KRVN Chat with the Chancellor

Ronnie Green Author

10/09/2017 Added

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Ronnie Green discusses recent high rankings for the university, the competitive landscape of higher education and the university's efforts in delivering on what Nebraska needs.

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[00:00:00.291]Brandon Benitz with the Rural Radio Network joined by
[00:00:02.883]Dr. Ronnie Green, the Chancellor at the University of
[00:00:05.094]Nebraska, Lincoln, a special guest for our weekly chat with
[00:00:08.472]the Chancellor segment here in the summer 2017 semester.
[00:00:12.515]Dr. Green, it's been a while since we've had you on air here
[00:00:15.311]at KRVN, and we're just over a year since you were
[00:00:18.216]appointed Chancellor at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln.
[00:00:20.587]So, give us an update on yourself and maybe reflect back a
[00:00:24.723]little bit as you look back on
[00:00:26.854]your first year as Chancellor.
[00:00:28.537]Well, Brandon, it's been a great honor and
[00:00:31.168]privilege to have the opportunity to assume the role as the
[00:00:34.816]20th Chancellor of our State Flagship Land Grant Research
[00:00:38.886]Comprehensive University at UNL.
[00:00:41.368]I kind of miss being able to visit with your
[00:00:44.271]KRVN listeners around the state.
[00:00:46.711]I had the chance to do that for almost seven years
[00:00:48.961]in the former role I had in the
[00:00:51.021]Institute of Ag and Natural Resources.
[00:00:52.741]So, great to be back with you and
[00:00:54.142]talking about the University today.
[00:00:56.827]Been a big, big year for us this past year.
[00:01:00.697]Since last summer, we were named to the list of the Rising
[00:01:05.016]Stars in Research nationally amongst research universities
[00:01:09.514]by Springer Nature, ranked ninth nationally in that listing.
[00:01:14.332]And, 11th in all of North America
[00:01:17.185]to include Canada and Mexico in that listing as well.
[00:01:20.102]Excited about that, and the research growth
[00:01:22.179]that our university is experiencing.
[00:01:24.543]Then just recently, earlier this summer, this guide just
[00:01:28.153]named us as one of the just 20 public universities and
[00:01:32.120]colleges around the country as a best buy for academic
[00:01:36.217]quality and affordability for our students.
[00:01:38.760]So, on our teaching side very
[00:01:40.780]excited about that recognition.
[00:01:43.190]This fall, we're just a few weeks away here from the
[00:01:46.587]opening of our fall term, on August the 21st.
[00:01:49.831]We expect to see our sixth consecutive year of enrollment
[00:01:53.891]growth at UNL, last year breaking our all
[00:01:56.771]time record at 148 years of our history
[00:02:00.091]in enrollment of almost 26,000 students.
[00:02:03.330]This year we expect to be up another several hundred
[00:02:06.480]above that number to break our record again.
[00:02:09.560]So, drawing students from Nebraska, from outside of
[00:02:12.800]Nebraska, from all over the world and becoming an ever more
[00:02:16.280]diverse student population, including something I resonate
[00:02:20.020]really strongly with being one myself, more and more first
[00:02:23.892]generation college students coming to us,
[00:02:26.407]and we're excited about that in our enrollment.
[00:02:29.418]We continue to see that more and more people nationally
[00:02:32.455]are understanding the value of a college education.
[00:02:35.256]More and more of the job market requires that level
[00:02:38.626]of education and technical background.
[00:02:41.726]Some 20 million people nationally, now enrolled in college
[00:02:46.576]versus if you go back even to the year 2000, 17 years ago,
[00:02:51.443]only about 15 million at that time.
[00:02:53.646]So, we continue to see an increased need and demand for
[00:02:57.021]higher education, so we're excited about this past year,
[00:03:00.654]and the developments at the university and the recognition
[00:03:03.790]and continued emphasis on educating the next generation
