2008 Woodie Awards
Transcript of Chancellor Perlan's State of the University Address
Issue date: 9/5/08 Section: News
A university is a community of individuals designed to discover, train, nourish and mentor the future talent that our society will require. Our society's future leaders, professionals, innovators, artists and entrepreneurs are among the students who currently populate our classrooms, energize the campus with their games, their activities, and their questions, and who often astound us with their growth and achievement. As I prepare to give you my impression of the state of our university, I thought it appropriate that we pause and enjoy a short example, representative of the talent of our student body. I am pleased to introduce Denis Plutalov. Denis is an award-winning pianist who is currently finishing his doctoral studies at the UNL School of Music under Dr. Mark Clinton. He holds his master's degree and artist diploma from the North Carolina School of the Arts, and his bachelor's from the Gnessins Academy of Music. He will be playing Rachmaninoff's Prelude in B flat major, opus 23 no. 2. Denis Plutalov.
Introduction
The State of the University address is the opportunity to review the past year and to focus our attention on the future. As I reflect on the past year, I am reminded of one of my student teaching evaluations which I have shared with you before: The one that read "a doctor told me I had only an hour to live I would want to spend it in your class." The student subsequently explained that this was because an hour in my class seemed like an eternity. Frankly, that is how I think of last year -- it seemed more like a decade than a year. We had our share of challenges: The transition in the athletic department and the football program, the upheaval in our Alumni Association, the changes at the Lied Center and the Sheldon Museum of Art, the debates over State Fair Park and Innovation Campus, and, no doubt, the hundreds of challenges, large and small, that we all faced as we tried to advance the missions of the university.
Looking Back
This university is fortunate to have a pool of individuals with institutional loyalty to turn to in emergencies. Tom Osborne came out of retirement, hung up his fly-fishing poles, and restored peace and promise to our athletic department. Jim O'Hanlon agreed to leave the comfort of the classroom to assume responsibility for our Alumni Association in very difficult times. His quiet leadership moved us toward a reenergized association with a clear mission of engaging alumni on behalf of the university. Both responded in almost identical language to my call for help: "The university is important to me and I'll do what I can." We were also fortunate to have Ann Chang Barnes available to become interim director of the Lied Center and Dick Hoffmann to become interim director of the Sheldon Museum. Both Lied and Sheldon play such a significant role in the quality of life we enjoy at this university.
The tragic death of our friend and colleague Kent Hendrickson was the occasion for Gary Aerts and the other leaders in Information Services to continue to pursue, without interruption, a number of initiatives involving information technology. With considerable effort on their part, we entered a partnership with Microsoft to provide free e-mail to our students that they can continue to use, with the same "huskers.edu" address, throughout their lives. And in a remarkable concurrence of ideas, we received two reports on the future organization of our information technology services, one from an outside consulting firm, and one from the Computational Facilities and Services Committee of the Faculty Senate chaired by Professor David Brooks. They came to remarkably similar conclusions: That we have a good system of information technology services that could be made better by greater attention to the proper allocation of responsibilities between individual units and campus-wide organizations. Last week we initiated a survey of campus stakeholders to solicit ideas on how to move forward, and we will soon advertise for a new Chief Information Officer for the campus.
In addition to information services, individuals across the campus, under the leadership of Vice Chancellor Juan Franco, have spent considerable effort preparing us for a new student information system. This will be a major transition for us once the vendor is chosen, and as with the installation of any enterprise computing system, will generate more work, consume more resources, and ruffle more feathers than we have planned for. So be tolerant of those of us who display various levels of patience, perspiration or petulance as progress proceeds apace.
Beyond the challenges, you have also accomplished more than a mere year's worth of successes. The recent Scarlet again serves to document many of those achievements. I wish time permitted highlighting each and every achievement, those large and small, those that attracted public notoriety and those that did not. Beyond the extraordinary individual achievements of our students, faculty and staff, consider what as a university we have done collectively. We have been focused on our two priorities: Undergraduate education and research. And in both we have had successes that could transform the university in the future.
The progress in undergraduate education is clear. Our students are more numerous, more qualified, more accomplished, and more diverse. They are a source of alternative energy that drives the programs, the ambiance, the vibrancy and the culture of the campus. Helping them fulfill their potential infuses considerable significance to our work. The institutional principles that influence and support the undergraduate experience in the various majors and programs help define and distinguish us as a university. During the past year, our faculty collectively and within their colleges adopted the Achievement Centered Education program -- a general education program based on assessment of student outcomes. This innovative program could transform undergraduate education both here and elsewhere. Our achievement is the envy of many of our peers across the country. The hard work of implementing this program for the fall of 2009 is upon us and it is critical to our continued success.
For sponsored research we set a new record for the university of $105.7 million. Thanks to Vice Chancellor Paul's leadership and the efforts of deans, chairs and faculty across the university, we have become a known player among the funding agencies and we have initiatives to address some of the most critical needs of Nebraska and the nation. However, it is only Prem who could convince several Washington-based program officers and numerous campus faculty to spend a week in North Platte talking about water and climate change!
