Presidential Search Update!

Presidential Search Update!

by | Oct 29, 2019 | Regent Firsts, School Uniqueness

Presidential Search Update: We Have a Primary Candidate!

Wow. I am proud to say we have a new primary presidential candidate who will take the University of Nebraska to a whole new place.

His name is Ted Carter!

The meetings of the Search Committee were intense and totally focused on finding the right person. Not just a good person or even a great person, but the right fit for the school, the community, and the state.

We asked each candidate to answer the same questions when we met with them. One pleasantly surprising aspect of this process is that it resulted in multiple pages of notes about ideas and programs these intelligent candidates were implementing in their own universities.

This has been and will be a wonderful gift to explore in the years to come.

If a university could be run by a committee, we had an amazing group to do this intensive work. Everyone knew that choosing a primary candidate for the next University of Nebraska President was of critical importance. Members made it a priority. Conversations were respectful and conducted with open minds.

It’s a joy to report that Ted Carter was moved forward with a unanimous vote of 23 out of 23.

He is great with faculty and students, and focuses on student success. Something I did not know was 58% of Naval Academy faculty are tenured faculty. He also has an incredible life partner in his wife, Linda. She is truly committed to their joint goal of bringing the best to the University of Nebraska. 

Ted brings incredible experience to this work. His service to the country has seen him commanding over eighty ships from his bridge on aircraft carriers. He emphasizes communication. He has worked with Congress, state legislatures, mayors and donors alike. He emphasizes the importance of mental health and was assigned to lead a national commissioned report on suicide.

His references say he’s the best of the best.

My favorite thing is that he believes in second chances. He inspires students to seek the best from themselves. I was a big yes on naming him as our primary candidate. I look forward to our thorough vetting period as you get to meet him before we take our final vote!

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

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University Seeking President. Regent Seeking Sleep.

University Seeking President. Regent Seeking Sleep.

by | Oct 21, 2019 | Regent Firsts, School Uniqueness

University Seeking President. Regent Seeking Sleep.

It’s not that I was expecting being a Regent to be a cakewalk. Quite the opposite. And with 300 page reports that come out a week before each committee meeting that deserve a full and detailed read, I’m no stranger to long hours or hard work.

Even so, I’ve been surprised by the amount of time required to seek a new President for the University of Nebraska. Just recently the required reading for the week was at a staggering 800 pages. Let me tell you, that leaves barely enough time to eat and breathe. Forget sleep.

But the commitment of all twenty-three people on the committee to be at every meeting has been remarkable – everyone from Fortune 500 CEO’s to our 4th year med student.

And while there are long days, it’s also a joy to work with such a diverse group of people.

The process has changed significantly since the search for President Bounds. Legislative changes to the process have greatly increased the willingness of interesting qualified candidates to come forward. The biggest difference is that we promise potential candidates confidentiality throughout the process until the board votes to identify a primary candidate.

Then we only announce the primary candidate’s name after he or she is elected by a vote.

Previously, we were legally required to announce the names of the top four candidates forwarded to the board for consideration. What that meant for the candidates is that they had a 1 in 4 chance of landing the position, which really complicated things for those who weren’t selected. That kind of public candidacy could potentially imply that they weren’t happy in their existing position (not necessarily the case) and hurt their ongoing efficacy.

Hence the reluctance of many to even engage in the process.

Now how it works is the Search Advisory Committee forwards names for consideration to the board. The Regents there review the candidates and select one as their primary candidate. This person then spends the next thirty days visiting with all the constituencies across the state to answer questions, which gives all those interested an opportunity to vet their next potential President. After thirty days the committee meets again to vote – yes or no – on the candidate.

If for some reason the candidate or the board decide against the person, the process starts again.

Despite the long nights, the heavy reading, the impossible schedule, I’m feeling hopeful about where we’re headed. I think we can get it right the first time.

