Catch Up With Chuck | Episode 14

Rural Futures Institute Author

02/16/2018 Added

10 Plays

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We're joined today by Mike Boehm, Vice President and Vice Chancellor UNL Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources.

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[00:00:02.980]Welcome to Catch Up wit Chuck
[00:00:04.270]from the Rural Futures Institute
[00:00:05.830]at the University of Nebraska.
[00:00:07.690]I'm Chuck Schroeder, I'm the founding
[00:00:09.220]Executive Director of the Rural Futures Institute.
[00:00:11.573]You know, I've been around long enough
[00:00:14.250]to remember the creation of a very unique
[00:00:18.070]position within the University of Nebraska system.
[00:00:20.960]1974, rural agricultural leaders
[00:00:25.520]felt very strongly that there should be a position
[00:00:29.190]at a very senior level within the university system
[00:00:33.240]as well as here at UNL that was focused
[00:00:35.820]on agriculture, natural resources
[00:00:38.550]and our rural sector which is really at the heart
[00:00:41.280]of Nebraska's economy and its culture.
[00:00:44.160]So, the Office of Vice Chancellor
[00:00:47.030]and Vice President for Agriculture and Natural Resources
[00:00:51.100]was created at that time.
[00:00:53.120]And since 1974, there's been a series
[00:00:57.660]of very strong leaders in that role,
[00:01:00.309]many of whom have become legendary figures here in Nebraska.
[00:01:05.130]Well I'm pleased to welcome this week's guest
[00:01:07.510]on Catch Up with Chuck, the current occupant of
[00:01:09.880]that distinguished chair, Doctor Mike Boehm,
[00:01:13.540]who is the Vice Chancellor,
[00:01:15.400]Vice President for Agriculture and Natural Resources,
[00:01:18.130]welcome Mike.
[00:01:19.040]Hey thanks, Chuck.
[00:01:19.873]Thanks very much.
[00:01:20.706]Glad to have you here.
[00:01:21.608]It's good to be here.
[00:01:22.441]Well listen, you've been in this role just over a year.
[00:01:24.748]Yup.
[00:01:25.830]You're still pretty new.
[00:01:26.790]I'm really new.
[00:01:28.908](Chuck laughing)
[00:01:31.400]But I know there are a lot of people in our audience
[00:01:33.598]who maybe have seen you, heard about you
[00:01:37.000]but have not had a chance to meet you.
[00:01:38.950]Now, you come to this role from
[00:01:41.240]a distinguished career at Ohio State University,
[00:01:44.130]both as a scientist, as a plant pathologist,
[00:01:47.710]and also as a senior administrator
[00:01:49.940]with responsibilities for strategic planning.
[00:01:52.440]Yup.
[00:01:53.273]Those are all things that people can find on Google.
[00:01:55.350]Yeah.
[00:01:56.183]I thought it might be a fun opportunity
[00:01:58.850]for folks to get to know -- Oh boy.
[00:01:59.950]The Mike they can't find on the Internet.
[00:02:03.010]Because we know with all the guests that we've had on here
[00:02:06.800]that home, family -- Sure.
[00:02:09.770]Community -- Sure.
[00:02:11.015]Create a foundation -- Faith, yup.
[00:02:13.706]For life, so -- Yup, absolutely.
[00:02:14.900]Tell us a little bit about Mike.
[00:02:16.290]Yeah, well Chuck thanks.
[00:02:17.425]This is Catch Up with Chuck
[00:02:19.170]and Mustard with Mike, I don't know.
[00:02:20.711](Chuck laughing)
[00:02:21.775]I just try to figure all of this stuff out.
[00:02:23.714]Sure.
[00:02:24.547]Well I appreciate the invite, absolutely
[00:02:26.520]and I have been here.
[00:02:28.144]I stopped counting months and days
[00:02:31.590]and I don't do that for anything, for anybody but myself
[00:02:34.650]to be honest with you.
[00:02:35.483]I think about the world, very simple minded person.
[00:02:39.350]What's not on Google,
[00:02:40.520]I'm a first generation college student.