The opportunity to develop Innovation Campus on the former State Fair Park could transform our research efforts and our relationship to the people of Nebraska. With the strong leadership of the governor, President Milliken, and senators Phil Erdman and Mike Flood, we achieved an agreement with the Fair Board and Grand Island, and an almost unanimous vote in the Legislature. The potential for us as a university and for the state of Nebraska is substantial. Our concept, to attract private sector companies to locate in Lincoln to engage with us in the research enterprise, should spur economic development, provide internships and jobs for our students, enrich and energize our own research activities, and substantially enhance our reputation as a research university.
The name "Innovation Campus" was not chosen lightly. "Innovation" is the university's mission -- whether it is opening the eyes of students to new paths to success, or pursuing new technological discoveries, or using our creative energies to find a new way to look at the human condition. We pursue talent in our faculty and our student body with innovation in mind. For those of you old enough to remember the early days of television, it might be said that "Talent is our name, innovation is our game." We used the word "campus" because we want it to be an integral part of the university, with its vision of innovation and collaboration driving what we do, wherever we do it from our 500-mile-long campus across Nebraska.
Innovation Campus demands of us that we reassess our evaluation of research leading to commercial application. We must avoid what is described as the "traditional resistance" within universities to engage with private sector companies. We conduct research, largely at public expense, because it allows us to better understand and to adjust to the world we inhabit and the worlds we can only see or imagine. We do not expect that every research project will lead to commercial application or even directly to a solution to a known problem. Basic research, research driven by the curiosity of the faculty rather than the prospect of profit, is critical to our society's advancement. At the same time, we must not shrink from the application of our research; we should be prepared to applaud both the useful outcome as well as the transformative insight. We should regard the work that passes the rigors of the patent office and the discipline of the marketplace just as valuable as that which passes the review of our peers.
The hard work to bring Innovation Campus to life is before us. I fear that the expectations of our friends and the patience of our critics may share a timeline more ambitious than we can achieve. This is an investment for the long term, and it is important that we maximize the potential of this campus. We are making good progress toward our possession of the property in 2010. We have sought, through a request for information, the best advice we could find from across the nation on how to develop Innovation Campus to assure its success. We have received suggestions from some of the best planners and developers in the country. We are exploring the best method and means of financing the development and we are initiating contacts with private sector companies who already have relationships with the university about their interests in having a presence on the campus. I remain confident that if we prepare well, Innovation Campus will be one of the most significant achievements in the history of the university.
So, all things considered, I think we should have considerable pride in what we have together accomplished and considerable excitement about our future prospects.
Looking Forward
So what should be our agenda and our attitude as we face the future? In reading Jean Edward Smith's new biography of Franklin Roosevelt I was struck by a phrase FDR used when he accepted his party's nomination for president in 1932. He suggested that to make progress, it was necessary to overcome those who "squint at the future with their faces pointed at the past." I believe the university faces both challenges, and more importantly, a set of unlimited opportunities. To make further progress we must firmly point our faces and our vision toward the future. This is no time to squint, no time to look back, no time to be content with the nostalgia of what we had or to be paralyzed by the fear of what we might become.
Enhancing our Academic Momentum
A few years ago, this university, discontented with its status, set about formulating a vision for its future and a blueprint for its achievement. The 2020 Report, a candid portrait of a university falling far short of its potential, was confirmed by a series of articles in the Omaha World Herald. These studies caused us to relax our squint, widened our gaze, and in the last several years we have taken our rightful place among this country's great public universities.
Notwithstanding a period of fiscal turmoil, we worked on those things we could control and were not discouraged by those things we could not. We focused on our priorities. In openly celebrating success, we experienced more success. We increased both our enrollment and the academic credentials of our entering class to the highest standard in history. We are ranked as the country's "most popular public university" - no longer a place to which students come if they can't get into their first or second choice. Our research has more than doubled and with it our visibility has increased in almost every federal agency and in the private sector. We have addressed issues of national and international significance, as well as problems that are central to the future of Nebraska. And we have engaged with the people of Nebraska, through the efforts of cooperative extension and across the breadth of our academic enterprise, to help them address their economic security and quality of life. We have built pride among Nebraskans in the academic stature of their university, we have achieved the confidence of state government as evidenced by its support for an Innovation Campus at State Fair Park. And we have raised expectations for our future performance. Our challenge now is to continue to build on our success and to meet the expectations we have created. I invite all of you to join me in my morning routine: I wake up, exercise, eat breakfast and read the local newspapers. Then I go on-line and look at university rankings. If we are not number 1, I get dressed and come to work.
In research, while our institutional accomplishments have continued to set records, the contributions to this success have not been evenly distributed across the departments and colleges of the university. Some units have met or exceeded any reasonable expectations we might have for research while others have not lived up to their potential. In making this assessment I acknowledge that not all disciplines have the same access to research funding and in some disciplines productivity must be measured by means other than competitive grants. In a few units, there has been a conscious choice to focus on teaching or extension and we should respect those decisions if, in larger terms, these units make significant contributions to the missions of the university. Not every academic unit started out with the same comparative level of funding and the budget cuts we endured had uneven effects on some areas. So, in making assessments, we should not be searching for fault but rather we should be seeking constructive ways to move the university to the next level by assuring more faculty and units are positioned to contribute to our success.
