University and IANR Update

Dr. Ronnie Green, Vice President of the University of Nebraska, Interim Senior Vice Chancellor of Academic Affairs, Vice Chancellor of the Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources Author

01/07/2016 Added

56 Plays

Description

Searchable Transcript

Search:

[00:00:00.802]Well, thank you very much, Richard
[00:00:03.290]and I appreciate the opportunity to be here today
[00:00:05.914]and to get a chance to visit with all of you
[00:00:08.271]as stakeholders of the department.
[00:00:10.743]As faculty members, as staff members
[00:00:13.158]of what you may not know
[00:00:15.724]is the single largest academic department
[00:00:18.625]at the University of Nebraska.
[00:00:20.402]I don't know if all of our stakeholders recognize that,
[00:00:23.838]but Agronomy and Horticulture holds that distinction
[00:00:27.146]across the entire University of Nebraska system
[00:00:30.304]as the largest department that we have.
[00:00:32.765]I think that speaks a little bit to the University's
[00:00:36.039]commitment, to the general field of Agriculture
[00:00:40.579]and long standing commitment to our field.
[00:00:44.839]And I just have been asked by Roch
[00:00:48.414]to kind of give you a little bit of
[00:00:51.549]a fly at the big picture level of what's happening
[00:00:55.414]at the University, what's happening at the Institute.
[00:00:58.548]Why we consider this perhaps to be our most
[00:01:02.007]exciting time in our history,
[00:01:04.248]and I'll try to tell you why we feel that way,
[00:01:08.311]why we feel that way currently,
[00:01:10.133]why we feel that way out into the future years
[00:01:14.104]that are out ahead of us.
[00:01:16.193]Many of you have heard me say that the challenges
[00:01:19.966]that we have in agriculture generally,
[00:01:23.263]facing us for the next several decades are huge.
[00:01:27.686]There are huge opportunities,
[00:01:30.472]there are huge challenges to be met
[00:01:33.084]that are ahead of us in agriculture
[00:01:35.522]and the food system in general.
[00:01:37.682]We are positioned here at Nebraska, we believe
[00:01:41.129]better than anywhere else in the country,
[00:01:43.428]in the world, ahead of us to be able to
[00:01:46.005]address those challenges.
[00:01:47.781]And that's an exciting thing for us.
[00:01:50.324]I'm gonna tell you why I think that's the case.
[00:01:53.191]Why I believe that we're in that kind of position,
[00:01:56.465]and we're positioned well to be able to lead,
[00:02:00.249]as your title says today, toward growing a
[00:02:03.128]healthy future out ahead of us.
[00:02:05.822]I've had the fortune of bein' here for five years.
[00:02:09.165]I just finished my fifth year this summer
[00:02:12.985]in the role as the Vice Chancellor of the Institute.
[00:02:16.966]And if I look back on,
[00:02:20.171]and I think about what the Institute looked like
[00:02:23.513]five years ago,
[00:02:25.209]when I had the privilege of coming back
[00:02:26.927]to the University, I think it looks a lot different today.
[00:02:30.909]And I'm very proud of that.
[00:02:33.324]I'm very proud of where we've been able to come
[00:02:35.610]and where we've been able to position ourself
[00:02:37.909]for in the future.
[00:02:39.349]And here's what I mean by that.
[00:02:41.415]When I came five years ago,
[00:02:44.294]we had roughly 30% fewer faculty than we have today.
[00:02:50.096]By the end of this academic year,
[00:02:51.817]that we're in the front third of,
[00:02:56.011]we will have 27%, to be exact, more tenure track
[00:03:00.477]faculty in Agriculture and Natural Resources
[00:03:03.523]than we had in 2012.
[00:03:06.587]That is an opportunity that no other university
[00:03:10.024]that we know of in the world has.
[00:03:13.680]That has made that kind of investment,
[00:03:16.084]that has made that kind of doubling down I often say,
[00:03:19.728]on food and agriculture,
