It’s official. The Nebraska Promise program – which provides undergraduate tuition for qualifying students whose families have an income of $60,000 or less – is here.

It will be available to students who are just starting out as well as students who are already enrolled. This will add 1,000 scholarships to help students access higher education. My only qualm is that I wish we could provide more.

As it stands, there are around 50,000 plus students who attend the University of Nebraska. About 3,000 of those are receiving financial aid through a variety of grants. The money that is being used to fund The Nebraska Promise is separate from that and comes directly from our current budget.

I’ve seen quite a bit of misinformation lately about university finances. I get it. University budgets can be complicated and unwieldy, which is why I’d like to take this opportunity to set the record straight.

The Nebraska University Foundation has money contributed by donors for specific purposes. It looks like a giant lump but funds can only be spent on what the donor specified – such as various programs or buildings – when it was donated. It is not money the university can access at will. Nebraska University Foundation is a separate organization with its own budget and it is responsible for processing and overseeing donors’ gifts.

The money for The Nebraska Promise program is coming out of the current budget.

This is not money coming in from philanthropic sources, it’s not coming from state taxpayers, it’s what we are scraping together from within our current budget because we, as a university and as a community, could not sit idly by while families and students struggled during this pandemic.

Few individuals build their financial plans around a global pandemic. Most people in this country struggle to make ends meet, much less save, in the best of times. And now people are losing their jobs through absolutely no fault of their own at tremendous rates, which puts survival – and the future, including education – in question.

It is a harsh reality that lower and middle income families are hurting the most during this crisis. Middle and low income families hurt the most even when the economy is performing well.

We need to be thinking about what our students and their families are facing, and to make education affordable and accessible for everyone.

We need to come together to support each other, to continue to invest in our children, our future, our bright and industrious students. It’s important to give our students hope, to let them know that there’s support for them at the University of Nebraska to help them attend, help them stay, help them finish their degrees.

We need students to know that we care about them, that we know they’re facing tough times but that we don’t want this pandemic to stall their educational future. We aren’t going to abandon them because they don’t exist in a certain tax bracket.  

When our students – all of our students – are given the support they need to succeed, they become the doctors, the teachers, the artists, the farmers and the engineers that develop and enrich our communities for generations.

Our mission is to educate across the state of Nebraska.

The systems we have in place may be complex but our mission is not. Neither is the decision to do what we can, when we can, to help struggling students and their families. It’s what we do when times are tough that define our character.

It gives me hope and pride to say, “we are there for you.” That is our character. That is the definition of community.

*Barbara’s thoughts as written by Kate based on weekly (fascinating) conversations.

It’s hard to talk about anything but the pandemic lately.

When I started writing this blog I was out of the country on a vacation that we had planned two years in advance, watching the pandemic unfold from afar. It may sound weird, but initially I was grateful to be relatively removed from the situation. I even thought it might even be over by the time we returned.  

Sadly, the numbers have climbed every day we have been gone, every day we’ve been back, and they’re spreading worldwide.

The world is changing so fast, and the changes that are to come – the ones we haven’t yet anticipated – loom large in my anxious mind. My feelings today are an echo of previous different pain-inducing events: my fourth grade teacher developing polio; the Cuban Missile Crisis; JFK’s assassination; 9/11, and so on. All of these events disrupted us in different ways on different scales and with different fears.  

We recovered from these but for many of us it changed things. Some of those changes were immediately apparent, others took time to reveal themselves. The uncertainty of what the next day would bring made us uneasy.  

So, as I read of schools closing, conferences cancelling, sports events like March Madness shutting down due to covid-19, I realize this could be a much different outcome. But we have to be intentional about it.

I’ve been imagining the time to come and – however long this continues – thinking about the whole world taking a time out.  This gave me some modicum of comfort. What if we all stepped back and took time to assess? I mean, really dig deep?

Perhaps, amidst the uncertainty and the very serious situation the world is in, this comes with the opportunity to recognize what is important to us.  

There are so many possibilities. We could begin to turn away from the ugly public rhetoric, nasty bullying on social media—the things that cause so much separation. This pandemic is calling us to take care of ourselves, our loved ones, and those around us.  

We could build a true sense of community in our neighborhoods, in the cities, and in the world. We are all connected. Sadly, it takes a pandemic for us to understand that. What if we all took this time to care about one another again? 

There’s one thing that’s certain: we could use less of “what’s in it for me” and more of “how can I help.” Maybe while the world is in this cosmic timeout, we have a chance to change.

*Barbara’s thoughts as written by Kate based on weekly (fascinating) conversations.

It’s no secret that effective funding is a constant challenge. As a matter of fact I’ve talked about the many challenges we face at the University of Nebraska as we grow, develop, and look to the future. States have cut funding. Educational programs are in need of resources. And the last thing we want to do is shift that burden onto students in the form of tuition hikes.

There are other avenues and options for how the university finds funding, and one of them is very… interesting.

Divestiture.

Strictly speaking, divestiture is the action or process of selling off subsidiary business interests or investments. Practically speaking, it’s a lot more complicated than just that.

It’s a financial piece of the puzzle that is little understood, and I understand why. There is more to consider than simply the price that shares or stock would fetch. Let’s use the coal industry for an example. If you’re holding stock in a coal company and you sell that stock, you’re not only getting rid of them, you are also not planning to buy more stock in that company in the future.

