Sports Nightly interview

Ronnie Green Author

09/01/2017 Added

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Megan Elliott from the Carson Center for Emerging Media Arts joins the chancellor in talking about the creation of the new program and the opportunities it will create for students who seek to learn about storytelling in new ways.

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[00:00:00.004]Well you know Greg,
[00:00:01.411]we're always very conscious
[00:00:03.787]of the fact that we want
[00:00:05.005]to be an affordable,
[00:00:05.956]accessible institution of higher education
[00:00:09.408]here at the University of Nebraska.
[00:00:12.184]This past week,
[00:00:13.418]we were very pleased that we were amongst
[00:00:16.062]the very few of the public universities
[00:00:18.668]in the United States
[00:00:19.656]that were named
[00:00:20.489]the Kiplinger's Best Value List.
[00:00:25.298]Very few of our Big Ten peers
[00:00:27.168]in fact were in that list,
[00:00:29.473]so we are very pleased that
[00:00:31.498]we're recognized for the value
[00:00:34.021]that we have in the higher education space.
[00:00:36.766]The quality certainly first,
[00:00:38.602]but the fact that we're very affordable
[00:00:40.941]within that realm of higher education.
[00:00:44.535]It's part of our just delivering on that promise
[00:00:46.856]of a Big Ten education
[00:00:49.406]in an accessible and affordable way
[00:00:51.464]to all of our students and families.
[00:00:53.231]Very exciting news for us in that regard.
[00:00:55.566]In this day and age,
[00:00:56.399]a lot of students are shopping a little bit,
[00:00:58.156]looking around at different schools,
[00:00:59.130]and to be in this publication has to be big.
[00:01:01.222]Absolutely and as we look at
[00:01:03.907]our growth and enrollment,
[00:01:05.798]we talk a lot about
[00:01:07.104]over the last several years,
[00:01:08.753]the fact that last year
[00:01:10.306]we had record enrollment
[00:01:11.952]across the university,
[00:01:13.743]across all sectors of the university.
[00:01:16.641]This fall we are opening up again.
[00:01:20.115]We're back at it again,
[00:01:22.427]and we are very pleased that we broke our record again.
[00:01:26.486]We will be confirming that here with our census data,
[00:01:30.131]so we are still sitting a little bit on edge about that,
[00:01:32.082]but nonetheless we are very pleased.
[00:01:35.481]We think affordability and accessibility
[00:01:37.856]is certainly a key part of that as well.
[00:01:40.174][Greg] - You have just passed the one year mark
[00:01:42.099]of being the Chancellor here at the University.
[00:01:43.887]You have been able
[00:01:44.720]over the last 12 months
[00:01:45.553]to add some members to your team.
[00:01:48.025]I love it when you bring guests on with us,
[00:01:49.891]and you have one here today,
[00:01:51.447]a fairly new member to your squad.
[00:01:52.980]We certainly do.
[00:01:54.943]We had folks pretty excited.
[00:01:58.879]Now going on a couple of years ago,
[00:02:01.444]when the Carson Foundation,
[00:02:03.420]Johnny Carson one of our most famous alums
[00:02:06.572]from Norfolk, Nebraska,
[00:02:09.452]his foundation made a substantial gift and investment
[00:02:13.217]in the University of Nebraska
[00:02:15.584]through the formation of a new center,
[00:02:18.291]Carson Center for Emerging Media.
[00:02:20.897]People will remember that because there was
[00:02:22.698]Harvey Perlman interviewing Johnny Carson
[00:02:25.898]and the big opening,
[00:02:26.907]that was a really cool thing
[00:02:28.216]that got a lot of attention and fun.
[00:02:32.142]That is now maturing into
[00:02:34.912]the launch of the Carson Center.
[00:02:38.399]We were very fortunate through a international search
[00:02:42.834]where we looked at a lot of very high quality candidates
[00:02:47.151]in the emerging media space
[00:02:49.734]to become the first director of this new Carson Center.
[00:02:54.826]This past year,
[00:02:56.665]Megan Elliott came to us to assume that role.
[00:03:00.050]She's been here since earlier in this calendar year,
[00:03:03.327]has hit the ground running,
[00:03:04.822]is a native of Australia
[00:03:07.785]as you'll hear here in a moment
[00:03:09.751]when she talks to us with that great Australian accent.
[00:03:16.148]She comes to us from having been the former manager
[00:03:19.178]of leadership and community connections at
[00:03:21.195]the University of Technology in Sydney
[00:03:24.297]in her home country from Australia,
[00:03:26.563]has experience all over the world,
[00:03:28.517]especially in Asia in the emerging media space,
[00:03:32.885]and is the former director and CEO
[00:03:34.634]of the digital media think tank called X Media Lab,
[00:03:39.325]that's internationally renowned.
[00:03:40.754]Very excited to have Megan here,
[00:03:42.968]and to have her here joining us tonight
[00:03:44.999]to tell us a little bit more about the Carson Center.
[00:03:47.848]Well Megan, it's great to have you in Lincoln.
[00:03:49.714]Before we jump into some of the things
[00:03:51.098]about the Johnny Carson Center,
[00:03:54.106]I want to know from you
[00:03:54.997]why did this make sense for you?
[00:03:56.400]Why was this exciting for you to get this challenge?
[00:03:59.752]The ambition of this is out of this world.
[00:04:03.505]Nowhere else is doing it.
[00:04:04.898]Very very few people get the opportunity
[00:04:07.454]to start something from scratch