[00:02:42.495]I grew up in a suburb, a western suburb of Cleveland, Ohio
[00:02:46.746]so what in the world is a person
[00:02:50.590]who grew up in a suburb of Cleveland
[00:02:52.244]have anything to do with agriculture
[00:02:54.190]but it was at a time when farmers' fields,
[00:02:57.420]it was right on the cusp of Cleveland
[00:02:59.730]where city was meeting, suburban was meeting rural,
[00:03:03.175]urban, exurban interface. Sure.
[00:03:05.430]And so I could be in a creek,
[00:03:07.450]or good fortune was the town I lived in was
[00:03:10.790]three miles long and three quarters of a mile deep
[00:03:13.700]and it was right on Lake Erie.
[00:03:15.484]So I spent, no Internet back then in the days.
[00:03:19.834]1974, this position was, I was in fourth grade,
[00:03:24.300]I gotta be honest with you.
[00:03:25.303](Chuck laughing)
[00:03:26.136]So we talk a lot about Millennials
[00:03:29.160]and Generation X and the Boomers,
[00:03:31.340]so I'm right on that cusp of the back of the Boomers
[00:03:34.060]and the beginning of X.
[00:03:35.823]But I think that's important.
[00:03:38.100]I still pinch myself everyday that I've
[00:03:40.280]had the good fortune to help really leave a positive,
[00:03:44.602]I think, I feel good about leaving a positive footprint
[00:03:47.783]in my past and I look forward to engaging communities
[00:03:52.320]and helping move the needle forward.
[00:03:54.670]So, first generation college kid,
[00:03:57.610]I grew up in a town, graduate from high school at the time
[00:04:00.850]when I think we were at 26% unemployment in my county.
[00:04:04.907]Wow.
[00:04:06.010]Our folks, mine were the oddball.
[00:04:07.940]My mom was a cashier at a local grocery store,
[00:04:10.625]IGA back in the day.
[00:04:12.930]And my dad worked at the power plant
[00:04:15.038]shoveling coal and worked his way into the plant.
[00:04:18.409]But most of my friends, their folks worked
[00:04:21.890]at the steel mills, they worked at the auto factories
[00:04:25.700]and they worked at the ship yards.
[00:04:27.570]And in 1980 to 1984,
[00:04:32.250]all that came crashing down.
[00:04:34.200]And so, I was one of the few people
[00:04:36.720]in my graduating class that actually left
[00:04:39.370]and went to college.
[00:04:40.580]And I went to a small liberal arts college.
[00:04:43.530]I think people know about I'm a plant pathologist
[00:04:46.030]so they know that about me.
[00:04:47.697]What they don't know maybe is that
[00:04:50.190]I am really a passionate liberal arts-trained individual.
[00:04:55.650]And so going to a small liberal arts school
[00:04:58.800]where I loved biology.
[00:05:00.180]In fact I got called into the Office of the Provost
[00:05:02.830]and they told me, "Mike," I was a senior,
[00:05:06.610]first semester senior, "you've taken way too many
[00:05:09.170]science classes, you need to take more humanities
[00:05:12.256](laughing) and arts."
[00:05:13.410]But I learned during that time
[00:05:17.190]about how great science and technology
[00:05:20.160]and engineering and math is
[00:05:22.550]but at the end of the day you have to implement that
[00:05:26.490]and it's humans, it's people, it's communities.
[00:05:30.300]And so -- Big issue today, yeah.
[00:05:31.933]Big issue today.
[00:05:32.861]Yeah, so technical solutions by themselves
[00:05:36.790]aren't going to move the needle.
[00:05:38.253]So that was kind of interesting.
[00:05:40.290]Another thing, I think I shared a little bit
[00:05:42.500]about my past, come back to this,
[00:05:44.373]man I remember as a little kid growing up
[00:05:47.240]on the heels of the Vietnam War.
[00:05:49.260]Sure.
[00:05:50.093]And just absolutely scared to death
[00:05:52.650]that I was gonna get drafted, believe it or not.
[00:05:54.922]You know my folks had a lot of friends that didn't come back
[00:05:58.040]and it was a rough time.
[00:06:00.820]Sure.
[00:06:01.653]And so flash forward to 1985,
[00:06:03.980]I joined the Army Reserve as a medic.
[00:06:06.350]And so something changed but I joined the Army Reserve
[00:06:09.970]as a medic, not the National Guard
[00:06:12.470]because in Ohio, we had the Kent State shooting
[00:06:15.570]where it was the National Guard --
[00:06:16.403]Oh sure.
