The Hixson-Lied College of Fine and Performing Arts, along with the Glenn Korff
School of Music proudly presents under the direction of Dr. Pete Eklund with
accompanist Ronnie Zanella, The University of Nebraska Varsity Men's Chorus.
Hail to the team
and to the Scarlet and Cream
I travel east and west, I travel north and south...
rolling plains and valleys
Nebraska, that's my home state...
The University of Nebraska-Lincoln would like to begin by acknowledging that the
University of Nebraska is a land grant institution with campuses and programs on
the past, present and future homelands of the Pawnee, Ponco, Otoe-Missouria,
Omaha, Dakota, Lakota, Arapaho, Cheyenne, Apache and Kaw Peoples as well as the
relocated Ho Chunk, Iowa and Sac and Fox peoples. Land acknowledgments are not
substitutes for relationships with indigenous peoples. But they are an important
first step. Please take a moment to consider the legacies of more than 150 years
of displacement, violence, settlement and survival that bring us together here
today. This acknowledgement in the centering of indigenous peoples is a start as
we move forward together for the next 150 years.
Thank you for joining us for the state of our university address. Please welcome
the 20th Chancellor of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Dr. Ronnie Green.
Well, good morning. I want to start this morning by asking you to join me in
giving a big round of applause to our Varsity Men's Chorus, who you just saw
under the direction of Dr. Pete Eklund.
Welcome to the 2022 State of our University discussion today. It's fitting that
we give these remarks following a time that we took to honor the celebration of
service and commitment of our people.
at UNL we do big things that starts with the university's faculty and staff, all
5844 of you, we could do nothing without your commitment, your ingenuity, and
your servant leadership, and you indeed make everything that we do here
possible. We just honored our service award recipients. And I want to highlight
in starting this morning, just a few of them.
F Gregory Hayden, professor of economics in our College of Business with 55
years of service to this institution. His research has been devoted to the
development of the social fabric matrix development of a meta policymaking
paradigm and the application of instrumental philosophy to policy analysis. Kay
Klundt, office supervisor at our Eastern Nebraska Research and Extension Center
at Mead with 50 years of service to our institution. Kay seeks out solutions to
make things happen. And her adaptability and her can do attitude have been an
asset to many people over the years at the eastern Nebraska Center,
Gwen Nugent, Research Professor in the Nebraska Center for Research on Children
Families, Children and Schools with 45 years of service in recent years when has
been a part of teams that have been awarded significant grants to strengthen
services for infants and toddlers, and to strengthen Nebraska's K through eight
computer science curriculum.
It's not just the commitment of our people. Many of you have received
significant accolades and awards in your fields in the past year. And while I
only have time this morning to recognize a few you saw in the video that ran
before the presentation today and that will run afterwards. The we're
celebrating many more achievements.
Julia McQuillan with her Willa Cather, professor of sociology, and Judy Walker,
Aaron Douglas professor of mathematics, were both awarded the a Fellow award of
the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the world's largest
multidisciplinary scientific society this past year, which coincidentally, was
founded by our very own Charles Bessey.
Mattias Fuchs, Associate Professor of Physics and Astronomy was named a Kavli
fellow by the National Academy of Sciences this year. And seven Husker faculty
seen here on the slide behind me earned grants from the National Science
Foundation's faculty early career development program.
You all saw the faces of new leaders or people in new leadership roles in the
video that ran before, including Executive Vice Chancellor Kathy Andkerson,
Interim Vice Chancellor of business and finance Mary LaGrange, Vice Chancellor
and Director of Athletics Trev Alberts, Hixson-Lied College of Fine and
Performing Arts Dean Andy Belser, and Dean of Nebraska Extension, Charlie
Stoltenow.
I get to stand up every year and expound on the great things happening at our
university. But every noteworthy story has a UNL person or team behind it.
You are the ones that I'm in awe of, and who make this university such a very
special place.
We are the public flagship land grant comprehensive research University of
Nebraska. And our primary mission is the world class education of our
undergraduate, graduate and professional students who come to us from 91 of the
93 counties of the state of Nebraska, all 50 US states and 127 countries around
the world. We exist to give them a well rounded higher education and send them
off into the world with strong nimble minds that are ready to do big things.