I am proposing that we engage in two strategies that over time will help us spread success over more of the university. The first strategy should be to seek from our colleagues at peer institutions a candid assessment of our current status. In many instances, our academic program reviews have provided valuable information. Appropriately, they are focused on an assessment of achievement in our departments and disciplines. Recently, we have included in these program reviews questions not only about how departments are forwarding their disciplines, but also about how they meet our strategic priorities and how they contribute to interdisciplinary research. But these important comprehensive evaluations may not provide the information we need to develop metrics for future success. Thus I propose that we consider in some cases employing specialized reviews, by both internal and external peers, that are focused on helping us develop metrics for success in interdisciplinary areas. We have done this successfully to refine directions in interdisciplinary research in the Plant Sciences, and more recently in establishing a new direction for the Peter Kiewit Institute. I and our senior leadership welcome suggestions for other such reviews and we will be proposing some of our own. We need to use these processes to help us determine where additional investments are required or appropriate.
The second strategy will be to implement a more transparent assessment of all of our academic programs. I have, up to now, resisted setting specific metrics for individual departments or for the university as a whole. At the outset of our efforts, I think none of us was comfortable knowing what expectations were appropriate. Similarly, we did not have a strategic planning process that could take account of any established goals nor frankly did we have an institutional information system that could reliably assess our progress. That has changed.
I propose that we work with each academic unit to develop a set of metrics relating to enrollment and research that is realistic, and based on peer data where possible. We have a great start toward this effort. Thanks to the work of Institutional Research and Academic Affairs, we now have available to every department enrollment data profiles over time that can help them set objectives for future enrollment; and, too, we have valuable reports from the Modeling Enrollment Management committee, co-chaired by Vice Chancellors Couture, Franco and Owens, that can help departments develop metrics for success. Similarly, our Office of Research and Economic Development is introducing this year a data set that will help colleges and departments chart their progress toward increasing research capacity.
Thanks to the hard work of the deans, we have a strategic planning process that can identify and focus on priorities. Thanks to the campus involvement we will shortly release the final copy of a strategic compass that makes transparent the vision, priorities, and the strategies the campus administration will employ. Now is the time to use these processes to set specific benchmarks and strategies for achieving them. Let me now address some specific issues of importance as we enter a new academic year.
Life Sciences
Any objective observer would conclude that this university must excel in the life sciences. The Nebraska economy is built on feeding the world, and now, more than ever, fueling its activities. To preserve our future we must have strength not only for the improvement of current practices but also in advancing the future through cellular biology and genomic research. The university has traditionally made significant investments in the life sciences through the Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources, the School of Biological Sciences, and the numerous other disciplines that are part of, or impact, life science instruction and research. Chemistry, biochemistry, physics, engineering, remote sensing, computer science, all have a significant role to play in this field.
We have had numerous initiatives focused on the life sciences and we have made significant progress. Yet, I believe we have considerable work yet to do. The laboratories in which we teach most of our life science and basic chemistry courses require considerable upgrading. The most serious restraint to increasing life science research is finding appropriate laboratory space. Just last week we dedicated the new Ken Morrison Life Sciences Research Center for our virology program. Yet it is already near capacity as are the laboratories vacated by the virologists who moved to the facility. We also have lost a number of faculty positions directed toward transformative research, in large part because of budgetary restraints. And I continue to believe that more integration and collaboration among academic units working in life science-related fields would allow us to make greater progress. We must set higher standards and make achieving them a matter of high priority.
Because of your efforts to enhance enrollment, we have some additional resources to help us advance our priorities. Last year I was able to authorize new faculty positions specifically addressed to the demands that increased enrollment has had on our teaching resources. This year, I intend a new initiative to fund additional faculty on a competitive basis, with the primary consideration being their potential to advance our sponsored research efforts. The emphasis will be faculty who can contribute to interdisciplinary efforts to make us more competitive, with particular attention to work relating to the life sciences.
Increasingly it is interdisciplinary efforts that produce both competitive funding success, and more importantly, insight into the problems research is intended to solve. While we have made some progress with interdisciplinary centers, we have much more work to do. For 10 years NSF has funded an interdisciplinary Graduate Education and Research Program (IGERT) but we have not been successful in obtaining funds. Last year Vice Chancellor Paul and I funded an interdisciplinary graduate student recruitment program with university funds on the hope of further breaking down barriers. The new initiative on interdisciplinary faculty is part of that effort. I acknowledge that in many areas of the university, deans and chairs and heads have worked hard to cooperate to make interdisciplinary efforts successful. I acknowledge also that these efforts test our traditional organization and governance models. But to remain competitive we must continue to push in this direction.
International Relations
In so many ways, this university has become a player in the global marketplace of higher education. Our most visible initiatives may be in China where we now have partnership degree programs with two universities, growing research relationships, and, here in Lincoln, the Confucius Institute, which is developing significant programs to help foster Nebraskans' understanding of Chinese language and culture. You can travel to Xi'an or Hangchou China and find a UNL office of admissions and young Chinese students sporting Husker gear. We are welcoming an increasing number of Chinese students to our community. We have other significant relationships in countries around the world. As part of our priority in creating a world-class undergraduate experience, we need to continue to expand both the opportunities for our students to study abroad and for foreign students to pursue their studies in Lincoln.