[00:06:17.236]Who killed eight students.
[00:06:18.870]You know it's funny what sticks in your craw
[00:06:20.770]but somewhere in there, early stages,
[00:06:22.920]service and being a servant leader
[00:06:24.971]and things you learn when you're in a small unit
[00:06:28.366]that there's a person in front of you,
[00:06:30.280]a person in your back, a person on your left and right.
[00:06:33.480]Your job is to all get home safe.
[00:06:35.100]So I was in the Reserve system with a year and half
[00:06:39.510]active duty after 9/11 for almost 21 years.
[00:06:42.300]So I think while I'm a hardcore academic, I'm a scientist.
[00:06:47.109]I'm also a blend of humanities and liberal education.
[00:06:51.950]Sure.
[00:06:52.783]But also a twist of military leadership
[00:06:55.650]all rolled into a ball.
[00:06:57.308]If you want the real scoop of Mike Boehm,
[00:07:00.050]I suppose you should have Mrs. Boehm sitting in the chair.
[00:07:02.270]I'm sure that's true (laughing).
[00:07:03.210]She'll share all kind of stories.
[00:07:04.740]Well Mike, I wanted you to tell that story
[00:07:06.920]because I know that combination in your background
[00:07:10.250]and so when people look at the Rural Futures Institute's
[00:07:13.732]goal of a thriving high-touch, high-tech future,
[00:07:18.820]for rural, we're serious about that.
[00:07:20.600]Yeah, we're serious.
[00:07:21.433]It is the only way it really works
[00:07:24.012]in community is if you combine those things.
[00:07:26.987]Absolutely.
[00:07:27.820]So I appreciate you talking about that.
[00:07:28.930]Yup.
[00:07:29.763]Well listen, in your first year
[00:07:31.690]I know that you have, very purposely
[00:07:34.404]worked your way across Nebraska
[00:07:36.570]and gotten to as many of our 93 counties as you could.
[00:07:39.620]Yup, 84.
[00:07:40.860]84. 84.
[00:07:42.063]And I know you're working your way back to
[00:07:44.320]my old home country there. I am.
[00:07:45.740]Southwest Nebraska.
[00:07:47.015]But anyway, I've heard you talk a little bit
[00:07:50.240]about some of your observations
[00:07:51.870]and the chance you've had to talk with
[00:07:54.025]real people, multi-generations of roots in Nebraska.
[00:07:59.116]Yeah.
[00:07:59.949]Talk a little bit about what you've seen
[00:08:01.680]and some of your observations, conclusions.
[00:08:04.465]Yeah, well you know again, kind of going back to
[00:08:07.510]the very first glimpse of Nebraska,
[00:08:10.020]it's the people, it's the place, it's the partnerships
[00:08:14.430]and then take those three,
[00:08:16.150]it's the potential for the possibility.
[00:08:19.150]I'd roll it on so, you know the people,
[00:08:21.570]it didn't take me long.
[00:08:22.530]I think Ohio people, people in the Midwest
[00:08:25.300]are cut out of a certain cloth.
[00:08:26.880]Although there are different flavors or dialects --
[00:08:28.964]Sure.
[00:08:29.797]From the eastern edge of the Midwest to the western,
[00:08:31.990]the Great Plains, but the values-driven way
[00:08:35.490]that people go about their lives is pretty impressive.
[00:08:37.924]I think too, that we're agriculturally based
[00:08:42.305]in the Midwest outside of the big cities
[00:08:44.950]and so people in rural America,
[00:08:48.214]there's a certain way they go about their life
[00:08:51.690]and It's kind of a neat mix of values-driven,
[00:08:55.214]faith-based, roll up your sleeves, let's get 'er done,
[00:08:59.730]let's work collaboratively and get on with it
[00:09:01.950]with a pretty short fuse for silliness
[00:09:06.023]and to be candid, BS.
[00:09:08.760]So, I think that all resonates with me.
[00:09:11.984]And it taps that blue collar Cleveland --
[00:09:15.524]Sure.
[00:09:16.357]Kind of youth experience.
[00:09:18.640]But the people in Nebraska just been crazy amazing,
[00:09:22.694]so warm, so generous.