Our number one metric of success is degree completion. And we are achieving that
success and rights never before seen in our university's history. With record
graduation totals in three of the last four years. A total of 23,337 graduates
with another record set just in May of this year. Our students are graduating
faster as well. We've seen our four year grad rate go up every year for seven
consecutive straight years. And when our entering classes, it increased 10
percentage points in that time period. And they're earning a coveted Big Ten
degree where the Big Ten is the only power five Athletic Conference that also
hasan incredibly cooperative academic alliance. Our membership in the Big Ten
isn't just about who we play in athletic competitions, or the increasingly
healthy major revenues generated by media contracts. Our membership powers
exceptional educational opportunities here at UNL.
The Big Ten Academic Alliance allow students from member and partner
institutions the opportunity to gain access to more than 120 million library
volumes, and more than 100 Less talk less commonly taught languages through the
partnership. member schools also work together to purchase resources and
materials collectively together, which leads to millions of dollars in annual
savings, and underrepresented students interested in pursuing graduate education
can get help through intensive research experiences with faculty mentors and
enrichment activities in the Alliance's summer research opportunities program.
While we're graduating students and record numbers with high quality and high
opportunity degrees, as a leading and committed land grant university, we are
focused on ensuring students have affordable access to this incredible
education.
We have the lowest tuition rates in the big 10. Our in state tuition rate is
over 10% lower and our non resident tuition rate is over 15% lower than any of
our big 10 institutional peers.
More than 2800 of our students are aided by Nebraska promise. And I want to
thank President Carter for recently emboldening this initiative to provide
tuition free access to students from families making less than $65,000 per
annum, or who qualify for the Federal Pell Grant.
UNL graduates have markedly less debt than the national average, our May 2022
graduates who graduated with some level of debt averaged 19,071 in federal
student debt 33% below the national average of $29,000. We offer incredible and
increasing scholarship opportunities at UNL with more than 14,000 of our
students on a need or merit based scholarship. And many of these scholarships
are made possible by the tremendous private philanthropy of our alumni, friends
and supporters, with many terrific opportunities added in this past year, like
the keyword scholars, a full cost of attendance scholarship, combined with a
rigorous leadership experience for up to 160 Nebraska engineering students
launched in 2021, with generous support from the Peter keyword Foundation, and
the keyword Corporation executive team.
A generous gift from the William and Ruth Scott Family Foundation created the
teacher Scholars Academy a few years ago, that's now enabling 75 aspiring
teachers on full scholarship to become teaching Innovators for the 21st century.
And an additional $5 million gift from the Johnny Carson foundation is providing
tuition assistance to even more students in our Hickson Lee College of Fine and
Performing Arts
at UNL. Our students gain real world experiences they wouldn't get at many other
universities. And while we certainly expect to see our enrollment increase in
the immediate years ahead, in general, our size fits our unique strengths. We're
big enough to offer a big 10 education, and small enough that our students have
one to one experiences. They get to know their professors here, they're
surrounded by a community of support. I often say and believe that UNL is a big
small place.
And here, we believe in the power of every person. Our undergraduate students
have the value added experience to support graduate students and faculty in
research and creative activity. This is an incredible opportunity for our
students and truly sets us apart from other universities.
These are just a few behind me on the screen of the tremendous educational and
research opportunities that are provided for our students across our non
academic colleges.
And we are constantly innovating to bring new opportunities for academic success
for our students. During the height of the pandemic. We added winter room
sessions between the fall and spring semesters. And it was such a success that
we've made the winter of opportunity available for the next three years with
appropriate adjustments to our academic calendar and given students a chance to
pick up a day
national credit hours in innovative online offerings, and have grown that
program for the upcoming January 2023 Winterim session to 70 courses this coming
term. We've added new degree programs such as software engineering and the new
School of Computing and Nebraska engineering to keep pace with fast changing
career opportunities. And this year, we're implementing a new interdisciplinary
Data Science major among the computing, mathematics and statistics disciplines
and faculty.