Last year I announced a campus-wide committee of faculty, students, and administrators to develop a focus and vision for our international programming. This International Programs Advisory Council, under the leadership of Susan Fritz, associate vice chancellor for IANR, and David Wilson, associate vice chancellor in Academic Affairs, has issued a preliminary framework for the steps we should take to make this effort successful. This is an important undertaking and I hope one that will attract your support.
Diversity
For us to rightly claim that we are providing our students with the tools and experiences they will need to make their way in the world, this university must provide them with a diverse educational environment. This clearly means that both our faculty and student body must reflect not just the world of Nebraska but the world at large. As our core value suggests, we strive to achieve within our community diversity of people as well as perspective. We can, and should, be equally adamant that our community reflects varied races, varied faiths and varied points of view. This core value is not derived from any government mandate or any political creed. It is based in our responsibility to our students. We have been committed to diversity and we have worked hard to achieve success.
In November the people of Nebraska may vote on an initiative that could deprive us of some of the tools for diversity that are authorized by the United States Supreme Court and freely used by most of our peers and our competitors. Proponents of this so-called equal rights amendment seek to unilaterally disarm this university and the state in its competition for talent. However, even if this amendment passes, there will be no diminishment in our efforts to diversify this campus. Indeed, with some tools removed, we would be forced to redouble our efforts. Let me be clear. While we will fully comply with the law, we would continue to evaluate units and administrators on their ability to achieve diversity. We would continue to devote resources to compensate for the disadvantages placed upon us by this initiative. The opening of the new Gaughan Multicultural Center should be a catalyst for activities that will make us more open, rather than more suspicious, of different races, different cultures, and different perspectives.
Alumni Engagement
Historically our alumni association has been independent of the university. While there are some advantages to independence, it is also clear that both the association and the university have a similar objective â€" to allow the university to benefit from the time and talent of our alumni. Our association has adopted a bold new charter that is designed to better integrate it into the life of the university and to coordinate its alumni activities with existing programs in the colleges and other units. It is important for our future that the students we graduate stay connected to us throughout their lives, and I believe we now have a structure that will encourage that to happen. Each of us took responsibility to make this campus more welcoming to students and prospective students and the results of increased enrollment, retention and graduation are clear. Now we must make the same effort toward our alumni. The Alumni Association can lead but it cannot alone achieve success without each of our participation.
Sustainability
One of the significant issues facing our country is the ability to sustain our quality of life in the face of the threat of climate change, increasing demands on exhaustible sources of energy, and the overuse of our valuable natural resources. This university should take a leadership role in meeting these challenges. One can sense an increased attention to these issues in our classrooms, and alternative energy and climate change have emerged as two significant priorities in our research agenda. We must be leaders as well in our behavior as consumers of energy and natural resources. On the recommendation of ASUN and the Faculty Senate, I have established a Commission on Sustainability to consider how the university, and each of us individually, can contribute to addressing this problem.
While the campus administration will certainly bear its share of responsibility in moving us toward sustainability, ultimately each of us in our role as consumers must drive this initiative. We have embraced green building standards, where possible, in the construction of our new buildings and in making investments that will save energy in our existing buildings. It is also true that individual decisions about turning off lights and computers, inflating tires, and recycling will weigh heavily on whether we achieve success. I have invited the new commission to advise me on the breadth of possible actions the university might take administratively and that each of us might take individually to make our enterprise more sustainable. And at the risk of sounding like the campus nanny, our individual sustainability through wellness activities is also important.
Campus Safety
In addition to being sustainable, this campus should be safe. We have witnessed recent tragic events at other campuses. Life provides no guarantees against these repeating themselves here or elsewhere. We must prepare for the worst while hoping for the best. We have systematically reviewed all of the reports from campuses that have experienced incidents as well as best practice recommendations and we are working toward implementing those that are feasible. I want to remind you of two things that each and everyone of us can do. First, sign up for the UNL Alert program and encourage your students to do likewise. In the event of an emergency this provides the most effective means of notifying the community. Second, be vigilant and proactive. Most of us are not skilled in recognizing when a person represents a threat to himself or others but we have people on this campus who are. Please do not hesitate to report matters to our crisis alert center. Remember the number: 472-2222.
Conclusion
One of our deans recently commented that he could think of no public university in the last decade that has made as much progress as the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Of course we are all a little leery of anything deans might say. Whatever comparisons might show, we should all be proud of what we have accomplished but we should also recognize we are not yet where we could be. The challenges ahead are clear. We will have to work harder at enrollment as the number of Nebraska high school graduates declines. We will need to be both more active and more creative in our research agenda as federal research funding shrinks. We will need to be more flexible and creative in finding ways to fund our efforts in all of these areas. Ultimately, we need to continue to focus on our priorities and to make the hard decisions that are necessary to advance the university.
I continue to believe I have one of the best jobs in higher education. I am blessed with a team of administrative colleagues who work well together, work hard on the university's behalf, and do not complain when I get credit for their efforts. Our college deans are providing real collaborative leadership as the intersections between disciplines and colleges continue to blur. And, of course, nothing good happens at any university unless the faculty and the staff that support them make it so. Each one of you should have enormous pride, as I do, in what together we have accomplished. And each of us should be energized and engaged to pursue the opportunities that lie ahead.