[00:03:21.945]that we know needs to be done to meet the needs
[00:03:25.324]ahead of us, and that we know is
[00:03:27.565]focused on the problems that we think
[00:03:31.244]are the biggest problems.
[00:03:33.624]Now, that's a mouthful.
[00:03:35.703]Doubling down on problems that we think
[00:03:38.303]are important,
[00:03:39.696]putting more resources in place through people,
[00:03:42.819]through expertise,
[00:03:44.165]through bringing the best expertise we can
[00:03:46.441]to our campus in order to address those challenges.
[00:03:49.703]And that's what we've largely been about
[00:03:51.537]these last few years.
[00:03:53.523]That's been driven by, not only the need for
[00:03:57.342]increased research capacity
[00:03:59.362]and increased extension capacity.
[00:04:01.997]It's also been driven by huge increase
[00:04:04.377]in our student enrollment.
[00:04:06.501]If you look at what has happened
[00:04:08.904]in the College of Ag Sciences
[00:04:10.622]and Natural Resources, our academic program
[00:04:13.200]in the Institute, you go back
[00:04:15.138]11 years, we have had 11 years
[00:04:17.622]of consecutive year on year growth
[00:04:20.281]in our student population.
[00:04:22.382]Largely in the undergraduate student population.
[00:04:26.399]Today, this year, in this academic year in 2015
[00:04:31.214]we're now in our fourth year of
[00:04:33.895]record enrollment
[00:04:36.274]in the history of the University,
[00:04:38.933]since 1869
[00:04:42.147]for Ag and Natural Resources students.
[00:04:45.877]Our graduate enrollment, which this department
[00:04:49.093]plays a big role in for Ag,
[00:04:52.354]is ticking up ever so slightly.
[00:04:56.070]The last couple of years we've seen 2-3% growth
[00:04:59.750]in our graduate student enrollment,
[00:05:01.770]and what I challenged our faculty with earlier
[00:05:04.474]this semester is that that number needs to now
[00:05:07.435]become our focus.
[00:05:09.351]That we need to increase our graduate student enrollment
[00:05:12.252]in our Masters and PhD students,
[00:05:14.865]to meet these needs ahead of us,
[00:05:17.767]to deliver on not only training the
[00:05:19.752]next generation of scientists
[00:05:22.073]and professionals that are out there
[00:05:23.769]to solve these problems, but also to be solving them.
[00:05:27.414]To be contributing to that research base
[00:05:29.608]that will do that.
[00:05:31.732]We've challenged ourselves to increase
[00:05:33.706]our graduate enrollment from about 650 graduate students
[00:05:37.688]currently, in Ag and Natural Resources,
[00:05:40.863]to over 850 (coughing)
[00:05:42.747]excuse me, 850 in the next three years.
[00:05:48.255]That should be pretty easy for us to do,
[00:05:51.019]given that we have 27% more tenure track faculty.
[00:05:55.756]If you do the math, you should think each one of those
[00:05:59.192]faculty members is going to attract new graduate students
[00:06:02.593]and attract more expertise for our graduate programs.
[00:06:06.135]Enrollment growth, I'll just bring that out to you,
[00:06:10.034]is not only exciting because we have more students,
[00:06:12.670]but that enrollment growth is actually driving
[00:06:14.876]our ability to grow our faculty.
[00:06:17.012]That's what's been driving our ability to hire
[00:06:20.470]so many more new faculty, and bring them
[00:06:23.465]to our programs.
[00:06:24.707]Now, this particular department,
[00:06:26.669]in Agronomy and Horticulture, I think
[00:06:28.340]has benefited from that growth, arguably as much
[00:06:32.741]or more than any unit in the Institute.
[00:06:36.003]Where the new faculty that we've been able
[00:06:37.988]to bring onto board,
[00:06:40.681]the new opportunities those faculty
[00:06:42.979]are going to bring us,
[00:06:44.605]particularly around production agriculture work,
[00:06:48.076]particularly around stress biology work,