And perhaps even more important in today's incredibly fast changing world, we
are preparing students not just for the jobs of today, but for tomorrow for many
of our graduates the jobs they'll hold during their careers. We've heard this
statistic many times have not even been invented yet.
at UNL, we provide an education that grows strong, nimble and flexible minds so
that our students walk out of these doors prepared for a lifetime of doing big
things.
Now, as some currently questioned the value of a university degree, and whether
it is worth it, I say absolutely, unequivocally, yes.
It is college for everyone. Not necessarily.
Can someone without a university degree have a successful career? Absolutely.
But there are inescapable tangible benefits for a four year or advanced degree.
In 2020, the median earnings of those with a bachelor's degree were 63%, higher
than the earnings of those who completed high school.
College graduates contributed an average of 26% more to a retirement savings
fund, even when those graduates had similar incomes, and access to savings
plans. Those with college degrees have a better chance at homeownership and a
significantly lower rate of unemployment. And they have greater earnings and
advancement opportunities over the course of their careers, with the rise in
income by mid career being only 25% For those with high school diplomas, while
bachelor's degree or higher holders in the workforce grow their incomes by 50%.
By that same point in their career.
To quote the amazing 96 years young Dr. Gwendolyn A. Newkirk, longtime national
leader in the field of Family and Consumer Sciences, at the wonderful dedication
that we celebrated last week of the Gwendolyn a new curcumin Sciences Building
on our East Campus. Investment in a college education yields dividends for a
lifetime.
When Jane and I welcomed this year's freshman class at Memorial Stadium, I made
them a promise. I told them, you will be prepared through the grip will become
stronger, bigger talents for you, you will become more nimble, flexible and
adaptable to any challenge and better prepared throughout your life to step up
in any situation. In a fast paced, ever changing world, you will leave UNL with
the tools needed to succeed.
And judging from my personal interactions with the class of 2026. Thus far, it
is without a doubt the most capable and engaged of the seven classes. I've had
the privilege to welcome to UNL as their Chancellor.
A key component to students success is inviting and exhilarating learning and
discovery spaces. And any conversation on big things has to start with the very
visible manifestation of the growth of our facilities infrastructure.
Any look across our campuses will tell you new growth is happening all around us
since 2019, and at the present time, we are investing more than $1 billion in
expanding and improving our facilities. You've seen the cranes and construction
for these projects. But these are ones that are recently completed or are
underway. Just tomorrow, we will celebrate the ribbon cutting of Carolyn Pope
Edwards Hall as the new home for early childhood programs in the College of
Education and Human Sciences. The Engineering Research Center is now complete
and occupied and the renovations to the Scott Engineering Center are on track
for completion this coming year. Kiewit Hall that I now see coming up 17th
Street every morning. It will be the single largest academic project in the
University of Nebraska's history $115 million privately funded new instructional
home for Nebraska engineering on track for the completion you end up next
year. The architecture college just recently occupied three new floors of the
former library as world class design studio space that is now working for our
students and faculty. Louise lb Hall renovations that have created a new space
for Global Engagement, classroom renovations and relocation of several units
from the College of Arts and Sciences to go big athletics training and Student
Success facility now on track for completion in June of this coming year, being
constructed as the future of Husker athletics $165 million facility 115 million
of that privately raised the veterans tribute or memorial mall that we dedicated
on 911 Just a couple of weeks ago as a standing tribute to all past, present and
future veterans from Nebraska. The Scarlet hotel is now open on Nebraska
Innovation Campus and is the home for our HRTM program. Moving forward. The
Barcley Center on East Campus just completed addition and renovation to that
space for our special education and communication disorders program. Nebraska
Law cut the ribbon on the new newly renovated Schmid Law Library. Just a couple
of weeks ago a new $6 million privately funded renovation for world class
research and scholarship space. Hamilton Hall Department of Chemistry now
completed with the renovations to the labs through the third floor of that
building that we're very pleased about the cupola on love library that iconic
structure that is such a symbol for our institution replace this summer in its
construction. The eastern Nebraska Research and Extension Center feedlot
Innovation Center is now underway a seven and a half million dollar addition for
world class research research space for our world class ruminant nutrition
program. And this very facility the Lied Center for the Performing Arts,
scheduled for an AI renovation and addition for a new entrance and box office as
well as new performance and teaching space in the coming time ahead.
