Lincoln's Next Chancellor
An opportunity to shape our future and recalibrate our resolve lies ahead for Lincoln and the entire state. The University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) has a generational decision in its sights as it prepares to conduct a search for its next chancellor. This moment comes as the campus is poised to start a new chapter and refocus its energy on the campus’ core mission of “teaching, research, and service.”
The University’s flagship campus needs a top shelf leader who will rally Nebraskans around the University’s mission, resetting the focus on research, job creation, and economic development. If this hire is successful, the prospective leader will ignite amazing growth in Lincoln and help create knowledge economy jobs that will be attractive to our new college graduates.
The next chancellor of UNL needs uncommon leadership that can transform the institution into the economic driver Nebraska needs it to be. Other states have done this, and we can do it too. We don’t have to look far—it’s happened right here in the Big Ten. Mitch Daniels of Purdue University in Indiana successfully put the focus on STEM disciplines while exercising fiscal responsibility that froze tuition year-after-year keeping it affordable. Dr. Michael Drake led Ohio State University into a new era armed with a strategic plan and helped shatter its record for research dollars as he raised the school’s national profile.
We also have lessons closer to home: The University of Nebraska Medical Center, under Chancellor Jeff Gold’s leadership, has had a track record for putting together big research partnerships that are generating good-paying jobs and investment. We need that same kind of energy in Lincoln.
While UNL doesn’t need to fashion itself in the image of another institution, it can, and it should, steal the best ideas from others. The university of yesteryear must evolve. Businesses want to co-locate near institutions of higher education as they create jobs and wealth in the communities they serve. The bottom line: we need to become the flagship university where businesses want to invest. Talent goes where the businesses go, and if Nebraska wants to attract and retain the next generation, we need to provide great opportunities for our hardworking young people right here.
The next chancellor needs to build out our flagship campus by growing Innovation Campus; meeting the needs of businesses by investing in computer science; making Lincoln the best place in the Heartland for startups; doubling down on ag and food processing research; and enrolling more international students.
This will only happen if the next leader of the university offers a vision that inspires all Nebraskans and charts a course for the campus that reflects the heart of Nebraska and our state’s identity. The chancellor should be a change agent for Lincoln and Nebraska – and more than a liaison to the academic senate and a manager of internal politics. From East Campus to City Campus to Innovation Campus, UNL needs a chancellor who will think outside the box, use their imagination, and embrace everything that Lincoln has to offer.
The Board of Regents has hired a national search firm to find Lincoln’s next chancellor and will be convening an advisory committee of Nebraskans very soon. A similar search identified University of Nebraska President Ted Carter as the priority candidate and eventual next President of the University of Nebraska system. A successful search for UNL Chancellor will not only include key stakeholders in Lincoln, but a cross section of Nebraskans from agriculture, technology, finance, manufacturing, and other industries that grow our state.
As a proud alum of UNL’s Law School and Lincoln’s member in Congress, I’m excited about the future. Our university deserves someone who will celebrate everything we do right and bring the flagship to its full potential. This is our chance to shape the next decade and much of the next for UNL, and I’m looking forward to working together to make it Dear Old Nebraska U’s greatest decade yet.
As originally published in the Lincoln Journal Star.