These days I think I spend 90% of my time reading. In addition to the reading I have to do for the committee meetings, I am also reading as much as I can about innovations in higher education. I like to tune into Nebraskans talking about what they think about our university system.

One point that’s been made loud and clear is the need to find a way to retain and accelerate students toward the 13,000 unfilled employment opportunities in our state.

Generally, Nebraska’s best and brightest tend leave after high school for educational opportunities offering better financial packages, among other things. Take the University of Nebraska Regent Scholarship for example. The scholarship is prestigious and it covers tuition (a waiver of tuition fees), which is great but these same talented students are being offered scholarships from other schools that cover all expenses, including tuition, room and board, books, etc. To give you a sense of what that means to a prospective student, those non-tuition costs account for up to 40% of the cost of going to a four-year school. That’s a significant sum.

The hard truth is that we cannot be competitive with scholarships that are tuition remission only.

We must find a way to match other scholarship offers. We need to offer more incentives like pathways to interesting internships that entice students.

Okay, Barbara, you say – that’s all well and good but many students want to have an experience outside of Nebraska. What about that?

For one thing, we can work to entice them back with graduate school scholarships, try to win them back with post-grad school connections and job opportunities.

There’s no one easy answer, but what I’m saying is let’s get creative. Let’s try to keep as many promising students as we can and make our graduate programs and opportunities so amazing that even if they do go out of state for their undergrad degree, we can attract them back for grad school. 

All three of my children left Nebraska for school, and all three came back home for the incredible jobs Nebraska had to offer.

There’s nothing wrong with change, with branching out, with exploration. But let’s not forget what we as Nebraskans have to offer, and how we can think outside of the box to make it even better.

Let’s read the writing on the wall… and then rewrite it.

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