And last year, the passage of LB384 by the Nebraska Legislature also provided
funding, equally partnered with the University to reinvigorate our campuses by
addressing long term deferred maintenance through 2062.
And thank goodness the first 400 billion of bonds were let in that project
before we had these changes recently in the market. And that is enabling on our
campus in the immediate time ahead. A new Westbrook Music Building to begin
construction next year for our Glenn Korff School of Music, and major
renovations to military and naval science. Kimball Recital Hall, Morill, Bessey
and Niehardt Halls, as well as the College of Architecture's link of their
facility all of those that happen in 2023, and 2024.
These projects are absolute game changers for our students, our research and our
extension programs resulting in impressive state of the art new places to learn,
to engage and to build community.
They will continue to transform our research scholarship and creative activity,
they will without a doubt, increase our impact on Nebraska, and they will
continue to ensure that UNL is a place where every person and every interaction
matters.
No university can call itself a flagship land grant comprehensive research
intensive institution without world leading impactful research and discovery.
UNL is the only Carnegie or one research university in Nebraska.
Our research has been making an impact for our for our state and beyond Since
our founding in 1869. And we've had some very big successes this past year,
including a record high $321 million in total research expenditures. With one of
our largest research grants ever awarded from the National Science Foundation,
Nebraska faculty are taking over leadership from Princeton University and now
coordinate 1200 us physicists at the Large Hadron Hadron Collider, the world's
largest most powerful particle accelerator in Switzerland.
UNL is a major part of a recent $25 million federal award that will push the
boundaries of robotics innovation with the establishment of a Heartland robotics
cluster largely centered in Nebraska engineering and
Nebraska Innovation Campus. A $20 million award from the National Science
Foundation's EPSCoR program is helping a Nebraska team to create a research and
education cluster aimed at enhancing the state's competitiveness in the field of
emergent quantum materials and technologies. Our faculty are earning significant
funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities, supporting deeper
examinations of the works of Willa Cather the creation of the American West, the
expansion of multi institutional open access, publishing, and pedagogical tools
and digitization of historical Nebraska newspapers.
An international team led by Kwame and Laura dolls, received an Andrew W. Mellon
Foundation three quarter of a million dollar grant to expand an online portal
for African poetry.
Faculty are also producing creative works, garnering the world's attention.
Timothy champers the perfume thief was one of two titles selected by Penguin
Random House International for the One World One Book program. The Bell Affair
the highly acclaimed new animated film from Husker scholars, professors Dreher,
Thomas and Burton had its world premiere in front of a sold out audience near
Washington DC actually near the home of the story, where I was privileged to be
able to attend the summer.
Our global leadership and stature in agriculture, natural resources and food
production continues to grow and escalate. Nebraska faculty are co developing a
global yield gap Atlas platform for major crops in 70 countries around the
world.
In another project, we're leading the development of a network of networks that
unite some of North America's most forward thinking interdisciplinary
collaborations focused on agricultural and climate resilience, and food and
water security.
Our new Biosecurity lab with the National Strategic Research Institute is
helping to safeguard our nation's food supply. And the National Drought
Mitigation Center, housed in IANR School of Natural Resources recently kicked
off a $1 million defense project to to predict unrest around the world, with its
leaders regularly called on and sought out by media around the world as drought
experts all all too. Unfortunately, this past year, with the extent of the
drought.
Nebraska engineers continue to lead the way in research that is on track to cut
5% of the world's digital energy budget to cut internet congestion, to create
the next generation of roadside safety barriers to extend the life of bridges to
support nsri efforts and strategic deterrence and even to send surgical robots
into space.
We are very pleased the plans are moving forward for the development of a
proposed $140 million. USDA is Ag Research Service, regenerative and resilient
precision agriculture national layout at Nebraska Innovation Campus with the
initial planning for the Phase One of that complex consisting of greenhouses now
underway. And I'm very grateful for $25 million in support from the Nebraska
Legislature this past year to be matched with $25 million in private support for
the development of a companion technology transfer facility housing scientists
there from both USDA and IANR, creating new discoveries and technologies to
improve American agriculture.
