Sports Nightly interview

Ronnie Green Author

04/26/2017 Added

2 Plays

Description

In this discussion, Ronnie Green catches up with Greg Sharpe after his first few months as chancellor, his vision for the university, and the start of the Blanket Nebraska tour.

Searchable Transcript

Search:

[00:00:00.479]It's real exciting for us to have the privilege
[00:00:03.229]and the opportunity to serve our University,
[00:00:05.200]and to give back to Nebraska and to
[00:00:07.561]the University of Nebraska.
[00:00:09.500]It has meant so much to our family.
[00:00:12.222]I did doctoral work here in the 1980s,
[00:00:14.753]my wife and our children are all graduates
[00:00:17.642]of the University and so it's,
[00:00:20.002]it's a really cool opportunity to have this chance
[00:00:22.283]to give back to the University and the State.
[00:00:24.939]What have your first few months been like?
[00:00:28.234]You know, when you come from within a University,
[00:00:30.994]and you come from Nebraska,
[00:00:32.460]I believe I've been here at the University
[00:00:34.424]for the last six years in leadership roles,
[00:00:37.394]and having history with the University,
[00:00:39.425]and roots, and our family,
[00:00:42.145]you have a strong sense of the place, but I've learned,
[00:00:44.786]I'm learning a lot too as I go into this role,
[00:00:47.926]and having the chance to really get to know
[00:00:50.797]all of the colleges, and all of the campus well,
[00:00:53.992]and the Athletics Program, and the breadth and depth
[00:00:57.580]of the campus as a Statewide Flagship University
[00:01:00.573]that we are...
[00:01:02.994]I'm learning a lot, listening a lot, meeting a lot of people
[00:01:06.382]out across the State, above and beyond those that I've met
[00:01:10.120]the last six years.
[00:01:12.307]So we're listening a lot, and we're putting
[00:01:16.224]leadership together, we have a number of
[00:01:18.265]senior leadership positions that we're filling currently,
[00:01:21.263]including the two I held before I took this position.
[00:01:25.475]So it's exciting to build our team,
[00:01:27.716]exciting to think about the future of the University,
[00:01:30.775]and particularly exciting this week,
[00:01:32.537]is our students are coming back,
[00:01:33.913]rolling back into town,
[00:01:35.880]and the vibrancy and the heartbeat of the campus
[00:01:39.416]is pumping up again.
[00:01:40.876]It's an exciting time of the year.
[00:01:43.497]Fun watching all those students carry all their things
[00:01:45.316]into the dorm room, it's a fun time.
[00:01:47.406]Well, let's talk big picture a little bit here,
[00:01:49.524]and I know you've been out listening,
[00:01:50.901]watching and observing.
[00:01:52.576]Let's talk vision.
[00:01:53.414]Are you putting together your vision
[00:01:54.803]for the future for UNL?
[00:01:57.135]Sure we are.
[00:01:58.923]Our leadership team has worked over the summer,
[00:02:02.229]just like the football team works
[00:02:03.541]to get ready for the season to start here shortly.
[00:02:06.142]We've been working hard at it over the last several months,
[00:02:09.364]of thinking about the future,
[00:02:11.798]envisioning what the future of our University will be,
[00:02:14.510]and as I've said several times,
[00:02:17.389]I think we are looking at becoming a much bigger University.
[00:02:20.712]Bigger in our number of students that we serve,
[00:02:23.418]and how we serve those students,
[00:02:25.618]bigger in terms of the number of graduates that we produce,
[00:02:28.738]and how long it takes to produce them in four years,
[00:02:31.498]how we increase our four-year graduation rate.
[00:02:35.249]We're talking about being a 35,000 student campus,
[00:02:37.954]and we're looking out 10 years from now,
[00:02:39.753]at how that will happen,
[00:02:41.856]and what the demand for that will be,
[00:02:43.959]and why we're so well-positioned to meet that demand
[00:02:47.366]as we grow into the future and help our State
[00:02:49.857]grow into the future.
[00:02:51.696]We're looking at a number of our areas of research,
[00:02:54.608]and scholarship and creative activity
[00:02:56.658]where we already lead the world in a number of areas,
[00:03:00.227]and in other areas that we're seeking to build,
[00:03:02.953]and further lead beyond where we are now.
[00:03:06.128]There are areas that are relevant to Nebraska,
[00:03:08.553]areas that are important to Nebraskans,
[00:03:10.978]and things that we know we need to lead in the world
[00:03:14.136]here through what we do in our research enterprise.
[00:03:17.638]Just broke our all-time record
[00:03:19.747]this year in research,
[00:03:21.569]were just named number nine in the world
[00:03:23.938]as a rising star in research
[00:03:26.067]amongst a very large number of Universities globally,
[00:03:29.955]so very excited about that.