[00:06:51.024]and those two zones that are particularly important
[00:06:54.403]for Agronomy and Horticulture
[00:06:57.026]will be the future of this department as well,
[00:07:00.741]and I think you can understand that.
[00:07:02.576]You're gonna get to hear about that today.
[00:07:04.399]You're gonna get to hear about how that
[00:07:06.325]is developing for the department, in areas that
[00:07:10.077]you probably didn't know the department was working in.
[00:07:13.281]Many of you probly didn't know that we're working in drones.
[00:07:17.945]And drone technology and UAV technology.
[00:07:20.742]You're going to evidently get to experience that
[00:07:22.902]up close and personal I hear, Richard.
[00:07:24.655]I don't know whether Richard's gonna be on those
[00:07:26.072]controls or not, but you might want to watch out,
[00:07:28.205]'cause I understand you might have somethin' flyin'
[00:07:31.142]at you a little bit later.
[00:07:33.000]Our research portfolio is broadening,
[00:07:36.041]I guess is my point to you.
[00:07:39.280]I also would tell you
[00:07:41.508]that this department holds more of the endowed chairs,
[00:07:45.502]endowed professorships,
[00:07:48.149]than any other department in our institute.
[00:07:50.807]And that's a reflection
[00:07:52.944]of the quality of the faculty.
[00:07:55.684]A reflection of the quality of the work that they're doing.
[00:07:59.584]It's a reflection of their expertise and their standing
[00:08:03.125]on the world stage.
[00:08:04.739]And we're proud of that.
[00:08:06.178]We're very proud of that,
[00:08:07.861]to house one of the country's best
[00:08:12.100]Agronomy and Hort programs in the US.
[00:08:15.419]And we want to grow that, we want to
[00:08:17.903]continue to grow that.
[00:08:19.737]Now I'm going to talk, just for a minute,
[00:08:22.082]in wrapping up and then I want to give you a chance
[00:08:26.145]to ask me any questions that you might have
[00:08:28.803]about the University.
[00:08:30.765]To talk about Innovation Campus.
[00:08:33.145]Many of you have watched that progress
[00:08:37.139]to the stage where it is today.
[00:08:39.821]You probably heard or saw in the newspapers
[00:08:43.037]in recent several weeks where we opened
[00:08:46.775]the first phase of Innovation Campus,
[00:08:49.073]Phase One's grand opening was in early October,
[00:08:52.103]where we opened that to the public
[00:08:54.657]for the first time, to see the new facilities
[00:08:57.873]that we now have in place.
[00:09:00.461]Those new facilities are also a huge investment
[00:09:04.072]in our future.
[00:09:06.220]And I'm gonna try to describe the impact that's
[00:09:08.913]going to have on the Institute for you,
[00:09:11.119]because it's multi-fold in ways that we don't
[00:09:14.835]necessarily put two and two together for,
[00:09:18.015]and I'm gonna try to give you that whole picture,
[00:09:20.232]here in a succinct way.
[00:09:22.091]When we opened that food innovation center,
[00:09:24.981]which if you haven't seen it, you need to go see it.
[00:09:27.698]It's the top of its kind in the world,
[00:09:29.949]there's no doubt about that.
[00:09:31.737]Where we now house our Food Science and Technology
[00:09:34.176]department in total.
[00:09:35.858]They moved there in July.
[00:09:37.797]Some 200 employees for the Institute
[00:09:40.361]now reside in that center.
[00:09:43.043]Collectively with Industry support,
[00:09:45.783]collectively around Con-Agra, collectively
[00:09:47.989]around a consortium of other food companies
[00:09:50.496]and advanced food sanitation,
[00:09:52.527]and others that we'll bring to that space over time.
[00:09:55.871]And couple that with the Greenhouse Innovation Center
[00:09:59.807]that's across the street,
[00:10:01.687]that several of the faculty members in this department
[00:10:04.948]have been working closely with to bring online,
[00:10:08.048]and to "burn in," as Dr. Clemente might refer to it.
