It's an exciting time in the
College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources.
As we mark a very important point in our college's history
2022 is the 150th anniversary for CASNR.
We're using this important time in college's history
to reflect upon the past,
celebrate the present and to use this as
an opportunity to dream big about the future.
Well, this is a really exciting year in the College of Engineering.
From a facilities perspective, we're making real progress on Kiewit Hall.
So we're past the midpoint on
almost $200 million worth of construction.
It's is going to transform the College of Engineering.
38 Huskers CARE peer educators are being trained
to deliver relationship violence prevention workshops this fall,
an important initiative to further developing
a safe and caring campus culture.
Big things this fall with ORED.
Grand Challenges 2.0
We have our first year of projects and planning underway.
And now we're working with faculty, with students,
with partners on what will be year two
of the Grand Challenge process.
The big thing happening this year is the
renovation and expansion to our building.
We have an increase in enrollment.
And so now we will have the studio space to house them.
One of the things that ODI is doing
to really bring people together around conversations
is hosting Husker Dialogues that we had earlier this semester,
our Faculty of Color Symposium,
and a diversity symposium in the spring.
All of these experiences are really important
to ensuring that we are creating a place that people can
come around the table and talk through the issues
that most impact them and the impact the university.
Thanks to some infrastructure investments
we made last year, the libraries has big plans to
increase affordability of course materials for students.
We want to make sure that every dollar the library spends
helps save students money.
We're partnering with all units in the college
to help attract and launch students for early career success.
Three new career coaches in two academic navigators
have been added to the team to bolster these efforts.
The College of Education and Human Sciences has new
learning spaces opening this year with
Carolyn Pope Edwards Hall and the Barkley Memorial Center.
These spaces will be places where teaching and learning is visible.
We're excited for the Glenn Korff School of Music building projects,
a new building coming in 2025,
and the renovation of the Kimball Recital Hall,
which begins later this year,
We are building a brand new three set television studio
with space for a news desk, for an interview set
and a full virtual set with the newsroom in the middle of all of it.
So that we can clearly show that we are engaging students
from print to digital to broadcast and back.
This year students at the College of Law can take a new course:
the Housing Justice Clinic where
they will represent tenants facing eviction.
And this builds on the work of the Tenant Assistance Project
that has helped over 2000 Nebraska families
facing eviction in the last year and a half.
This year marks the fifth anniversary for Howard L Hawks Hall.
We also are excited to be offering
our new business and law major
for undergraduates in partnership with the College of Law.
We have a lot of momentum this semester,
especially coming out of a pandemic.
Students really need to stay involved
and to get engaged on campus,
collaborate with their peers and just have fun.
In addition to our role of representing graduate students,
the Graduate Student Assembly has voted to work on
improving graduate students stipends
and health insurance here at UNL.
For this year, specifically I'm really excited for the
peer mentor group we have.
They're such a wonderful group of students.
I love all of them, when we had our orientation
we all just kind of clicked instantly.
And it just helps to further the mission of
OASIS and the plan for the university.
We are enhancing the student experience
through a variety of experiential learning programs.
Three signature programs for us are the
Engler Agribusiness Entrepreneurship program,
Rural Prosperity Nebraska Fellows
and our Changemakers
Student Affairs creates intentional experiences
that contribute to student's academic career and personal goals
through involvement in student government, fraternities,
sororities, learning communities, recreational activities,
peer mentorship roles and recognized student organizations.
Students find a sense of community and belonging,
key factors in student retention
Every day, we're working on the foundation of N2025.
One of our more detailed projects has to do with
creative dashboards that allow everyone on campus
to see the progress that's been made on all of the targets for N2025.
We have experiential learning happening
in many studios, like the example of
Nate Bicak and Steve Hardy's studio
and their students who developed concepts for a new
15-unit housing development in Valentine, Nebraska.
In the College of Engineering, we've been fortunate
to hire a bunch of new faculty in the last five years.
And they're just doing incredibly impactful research,
research that solving problems of global importance
while having an impact in the state of Nebraska.
So ODI, for N2025, we are working with colleges and universities
and building out diversity plans and diversity strategies
so that every single unit, every single college at Nebraska,
has a plan and an action around diversity and inclusion.
As we recruit new faculty and staff in the library,
we're working hard to increase the diversity of our community.
But we're also making sure we have
the vital conversations about what that means
for our everyday work in the libraries.
From getting rid of outdated and offensive terms
in our catalogs, to making sure that our collections better
represent the diversity of the human experience.
Since 2019, the launch of racial literacy roundtables
in the College of Education and Human Sciences,
our team has hosted over 20 conversations
that help our students practice and prepare for
difficult conversations around topics that can be challenging or divisive.
Our Racial Literacy Roundtables team won the
NU System 2022 Inclusive Excellence Award.
The Johnny Carson Center for Emerging Media Arts
has established itself as a core research facility at Nebraska.
