#NUforNE from RFI
Rural Futures Institute
Author
03/02/2018
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11
Plays
Description
University of Nebraska leadership discusses their commitment to rural Nebraska.
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- [00:00:00.390]What are your jungle?
- [00:00:03.760]You know it seems to me that complexity
- [00:00:06.912]is the operative word when I think about
- [00:00:11.270]rural successes and rural challenges.
- [00:00:13.820]I think it's really about systems that allows
- [00:00:15.710]us entres to thinking about containing what
- [00:00:18.070]the complexities of the world around us,
- [00:00:20.206]notably rural and I would say that it's about
- [00:00:23.330]the connections that occur and the flows that exist
- [00:00:26.518]within and out of rural community,
- [00:00:30.582]the corridors and patches that connect
- [00:00:32.590]those rural communities where the patches are may be
- [00:00:35.454]corn fields and soy bean fields.
- [00:00:37.406]The corridors may be I-80, they may be gravel roads,
- [00:00:39.846]they may be canals, may be natural kinds of conduits
- [00:00:44.238]or connectors but I think it's all about thinking
- [00:00:46.222]in terms of systems as a connecting way of viewing
- [00:00:49.934]the world, thinking about sources and syncs,
- [00:00:52.998]regulators on flows in and out of communities,
- [00:00:55.534]regulators of flows in and out of cities
- [00:00:58.429]and in and out of farms.
- [00:01:00.940]My early life here in Nebraska and at UNO
- [00:01:04.550]was almost all about rural economic development.
- [00:01:08.022]And working with many of the communities in greater Nebraska
- [00:01:13.726]and those challenges haven't gone away.
- [00:01:16.573]So I think part of the issue around complexity
- [00:01:20.614]is how do we manage strategically, especially in terms
- [00:01:25.574]of higher education to add value to the needs
- [00:01:30.927]in the communities in rural areas and that,
- [00:01:34.738]what universities do pretty well, they obviously
- [00:01:37.670]educate students and they educate community members,
- [00:01:44.820]they also do research particularly in my interest
- [00:01:48.692]is translational research and that focus.
- [00:01:52.190]And we're also can be pretty good at piloting things,
- [00:01:56.080]testing the waters, looking at proof of concepts,
- [00:01:59.800]those sort of things.
- [00:02:01.254]That complexity component is one that we need to produce
- [00:02:05.320]work force that can address those issues effectively.
- [00:02:10.180]We need to do translational research that actually
- [00:02:12.570]are relevant to rural communities and we really have
- [00:02:17.730]to look at how can we test out and pilot things
- [00:02:22.030]that the communities in rural areas can benefit from
- [00:02:25.860]and if we can do those things really well,
- [00:02:27.680]than I would say the University of Nebraska
- [00:02:30.453]will add value.
- [00:02:32.333]So from the point of view of the med center,
- [00:02:34.573]we've always viewed ourselves as a 500 mile wide campus.
- [00:02:38.661]We have branches throughout the state and of course,
- [00:02:42.263]Scotts Bluff, Norfolk, Kearney, Lincoln and we have students
- [00:02:47.391]rooted throughout the state pretty much in every county
- [00:02:50.677]and we view our role at the med center to really
- [00:02:54.198]help with economic development
- [00:02:55.718]throughout the state of Nebraska.
- [00:02:57.359]And I think from the point of view of the area of five,
- [00:03:01.589]we see our role as being an enabler and
- [00:03:07.294]enabling sustainability of those communities by allowing
- [00:03:10.735]students to first of all, go to school as close
- [00:03:14.735]to their home as possible and more importantly,
- [00:03:18.006]to give them the maximum, to give,
- [00:03:19.279]come in as a maximum opportunity
- [00:03:21.703]of having those students go back as professionals
- [00:03:24.951]one day and help to stir economic development.
- [00:03:27.543]We talk about you know, potential for looking
- [00:03:30.230]at systems but I think leadership is very
- [00:03:32.569]important and I also think that ability to
- [00:03:37.070]reinvigorate and rethink what we consider a community
- [00:03:41.306]so rather than thinking of the community as
- [00:03:44.715]the town, the small town that you grew up in,
- [00:03:47.899]maybe start to think about a community of neighborhoods.
- [00:03:51.659]Because the reality is that your competitor is not
- [00:03:56.897]you know, the small town that's 50 miles away from you,
- [00:04:01.123]your competitor is a city or a small town.
- [00:04:07.019]But I do think we have to really look at our,
- [00:04:10.179]our cultural fabric, our societies, what we value,
- [00:04:14.059]whose voices are heard, whose voices aren't heard,
- [00:04:17.257]whether it's leadership, I think Dheli mentioned it,
- [00:04:19.819]leadership is critical to the vitality of our communities.
- [00:04:24.027]We have to think about access to safe and nutritious
- [00:04:26.150]food so food deserts kind of a concept,
- [00:04:29.507]245 public school districts in the state
- [00:04:33.889]so access to quality education that leads
- [00:04:36.379]to the University of Nebraska or a community
- [00:04:40.291]college or Peru or Chadron State.
- [00:04:43.810]We have to think about logistics, rail, it's
- [00:04:46.680]highways, broadband access, that's really pretty critical.
- [00:04:52.091]And so you pull and then of course, health care,
- [00:04:55.219]which we kind of talked about
- [00:04:56.563]health care and access to health care.
- [00:04:59.442]Those are at least five elements that are critical
- [00:05:02.019]to the vitality of our community.
- [00:05:04.955](dramatic music)
- [00:05:12.051]What are your jungle?
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