Chancellor's Pre-Game: Purdue

Curt Bright Author

10/04/2024 Added

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Chancellor Bennett talks with Holly Swanson, the Director of Administrative Operations and Strategic in Student Affairs.

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[00:00:00.040]Welcome back, Countdown to Kickoff. Huskers on the road for the first time this year,
[00:00:06.000]ready to take on the Purdue Boilermakers, but that is not going to stop us from our
[00:00:09.360]weekly chat with the Chancellor of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Rodney Bennett. Great to
[00:00:13.000]always join you. Love seeing you. Greg, great to see you. Great to be back on the air. Great
[00:00:17.400]to be talking to our amazing alumni, fan base, donor base, friends of the university. We have
[00:00:25.320]had an unbelievable week in many categories, and I know that you and I will start to talk through
[00:00:31.100]some of that. But it's been an amazing week, so that's exciting. And we have a special guest that
[00:00:36.160]we'll talk to about homecoming. But I could just not be more proud of where we are as a university.
[00:00:41.740]It's just a great time to be in Nebraska and a great time to be at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
[00:00:46.920]Beautiful weather again this week. You mentioned always a busy week around the university. Give
[00:00:51.040]us some highlights of what kind of came across your desk this week. Yeah, well, first I want to
[00:00:54.440]go back and just remind all of our listeners that last home game we celebrated our 400th
[00:01:00.540]sellout, which is unbelievable. And I actually have some statistics and dates of how we have
[00:01:08.180]moved through those sellouts at 100 game increments. And so I won't spend the time
[00:01:14.320]today doing that, but if anybody's interested, maybe they can let you know and we can
[00:01:18.040]share that information with them at a later date. But this week was a really important week for the
[00:01:24.020]university.
[00:01:24.420]Because the U.S. News and World Report rankings were distributed and the university continues to do
[00:01:32.220]really well in the public higher education space and in the space of all universities across our
[00:01:39.320]country. We are now number 151 in terms of all universities and number 81 among public universities,
[00:01:51.360]which is incredible for us.
[00:01:54.000]And it's certainly in line with what our goals are. When I first became chancellor,
[00:01:59.400]I really talked to the governance structure about how we might move into the top 50.
[00:02:04.720]So we still have some work to do to get to within the top 50, but we are certainly on our way.
[00:02:10.900]Several of our marquee colleges have done really well this year.
[00:02:15.560]The College of Engineering is now number 71 nationally, and our College of Business is number
[00:02:23.580]53 nationally.
[00:02:25.700]So when you think about where we are and sort of staking our claim to excellence, to prominence,
[00:02:33.620]and to impact, which are three things that I hope our listeners will take away from their
[00:02:38.500]time with me today, excellence, prominence, and impact.
[00:02:42.360]Not only are we doing it as recognized by U.S. News and World Report, but we're really
[00:02:48.500]doing it across every sort of field of human endeavor at the university, and I'm really
[00:02:53.160]proud of that.
[00:02:54.020]As you should be.
[00:02:55.000]Fantastic.
[00:02:55.500]You mentioned, Chancellor, that we're on the eve of a homecoming week, and homecoming week
[00:02:59.940]is so special on college campuses, and we're going to get things started and talk about
[00:03:03.400]this week with Holly Swanson, the Director of Administrative Operations and Strategic
[00:03:07.500]Events for the university's Division of Student Life.
[00:03:10.160]Welcome, Holly.
[00:03:11.240]Great to have you here with us.
[00:03:12.320]Talk about this big week that's about to start.
[00:03:14.300]Yeah.
[00:03:14.660]Thank you, Greg, and thank you, Chancellor Bennett, for allowing me this opportunity
[00:03:18.100]to showcase all of the work we've done to make homecoming extra special this year.
[00:03:22.740]Homecoming week runs today through October 5th, and our theme this year is Cornchella,
[00:03:28.420]which is super fun.
[00:03:29.460]Think of Husker flair on Coachella.
[00:03:32.100]And the week's activities open with a Husker football watch party today at Memorial Stadium,
[00:03:37.880]and it concludes with homecoming the game next Saturday.
[00:03:41.920]There will be also several public events that we hope that Husker alumni, fans, and community
[00:03:47.600]members join us to celebrate throughout the week.
[00:03:49.800]Let's talk more about those public events.
[00:03:51.420]Yeah, great.