[00:10:11.892]The new phenotyping system that's there
[00:10:14.492]that we're trying to get online and get available for use
[00:10:18.032]in our research programs.
[00:10:20.366]That capacity that we now have there
[00:10:24.092]has opened up more capacity that we didn't have
[00:10:28.108]on campus.
[00:10:30.013]If you think about that growth that I was
[00:10:32.544]just tellin' you about, student growth,
[00:10:35.005]and faculty growth, and you think about
[00:10:37.523]our physical campus,
[00:10:39.242]the physical campus here in Lincoln,
[00:10:41.064]the physical campuses we have across the state,
[00:10:43.885]and our research and extension centers,
[00:10:46.229]you don't just put 75 more faculty members
[00:10:50.306]down on top of an infrastructure
[00:10:52.442]that was largely full already
[00:10:55.263]without having to figure out how to manage that.
[00:10:59.070]Where is that new infrastructure gonna come from.
[00:11:01.588]Does that make sense to everybody?
[00:11:03.703]We knew that.
[00:11:05.907]We also knew that the food sector was the place
[00:11:09.925]we had the biggest opportunity
[00:11:12.003]on Innovation Campus.
[00:11:13.884]We also knew that for these kinds of
[00:11:16.704]research campuses, public-private
[00:11:18.944]partnership campuses, they don't succeed
[00:11:22.370]unless there is an anchor.
[00:11:24.645]Unless there is a major focal anchor point
[00:11:29.128]for those campusus.
[00:11:30.483]That's been true at the North Carolina Centennial Campus,
[00:11:33.514]the best known research park in the country,
[00:11:36.578]where they moved their textiles program there
[00:11:39.238]from North Carolina State.
[00:11:41.234]Early in that process, that became the anchor
[00:11:43.881]for that campus, that now is one of the most
[00:11:47.318]successful in the world.
[00:11:49.361]Now it houses their College of Engineering,
[00:11:51.218]their whole College of Engineering
[00:11:53.215]on that campus from NC State.
[00:11:56.000]We knew that anchor would be important.
[00:11:59.263]But we also knew, when we moved that
[00:12:01.980]Food Science department, that was going to
[00:12:04.360]create capacity for us on campus.
[00:12:08.933]In the backside.
[00:12:10.210]We now have a Food Industry building
[00:12:12.660]that we've been able to repopulate,
[00:12:14.749]that we've been able to take, as many of you know,
[00:12:17.060]the ARS unit that was in Keim Hall
[00:12:19.984]now is part of that building, has been moved
[00:12:22.261]into the Food Industry building in their own space.
[00:12:25.058]It's created opportunities for us
[00:12:27.124]to build a new residence hall on the campus
[00:12:30.758]from the demolition of the old biochemistry building
[00:12:34.287]across the street from Keim Hall,
[00:12:36.667]and it's created the opportunity for us.
[00:12:38.872]I was with State Senators yesterday
[00:12:40.892]to start scoping a new classroom center
[00:12:43.911]for East Campus in what were the pilot plants
[00:12:47.510]for the Food Industry building,
[00:12:49.227]where the dairy store is.
[00:12:50.830]Innovation Campus has this big forward thinking
[00:12:54.824]about public-private partnerships.
[00:12:57.273]That's its main purpose, will draw those public-private
[00:13:00.941]partnerships around food, fuel and water.
[00:13:03.530]But it also has this other backside
[00:13:06.189]that's helping us tremendously and the Institute
[00:13:09.602]to be able to fuel the growth that we have
[00:13:12.144]from an infrastructure perspective.
[00:13:15.429]And I'm quite excited about that.
[00:13:17.391]I think that's going to transform
[00:13:19.666]the East Campus in many ways beyond
[00:13:22.407]what we could have ever envisioned
[00:13:24.206]it would transform the campus.
[00:13:26.260]Where now all of a sudden
[00:13:28.188]what was a sleepy quad with the library
[00:13:31.367]and the old biochem building,