[00:03:08.276]through the state's Land Grand University.
[00:03:10.608]Dr. Green, as the leader of the State's Land
[00:03:13.023]Grant Institution, and, of course, Big Ten University,
[00:03:15.882]I'm sure you look out on the national landscape of higher
[00:03:18.606]education so what are some of those notable trends that you
[00:03:21.659]see out there in recent years, you see today,
[00:03:24.596]and forecast for the future?
[00:03:26.959]Well, the higher education landscape is changing.
[00:03:29.989]It's transforming even as we speak.
[00:03:32.550]We mentioned earlier about the increased demand for college
[00:03:36.130]degrees out in the workplace and in the environment.
[00:03:40.284]We also have a much more competitive environment than what
[00:03:44.205]we would've seen 20 years ago or even 10 years ago.
[00:03:48.839]More than a third of our students now apply to seven or more
[00:03:52.620]schools before they decide to come to us.
[00:03:57.241]In 1980, less than 10 percent of students would've applied
[00:04:02.101]to more than one or two schools to make their choice.
[00:04:05.071]So, it's continuing high level of competition for students
[00:04:09.365]and we want to keep as many of those Nebraska students,
[00:04:12.188]those high quality Nebraska students from
[00:04:14.170]across our state here as possible.
[00:04:16.500]We pride ourselves on access to the university and access
[00:04:21.960]to all Nebraska students in that sense.
[00:04:25.202]So, it is a more competitive environment.
[00:04:27.418]It also, you know there's been a lot of
[00:04:28.764]emphasis on the cost to recruit students.
[00:04:31.981]They are expecting often more scholarship support
[00:04:37.254]and aid support to attend public institutions.
[00:04:40.959]It's up some 88 percent over the last decade in the
[00:04:45.541]availability of aid and scholarship support and we certainly
[00:04:49.226]have been part of that process, as well.
[00:04:52.140]You know, to put it in comparison about $100 dollars more
[00:04:55.567]to recruit a student today than
[00:04:57.553]it was five or six years ago.
[00:04:59.363]So, competition is steep, but we feel like we've done a
[00:05:02.463]really great job at keeping our costs down here,
[00:05:05.893]and having access high for our students to be
[00:05:10.333]at the University of Nebraska.
[00:05:11.741]Certainly, our state, you know our state situation,
[00:05:14.901]the economy as we know is in a challenging time,
[00:05:18.224]not only the Ag economy, but other sectors of our economy as
[00:05:22.207]well, and the university always aims to be a public partner.
[00:05:26.616]We're in a public/private kind of partnership
[00:05:29.086]with our state in multiple ways.
[00:05:31.786]And, we are charged with a lot of
[00:05:34.416]economic growth for the state.
[00:05:36.876]We contribute even at UNL over two billion dollars a year
[00:05:41.066]directly to the Nebraska economy through the people we
[00:05:44.706]employ and the students' work that happens and research
[00:05:48.676]work that happens across the state.
[00:05:50.649]And, at the university system level,
[00:05:52.788]all four of our campuses, it's something over four billion
[00:05:55.422]dollars that we contribute directly to the economy.
[00:05:59.097]We know we need more workers with
[00:06:01.158]college degrees not fewer.
[00:06:03.078]We mentioned that earlier.
[00:06:04.628]That means as a university, we're striving every day
[00:06:08.343]to do more with fewer dollars.
[00:06:10.648]We're talking about how we deliver services to our
[00:06:13.088]university in a more efficient and cost-effective way and a
[00:06:17.388]way for us to contribute to constraining our budget just
[00:06:21.184]like the state is having to do, as well.
[00:06:24.314]So, exciting time in higher education nationally,
[00:06:27.405]I would say also internationally where we also have a large
[00:06:30.803]number of our students coming from around the world.
[00:06:33.471]Currently, as a global university as higher ed continues
[00:06:37.601]to transform itself now and into the future.