[00:04:09.688]with such a great team of people
[00:04:11.360]at a University which is committed to interdisciplinarity,
[00:04:14.454]and committed to creating future facing programs
[00:04:16.830]for our students so that we can future-proof them,
[00:04:19.479]so I had to come.
[00:04:20.504]For folks who maybe know a little bit
[00:04:23.789]about the Johnny Carson Center,
[00:04:24.822]but don't know a lot,
[00:04:25.665]what can you tell us about that?
[00:04:27.297]Well it's a very important hub of
[00:04:28.818]interdisciplinary learning and research
[00:04:30.785]across all colleges of the campus.
[00:04:33.878]It explores the boundaries of ways cinematic storytelling
[00:04:36.463]intersect with the humanities,
[00:04:38.583]science,
[00:04:39.416]computer science,
[00:04:40.249]emerging media technologies.
[00:04:42.869]We're preparing for enrollment to begin in Fall 2019,
[00:04:46.718]which is when our new building will be open.
[00:04:48.821]The new building is gonna
[00:04:50.241]be very exciting.
[00:04:51.116]Tell us about that.
[00:04:51.949]Well it's not a new-new building,
[00:04:53.624]it's the old Nebraska Book Store.
[00:04:56.254]We're just about to,
[00:04:57.435]we've just done the programming of that,
[00:04:58.727]and then the actual design of that will start
[00:05:01.641]in October of this year.
[00:05:02.698]It's a mad sprint.
[00:05:04.384]They've had me running since I got here.
[00:05:07.149]We're in the middle of designing the curriculum.
[00:05:09.662]That will be off my dean's desk in October,
[00:05:12.094]so we're very excited.
[00:05:13.528]You mentioned storytelling.
[00:05:15.584]Elaborate on that a little bit.
[00:05:17.458]Storytelling is one of the spines
[00:05:19.199]of The Carson Center curriculum.
[00:05:20.669]Everybody is drawn to stories
[00:05:22.221]since we first sat around campfires.
[00:05:24.278]The unfolding of every game as a Husker's fan would know,
[00:05:27.342]a good story unfolds.
[00:05:28.773]Unless new technologies emerge,
[00:05:30.737]new stories that could not have been told before
[00:05:34.194]can now be told.
[00:05:35.365]We're telling stories in new ways across new platforms.
[00:05:39.903]I've got partnerships down here.
[00:05:41.563]Those are always a big part of a relationship
[00:05:43.822]on the University Campus.
[00:05:45.460]Can you talk about partnerships
[00:05:47.084]and where you would like to expand this?
[00:05:49.252]Well we've made great partnerships
[00:05:51.137]across all of campus.
[00:05:52.347]Everyone has been so welcoming
[00:05:53.659]and so genuinely excited.
[00:05:55.929]Also, with the local start-up staying here in Lincoln,
[00:05:58.735]actually I started the first
[00:05:59.844]Artificial Intelligence and Data Science
[00:06:01.498]made up here in Lincoln.
[00:06:02.506]We have 162 members,
[00:06:04.509]but we've also created partners around the world
[00:06:06.895]so the Beijing Film Academy came
[00:06:08.542]and visited us earlier this year
[00:06:11.193]when we had a forum,
[00:06:12.155]and they're part of our board.
[00:06:14.026]We're about to announce an amazing advisory board
[00:06:16.211]of international advisors including,
[00:06:18.738]I'll give you a sneak peak,
[00:06:20.015]Alex McDowell whose the Production Designer
[00:06:22.298]of Fight Club,
[00:06:23.131]Minority Report,
[00:06:24.409]the latest Star Wars film,
[00:06:25.894]Iron Man,
[00:06:26.818]and it's somebody like Noah Falstein,
[00:06:29.072]whose the Chief Games Designer for Google,
[00:06:31.661]and was just announced that AMD,
[00:06:34.168]which might not mean much to many people,
[00:06:36.097]but it's a computer chip manufacturer,
[00:06:39.072]has made The Carson Center a test bit,
[00:06:42.424]so they're going to send us lots of equipment
[00:06:44.005]for our students to play with and try and break.
[00:06:46.718]The Chancellor has rubbed off on me Megan
[00:06:48.639]because he always wants to know about,
[00:06:50.021]is this going to help us expand enrollment?
[00:06:52.210]Do you see this as something that can do that
[00:06:54.029]here at the University?
[00:06:55.010]Not only will our enrollment expand,
[00:06:56.906]and we have a brand new graduate program,
[00:06:59.632]but we'll also make our University distinct.
[00:07:01.926]There is no other program like this
[00:07:03.710]in the Big Ten or in the country.
[00:07:06.788]Great to have you here in Lincoln.
[00:07:07.806]Oh I'm so excited to be here,
[00:07:09.129]thank you.
[00:07:09.962]And a nice new edition to your team I would say.
[00:07:11.725]Oh absolutely.
[00:07:13.051]Like I said earlier,
[00:07:14.366]we combed the globe to find Megan
[00:07:18.291]and I can tell you the people that she competed against
[00:07:21.414]for this position were in the high realms
[00:07:25.775]of the media world across the spector,
[00:07:28.569]so we were very excited when she chose to join us here
[00:07:32.562]to develop this new center into the distinction
[00:07:36.077]that she's already referred to it as having,
[00:07:38.569]and fulfilling the dream that
[00:07:40.417]The Carson Foundation really had
[00:07:43.098]in thinking this is the place to do this.
[00:07:46.040]This was the place that Mr. Carson
[00:07:48.419]would have felt very strongly about doing it,
[00:07:51.394]so I couldn't be more excited about the opportunity.
[00:07:53.729]Always good to see you,
[00:07:54.599]and Megan again thanks and welcome.
[00:07:55.432]Thank you.

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