[00:13:34.062]and the Food Industry building and the union
[00:13:36.649]will become, two years from now, what I predict
[00:13:39.344]to be a real hub of activity.
[00:13:41.723]Filled with students, filled with opportunity
[00:13:44.986]for that continued growth that we'll have,
[00:13:47.806]that we have new capacity for as well.
[00:13:52.597]I'm gonna just close by congratulating
[00:13:54.994]the department in another way.
[00:13:59.037]You've been through, I think someone
[00:14:00.725]has said it to me out in the hallway,
[00:14:02.784]when they were walkin' in that they had helped
[00:14:05.327]Tom Hoegemeyer and he had helped develop
[00:14:07.449]several department heads.
[00:14:09.029]Tom was that the statement that was said,
[00:14:11.630]you've been through several department heads.
[00:14:14.138]You're really fortunate to have a really good one
[00:14:16.355]right now.
[00:14:17.458]Dr. Gaussoin, it took me a long time
[00:14:19.745]to get Dr. Gaussoin's name correct.
[00:14:22.763]But, Roch, as the department head,
[00:14:26.060]has done great things with Agronomy and Horticulture.
[00:14:30.169]And we're very proud of what he has done.
[00:14:32.107](applause)
[00:14:37.088]And to tell you how good he is,
[00:14:38.388]he gets me riled up occasionally,
[00:14:40.223]every so often.
[00:14:41.185]But, you're very fortunate to have a department head
[00:14:43.787]that's visionary, that wants to help grow the department,
[00:14:47.583]wants to help lead the department to new levels,
[00:14:50.786]and Roch we appreciate your service
[00:14:53.805]and the work that you're doing.
[00:14:55.523]And Richard, who you heard from earlier,
[00:14:57.857]I know Roch couldn't do it in a department of this size,
[00:15:01.304]and this scope without a good right hand person
[00:15:04.904]at his side, and Richard we really appreciate
[00:15:06.831]you serving in that role as well.
[00:15:10.964]I'm going to stop there, I hope you have a great day
[00:15:12.949]learning more about what's current in the department,
[00:15:15.386]both those of you who are in the department
[00:15:17.511]as well as stakeholders and alums of the program.
[00:15:20.472]But, if you have questions you would like to ask,
[00:15:24.451]it's a rare occasion, as Chuck Hibbert and others know
[00:15:27.346]right now to get me in one spot for
[00:15:30.578]15 or 20 minutes.
[00:15:31.926]If you have questions that you'd like to ask about
[00:15:34.526]the University in general,
[00:15:36.175]about the department in general or the Institute,
[00:15:38.845]I'd be happy to address any questions that you might have.
[00:15:44.352]Yes, ma'am.
[00:15:46.837]My husband and I travel nationwide.
[00:15:48.911]And many times when we mention this University,
[00:15:52.069]they say, "Well, they don't have that many programs."
[00:15:54.855]And I know different.
[00:15:56.852]But, how are you advertising and promoting
[00:16:00.625]these various new programs and stuff
[00:16:04.385]to bring in the grad students,
[00:16:08.659]because I'm not seeing it advertised out there.
[00:16:13.682]The question relates to PR and marketing
[00:16:16.489]or how we're relaying what we're trying to do
[00:16:19.617]to the general public and even more
[00:16:21.695]specifically, perhaps on
[00:16:23.459]graduate student recruitment
[00:16:25.933]and bringing students to the University.
[00:16:30.109]I'm gonna answer that generally first,
[00:16:31.829]and then I'll drill down to the grad student piece.
[00:16:35.572]Generally, I will tell you that in
[00:16:38.513]enrollment, so in recruiting students,
[00:16:41.427]in marketing the University for increased enrollment,
[00:16:45.071]we're generally ticking up a little bit.
[00:16:47.312]The University campus right now
[00:16:49.007]is just over 25,000 students,
[00:16:51.050]and one of its highest enrollments.
[00:16:53.442]Our plan is to go to another 5,000 students,