[00:06:40.662]Brandon Benitz with the Rural Radio Network,
[00:06:42.890]joined by a special guest this month the Chancellor at the
[00:06:45.380]University of Nebraska, Lincoln, Dr. Ronnie Green.
[00:06:48.581]Dr. Green, summer is a time when things slow down on
[00:06:51.769]campus, but they certainly don't stop.
[00:06:53.889]As your administration is able to take some time and
[00:06:56.221]reassess some things and maybe even plan a little bit,
[00:06:59.341]have a retreat here and there and take a step back and look
[00:07:02.621]at things, what are some top two or three items on your
[00:07:06.611]agenda for the coming school year?
[00:07:08.848]I would say that continuing the enrollment growth and
[00:07:12.959]doubling down on continuing that enrollment growth
[00:07:15.784]that we've been talking about.
[00:07:16.957]We're also happening to be at a point in time where two big
[00:07:20.525]things are happening simultaneously.
[00:07:23.015]One is we're opening a lot of new facilities on our campus.
[00:07:27.735]As we start the school year, a brand new $84 million dollar
[00:07:31.055]College of Business building on the campus, in Lincoln,
[00:07:34.205]all privately fund raised supported with private
[00:07:36.883]philanthropy that we're very excited about,
[00:07:38.989]and about six other buildings
[00:07:40.693]that have either been renovated or are new and opening,
[00:07:43.963]a new residence hall on our east campus, a new veterinary
[00:07:46.471]diagnostic lab, a new Department of Defense research
[00:07:49.767]building on the city campus, a new law clinic at our Law
[00:07:53.257]College, excited about those new
[00:07:55.597]opportunities and that new infrastructure.
[00:07:57.644]And then secondly, just in a little over a year from now,
[00:08:01.561]in early 2019, the University of Nebraska and UNL,
[00:08:06.605]as the Flagship Campus will celebrate its 150th anniversary
[00:08:10.810]year, very exciting for us to think about that past 150
[00:08:14.944]years, like our state has experienced this year with its
[00:08:18.769]sesquicentennial celebration of statehood.
[00:08:21.779]And, so, we're planning toward that both in terms of how we
[00:08:26.025]celebrate the past and our history of the university,
[00:08:29.213]but also putting a new strategic plan in place for our
[00:08:33.153]university looking out toward the next quarter
[00:08:37.043]century of time in our history.
[00:08:39.616]So, a lot of planning going on around that across all of our
[00:08:42.468]nine academic colleges and across the comprehensive
[00:08:45.978]university is moving forward.
[00:08:47.108]Exciting times, no doubt about it in Huskerland and
[00:08:50.802]excited to get started with our
[00:08:52.312]school year here just in a few weeks.
[00:08:54.958]Dr. Green, the last word is yours.
[00:08:57.582]What would you like us to know about
[00:08:59.422]what's going on around campus this month?
[00:09:01.704]Hey, if you're in Nebraska, you have to get a little bit
[00:09:04.055]of football fever and we're moving toward that as fast
[00:09:06.483]as we can go, and I'm excited about that lying ahead.
[00:09:10.076]And, just it is such a privilege for us, all of our faculty,
[00:09:15.607]all of our staff, our collective University of Nebraska,
[00:09:19.627]Lincoln family to be able to serve our state,
[00:09:23.899]to be the peoples' university for the state.
[00:09:26.541]We believe that the Land Grant University mission has never
[00:09:29.601]been more important for us here, and where we currently
[00:09:33.165]are in our history and to be a partner in the state in that
[00:09:35.867]way and serve the state is a real privilege, and real honor
[00:09:39.066]for me to have the chance to serve as Chancellor.
[00:09:41.645]That was Chancellor Ronnie Green at the University of
[00:09:44.402]Nebraska, Lincoln joining us as a special guest for our
[00:09:47.205]weekly chat with the Chancellor here midway
[00:09:49.517]through the summer 2017 semester.
[00:09:52.571]With the Rural Radio Network, this is Brandon Benitz.

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