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What to Expect in the Unexpected

What to Expect in the Unexpected

by | Apr 8, 2020 | About, Regent Firsts

What to Expect in the Unexpected

When I’m not busy worrying about – well, everything – or responding to messages from the Regent’s Office, I’m finding it difficult to focus on what to communicate to everyone lately. I’m swamped by uncertainty. I suspect I’m not alone in that.

And granted, those first two items do take up a great deal of time. 

Concerns about students, faculty, and staff safety have taken top priority. The University of Nebraska has been proactive about ending all classes that meet in-person, moving remaining classes and curricula online, and assessing how best to weather this pandemic together… but physically separate.

The Presidential Transition Strategy Team has been suspended for 60-100 days, and that might extend depending on the state of the pandemic in a few months. It’s hard to plan when you don’t know what to anticipate.

In some ways the Emergency Management Department is very well prepared (that’s a relief) because they’ve been all online since they started their work. But even with the technological benefits of the internet and effective meeting apps like Zoom, people are struggling. I get it.

Adjusting to such a different modus operandi is disorienting for both students and faculty. Seniors who were looking forward to the classic fanfare of graduation are likely to experience something quite different, something more subdued I suspect.

I hope that the disappointment that comes with responding to a crisis and adjusting to a new normal (at least, temporarily) is balanced out in some way by the knowledge that though things are uncertain, we will figure out how to get through this. I take solace in the strength of the connections in our community.

We care about each other. We are doing what we can. We will continue to learn and adjust, daily if need be. If that’s what is needed to keep the people we care about safe, and our children educated, we will make it happen.

Just because we can’t see exactly where we’re going right now, doesn’t mean we can’t bring the light with us wherever we go.

 

 

 

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

 

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The Art of Expression

The Art of Expression

by | Nov 5, 2019 | About, Regent Firsts

The Art of Expression

Expression. It’s a tricky thing.

I’m not talking about the faces you make for pictures or the emojis you send in texts. I’m talking about the kind of communication that feels personal. Important. Tied to your DNA. The moments when raising your voice feels like putting yourself and everything you value on the line. When raising your voice feels like being exposed. That kind of expression. 

For most of my life I’ve been more used to being in the background, quietly focused on seeing that things get done without much of a fuss.

Well, that’s been changing lately. Since I started as Regent for the University of Nebraska I’ve noticed changes in how I express and perceive myself. Namely, I speak up. Share my thoughts and ideas. Challenge others if I think something merits more discussion. And even though I’ve always been reticent to talk in a crowd of people I don’t know, here I am.

Sometimes I have to remind myself that I have valid experiences and resources. I chose to serve in higher education because that’s where my life has been. I have something to bring to the table to help the university and the community I love. It’s been interesting trying to find the right balance between being new to the Regent experience and saying “I don’t understand,” and being too disruptive.

Lately I’ve been less worried about the disruptive factor. There’s been a lot of encouragement and I’m fortunate to work on a team with good listeners.

Part of it is getting to know people better – it’s easier to speak to all kinds of people when you feel more comfortable around them.

Part of it is age, I think. If you can’t say what you think at 71, when can you do it?

But part of it is something else, something harder to define. There are times when I realized I would feel bad if I didn’t speak up in the moment. I think about my daughter Katie and imagine her face if I would have stayed silent. I think about my grandchildren, and what kind of Nebraska they will live in – along with everyone’s grandchildren – when we’re done.

And I’m struck by who doesn’t get a voice.

In that way I’ve been emboldened to help provide a platform for people, for a diverse set of voices. After all, I wasn’t elected to sit on my hands. Not when there’s work to do.

 

 

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

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Chaos Theory

Chaos Theory

by | Sep 23, 2019 | About, School Uniqueness

Chaos Theory

Change is a constant. Sometimes it happens slower than we’d like, sometimes it happens faster than we can grasp, but embracing change – and some of the chaos that ensues – is part of embracing life as we continue to learn how to navigate it.

I think back to being a senior at Carleton College in 1969, and how we were going through a sort of revolution.