[00:16:55.949]which I believe we will do in the next five years.
[00:16:59.525]That marketing to undergraduate students
[00:17:03.205]is much easier than it is to graduate students.
[00:17:06.630]And in the undergraduate side,
[00:17:08.824]while we have improved, I believe UNL has really
[00:17:12.550]improved over the last several years
[00:17:15.302]in undergraduate student recruitment,
[00:17:17.843]especially outside the state of Nebraska,
[00:17:20.723]in the Big 10 footprint.
[00:17:22.987]But also inside the state to some degree.
[00:17:26.064]On the graduate student side we have a lot of work to do.
[00:17:29.685]Because currently, the way I think most of our
[00:17:33.806]programs operate, and I'll use the Institute,
[00:17:36.545]I'll kind of ring fence INR here.
[00:17:39.484]That's done at the department level,
[00:17:42.756]and it's often done at the individual professor
[00:17:45.520]level.
[00:17:47.470]We're still operating very much in that
[00:17:50.768]"go find myself" mode,
[00:17:53.647]"go find my replacement" mode,
[00:17:55.992]go find the students that George Graef needs
[00:17:58.870]in soybean breeding and soybean breeding mode
[00:18:01.029]and George recruits to that,
[00:18:03.154]I'll use him as an example,
[00:18:04.873]or Steve Baenziger or Tom Clemente
[00:18:07.275]or name off an individual faculty member.
[00:18:10.525]What we haven't done real effectively yet
[00:18:13.487]is institutionally market our graduate programs.
[00:18:18.879]And your point's well taken.
[00:18:20.219]We've actually talked about this quite a bit.
[00:18:21.938]Brian Larkins is over there shakin' his head
[00:18:24.590]about how we changed that process.
[00:18:30.118]I still, as a faculty member, was really comfortable
[00:18:32.199]recruiting animal geneticists, because I knew
[00:18:34.266]that territory, right?
[00:18:36.449]And I used my network of animal geneticists
[00:18:39.363]around the world to find those
[00:18:42.824]students that might be coming through
[00:18:44.285]their programs, or coming out of undergraduate
[00:18:47.152]or Masters programs.
[00:18:50.167]We've gotta move beyond that
[00:18:53.714]in order to increase another couple hundred students.
[00:18:58.662]Thank you.
[00:19:02.533]Other questions.
[00:19:05.741]Too early in the morning, not enough coffee yet?
[00:19:07.755](chuckling) (crowd laughing)
[00:19:09.288]Haven't got Roch up here cheerin' you on yet.
[00:19:14.866]One other thing I'm going to mention before I sit down,
[00:19:17.100]I see Martha Mamo's sitting over in
[00:19:19.295]the far right.
[00:19:23.224]I mentioned expertise of faculty
[00:19:25.563]and quality of faculty.
[00:19:27.501]And Martha, I just was reminded about
[00:19:31.124]the University-wide teaching award
[00:19:33.642]that Martha was the recipient of this past year.
[00:19:37.242]That's the kind of faculty you have in this department.
[00:19:41.951]That's the kind of folks who are representing these fields.
[00:19:46.341]So appreciate them, I know you do.
[00:19:50.418]Learn from them.
[00:19:51.719]We feel very good about where the department is
[00:19:53.855]and by God, cheer hard for Mich,
[00:19:56.512]for us against Michigan State tomorrow.
[00:19:58.740](crowd reacting)
[00:19:59.677]I almost screwed up, Roch.
[00:20:00.609]Cheer hard for us against Michigan State tomorrow.
[00:20:03.779]Our students deserve your praise,
[00:20:06.762]your support.
[00:20:08.421]Our student athletes deserve your praise and support
[00:20:11.684]and I hope you will continue to cheer them on,
[00:20:13.844]as they work for the University of Nebraska.
[00:20:15.922]Thank you very much.
[00:20:17.024](applause)

The screen size you are trying to search captions on is too small!

You can always jump over to MediaHub and check it out there.

Comments

0 Comments

University and IANR Update

Description

Searchable Transcript

Comments icon comment

Related Channels

Comments