One of our jobs as regents is to keep watch over all the physical systems at the university. We constantly review the work being done to ensure that we are avoiding any risks to the security of our policies and systems.

This includes many more arenas than I ever considered. The trickiest (in my estimation) is the cyber networks.

These networks are used on all of our campuses by everyone – students, faculty, administration, and researchers. It’s a massive and critical operation.

So you can only imagine the challenges that the IT department has to deal with on a daily- no, hourly basis. Equipment varying in age only adds to the challenge of defending our university network against all kinds of phishing and ransomware attacks.

Last week our committee heard from the incredible people in charge of dealing with this.

I’ll be honest, I didn’t realize the scope of the problem. It’s truly mind-boggling. Just recently they stopped 36,000 phishing attacks and three ransomware attacks.

And don’t get me started on Zoom. As a result of the pandemic and the need to operate virtually, we’ve used thirty-five million minutes of zoom conference time.

One Sunday the IT department found a major breach and the team had help from all its campus teams and the med center to solve the mystery and end the attack. While these kinds of attacks are frightening to think about, I was impressed and encouraged by the swift and focused teamwork.

While fending off attacks, this team has also been working to create a seamless system that monitors, repairs and secures our campuses across the state. The university partners with other universities like Rutgers, Duke, Indiana and Northwestern to strengthen each other’s systems.

Part of this effort has been a complex study of how to stop bad actors from damaging or stealing our data through firewalls and other innovative prevention programs. All of this work keeps our data safely encrypted and equipment operating while the pandemic has disrupted our classes and had us sheltering in our homes.

In a world of so much unknown, it’s a relief to know such smart, dedicated people are working hard to keep the university running. They’re keeping all of us connected.

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

Let’s start with the big news: Ted Carter has announced that the University of Nebraska is planning on starting classes in-person in the fall.

The University is doing the groundwork to ensure that when we do open again, it’s in a healthy and responsible way. I think this is a good development, as it’s building on a positive (and informed) outlook and also gives students something to be excited about.

Of course, we are prepared to shift gears should the need arise, and the safety of our community always comes first. But I think what this signals is that we’re dedicated to our students, we’re serious about providing the very best education, and that we are adaptable enough to deal with issues as they arise.

This is something that we’ve been thinking about a lot lately, especially as we continue to get feedback (within Nebraska, but also across the country) that some college freshman are planning to take a gap year if they have to go virtual in the fall. We’re seeing the same kind of consideration going on with high school seniors. 

It’s not on us to tell students what they should do – every person needs to make that choice individually. It is on us, however, to give students a good reason (or five, or twenty) to continue their education.

Speaking of students who continue their education, I’d like to take a moment to highlight some truly extraordinary student regents.

They have added such a dimension to our work that we really owe them a big thank you.

For those who don’t know, a lot of universities don’t actually have student regents, and the few that do have them don’t usually let them sit with the university regents in votes. Even though their votes don’t count in a decision, they are an invaluable part of this process. They also worked hard this year within the Board to advocate for needed changes related to Regent Scholarships.

What has really impressed me is how seriously they take their job, how dedicated they are to learning governance. They’ve contributed in this exceptional way, all the while maintaining an incredible level of academic work. They take on so much.

This last month we held the last meeting with our current student regents. There’s a tradition that in the final meeting, we regents do a proclamation that highlights each of our student regents, after which they have a chance to make a remark. This year those remarks ranged from singing their campus’s fight song to reading an original poem.

In June we will meet the new student regents who head student government on each campus, and while I’m excited to meet them, I want to take a moment to celebrate these wonderful people:

Emily Johnson (UNL)

She graduates in May with majors in Political Science, Spanish and a Global Studies.  She is headed to Spain for a Fulbright Scholarship and will start Harvard Law School in Fall 2021. She is from Lincoln, Nebraska.

Nicole Kent (UNK)

She graduates with a Biology major in May and will start medical school at UNMC. She is from Benkelman, Nebraska.