Back then men and women lived in separate facilities and would have an “open house” on a semi-regular basis where you could invite a male friend to the dorm for a half hour, but were required to keep the door open. There was also a curfew in place and there were big penalties for women who came in late, though the men rarely faced any such punishment. Now, we’re talking about adults, here.

Earlier in my collegiate career I had gotten involved with student government when I had the opportunity to be an assistant for the director of activities.

I was fortunate to have the chance to work with faculty and other students on all sorts of levels. So as seniors when we decided it was ludicrous that only the women were being punished for not meeting curfew, we simply refused to hand out penalties. 

Change was in the wind. And in our willpower.

In the fall of ’69 it was grudgingly decided that we could have coed dorms. Each floor held a vote on it. All but one floor voted for coed dorms. Guess who was hired to be the R.A. on the one all-female floor?

It was a year of incredible change on campus.

Change and chaos. The Vietnam War was raging and the draft lotteries began. I remember we’d be watching and listening and waiting and every time they’d run through the numbers you’d hear a scream somewhere in the building. JFK had been assassinated years before. Martin Luther King Jr. had been assassinated the year before. Two weeks before graduation the Kent State students had been shot. 

Chaos had been a part of my life for a long time.

It’s hard, sometimes, to find your way through it. But you do. You keep your eyes open and you continue to learn, to draw strength and ideas and hope from all those around you, and from those who are different from you. 

Whether it’s change or chaos or both, in my experience it’s always best navigated with compassion. With community.

 

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

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It Was The Summer of ‘69

It Was The Summer of ‘69

by | Sep 4, 2019 | About, Education Budget

It Was The Summer of ‘69

Summer jobs can be a lot of different things. They can be a rite of passage. A learning experience. A wild ride. Dreadfully dull. And just about everything in-between.

When I was an undergraduate student at Carlton (check this?) summer break started a bit later for us than other schools, so a lot of the higher-paying summer jobs were already taken. I had to get creative.

So I took the Civil Service exam. And I qualified for a job as a summer substitute mail carrier.

At that time I was also the first woman to pass the driving test for that wonderfully unwieldy mail truck. It was a manual, and basically a big metal block on wheels, but my driving instructor couldn’t find one thing that I couldn’t make that beast do. Except for fly, maybe. Never tried that one.

My purpose was to fill in for regular mail carriers that were taking a summer vacation, and so I did a lot of driving and A LOT of walking in different neighborhoods all around Omaha. I noticed that the more affluent neighborhoods were mostly driving delivery routes, while the parts of town that were considered rough or lower-income areas were primarily walking routes. Walking those routes gave me a chance to see these neighborhoods from a new perspective.

When I started walking the routes, I noticed a group of local people would sort of walk along with me, making sure I was okay, offering support of any kind.

The houses I delivered to would offer me lemonade, tea, water, and shade. It was such a marked difference from everything I’d heard about these neighborhoods.

What really struck me was how much we have in common. Those residents cared about my welfare the way my parents would. They looked out for each other, and they looked out for me.

I couldn’t help thinking: if only we took the time to know each other better.

That job carrying mail in the summer of 1969 laid the groundwork for a big shift for me to experiential learning, where you can expand on what you learn in books, where you can get directly involved and learn from experience where that gap between the printed page and the real world lies. And then bridge it. I think about that a lot.

Recently, while discussing tuition hikes and summer jobs, a Student Regent said, “I think of this [tuition increase] in terms of the number of days I would have to work to make up the difference… I would feel better knowing the Regents would spend that same amount of time trying to figure out how to get our tuition down.”

Students today have the highest tuition and debt rates ever. They have to work more and more just to get by. Something’s wrong with this picture. Maybe it’s time we think more about what it means to walk their route and what we can do to support them. 

 

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

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Oh, the Beauty of Firsts

Oh, the Beauty of Firsts

by | Aug 26, 2019 | About, Regent Firsts

Oh, the Beauty of Firsts

Amidst the sea of work and the all-enveloping search for the University of Nebraska’s next President, sometimes I forget that I haven’t been a Regent for all that long. Other times, I wonder if I’ll ever stop feeling like the new kid in school.

