In early July, we held the first round of public listening sessions to give you, the community, an opportunity to tell us what you want in the person who will lead the University of Nebraska. In retrospect I’m not sure we communicated that very well.

It was, in short, a commentary on what not to assume.

Because while we showed up at the event thinking “we want to hear what you have to say and we’re going to listen,” a number of the people who showed up seemed to be thinking the same thing. They were looking for information. That’s not to say that no one spoke up – we did have some great feedback and suggestions and appreciated all the people who shared their candid opinions.

Fairness came up a lot. We have four very different types of campuses with different cultures but common purpose, and fairness was noted as an important quality in a leader. The sessions also gave me a new appreciation for just how much a leader is involved in the whole community, not just the academic one. A sense of common purpose and investment is critical both within the university, but also the state at large.

Since it was a public listening session, it was open to anyone and everyone (just like the next one will be). We had a small but solid cross section of faculty, students, and others from the community.

But one group that stuck out to me was the staff.

They’re like a near invisible force, the unsung heroes that contribute in so many ways to the students’ education and experience. We got to hear about how deeply they are invested in the university and the students. How much they care and feel part of the school’s family. They constantly interact with the students outside of the classroom – they know them, love them, and want them to do well. As such, they had a number of truly valuable insights.

We have another round of listening sessions coming up in August and this time I’ll try to make it clear – we’re there to open our ears, open our minds, open our hearts to whatever feedback you have. We want to know what you think, what you want, what you need, in a leader.

So please, come and share. We’ll be listening.

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