As I conclude, I want to thank you for coming, knowing that some of our colleagues are already in line for the free food. In thinking of what I might urge you to tell them, I was reminded of what Pancho Villa said as he lay on his death bed. He said: "Don't let it end like this. Tell them I said something important."
Thank you.
Introduction
The State of the University address is the opportunity to review the past year and to focus our attention on the future. As I reflect on the past year, I am reminded of one of my student teaching evaluations which I have shared with you before: The one that read "a doctor told me I had only an hour to live I would want to spend it in your class." The student subsequently explained that this was because an hour in my class seemed like an eternity. Frankly, that is how I think of last year -- it seemed more like a decade than a year. We had our share of challenges: The transition in the athletic department and the football program, the upheaval in our Alumni Association, the changes at the Lied Center and the Sheldon Museum of Art, the debates over State Fair Park and Innovation Campus, and, no doubt, the hundreds of challenges, large and small, that we all faced as we tried to advance the missions of the university.
Looking Back
This university is fortunate to have a pool of individuals with institutional loyalty to turn to in emergencies. Tom Osborne came out of retirement, hung up his fly-fishing poles, and restored peace and promise to our athletic department. Jim O'Hanlon agreed to leave the comfort of the classroom to assume responsibility for our Alumni Association in very difficult times. His quiet leadership moved us toward a reenergized association with a clear mission of engaging alumni on behalf of the university. Both responded in almost identical language to my call for help: "The university is important to me and I'll do what I can." We were also fortunate to have Ann Chang Barnes available to become interim director of the Lied Center and Dick Hoffmann to become interim director of the Sheldon Museum. Both Lied and Sheldon play such a significant role in the quality of life we enjoy at this university.
The tragic death of our friend and colleague Kent Hendrickson was the occasion for Gary Aerts and the other leaders in Information Services to continue to pursue, without interruption, a number of initiatives involving information technology. With considerable effort on their part, we entered a partnership with Microsoft to provide free e-mail to our students that they can continue to use, with the same "huskers.edu" address, throughout their lives. And in a remarkable concurrence of ideas, we received two reports on the future organization of our information technology services, one from an outside consulting firm, and one from the Computational Facilities and Services Committee of the Faculty Senate chaired by Professor David Brooks. They came to remarkably similar conclusions: That we have a good system of information technology services that could be made better by greater attention to the proper allocation of responsibilities between individual units and campus-wide organizations. Last week we initiated a survey of campus stakeholders to solicit ideas on how to move forward, and we will soon advertise for a new Chief Information Officer for the campus.
In addition to information services, individuals across the campus, under the leadership of Vice Chancellor Juan Franco, have spent considerable effort preparing us for a new student information system. This will be a major transition for us once the vendor is chosen, and as with the installation of any enterprise computing system, will generate more work, consume more resources, and ruffle more feathers than we have planned for. So be tolerant of those of us who display various levels of patience, perspiration or petulance as progress proceeds apace.
Beyond the challenges, you have also accomplished more than a mere year's worth of successes. The recent Scarlet again serves to document many of those achievements. I wish time permitted highlighting each and every achievement, those large and small, those that attracted public notoriety and those that did not. Beyond the extraordinary individual achievements of our students, faculty and staff, consider what as a university we have done collectively. We have been focused on our two priorities: Undergraduate education and research. And in both we have had successes that could transform the university in the future.
The progress in undergraduate education is clear. Our students are more numerous, more qualified, more accomplished, and more diverse. They are a source of alternative energy that drives the programs, the ambiance, the vibrancy and the culture of the campus. Helping them fulfill their potential infuses considerable significance to our work. The institutional principles that influence and support the undergraduate experience in the various majors and programs help define and distinguish us as a university. During the past year, our faculty collectively and within their colleges adopted the Achievement Centered Education program -- a general education program based on assessment of student outcomes. This innovative program could transform undergraduate education both here and elsewhere. Our achievement is the envy of many of our peers across the country. The hard work of implementing this program for the fall of 2009 is upon us and it is critical to our continued success.
For sponsored research we set a new record for the university of $105.7 million. Thanks to Vice Chancellor Paul's leadership and the efforts of deans, chairs and faculty across the university, we have become a known player among the funding agencies and we have initiatives to address some of the most critical needs of Nebraska and the nation. However, it is only Prem who could convince several Washington-based program officers and numerous campus faculty to spend a week in North Platte talking about water and climate change!
The opportunity to develop Innovation Campus on the former State Fair Park could transform our research efforts and our relationship to the people of Nebraska. With the strong leadership of the governor, President Milliken, and senators Phil Erdman and Mike Flood, we achieved an agreement with the Fair Board and Grand Island, and an almost unanimous vote in the Legislature. The potential for us as a university and for the state of Nebraska is substantial. Our concept, to attract private sector companies to locate in Lincoln to engage with us in the research enterprise, should spur economic development, provide internships and jobs for our students, enrich and energize our own research activities, and substantially enhance our reputation as a research university.