In one of the few moments I’ve had recently to catch my breath, I found myself reflecting on my first regent moments. I thought about experiences in the early days of my Regent-hood that are as vivid today as they were then.

One of the first regent moments that struck me was how everyone had a business card and it seemed to be a well-practiced ritual to exchange them upon meeting. So naturally I had to get some of my own so I could join in the exchange.

“The first few months were full of fascinating conversations with people who worked in all sorts of different positions throughout the university.”

I couldn’t help being as enthusiastic as they were when they would tell me about the work they’re doing.

For example, there was one guy named Craig who works at the research center in North Platte, and who demonstrated the incredible wind tunnels they use to test liquid dispersion on fields by everything from a tractor to a crop duster. He could hardly contain his excitement when he talked about the research equipment in his labs.

“The only thing he apologized for was his undergraduate degree from The Ohio State University. He is a Big Red fan now.”

Another visceral regent moment I had was the first time I wore my academic Regent robe. It was the NCTA graduation, and I kept thinking about the vestige of European roots in academia present in the design construction of these robes. Basically, the robes are designed for men and men’s shirts, so that when female Regents don the hood that’s part and parcel of the whole Regent robe deal, we have to wear a safety pin to keep the hood from creeping up our fronts and choking us. It can be a little distracting.

Despite that, I must admit it made me feel part of a ceremony of great importance, one with the weight of a lot of history behind it.

“It gave me a sense of unity with all the university students.”

Yes, it is easy to get caught up in all the work we have to do today, or everything we’re working toward in the future. Looking forward is a good thing. Being present in the moment, also highly important. But there’s nothing wrong with taking a breather here and there to reflect, enjoy, and have a little perspective on moments gone by.

 

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

 

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Oceanic Thinking

Oceanic Thinking

by | Jul 25, 2019 | About

Oceanic Thinking

The other day I got the chance to catch up with a good friend of mine from college. You know how with some friendships it takes a while to catch up and with others you can pick up immediately where you left off? Well this was the latter, but we didn’t just pick up from the last time we’d seen each other – we ended up going back over memories from forty years before. It got me thinking a lot about my Dad.

He and I butted heads a lot growing up. He was an attorney and so it was pretty much a guarantee that he was going to win just about any argument. He was always able to organize his thoughts and points with startling efficiency, whereas my mind tends to wander in and out of all things big and small. There’s nothing wrong with that – he used to call it “oceanic thinking” – but it is helpful to be able to harness it at different points. That hasn’t always been easy for me. My Dad had ideas on how to help me with that.

The thing I didn’t admit to him then (or even to myself for a number of years) is that he was right most of the time.

For one thing, he was right about how I should use high school to prepare for the next several stages of my life – college, then work, and everything in between.

He made me take typing classes, which I hated. It’s obvious how that ended up coming in handy. Other classes paid off in ways though that weren’t immediately clear. Take debate. I hated debate. I didn’t feel like I was any good at it, and especially with an attorney for a father, I sure didn’t feel like I “won” at all. But it taught me about organization. Concentration. How research is priceless.

As much as I detested debating, it prepared me for campaigning, for speaking in public and being able to get my point across clearly. It also took the fear out of speaking up in meetings or in public when I felt there was an important point to be made.

Speed-reading was another skill he emphasized. The ability to process information at a rapid rate, to budget a limited amount of time carefully and efficiently – that’s incredibly valuable to anyone, but I’m especially appreciative now that I’m a Regent.

I mean, I love reading and I naturally read fast, but trying to keep up with the reading required for Regents (upwards of 600 pages in a week) is pretty daunting.

I’m reminded of the value of that speed-reading course on a weekly basis.

I wish I could tell my Dad how the skills and courses he insisted on in high school – the very same ones I hated and tried to reject – have come to serve me so well in my adult life, with this special and important responsibility I have. Although I think he knew it all along.

 

 

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

 

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