 

 

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

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When it Rains, it Floods

When it Rains, it Floods

by | Oct 14, 2019 | School Uniqueness

when it rains, it floods

Even though the writing was on the wall, one of the things that I did not foresee was how much the University of Nebraska would need to deal with flooding issues in the state. To be honest, I don’t think I was the only one in the state who was caught somewhat off guard.

But when the worst did happen and the floodwaters surged across the state, I’m proud to say that everyone on all of our campuses jumped immediately into action.

Flooding hit the town of Kearney hard and fast. When longtime residents as well as travelers in hotels were driven out by dangerous rising waters, University of Nebraska Kearney opened its dorms – which were one of the areas of campus thankfully unaffected – to over 250 people in need of shelter and safety.

Food, bedding and games were provided, additional clothing was available to buy for those who had to leave their luggage and extra clothes behind. UNK staff, students and faculty welcomed everyone with open arms and saw to it that all who needed assistance were taken care of. That, to me, is the definition of what it means to be a community.

When the waters finally did recede, buses were organized to return people to their cars and personal belongings were sent to the addresses provided.

Weddings planned for ballrooms in damaged communal spaces were moved to safe areas on the UNK campus so that people could still celebrate. In fact one couple was so touched by what UNK had done to make their special day happen that they donated the money they received as gifts to UNK to express their gratitude!

It’s easy to be polite and welcoming when everything is going well. When disaster strikes, that’s when you discover the true character of a person, or a place.

Every last person who stepped up and met those challenges and the community with open hearts – acting on behalf of the University and all of us Nebraskans – showed their true colors and made us proud.

 

*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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The Big Move

The Big Move

by | Sep 9, 2019 | School Uniqueness

The Big Move

I love move-in time. As the students and the faculty and University staff are all starting to get into their routines, I can’t help but think about the promise of that first move-in. There’s something about the air being fresh, the leaves starting to change color. 

All the hope, excitement, anticipation.

My son even met his future wife while moving into his dorm freshman year.

One thing that University of Nebraska faculty do (that I think is fantastic) is they help students move in the week before school starts. Not only is it a friendly gesture that adds some extra muscle, it also gives students and faculty the opportunity to mix in a more casual setting. It humanizes professors in a way that hopefully helps reduce potential anxiety or first-month jitters among new students.

There are always things we can do – some big, some little – to make life a little easier for students.

Sometimes it’s apparent what they are, sometimes it’s not as obvious, but it’s important that we always keep searching out those opportunities.

I was always excited to go back to school. The New Year for me never started on January first, but on that first day back in the class, surrounded by eager minds and all the promise in the world. I still run my life around the academic calendar, it’s very much a part of me and I’m grateful for it.

My hope is that we give our students that same promise, that same excitement. They deserve it. 

 

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

 

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What Keeps Me Up At Night

What Keeps Me Up At Night

by | Aug 21, 2019 | School Uniqueness

What Keeps Me Up At Night

It’s a hard time for higher education across the country. Private and public institutions are suffering from downturns. Resources are increasingly scarce, funding is harder to come by, and everyone is trying to figure out how to survive.

But it’s not enough to survive. For the sake of the school, for the students and faculty, for the whole state – we need to figure out how to thrive. When resources start to get scarce, people start to get nervous and tend to stop being collaborative.

We cannot cave to this sort of paranoia.

More than ever we have to work together. Share ideas. Have the tough conversations. And – importantly – listen to each other. It’s easy to get along when there are plenty of resources and a general sense of abundance. It’s when the belt tightens that it’s difficult to remain as cohesive and cooperative, yet that is also when we need that camaraderie the most.

We have a university made up of four different campuses with very different cultures.

How do we honor those cultures in a way that’s fair for all but still maintains that sense of unified identity that doesn’t distort their individuality? Because at the end of the day we all come together around one school. We are the University of Nebraska.

I’m a night owl, so it’s not difficult to keep me up late. But when I do lie down to get some rest, these are the thoughts that keep running through my head like a song on repeat. How do we come together? Where do we go from here? I don’t know the answer. It’s going to take all of us to find it.

 

 

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

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