the public. But that is absolutely
[00:25:24.710]true. As we sit here right now, there are multiple
[00:25:28.550]things happening that you can't count on two
[00:25:31.160]hands, across our campuses in this in this state
[00:25:36.020]that are engaging and growing Nebraska as a result
[00:25:41.330]of that, of that engagement. It's a very powerful
[00:25:44.270]statement and true.

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N2025 Conversations | Aim 4: Broadening Nebraska's Engagement

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