Creighton comes to mind, because Creighton students recently went to their university president with proposals to divest of fossil fuel companies. They care deeply about the need to address climate change and are thinking creatively about the many ways they can have an impact.

To see groups of students invested in understanding the heavily complex workings of university systems – especially when it comes to a very dry topic like divestiture – and then getting involved is highly encouraging.

In many ways divestiture can be a good thing, but these decisions also have a wide impact on a lot of people. Maybe the trickiest part of selling stock is having to find replacements for anything we divest. We have a fiduciary responsibility to the school and the whole community.

All told though, I think it’s exciting to have students care enough to want to do something, and it creates a learning experience for everyone. Taking coal, for example, if we were to look at that kind of divestiture, maybe we’d be thinking more about what we can learn about green tech and replacements for coal. It’s healthy to ask big questions, and it can lead to opportunities that fit the university’s budget as well as our vision for the future.

I’m not sure what the answer is exactly, but I don’t mind not knowing, as long as we’re asking the right questions to figure it out together.

*Barbara’s thoughts as written by Kate based on weekly (fascinating) conversations.

Wow. It happened. I wasn’t expecting it, wasn’t counting on it, I honestly wasn’t even sure how I should feel about it at first, but it happened…

I’ve been assigned a place on President Ted Carter’s strategic transition team.

What does that mean exactly? Well, it means a lot of things. For one thing, President Carter promised to create this group to build a plan that lays out where we are as a University and charts out where we want to be by 2025. That sounds kind of far away but in the grand scheme of things, it’s actually really close. This also means developing pathways to measure and evaluate our progress. 

Oh, and he wants it done in 100 days. Not 100 days from now, but 100 days starting from when our group was formed. There’s no grass growing under his feet, that’s for sure. So, yeah, no pressure. 

The task is both exciting and daunting.

It’s something that I’m very grateful for in his leadership – he is very good at creating momentum in a thoughtful, targeted manner. We’re not just charging blindly into the future. We are asking the big questions, the hard questions, and working to develop a cohesive, inclusive shared vision that we can then work toward with actionable plans. It’s an exciting time to be a Regent here at the University of Nebraska. 

Big ideas that challenge our thinking and energize the whole state will stir even more curiosity, and in turn, yield more big ideas.

And we will be calling on all of you for help – both for your sense of what the future could hold, but also ideas that could inspire us to be a university that serves us as Nebraskans, as Americans, and as world citizens.

*Barbara’s thoughts as written by Kate based on weekly (fascinating) conversations.

I’m willing to bet that if you ask any given person what is the biggest challenge in relationships – whether romantic, with friends, with colleagues – the majority will say “communication.”

And not only is communication one of the keys to a good relationship, it’s also one of the major keys to transparency. And transparency is a necessity when it comes to responsibility.

When I became a Regent I wanted to make sure that there was better communication between those who are responsible for making big decisions that affect not just the University of Nebraska, but the whole community. Part of that is hearing from the community, from you.

So I ask you, directly – what are you curious about?

What are you worried about? What ideas do you have for the university? What do you want to see for the future? What do we need to focus on now?

Don’t get me wrong, I am more than happy to go on about all the interesting and exciting developments at the University of Nebraska – whether it’s the world-class position of the Med Center in dealing with contagious diseases or the uniquely holistic agricultural programs in Curtis, Nebraska.

In fact I talked about both of those things and more at my most recent Office Hours livestream, which I do on a regular basis precisely to invite your questions, comments, and general conversation!

So, please – whether by email, social media, snail mail, or carrier pigeon – send me your thoughts and questions, and join me in the conversation!

*Barbara’s thoughts as written by Kate based on weekly (fascinating) conversations.

Now that we’ve survived a month (and some change) in the new year, I feel like this is a good time to state some intentions.

There’s a lot to look forward to in 2020. Part of what I look forward to, odd as it may sound, is looking at what I can do better. On that note I have a number of things I know I can improve. Speeding up my response time to your messages is one.

I’m also thinking about how to better manage my time.  

Meeting people face to face is something I truly enjoy and I’m grateful to those who write whether happy or unhappy about the Regents’ actions. I value your opinion and am excited by your engagement in issues affecting the university and the community at large, even if we aren’t on the same exact page. So, in addition to the blogs I am blocking out regular times on my calendar for responding by email, livestreaming, on Facebook, or in person.

Also on my list is the intention of spending more time at University of Nebraska Kearney and University of Nebraska Lincoln to gain a better sense of the culture of both. I have had the pleasure of attending a few sports events but there is so much more to see.

These opportunities continue to enrich my sense of what Nebraska has to offer not only to its athletes but all who enjoy their efforts.

And finally – innovation. I know that’s kind of a buzzword, but what I’m really interested in is thinking outside the box. Creativity. Curiosity. Willingness to embrace not only different ideas, but also different ways of thinking. It’s something I want to be much more intentional about, and I encourage you to join me.

There are a lot of complex issues facing our university, our community, and our state. It’s going to take all of us to figure out the best ways to move forward together.

So, what are your 2020 intentions?

*Barbara’s thoughts as written by Kate based on weekly (fascinating) conversations.