We anticipate the timeline for this to extend to not to 2027. And it will be a
major game changer for Nebraska, our nation and Nebraska Innovation Campus.
And not only is our research and discovery continuing to grow in scale and
impact. We also we're seeing continued advancement in the translation of that
research into economic development.
For the fifth year in a row, the University of Nebraska was named in the top 100
institutions in the world in the granting of US patents increasing from 77 in
that ranking last year to 64th. This year, led by 25 patents from UNL
researchers.
We are in Nebraska's land grant university committed to engagement with our
state UNL indeed touches every corner of Nebraska.
UNL engages in person with Nebraskans in all 93 counties through our nationally
recognized Nebraska Extension.
For example, through a variety of programs we're helping rural communities like
Lynch indoor
northeast Nebraska form cooperatives to replace grocery stores, and helping
places like Tilden and Plainview and others enhance entrepreneurship and
business development.
Our College of Architecture partners with the Nebraska development districts and
local leaders in multiple towns annually, like David's city on community
revitalization efforts. In 2021, more than 400 elected and appointed county
officials received valuable leadership training through the Nebraska association
of county officials Institute of excellence.
Nearly 118,000 child care providers caring for 160,000 children received
interactive and meaningful professional development. And more than 350
Nebraskans completed a food safety course through Nebraska Extension in response
to a new cottage food safety law.
Our graduates make an impact on our state as well. We prepare the majority of
Nebraska's teachers and pre medical professionals, most of its lawyers, and
among Nebraska state senators. UNL is by far the most represented all mod alma
mater across the 49 elected senators. A degree from UNL is also most common
amongst the CEOs of the 50 largest employers in Nebraska, and three of
Nebraska's five congressional representatives hold degrees from our institution.
Our graduates stay in Nebraska, to build their careers and become part of the
fabric of our state. We survey our graduates every year. And those who responded
this past year 81% of our graduates who are from Nebraska, started their careers
here upon graduation. And 74% of our students who came here from outside
Nebraska, about a third of our student body stayed in Nebraska to start their
careers as well.
For us, land grant isn't simply a title or designation. It's a mission. It's a
way of life.
Our economic impact is tremendous. In the most recent economic impact study, for
every state appropriated dollar invested in UNL $11 is returned directly to the
economy of the state of Nebraska.
The people of Nebraska think of us as their university, we have been for 153
years, and we always will be.
Perhaps the biggest and boldest endeavor on our campus right now is our in 2025
strategic plan. We're halfway through the five year time horizon of in 2025,
which you'll remember was designed to be innovative, transformative and to set
us apart based on our unique strengths. We've made very good progress in many
areas. But in a few we need to step up the pace to meet our goals.
Last spring, during one of the peaks of COVID-19, I participated in discussions
with our Dean's and our Vice Chancellors on our progress toward our end 2025
goals. The conversations revealed so many great things that were happening
across our campuses like you heard in the video. Before we started today, I
would encourage you to view the videos on our in 2025 website to hear about some
of those very exciting specifics.
Any one of the plan calls on us to innovate student experiences that prepare
graduates to be lifelong learners, and contributors to the workforce in Nebraska
and the world.
One of the boldest targets under this same is that all students in the class of
2025 will graduate with an experiential learning opportunity through a paid
internship, apprenticeship, undergraduate research or community and
international engagement. We are working on the mechanisms to transcript
designate this across all nine of our academic colleges. And there are so many
rich examples of what our students are doing in this area. Like Alisa Holst, the
food science major who interned in North Carolina at Campbell Snacks, where our
students from the Johnny Carson School of Theater and Film 13 of them who spent
the summer in London at the Globe Theatre, honing their acting skills, or Luke
Woolsey, a pre med biology and psychology double major who channeled the
experience of watching his little brother overcome childhood cancer, to being a
retreat leader for Lighthouse Family Retreat in the UNL dance marathon to raise
funds to help beat childhood cancer. Or Clare Umotoni, a native of Rwanda, who
spent her summer in ord Nebraska is a Nebraska Rural Prosperity fellow, helping
with efforts to revitalize their
downtown, and the College of Journalism and Mass Communications has developed an
entire experience lab dedicated to allow their students to do from day one. I
could literally go on and on. Our students are just learning, they are doing
amazing things experientially.