[00:09:25.103]I think I've never been anywhere in the world
[00:09:28.920]and I've been to almost 40 countries,
[00:09:31.284]all but Kansas, sorry all but Arkansas and Oklahoma,
[00:09:35.720]so I gotta get those on my.
[00:09:37.004]I've never heard people describe themselves
[00:09:39.840]as "my name's Caitlyn and I'm a sixth
[00:09:43.010]generation Nebraskan from Arthur."
[00:09:45.860]Or, "my name's Chuck and I'm a fifth generation
[00:09:50.590]from, help me, Indianola" or somewhere around those parts
[00:09:54.830]right? Sure.
[00:09:56.200]I mean it's crazy and so that's pretty amazing.
[00:10:00.100]I've also not been in a state where,
[00:10:02.930]we've lived in Oregon, Illinois, Ohio.
[00:10:05.850]My wife's from Indiana, now we're in Nebraska.
[00:10:08.960]I've never been in a state where you hear that
[00:10:13.490]but you also hear "my people were Nebraskans
[00:10:17.190]before there was a Nebraska."
[00:10:18.930]Yeah.
[00:10:19.770]Holy smokes.
[00:10:20.940]Because I think one of the things that,
[00:10:23.210]in fact Willa Cather's My Antonia,
[00:10:27.320]is 100 years old now.
[00:10:29.690]Yeah.
[00:10:30.523]And we're celebrating that
[00:10:31.490]but truth of the matter is her writings
[00:10:36.460]and Solomon Butcher's pictures, photographs only pick up
[00:10:41.070]as the Homestead Act kind of came in to mix.
[00:10:46.080]And of course there's all kinds of amazing history
[00:10:49.400]and some of it not so good.
[00:10:51.330]Right.
[00:10:52.163]And we wrestle with all of this, here in this place.
[00:10:55.109]In fact, Nebraska is a state that's founded on migration.
[00:10:58.521]That's right, absolutely right.
[00:11:00.360]So new wave ancient, new wave, old wave
[00:11:04.200]and it's fun to see and interesting to see
[00:11:07.740]how we as humans are wrestling with these issues.
[00:11:12.129]Right.
[00:11:12.962]It's fun to see -- We want to be good at it.
[00:11:14.200]Yeah, we do want to be -- We want to be good at it.
[00:11:15.660]It's different.
[00:11:16.493]And there are some examples of communities
[00:11:18.140]that were really good at it really early
[00:11:20.400]and they're still really good at it.
[00:11:21.970]And there are some communities that were
[00:11:23.930]really good at it early who are struggling.
[00:11:26.329]So it's pretty tricky.
[00:11:29.170]The place, wow, it breaks my heart that so many people,
[00:11:35.560]Nebraskans don't get past Grand Island.
[00:11:38.377](Chuck laughing)
[00:11:39.210]And if they do it's on I-80.
[00:11:40.732]Right.
[00:11:41.565]Right?
[00:11:42.398]Gosh, just five miles north or south of I-80,
[00:11:44.960]you're in the Canyon Country and South Central.
[00:11:47.777]You fly over and you see the pivots.
[00:11:50.810]Of course Frank Zybach and his not even eighth grade
[00:11:56.590]education who comes up with the first center pivot
[00:11:58.896]that leads to 5 years of water conservation.
[00:12:01.546]Just fantastic.
[00:12:03.810]You drive the road, I think it's Highway 29
[00:12:06.300]from Mitchell up to Harrison, pick up Highway 20,
[00:12:10.070]I mean it's just beautiful.
[00:12:11.297]So northeast Nebraska, southeast Nebraska,
[00:12:15.345]I mean it is just an amazing place.
[00:12:18.400]And then the farmers, the producers,
[00:12:20.875]the community leaders are just so innovative
[00:12:23.907]and I think it's been really refreshing.
[00:12:27.315]And it is true, we're a big small state.
[00:12:30.600]Yeah.
[00:12:31.433]And I think our number one asset
[00:12:33.640]is that we know each other
[00:12:35.238]but it really is predicated on every day waking up
[00:12:38.770]and recommitting to ourselves that
[00:12:40.766]we're really gonna move the needle forward.
[00:12:43.050]Yeah, Mike I want to jump forward a little bit.
[00:12:45.512]Yeah.
[00:12:46.345]You have a very broad scope of responsibilities.