The name "Innovation Campus" was not chosen lightly. "Innovation" is the university's mission -- whether it is opening the eyes of students to new paths to success, or pursuing new technological discoveries, or using our creative energies to find a new way to look at the human condition. We pursue talent in our faculty and our student body with innovation in mind. For those of you old enough to remember the early days of television, it might be said that "Talent is our name, innovation is our game." We used the word "campus" because we want it to be an integral part of the university, with its vision of innovation and collaboration driving what we do, wherever we do it from our 500-mile-long campus across Nebraska.
Innovation Campus demands of us that we reassess our evaluation of research leading to commercial application. We must avoid what is described as the "traditional resistance" within universities to engage with private sector companies. We conduct research, largely at public expense, because it allows us to better understand and to adjust to the world we inhabit and the worlds we can only see or imagine. We do not expect that every research project will lead to commercial application or even directly to a solution to a known problem. Basic research, research driven by the curiosity of the faculty rather than the prospect of profit, is critical to our society's advancement. At the same time, we must not shrink from the application of our research; we should be prepared to applaud both the useful outcome as well as the transformative insight. We should regard the work that passes the rigors of the patent office and the discipline of the marketplace just as valuable as that which passes the review of our peers.
The hard work to bring Innovation Campus to life is before us. I fear that the expectations of our friends and the patience of our critics may share a timeline more ambitious than we can achieve. This is an investment for the long term, and it is important that we maximize the potential of this campus. We are making good progress toward our possession of the property in 2010. We have sought, through a request for information, the best advice we could find from across the nation on how to develop Innovation Campus to assure its success. We have received suggestions from some of the best planners and developers in the country. We are exploring the best method and means of financing the development and we are initiating contacts with private sector companies who already have relationships with the university about their interests in having a presence on the campus. I remain confident that if we prepare well, Innovation Campus will be one of the most significant achievements in the history of the university.
So, all things considered, I think we should have considerable pride in what we have together accomplished and considerable excitement about our future prospects.
Looking Forward
So what should be our agenda and our attitude as we face the future? In reading Jean Edward Smith's new biography of Franklin Roosevelt I was struck by a phrase FDR used when he accepted his party's nomination for president in 1932. He suggested that to make progress, it was necessary to overcome those who "squint at the future with their faces pointed at the past." I believe the university faces both challenges, and more importantly, a set of unlimited opportunities. To make further progress we must firmly point our faces and our vision toward the future. This is no time to squint, no time to look back, no time to be content with the nostalgia of what we had or to be paralyzed by the fear of what we might become.
Enhancing our Academic Momentum
A few years ago, this university, discontented with its status, set about formulating a vision for its future and a blueprint for its achievement. The 2020 Report, a candid portrait of a university falling far short of its potential, was confirmed by a series of articles in the Omaha World Herald. These studies caused us to relax our squint, widened our gaze, and in the last several years we have taken our rightful place among this country's great public universities.
Notwithstanding a period of fiscal turmoil, we worked on those things we could control and were not discouraged by those things we could not. We focused on our priorities. In openly celebrating success, we experienced more success. We increased both our enrollment and the academic credentials of our entering class to the highest standard in history. We are ranked as the country's "most popular public university" - no longer a place to which students come if they can't get into their first or second choice. Our research has more than doubled and with it our visibility has increased in almost every federal agency and in the private sector. We have addressed issues of national and international significance, as well as problems that are central to the future of Nebraska. And we have engaged with the people of Nebraska, through the efforts of cooperative extension and across the breadth of our academic enterprise, to help them address their economic security and quality of life. We have built pride among Nebraskans in the academic stature of their university, we have achieved the confidence of state government as evidenced by its support for an Innovation Campus at State Fair Park. And we have raised expectations for our future performance. Our challenge now is to continue to build on our success and to meet the expectations we have created. I invite all of you to join me in my morning routine: I wake up, exercise, eat breakfast and read the local newspapers. Then I go on-line and look at university rankings. If we are not number 1, I get dressed and come to work.
In research, while our institutional accomplishments have continued to set records, the contributions to this success have not been evenly distributed across the departments and colleges of the university. Some units have met or exceeded any reasonable expectations we might have for research while others have not lived up to their potential. In making this assessment I acknowledge that not all disciplines have the same access to research funding and in some disciplines productivity must be measured by means other than competitive grants. In a few units, there has been a conscious choice to focus on teaching or extension and we should respect those decisions if, in larger terms, these units make significant contributions to the missions of the university. Not every academic unit started out with the same comparative level of funding and the budget cuts we endured had uneven effects on some areas. So, in making assessments, we should not be searching for fault but rather we should be seeking constructive ways to move the university to the next level by assuring more faculty and units are positioned to contribute to our success.