This will leverage the Carson Emerging Media Arts Center
as an international national and regional interdisciplinary
asset for research partnerships.
We instituted a college-wide distribution requirement
in human diversity and US communities,
added a new minor in Racial Justice Equity Inclusion
through the Institute for Ethnic Studies
and are in the process of developing a new minor
in Asian American Studies.
The N2025 plan emphasizes broadening Nebraska engagement,
and we're building on our Children's Justice Clinic
to educate attorneys across the state through a
children's justice attorney education program.
We invested in building the new Experience Lab
that requires that all students spend at least five hours a week
in one of our media outlets or agencies.
The College of Business takes the N2025 strategic plan to heart
and we've utilized it in rewriting our own strategic plan.
The N2025 plan helps guide ASUN as we engage
with students and state legislators,
as we consider the impacts of the university on
every single taxpayer in person in the state of Nebraska.
I want to see good communication between undergraduates,
graduate students and UNL administration
to keep the good things we learned from the pandemic,
along with returning to the things we missed.
As a graduate student in the educational psych program,
I'm very excited about working on creating more inclusive
and trauma informed classrooms in my area.
In the College of Journalism and Mass Communications our students
"do from day one."
We develop inclusive leaders who advance justice,
solve problems and serve with integrity.
Bottom line, we are leading the future of business
We continue to innovate our offerings,
find ways to increase access
and act upon employer feedback to meet
the workforce needs of our state.
In the College of Arts and Sciences we are seeking truth,
advancing knowledge and
deepening our understanding of humanity.
We empower leaders and innovators
to create a healthy, resilient and beautiful world.
In the College of Engineering, we drive
economic development in the state and region
while solving problems of global importance.
Student Affairs connects learning with life.
Impact.
In the Office of Research and Economic Development,
it's all about impact.
A phrase that really best describes the libraries
is information justice, and access for all.
We are emerging as a national leader in the arts.
And we are the home of an emerging media arts program
that is fast becoming an international force.
We're called "the people's college" for a reason.
We're all about people from our students,
to our faculty and staff and our community stakeholders.
Together we're passionate about creating learning experiences
that enhance lives and strengthen relationships.
So one phrase that describes the Office of Diversity and Inclusion
is igniting inclusive excellence.
Changemakers we are tackling the big challenges
at the nexus of food, energy, water and societal systems
that are impacting Nebraska and our global society.
It's all about the people.
We have amazing students, postdocs, staff, faculty,
and alumni that are leaving their mark on our world.
I love leading Student Affairs because I know
students success matters.
And I get to work with 700+ professionals who also
are passionate about student success and
come to work every day to make it happen.
Nebraska Engineering is just a fantastic
collection of people.
Our faculty, staff and students are amazing
as our industry and philanthropic supporters.
It's a real pleasure to lead the college.
Every day, we're in the middle of the best ideas.
And we get to see the impact that our faculty
and our partners, the students are bringing to the world.
I love leading the College of Architecture because
we have the opportunity to show students their potential.
Every single person truly does matter.
And every single action is critical.
In that diversity inclusion absolutely is a way to facilitate
both people feeling like they matter, but also interactions.
And that's why I do this work.
There are information problems in every discipline
and for scholars at every level
from first year students to senior faculty.
And it's really a joy to get to partner
with them to find those solutions.
I love leading the College of Education and Human Sciences
because I personally want to impact the human condition.
And my college is all about impacting people's lives.
I just started as dean in July and
several things attracted me to this position,
including strong faculty and programs across the college,
a long standing leadership vision to create substantial
and consequential endowments,
and an international leadership role in training students
to thrive in the rapidly changing world of arts industries,
and in a culture that is consuming the arts at every corner.
What I love about Nebraska is also profoundly true
about the College of Arts and Sciences.
It is the people their character, commitment and
care for others that makes us a special place
where all are welcome, and each person's distinctive path
is supported and celebrated.
The media industry is always changing.
It's always evolving. It's always growing.
And we have the opportunity to be on the cutting edge.
I love leaving the College of Law because of our community.
We have engaged faculty and dedicated staff,
a really talented leadership team,
and incredibly supportive alumni and stakeholders.
And we all come together to, I think, change students lives.
And the education that our students receive,
they go out and improve the world.
The people and what they create together
are what I love about leading the College of Business.
It takes a village, our entire Nebraska business community
to realize our strategic goals.
I love making friends and working with such a
diverse population of graduate students here at UNL.
I love being a Husker because of the values that is
intertwined within each of the communities that's present at UNL.
And becoming a Husker was probably one of
the best decisions that I have made.
I love being a Husker because I get to create relationships
with so many different kinds of people
from freshman to the chancellor.
I love being a Husker because I'm constantly seeing
our students, our faculty and our staff
working to make our university better.
As a person who has a lot of connections in other states,
I've never been more connected to the business world
and to other things that are going to help me succeed
than the connections I made here at Nebraska.