And another bright spot in our aim one is our steady progress, as I mentioned
earlier on our four year graduation rate, which as I said, has steadily
increased each of the last seven years and is now at 50.3%. For the freshman
class who entered in the fall of 2018.
We still have work to do to hit our target goal of 55% in this metric, but I'm
proud that we are on track and the progress that we are making.
Now as you know, our total enrollment declined again this year to 23,805
students. And while the disruptions of the pandemic, coupled with declining
international new students, and record graduating classes had been major
factors, we must be relentless in our work to recruit bright young minds to UNL
from across Nebraska, the US and the world. In that respect, enrollment and
recruitment is a priority in all of our jobs in the current time and years
ahead.
I look forward to seeing the trend of the last three years reversed, with
increased enrollment to above the 25,000 student baseline in the future.
We also have worked to do to be reducing our equity gap, and to make sure that
all of our students, regardless of their background, are equally successful in
reaching that graduation milestone.
While we've certainly seen progress in this metric in our plan, there is still
yet much more to do.
Both aims two and three focus on increasing the impact of our research and to
foster innovative interdisciplinary endeavors and solve challenges that are
critical to Nebraska and the world. As I mentioned earlier, we again hit a
record of $320 million in total research expenditures this past year, and
continuing that year on year growth is incredible. Considering the very stiff
headwinds, the pandemic posed for research activity where very few r1 research
institutions didn't see a decrease in total research expenditures. Again, we
need to grow more quickly to hit the target of $450 million in research
expenditures. But I appreciate the dedicated focus of maintaining our momentum
over what had been a couple of very turbulent years.
Last year, we also hit our goal of at least 5% growth and graduate degree
attainment with a 10 and a half percent growth in our Master's Degree
completion, and a 6.1% growth and doctoral and professional degree granting. I
look forward to us continuing to exceed our goals in this area. In the time I
hear.
The conversations with our Dean's and campus leaders this spring highlighted a
number of ways that faculty from different academic colleges are working
together on exciting and transformative research endeavors. In August, just
recently, we announced the first of our four annual rounds of $10 million in
funding for the grand challenges research proposals, which included three lead
catalyst awards, and 10 planning grant awards. The Catalyst Award recipients
were Katie Edwards, Associate Professor of Educational Psychology, who is
leading a team of researchers and partners to create a center for preventing
sexual violence among indigenous youth. Tomas Hala Carr, associate professor of
biochemistry who will create a digital twin of the human immune system with his
team, ultimately hoping that clinical trials can make use of the digital twin
technology as do other industries with complex data. Kees Uiterwall, Associate
Professor of Physics and Astronomy, who will lead a team to help people
understand quantum sciences through the immersive use of augmented reality.
And in four focuses squarely on our mission as a land grant university to
broaden Nebraska's engagement in community industry and global partnerships.
Under the great leadership of Kathleen Lodl, Associate Dean of Nebraska
Extension, we are well on our way to the primary target of this same to be
designated as a Carnegie community engagement campus. We'll be applying for this
in the 2024 round. And Kathleen has done a
really great job in measuring and pulling together data necessary to ensure
success.
Under rain five, we hope to create a climate at Nebraska that emphasizes
prioritizes and expands inclusive excellence and diversity.
I am proud that we have the most diverse student body this year in our history,
and that we are in year 10 of continuous improvement in this regard.
Again, we need to do more to hit our goals specifically with underrepresented
students and faculty of color.
This is not a name that can be achieved top down. And so we have taken an
integrated approach where every academic college and unit has its own plan to
address progress in diversity and inclusion.
Addressing the same begins with data and assessment. The new system as you know,
completed a Gallup climate survey last fall, which provided some insights for us
and baseline data. The Office of Diversity and Inclusion is further exploring
what we can learn from the survey data.
We also have completed our self assessment as part of the APLU's Aspire ichange
cohort, which aspires to build diversity in our STEM priorities and programs.
And we're now building out an action plan in that area.