I am proposing that we engage in two strategies that over time will help us spread success over more of the university. The first strategy should be to seek from our colleagues at peer institutions a candid assessment of our current status. In many instances, our academic program reviews have provided valuable information. Appropriately, they are focused on an assessment of achievement in our departments and disciplines. Recently, we have included in these program reviews questions not only about how departments are forwarding their disciplines, but also about how they meet our strategic priorities and how they contribute to interdisciplinary research. But these important comprehensive evaluations may not provide the information we need to develop metrics for future success. Thus I propose that we consider in some cases employing specialized reviews, by both internal and external peers, that are focused on helping us develop metrics for success in interdisciplinary areas. We have done this successfully to refine directions in interdisciplinary research in the Plant Sciences, and more recently in establishing a new direction for the Peter Kiewit Institute. I and our senior leadership welcome suggestions for other such reviews and we will be proposing some of our own. We need to use these processes to help us determine where additional investments are required or appropriate.
The second strategy will be to implement a more transparent assessment of all of our academic programs. I have, up to now, resisted setting specific metrics for individual departments or for the university as a whole. At the outset of our efforts, I think none of us was comfortable knowing what expectations were appropriate. Similarly, we did not have a strategic planning process that could take account of any established goals nor frankly did we have an institutional information system that could reliably assess our progress. That has changed.
I propose that we work with each academic unit to develop a set of metrics relating to enrollment and research that is realistic, and based on peer data where possible. We have a great start toward this effort. Thanks to the work of Institutional Research and Academic Affairs, we now have available to every department enrollment data profiles over time that can help them set objectives for future enrollment; and, too, we have valuable reports from the Modeling Enrollment Management committee, co-chaired by Vice Chancellors Couture, Franco and Owens, that can help departments develop metrics for success. Similarly, our Office of Research and Economic Development is introducing this year a data set that will help colleges and departments chart their progress toward increasing research capacity.
Thanks to the hard work of the deans, we have a strategic planning process that can identify and focus on priorities. Thanks to the campus involvement we will shortly release the final copy of a strategic compass that makes transparent the vision, priorities, and the strategies the campus administration will employ. Now is the time to use these processes to set specific benchmarks and strategies for achieving them. Let me now address some specific issues of importance as we enter a new academic year.
Life Sciences
Any objective observer would conclude that this university must excel in the life sciences. The Nebraska economy is built on feeding the world, and now, more than ever, fueling its activities. To preserve our future we must have strength not only for the improvement of current practices but also in advancing the future through cellular biology and genomic research. The university has traditionally made significant investments in the life sciences through the Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources, the School of Biological Sciences, and the numerous other disciplines that are part of, or impact, life science instruction and research. Chemistry, biochemistry, physics, engineering, remote sensing, computer science, all have a significant role to play in this field.
We have had numerous initiatives focused on the life sciences and we have made significant progress. Yet, I believe we have considerable work yet to do. The laboratories in which we teach most of our life science and basic chemistry courses require considerable upgrading. The most serious restraint to increasing life science research is finding appropriate laboratory space. Just last week we dedicated the new Ken Morrison Life Sciences Research Center for our virology program. Yet it is already near capacity as are the laboratories vacated by the virologists who moved to the facility. We also have lost a number of faculty positions directed toward transformative research, in large part because of budgetary restraints. And I continue to believe that more integration and collaboration among academic units working in life science-related fields would allow us to make greater progress. We must set higher standards and make achieving them a matter of high priority.
Because of your efforts to enhance enrollment, we have some additional resources to help us advance our priorities. Last year I was able to authorize new faculty positions specifically addressed to the demands that increased enrollment has had on our teaching resources. This year, I intend a new initiative to fund additional faculty on a competitive basis, with the primary consideration being their potential to advance our sponsored research efforts. The emphasis will be faculty who can contribute to interdisciplinary efforts to make us more competitive, with particular attention to work relating to the life sciences.
Increasingly it is interdisciplinary efforts that produce both competitive funding success, and more importantly, insight into the problems research is intended to solve. While we have made some progress with interdisciplinary centers, we have much more work to do. For 10 years NSF has funded an interdisciplinary Graduate Education and Research Program (IGERT) but we have not been successful in obtaining funds. Last year Vice Chancellor Paul and I funded an interdisciplinary graduate student recruitment program with university funds on the hope of further breaking down barriers. The new initiative on interdisciplinary faculty is part of that effort. I acknowledge that in many areas of the university, deans and chairs and heads have worked hard to cooperate to make interdisciplinary efforts successful. I acknowledge also that these efforts test our traditional organization and governance models. But to remain competitive we must continue to push in this direction.
International Relations
In so many ways, this university has become a player in the global marketplace of higher education. Our most visible initiatives may be in China where we now have partnership degree programs with two universities, growing research relationships, and, here in Lincoln, the Confucius Institute, which is developing significant programs to help foster Nebraskans' understanding of Chinese language and culture. You can travel to Xi'an or Hangchou China and find a UNL office of admissions and young Chinese students sporting Husker gear. We are welcoming an increasing number of Chinese students to our community. We have other significant relationships in countries around the world. As part of our priority in creating a world-class undergraduate experience, we need to continue to expand both the opportunities for our students to study abroad and for foreign students to pursue their studies in Lincoln.
Last year I announced a campus-wide committee of faculty, students, and administrators to develop a focus and vision for our international programming. This International Programs Advisory Council, under the leadership of Susan Fritz, associate vice chancellor for IANR, and David Wilson, associate vice chancellor in Academic Affairs, has issued a preliminary framework for the steps we should take to make this effort successful. This is an important undertaking and I hope one that will attract your support.