[00:03:52.320]The biggest events are the Cornstalk Festival and the Parade, which are both free and open
[00:03:56.820]to the public on Friday.
[00:03:57.870]Friday, October 4th. The Cornstalk Festival is open from 5 to 8 p.m., which will take place on
[00:04:04.010]the plaza east of Memorial Stadium. There will be food available for purchase from several food
[00:04:09.270]trucks. We have free grilled corn and kettle corn, free Pepsi products, mocktails. There are
[00:04:15.450]hair braiding and tensile, face painters, balloon artists, temporary tattoos, tractor hay rack rides,
[00:04:21.530]and so much more. We have a ton of fun events planned for this. And the Homecoming Parade will
[00:04:26.710]begin at 6 p.m. near the Nebraska Union, and it will run to the Cornstalk Festival. In addition
[00:04:33.190]to floats being built by student organizations and community groups, participants include the
[00:04:38.430]Cornhusker Marching Band, the Spirit Squad, 2024 Homecoming Royalty, and then student groups.
[00:04:44.670]Fantastic. I love that word free. That always perks my interest when I hear those free elements
[00:04:48.750]of things going on. People are familiar with the festival. We've done it for a few years now. The
[00:04:52.710]parade's been a longtime tradition. Anything new this year?
[00:04:55.550]Yes. There is one event that I am super excited about this year, and it is the Battle of the
[00:05:00.290]Bands, which will take place at 8 p.m. on Wednesday, October 2nd at the Bourbon Theater,
[00:05:05.090]which is at 1415 O Street. The competition features six bands that include Husker students.
[00:05:11.070]There will be a $5 cover charge for non-university attendees. However, all UNL community members are
[00:05:19.610]welcome to attend for free. The two bands with the most votes will actually complete in the finale
[00:05:25.350]at the Cornstalk Festival on Friday, October 4th. Oh, that's exciting. That sounds like fun.
[00:05:29.730]Anything else new? Absolutely. I should mention while I'm here, the homecoming exhibition Husker
[00:05:34.990]History Travel Through Time with Archives and Special Collections will be on view from 3 to 5
[00:05:40.530]p.m. on Thursday, October 3rd in the lower level of the Love Library South. And then also the WIC
[00:05:46.550]Alumni Center will host a Beat Rutgers drive-through tailgate from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. on
[00:05:51.890]Friday where fans can drop by and get their Husker swag.
[00:05:55.550]Fantastic. Holly, thank you so much for running all that down. If people miss something,
[00:05:59.130]is there a website we can direct them to that maybe they can go get some more information?
[00:06:02.390]Absolutely. Please feel free to visit the website homecoming.unl.edu
[00:06:06.830]for all of the information that I stated. And then the parade route map is also included on
[00:06:11.670]there as well. Fantastic. Chance, this is going to be fun. Homecoming weeks are just really special.
[00:06:15.870]It is indeed a special week and a special time for the university and for our alumni
[00:06:20.810]and really for the city of Lincoln and the state of Nebraska.
[00:06:24.950]I always try to remind our stakeholders the economic impact that the university brings
[00:06:30.550]to communities. The hotel rooms, the restaurants, the shopping, the purchase of fuel and other
[00:06:37.770]supplies really helps elevate the community and so we like to think that this is another
[00:06:43.990]way that the university is being a very good strategic partner in economic income for the
[00:06:51.550]city of Lincoln and the state of Nebraska. I did want to
[00:06:54.750]add Greg that while homecoming is very exciting and we look forward to homecoming week and
[00:07:01.250]then the game on October 5th, you know we're on the road and so we need for all Huskers
[00:07:08.010]while we're at Purdue to remember that we need to win, we want to win, we need to play
[00:07:13.690]hard, we need to stay focused and we need to be disciplined and we don't need to get
[00:07:17.670]ahead of ourselves. And so I hope that wherever you are across the state or across the country
[00:07:24.550]that you are hosting your Husker tailgate party event gathering and that you are cheering
[00:07:31.590]very loudly for our players and our coaches and for the university as we remind Purdue
[00:07:39.110]of who we are and our dominance and our presence in this particular space.
[00:07:43.950]Love it. Always good to see you.
[00:07:45.850]Good to see you too, my friend.
[00:07:47.070]Chancellor Bennett with us, Holly Swanson again, thank you for coming by and giving
[00:07:49.670]us a great rundown on homecoming week coming up this week. Matt Coatney is back with our
[00:07:53.170]Big Ten Blitz next.
[00:07:54.350]Thanks.

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Chancellor's Pre-Game: Purdue

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