Our offices of Student Affairs diversity, equity and inclusion and Institutional
Equity and compliance have developed clear guidance so that any student faculty
or staff member who experiences a climate issue knows where to go for support
and response. We have a diversity recruitment guide and search Ambassadors
Program to aid search committees in the development of diverse candidate pools
for the hiring of faculty and staff. And we now have a template and training
module for incorporating inclusive excellence in staff evaluations.
Now, while we certainly have experienced recent external challenges in our aim
to make inclusive excellence a priority, I'm inspired by the commitment to and
achievement of progress. If we are truly a place where every person in every
interaction matters, then we must be diligent in our pursuit of AIM five.
Our focus in ame six is on our UNL community and prioritizing participation in
professional development for all Nebraska students, faculty and staff. Again, in
this area, the new system Gallup survey is providing very good baseline data for
us.
We are well on our way. And I'm very happy about this to developing a staff
senate for the first time in our history, to provide a mechanism for staff to
advise the campus and the leadership and to share feedback and recommendations.
Nominations for the inaugural senators, as you saw earlier this week, are now
underway. For the launch of the staff senate officially in January of 2023.
Last spring, I asked executive Executive Vice Chancellor Kathy Ankerson, to lead
a broad based task force to look at the future of work primarily for staff.
We know that the pandemic led to major changes in how and where our work is
delivered and productivity measure across the nation, as well as locally here in
Lincoln, Nebraska. The task force has completed their work and provided me with
a series of recommendations that we're considering now. And we'll be
implementing a number of those as we move forward for our campus.
And as part of our in 2025, we placed additional emphasis on ensuring the
responsible stewardship of resources
efficiently and effectively using our resources is key to continuing to keep our
tuition low, and our access affordable.
key to doing this is implementation of our incentives and our budgeting process
to reward and encourage growth and innovation. We have developed a budget model
as you know, over the last several years, that layers in an incentive based
allocation following the distribution of state resources. I've met recently with
our Dean's and campus leaders and look forward to working with them and this
implementation year of the incentive base model.
And we continue to do great work to implement our environmental environment
meant sustainability and resilience master plan. And I'm very pleased that we
will soon roll out a campus wide enhanced recycling program that's following a
very successful pilot.
When we announced the end 2025 strategic plan in February of 2020
we knew we were being bold
In all doses,
we should keep in mind. One month after we announced our in 2025 plan, a global
pandemic forced us to go fully remote.
I don't need to go into a litany of ways the pandemic changed our world, and our
community, we have all lived it.
The pandemic had a demonstrable impact on our ability to achieve a few of our n
2025 targets. And realistically, we may need to revisit what is achievable on a
few maybe even from a stretch perspective.
In the coming months, we will provide the campus with a status update on each
target, including whether adjustments are recommended in target levels, as well
as the full timeline for realization of them.
UNL is blessed to have one of the most premier athletic programs in the nation.
We are one of the very few universities, where the athletics budget is not only
completely self supported, but provides funding back to the core academic
mission of the institution.
About 2000 of our UNL students, students who are not student athletes received
academic scholarships last year because of the financial success of Husker
athletics.
Continuing the Huskers long tradition of being a national leader in the
classroom. Nebraska student athletes this past year scored a 95% NCAA graduation
success rate, the highest in our institutions history, and amongst the highest
in a five public institutions. And once again, we lead the nation by a mile in
the record number of 348 coastside Academic All Americans
Vice Chancellor and Director of Athletics Trev Alberts and his team are doing a
tremendous job leading the department through historic changes in the landscape
of intercollegiate athletics, with name image and likeness, direct student
educationally related benefits, big 10 expansion, and significantly expanded new
media rights contracts. Trev and his leadership team are doing an excellent job
of just not managing that massive amount of change, but keeping Nebraska ahead
of the curve and in the leading edge of intercollegiate athletics. And I am
fully confident that in the time ahead, Nebraska Athletics will be positioned
well for the future with administrative and coaching leadership across the
board.
We've seen big news from the big 10 in recent months. In 2024, we will be a
conference that spans geographically coast to coast
with the trends in intercollegiate athletics, and I should say and tell you with
many more to come. We are incredibly well situated as a full solid member of the
big 10 conference, a conference that is growing, and the national leader in
financial strength, and the value of the student athlete experience. I wake up
every day, and I'm incredibly thankful that we are blessed to be a full vibrant
member of the big 10.