Diversity
For us to rightly claim that we are providing our students with the tools and experiences they will need to make their way in the world, this university must provide them with a diverse educational environment. This clearly means that both our faculty and student body must reflect not just the world of Nebraska but the world at large. As our core value suggests, we strive to achieve within our community diversity of people as well as perspective. We can, and should, be equally adamant that our community reflects varied races, varied faiths and varied points of view. This core value is not derived from any government mandate or any political creed. It is based in our responsibility to our students. We have been committed to diversity and we have worked hard to achieve success.
In November the people of Nebraska may vote on an initiative that could deprive us of some of the tools for diversity that are authorized by the United States Supreme Court and freely used by most of our peers and our competitors. Proponents of this so-called equal rights amendment seek to unilaterally disarm this university and the state in its competition for talent. However, even if this amendment passes, there will be no diminishment in our efforts to diversify this campus. Indeed, with some tools removed, we would be forced to redouble our efforts. Let me be clear. While we will fully comply with the law, we would continue to evaluate units and administrators on their ability to achieve diversity. We would continue to devote resources to compensate for the disadvantages placed upon us by this initiative. The opening of the new Gaughan Multicultural Center should be a catalyst for activities that will make us more open, rather than more suspicious, of different races, different cultures, and different perspectives.
Alumni Engagement
Historically our alumni association has been independent of the university. While there are some advantages to independence, it is also clear that both the association and the university have a similar objective â€" to allow the university to benefit from the time and talent of our alumni. Our association has adopted a bold new charter that is designed to better integrate it into the life of the university and to coordinate its alumni activities with existing programs in the colleges and other units. It is important for our future that the students we graduate stay connected to us throughout their lives, and I believe we now have a structure that will encourage that to happen. Each of us took responsibility to make this campus more welcoming to students and prospective students and the results of increased enrollment, retention and graduation are clear. Now we must make the same effort toward our alumni. The Alumni Association can lead but it cannot alone achieve success without each of our participation.
Sustainability
One of the significant issues facing our country is the ability to sustain our quality of life in the face of the threat of climate change, increasing demands on exhaustible sources of energy, and the overuse of our valuable natural resources. This university should take a leadership role in meeting these challenges. One can sense an increased attention to these issues in our classrooms, and alternative energy and climate change have emerged as two significant priorities in our research agenda. We must be leaders as well in our behavior as consumers of energy and natural resources. On the recommendation of ASUN and the Faculty Senate, I have established a Commission on Sustainability to consider how the university, and each of us individually, can contribute to addressing this problem.
While the campus administration will certainly bear its share of responsibility in moving us toward sustainability, ultimately each of us in our role as consumers must drive this initiative. We have embraced green building standards, where possible, in the construction of our new buildings and in making investments that will save energy in our existing buildings. It is also true that individual decisions about turning off lights and computers, inflating tires, and recycling will weigh heavily on whether we achieve success. I have invited the new commission to advise me on the breadth of possible actions the university might take administratively and that each of us might take individually to make our enterprise more sustainable. And at the risk of sounding like the campus nanny, our individual sustainability through wellness activities is also important.
Campus Safety
In addition to being sustainable, this campus should be safe. We have witnessed recent tragic events at other campuses. Life provides no guarantees against these repeating themselves here or elsewhere. We must prepare for the worst while hoping for the best. We have systematically reviewed all of the reports from campuses that have experienced incidents as well as best practice recommendations and we are working toward implementing those that are feasible. I want to remind you of two things that each and everyone of us can do. First, sign up for the UNL Alert program and encourage your students to do likewise. In the event of an emergency this provides the most effective means of notifying the community. Second, be vigilant and proactive. Most of us are not skilled in recognizing when a person represents a threat to himself or others but we have people on this campus who are. Please do not hesitate to report matters to our crisis alert center. Remember the number: 472-2222.
Conclusion
One of our deans recently commented that he could think of no public university in the last decade that has made as much progress as the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Of course we are all a little leery of anything deans might say. Whatever comparisons might show, we should all be proud of what we have accomplished but we should also recognize we are not yet where we could be. The challenges ahead are clear. We will have to work harder at enrollment as the number of Nebraska high school graduates declines. We will need to be both more active and more creative in our research agenda as federal research funding shrinks. We will need to be more flexible and creative in finding ways to fund our efforts in all of these areas. Ultimately, we need to continue to focus on our priorities and to make the hard decisions that are necessary to advance the university.
I continue to believe I have one of the best jobs in higher education. I am blessed with a team of administrative colleagues who work well together, work hard on the university's behalf, and do not complain when I get credit for their efforts. Our college deans are providing real collaborative leadership as the intersections between disciplines and colleges continue to blur. And, of course, nothing good happens at any university unless the faculty and the staff that support them make it so. Each one of you should have enormous pride, as I do, in what together we have accomplished. And each of us should be energized and engaged to pursue the opportunities that lie ahead.
As I conclude, I want to thank you for coming, knowing that some of our colleagues are already in line for the free food. In thinking of what I might urge you to tell them, I was reminded of what Pancho Villa said as he lay on his death bed. He said: "Don't let it end like this. Tell them I said something important."
Thank you.
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