[00:03:33.087]So the vision is we're going to be bigger.
[00:03:35.867]We're going to become increasingly relevant to our State
[00:03:39.338]as a Land-grant University, and the people that we serve
[00:03:42.839]through our students, through our research,
[00:03:44.818]and oh by the way,
[00:03:45.651]there's this little thing called Athletics right?
[00:03:48.413]And our legacy and our history there.
[00:03:52.605]It's been such a pleasure for me to get to know
[00:03:55.005]the Athletic Department these last several months,
[00:03:58.201]and to get to know our students,
[00:04:00.403]and get to know our leadership in the Athletics Program
[00:04:03.274]across all of the sports that we field.
[00:04:06.276]There's no place to be a student athlete like Nebraska,
[00:04:09.050]there's just none.
[00:04:10.368]And I've learned that first-hand over these last few months.
[00:04:14.060]So we've got, we wanna be good there too.
[00:04:16.608]And we wanna succeed there.
[00:04:18.222]We're visiting with Nebraska Chancellor Ronnie Green
[00:04:20.268]here on Sports Nightly on the Husker Sports Network.
[00:04:22.846]You're also great to follow on Twitter I must say,
[00:04:25.080]so we'll get you some Twitter followers tonight,
[00:04:27.222]because you've been Tweeting about Blanket Nebraskan.
[00:04:29.351]You talked about your leadership team.
[00:04:31.021]I know they have been out around the State.
[00:04:33.311]Tell us about Blanket Nebraska.
[00:04:35.680]Well, we talked a lot about,
[00:04:38.440]as you come into a leadership position like this,
[00:04:40.800]and for me coming from within Nebraska,
[00:04:43.081]and within the University,
[00:04:44.691]where I've had the opportunity to serve
[00:04:46.091]in a Statewide role leading the Ag Programs
[00:04:48.478]across the state you know,
[00:04:49.702]all of our Extension Programs, our Research Programs.
[00:04:52.488]So I've had an opportunity to really get to know
[00:04:54.102]the State very well the last six years,
[00:04:57.080]and I kinda married the State in my wife too,
[00:04:58.940]so she's helped me over the last 30 years,
[00:05:01.560]really have a strong feel for Nebraska and its people.
[00:05:05.746]But I thought it would be more important for us
[00:05:09.702]at this point than me doing kinda of a
[00:05:11.493]get in a car and drive around the State,
[00:05:13.479]and get to know the State,
[00:05:14.754]like President Bounds did a year ago when he came onboard,
[00:05:18.253]to really blanket the State with our leadership team.
[00:05:21.542]So we've devised a way for all of our Deans
[00:05:25.572]of the Academic Colleges, our Senior Leadership
[00:05:28.292]of the University and the Vice-Chancellors,
[00:05:30.312]our Missions and Recruiting folks to
[00:05:34.174]go out across the State, and we kind of
[00:05:36.746]developed a web of over 50 communities
[00:05:39.760]that our team visited,
[00:05:41.572]or still doing a few wrap-up visits yet,
[00:05:44.181]this week and next week during the month of August,
[00:05:47.864]so that we can engage communities across the State,
[00:05:50.611]we can engage people about the University,
[00:05:52.573]about our vision for the University moving forward,
[00:05:55.850]and that was a really cool thing to watch,
[00:05:57.321]so I've been Tweeting out, and I was saying how,
[00:06:00.990]how receptive people have been,
[00:06:03.164]what our leaders are learning, as well as relaying
[00:06:06.725]about the University in these communities.
[00:06:09.112]And then we have a plan throughout the year ahead,
[00:06:12.893]where we're going to continue to do that in the Metro areas,
[00:06:16.361]so we exist here in Lincoln,
[00:06:19.313]now we have a great Town and Gown relationship
[00:06:21.542]with the City of Lincoln, that we hold very valuable,
[00:06:25.929]so we're out in Lincoln a lot,
[00:06:27.432]we'll continue to do that, I'll do that with our Deans.
[00:06:30.241]We're planning a monthly kind of thing
[00:06:33.372]that we'll do in Lincoln, similarly in Omaha,
[00:06:36.804]similarly in the Tri-Cities area of the State,
[00:06:40.661]so that we kinda continue that dialogue
[00:06:42.792]through the next year and blanketing our State.
[00:06:45.171]Listening, learning, and you know relaying the University
[00:06:49.482]out to the State as well.
[00:06:50.823]Very exciting.
[00:06:51.693]Great to see you, congratulations again,
[00:06:53.322]look forward to our chats,
[00:06:54.181]we're gonna be having you on
[00:06:55.911]some of our various athletic events,
[00:06:57.475]and back on Sports Nightly at some point in time,
[00:06:59.173]so thank you for coming in.
[00:07:00.041]Looking forward to it, go Big Red.

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

Sports Nightly interview

Description

Searchable Transcript

Comments icon comment

Related Channels

Comments