[00:12:50.745]One of those under your wing is the Real Futures Institute.
[00:12:54.280]Yup.
[00:12:55.113]And we've had a chance to get acquainted
[00:12:57.390]over the last year you've been in this role,
[00:12:59.284]it was erroneously reported earlier this week --
[00:13:02.654]It sure was.
[00:13:03.500]That the Rural Futures Institute was being eliminated.
[00:13:05.850]Yup.
[00:13:06.683]I want to assure our audience of folks
[00:13:10.250]who really do support -- Yeah.
[00:13:11.880]What we do that that wasn't true.
[00:13:13.810]Yeah, yup.
[00:13:14.796]And I wanted to give you an opportunity
[00:13:16.940]to just to give a bit of your vision
[00:13:18.580]for where we, yes we've taken deep budget cuts.
[00:13:21.290]Yeah.
[00:13:22.123]Everybody knows that. Yeah.
[00:13:23.040]But a little bit of your vision for where we are going.
[00:13:25.600]Yeah, well I'll look straight at the camera
[00:13:27.180]and say it wasn't true.
[00:13:28.510]Unfortunately Monday night after a really tough day
[00:13:31.297]in visiting Concord and some colleagues
[00:13:35.150]who unfortunately the reality is that
[00:13:38.137]the Haskell Ag Lab is a program that
[00:13:41.170]is on the proposed elimination list.
[00:13:43.427]And I wanted them to hear it from the horse's mouth first.
[00:13:48.880]But unfortunately that evening in the newspaper
[00:13:51.900]it was reported in the Lincoln Journal Star
[00:13:54.880]that RFI was slated for elimination
[00:13:58.280]and by the time Connie reached out to me
[00:14:02.280]and by the time I got back on to the website
[00:14:04.320]to look at the newspaper headings it had been changed.
[00:14:07.250]So bottom line is that Rural Futures,
[00:14:10.167]the Rural Initiative has been around for a very long time.
[00:14:13.850]And I think about life as a journey,
[00:14:16.117]I know you do too, Chuck.
[00:14:18.030]And so we're now entering the next chapter,
[00:14:21.500]we're writing the next chapter
[00:14:23.130]of the Rural Futures Institute
[00:14:25.880]and bottom line is to what I said earlier,
[00:14:29.458]we will thrive when we align
[00:14:32.720]and leverage in appropriate ways.
[00:14:34.698]And things take some times a while
[00:14:37.810]to go through iterations before they really soar.
[00:14:40.690]And under your leadership, no question
[00:14:42.199]things have soared in certain areas.
[00:14:46.580]Under extension, under our community vitality areas,
[00:14:50.028]things have soared.
[00:14:51.770]Under partners like the Heartland Center,
[00:14:53.988]Milan Wall and his team, things have soared.
[00:14:57.830]Under Jeff Yost's leadership,
[00:14:59.850]Nebraska Community Foundation, things have soared.
[00:15:02.600]So I think we're at a really interesting place
[00:15:05.140]and the budget situation perhaps
[00:15:06.910]was a catalyst to force the issue,
[00:15:09.314]even though you've all been talking.
[00:15:11.850]But it's time now to take it to the next level
[00:15:14.350]and we're going to do that by bringing the
[00:15:16.900]Community Vitality Initiative,
[00:15:19.050]within the Nebraska Extension, which is about
[00:15:22.310]a million dollars worth of human capital and resource
[00:15:25.300]and we're gonna bring that into RFI
[00:15:28.594]and move the needle forward by bringing more assets
[00:15:33.010]to bear on the important part of
[00:15:35.314]rural communities and their vitality.
[00:15:38.470]And we've talked a lot but, just to hear
[00:15:41.280]as I wrap up my thoughts,
[00:15:42.863]we think about access to high quality education.
[00:15:47.274]I've visited with Nebraskans,
[00:15:49.510]that people are bundling up their kids
[00:15:51.863]and a mom is taking the kids into town,
[00:15:54.738]100 miles away so that they can go to school
[00:15:57.820]and back to the ranch or the farm on the weekends.
[00:16:00.700]High quality, affordable healthcare, it's critical.
[00:16:05.210]We have some real healthcare issues in this state.
[00:16:07.905]Access to safe and nutritious food,
[00:16:10.280]and I'm not talking about you know,
[00:16:11.730]the corner convenience store or the C-store.