Lastly, this has been a challenging time for Husker football
for our alumni, our players and Letterman, for our UNL community and for all of
Husker nation.
While continued transition in leadership is challenging and certainly
frustrating. It is even more so when we all desire so deeply for former coach
Scott frost and his coaching team to experience success. I appreciate Scott's
dedication and commitment to his alma mater, under what is incredible pressure
in that role, and wish Scott and all of the frawls family the very best in the
future.
So many of the big things we do are made possible through the private
philanthropy of alumni for instance, supporters of our institution.
Over the last five years, we have raised largely through the University of
Nebraska Foundation, a record $755 million in private support. And it is making
an incredible impact as you have heard this morning, on our institution in a
myriad of ways.
We are incredibly fortunate to have such tremendous generosity from an
increasing number of friends and supporters. And I cannot begin on behalf of the
institution to adequately express our gratitude to them.
We'll be talking more about the increasingly important impact of private
philanthropy with exciting announcements ahead in what promises to be a
monumental 2023 year in our fundraising efforts.
In closing, you never thought I was gonna get here, did you?
I want to answer one of the most frequent questions that I see and it's posed to
me around campus.
What's going to happen to the kissing columns
made of granite cut from a quarry in Colorado. The columns originally stood at
the front of Omaha, Chicago, Burlington and Quincy railway station to University
of Nebraska administrators, George Seymour, a former region with an interest in
campus planning, and Irwin forbore, then director of the Nebraska State Museum
worked with the Burlington railroad to have the 18,000 pound 22 foot caught tall
columns shipped to campus. And in 1935, just 12 years after Memorial Stadium was
completed. They were placed in the colonnade in the northeast corner of Memorial
Stadium, and served as the backdrop for countless game days university events,
graduation pictures, impromptu photo shoots, and even marriage proposals.
Affectionately becoming known over time as the kissing columns. They stood tall
there, until last year in 2021. They were safely removed to storage when
construction began. On the athletics go big facility.
I frequently hear people asking where they go, or talking on social media about
are they coming back? And if they are coming back, where are they going to go?
Today, I'm revealing that those iconic columns will take their place that one of
the most historic spots on our campuses.
University Hall was the first and most prominent building on UNL campus. And as
the campus grew, it was the gateway to the university. It sad as you'll
remember, in the in 150 year, we saw lots of pictures of it. But just north of
what is today, the corner of 11th in our streets. In fact, many of those photos
that capture the early days of University Hall, we're looking from University
Hall down into the growing city of Lincoln at the time. And as we build the new
Westbrook music facility, which you heard us talk about earlier here today will
place the columns at the corner of 11th in our streets, creating a new entrance
to our campus from the southwest, one rich in history, and brimming with new
activity. You can see what that looks like a little bit by the rendering behind
me. So question answered now about the kissing columns.
I started off today talking about our people. You are the ones who do big things
that this institution. I'm glad that today we once again combined the state of
our university discussion with our service awards, and with a picnic to follow
on our street for our community now that we're thankfully emerging from this
pandemic.
Outside of 10 years in government and private industry leadership, I've been a
part of higher education throughout my adult life. Over the course of my career,
I've engaged in numerous international and national committees, panels and
projects with leaders from countless universities, government partners and
private enterprises around the globe. And in these past seven years, I've
intimately viewed the challenges and opportunities facing my fellow big 10.
Chancellor's and presidents were, by the way, at the end of 2022. This December,
when my colleague Mitch Daniels at Purdue retires will be the longest serving
member on that board.
And I must say that this somewhat stark reality is giving me great pause and
stimulating considerable personal reflection, about the persistence of
leadership and today's higher education landscape.
But with all of that said, there is one remaining unequivocal truth stated so
well, in the words of Harry Petka, University of Nebraska class of 1924 when he
wrote: There is no place like Nebraska, dear old Nebraska U, where the girls are
the fairest, the boys are there squarest, of any old place that I knew. There is
no place like Nebraska, where they're all true blue. We all stick together in
all kinds of weather for dear old Nebraska U. Let's do big things together.
Thank you