Keith Ozanne (UNMC)

He will graduate in May from UNMC medical school and heads to University of Utah for his residency. He is from Lincoln, Nebraska.

Aya Yousuf (UNO)

You may remember Aya from one of my Live Office Hours sessions. She starts her junior year at UNO with majors in Political Science and Economics. She is from Omaha, Nebraska after immigrating from Iran in 2010.

To our outstanding student regents: thank you. I can’t wait to see where your journeys take you!

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

I have to admit, I am amazed by technology lately. All of the virtual meetings have forced me – as someone who is not the best with tech – to learn more about what kind of advancements are available and what can be done. It’s pretty cool. Even though I have to be on camera, which I detest.

If you went through the pictures at my house you’d find that I’ve always been very camera shy, so you can imagine how uncomfortable it feels to be on video all the time now. And I do mean all the time. The meetings are pretty much constant.

We’ve been working on making a lot of decisions over the past couple of weeks. Some of those meetings are about how the semester is ending. These tend to come with an understandable melancholy surrounding how different graduation ceremonies are this year, and that we don’t get to have honors celebrations that publicly and widely acknowledge a lot of incredible, innovative work.

Some of these meetings are about safety, of course, which is always foremost on our minds. As are our students.

Every question is preceded by, “how does this affect our students?”

“How do we make sure they are successful and well taken care of?”

“How do we keep them feeling connected to the University of Nebraska community and for them to know we support them?”

And though we don’t have all the answers (we’re working on it), I’d like to share with you some of what has come to pass as we adjust to the age of COVID-19:

1. The online shift: faculty have worked immensely hard to get all of their courses up and running on the internet. Right now the University is conducting labs on campus according to CDC guidelines – with one lab at a time, properly spaced out, and a maximum of ten students at a time. It’s a remarkable process.
2. Being fast and efficient: Universities and other academic institutions are notorious for how slowly we typically move. Well, not at the moment. We are streamlining processes at a rapid rate and learning just how quickly we can move, while still maintaining the health and safety of our community, and the quality of our services.
3. Opportunity in flexibility: not all students learn the same way. This is something we’ve known for quite some time, but as we shift our curriculum online, faculty are also looking at how to engage differently with students based on their needs. That kind flexibility will come in handy once the lockdown is over, as well.
4. Innovation: while I am proud of myself for figuring out how to participate meaningfully in a Zoom meeting (and there’s nothing wrong with that), others are consulting with resources on campus to create new techniques, exercises, and processes that will serve us well whether we’re facing a pandemic or not.

So, as the situation develops, so do we. We stay engaged, open, and curious. I have hope that the lessons we’re learning during this unsettling time will serve us well down the road, as we discover what we’re capable of in the best sort of way.

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

On December 3rd I had the pleasure of sitting down with UNO Student Regent Aya Yousuf for a candid conversation during my second-ever Office Hours livestream. And wow, was it enlightening.

Even though we can both claim the title of Regent at University of Nebraska – her as a student, myself as, well, not a student – we’ve had very different paths to this point. For one thing, Aya’s remarkable story starts in Iraq.

During our Office Hours session Aya shared her story of coming to the United States with her family when she was just a child and how she came to be a Student Regent at UNO. We also talked a lot about the differences and similarities between the Regent and Student Regent systems and came to the conclusion that time management is probably one of the biggest challenges for both of us.

We also had a frank discussion about the university’s new presidential candidate Ted Carter including our first impressions, professional opinions, and what we’ve heard from colleagues and constituents in terms of how they’re feeling.

A couple of great questions came in, one in particular focusing on social work and mental health disparities in Omaha in connection to recidivism, which prompted a broader conversation about mental health and education in general.

There was a lot of ground we covered in our session, I highly encourage you to take some time, have a listen, and let us know what you think.

To watch it, click here.

Thanks again to all who tuned in for the livestream, check out the link above if you’d like to dive into the discussion, and I’ll see you on the next round of Office Hours – seriously, keep those questions coming!

I wish you all many curious conversations.

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