[00:16:13.857]That's critical.
[00:16:15.215]Access to infrastructure, whether that's broadband
[00:16:18.256]or wifi or Internet, or rail heads or roads,
[00:16:22.550]that's really critical.
[00:16:24.020]And then we know that leadership, leadership's critical.
[00:16:29.100]Yeah.
[00:16:29.933]But also entrepreneurship and innovation
[00:16:31.970]so when we think about the vitality of our communities,
[00:16:34.990]especially our rural communities,
[00:16:36.601]know those are really the pillars.
[00:16:38.630]And we have a lot of really smart people in the Institute
[00:16:42.410]and the University, we can't do it alone.
[00:16:44.840]We need partners, we need everybody thrown in
[00:16:47.500]and we, I can't say this unequivocally,
[00:16:51.020]we are committed to the vitality
[00:16:53.270]of Nebraska's rural communities
[00:16:54.934]and RFI is a key part of that.
[00:16:57.404]Thank you.
[00:16:58.540]Well listen, I'm not gonna let you get out of here
[00:17:00.550]without -- Alright.
[00:17:01.540]Gettin' away from the starched shirt and the ties --
[00:17:04.884]Yeah.
[00:17:05.860]I know one of the things that you love about your role
[00:17:08.070]is the opportunity to engage with students.
[00:17:09.810]I do, absolutely.
[00:17:11.070]And rumor has it actually -- Uh oh.
[00:17:12.560]That you were over helpin' students move into their --
[00:17:15.174]I was, yeah.
[00:17:16.007]Residents, hall rooms.
[00:17:16.840]They wondered who in the world this guy is.
[00:17:18.070]Yeah, no question.
[00:17:18.903]So anyway, I know you love the kids.
[00:17:20.850]Yeah.
[00:17:21.683]And Mike, in your role --
[00:17:23.871]Yeah.
[00:17:24.704]Obviously the education component is a big deal
[00:17:28.592]and we're preparing students for a world
[00:17:31.710]quite unlike the one you and I grew up in.
[00:17:33.956]So I wanted to give you a chance to talk
[00:17:36.240]a little bit about your sense of the eduction model
[00:17:39.806]required to prepare them for that very different world.
[00:17:43.140]Wow, you know just being again mindful,
[00:17:45.380]I am passionate about students.
[00:17:47.110]And I'm so passionate that to be honest with you,
[00:17:50.805]the one piece of my professorial life
[00:17:54.210]that I've kept alive is still engaging with students.
[00:17:57.160]I still have some intellectual capacity,
[00:17:59.315]intellectual property that we're movin' along
[00:18:03.060]but look, we're a university, not a company
[00:18:06.054]and at the end of the day, what differentiates us
[00:18:08.980]is that we engage students.
[00:18:10.814]The world's changing from when we went to school
[00:18:13.566]where it was brick and mortar
[00:18:15.400]and you were 18 to 20 years old and off you went.
[00:18:18.285]I think that we have to get those of us
[00:18:21.830]at four year institutions need to get our high horse
[00:18:24.350]a little bit, a lot in some cases
[00:18:27.060]and really embrace our two year programs.
[00:18:29.784]I think we need to get off our higher education kick
[00:18:33.210]and we really need to be partnering more with our PK
[00:18:36.010]through 12 partners, our superintendents and our students.
[00:18:39.464]Kudos to our teachers out there in our public school system,
[00:18:43.534]our superintendents, our principals.
[00:18:45.910]In many ways, the University is 10 years behind them
[00:18:52.710]as far as innovating and moving theory into practice.
[00:18:56.778]So, but we have to do a better job of working
[00:19:00.220]as a continuum of Kindergarten and Pre Kindergarten
[00:19:03.170]all the way to advanced degrees
[00:19:04.970]and think about where those critical points are
[00:19:07.570]for students to succeed and for families to succeed.
[00:19:10.808]And I think that's where we're going.
[00:19:13.270]I think the other thing in the world is
[00:19:14.808]why do we still think that 18 to 22 years old
[00:19:20.060]your job is to go to the university
[00:19:21.696]and you're an empty vessel, we fill you up
[00:19:24.568]and that's what you have for the rest of your life?
[00:19:28.370]40%, what I've read, 40% of the jobs that are out there
[00:19:33.410]in the future, we don't even know what they are, Chuck.
[00:19:35.600]Yeah.
[00:19:36.620]So if we get too high and mighty that we have
[00:19:38.690]all the answers today, we're gonna be in trouble.
[00:19:41.070]Sure.
[00:19:41.903]Second thing is the world is really a small place,
[00:19:44.020]it's not just Nebraska,
[00:19:45.290]and so we need to have students who
[00:19:48.043]are amazingly critical thinkers,
[00:19:51.190]we need them to be broad and diverse
[00:19:53.980]in their thinking, their ability,
[00:19:55.872]back to the humanities to hold juxtaposed,
[00:19:59.027]polarized views in their head at the same time.
[00:20:02.711]That's critical.
[00:20:04.370]And then to be able to make sense of that
[00:20:06.270]and still function.
[00:20:07.350]Right.
[00:20:08.183]And then take that and start to apply those
[00:20:10.814]to the humans and the environment
[00:20:13.120]and the context that they're operating in.
[00:20:15.310]So I'm really interested in exploring things like
[00:20:18.944]why don't we offer educational futures.
[00:20:23.310]So when students graduate, we're so invested
[00:20:26.352]in your future that you can lock down access
[00:20:31.040]to your university now for the rest of your life.
[00:20:34.770]Sure.
[00:20:35.603]And you can pay for it almost like an inverse student loan
[00:20:38.912]or a mortgage where you can actually say,
[00:20:41.490]"hey I'd like to pay for this access over the next 15 years,
[00:20:44.500]I'm gonna lock down in today's rates, no inflation,"
[00:20:48.130]and that gives people the opportunity
[00:20:50.070]when they're 32 or 42 or 82 to cycle back
[00:20:54.470]into the classroom, quote unquote via virtual or in-person,
[00:20:59.552]ways to get what they need.
[00:21:02.150]And if you think about the classroom of the future,
[00:21:04.420]how cool as an 18 or 19 or 20 year old,
[00:21:08.280]to be able to have a student in your class
[00:21:10.712]who's got 13 or 50 or 70 years of life experience.
[00:21:15.163]Yeah.
[00:21:15.996]Wow.
[00:21:16.829]So who are the students and who are the teachers?
[00:21:18.984]I think that the world's changing very rapidly,
[00:21:21.923]the university, the academy needs to change.
[00:21:24.552]And in Nebraska, we're all about innovating
[00:21:27.670]and discovering and working collaboratively
[00:21:30.180]so I couldn't be more excited about being here.
[00:21:32.934]Sure.
[00:21:33.767]And we'll get through the budget.
[00:21:35.490]We will get through the budget.
[00:21:36.574]It's like the stock market, it comes and it goes.
[00:21:38.872]What doesn't come and go is the commitment
[00:21:42.480]that Nebraskans have to Nebraskans
[00:21:45.010]and that's what we really need to hunker down
[00:21:47.454]and hold too tight,
[00:21:48.987]and breathe everyday, and reset everyday
[00:21:52.276]and that's what I came to Nebraska to be a part of.
[00:21:56.250]Well listen Mike, we're out of time.
[00:21:58.130]We're real way out of time.
[00:21:59.233]As you and I knew would happen
[00:22:01.220]when we started this conversation.
[00:22:02.870]Listen, I just want to say that for those of us
[00:22:05.180]at the Rural Futures Institute,
[00:22:06.490]we really have enjoyed over this last year
[00:22:08.769]building the relationship with you.
[00:22:10.900]You've been a great champion for what we do.
[00:22:12.910]Thanks, Chuck.
[00:22:13.743]And we look forward to that ongoing relationship.
[00:22:16.043]Well listen, we invite you to stay in touch
[00:22:18.680]with the Rural Futures Institute
[00:22:20.310]through Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn
[00:22:25.134]as well as our revamped website that I think you'll enjoy.
[00:22:29.814]And stay in touch with us because in weeks to come,
[00:22:33.540]we're gonna be talking with real people
[00:22:35.670]about real places who demonstrate that
[00:22:38.070]thriving rural communities are a legitimate
[00:22:40.430]best choice for worthwhile living.
[00:22:42.600]Thanks for joining us.

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Catch Up With Chuck | Episode 14

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