Content
Wednesday, December 17, 2014
1:00-3:00pm
Nebraska East Union, Bluestem Room
Attendance: Jiri Adamec, Julie Albrecht, Angela Pannier, Ellen Paparozzi, Ann Fenton, Thomas Hunt, Randy Pryor
Joined at 2:00pm: Vice Chancellor Green, Zaneta Hahn (recorder)
Meeting Frequency Update
The committee asked the VC office to assist in setting up 2 more meetings for the spring. 1 meeting in January – a 1 hour conference call for the committee to meet by themselves to discuss committee nominations and charge the nominating committee. At that time they plan to request information from the nominating committee by the February 6th meeting. They would also like to have a March meeting with Dr. Green if he is available. [Murd Holland has set up 2 meetings: 1) Jan 15, conference call (202N Keim), 10:00-11:00am; 2) March 16, full meeting, 2:30-4:30pm, NEU, Bluestem Room.]
New Dorm Security and Activity
The committee asked for Dr. Green’s thoughts on making East Campus a more vibrant campus, i.e. new dorm, more activities, etc. Dr. Green reported that the new residence hall and site have been approved by the Board of Regents. The dorm will be a 370 student residence hall complex on the current Biochemistry Hall site. The completion date is fall of 2017. The project is completely funded through student housing fees. Since BOR approval on Nov 20, housing has been through several initial design phases. The current design being considered is structured to have both internal and external activities. The site will border the prairie to the east but will not encroach on it. The two wings of the building are designed in a south and east diagonal orientation opening toward the arboretum. It will have sand volleyball courts and outdoor activities in the open area between the wings. There will also be study lounges on the corners of each floor similar to the new residence halls on city campus. The main entrance will be on the northwest corner and will force foot traffic in that direction. There will be both apartment style and traditional pod style rooms. The intermediate design has to be completed in the next 4 months, and construction must begin by this time next year. The parking lot behind the library will remain with a road on the edge of the site leading it. Dr. Green acknowledged that this change will not happen without some loss, particularly trees on the site. The trees on the north side of library will remain, but most of the others on the site will not and new landscaping will be designed. There will need to be some thought put into preserving the living laboratory of the arboretum, educating students. Tom shared that some thought should be given to dealing with potential greenhouse vandalism across the street from the site. Dr. Green assured the committee that would be mitigated by IANR through security cameras outside of the dorm and in the area. Julie asked if Burr and Fedde would be razed. Dr. Green said that plan is not laid out yet. Demolition of Burr/Fedde was in the proposal presented to the Board of Regents, but they chose to exclude it from the approval at this point. There is a possibility that one of those buildings could be repurposed as office space, but it is unclear whether this will be feasible. The original proposal was that it would create green space and some additional parking for the new east campus recreation and wellness center.
Extension Faculty Serving on Boards
The Extension members reported that they are asked to serve on many types of boards. They asked if there is a difference between Nebraska Extension educators and faculty board service. What roles are appropriate to play on these boards? Dr. Green reported that he has asked Dean Hibberd to develop a guidance document for extension faculty to provide clarity to this issue as there is no way to characterize every possible board situation into a blanket policy. Dean Hibberd will present it to Dr. Green soon, and the Faculty Senate executive committee will be asked to provide input. It will clearly state that extension educators should evaluate potential conflict of interest when serving on boards. While any extension educator can serve on a board in their own personal capacity, when serving on boards seen as representing Nebraska Extension there must be particular care taken to not have opportunity for there to be conflict of interest, One option is to serve as an ex-officio, non-voting member of a board in such cases. Dr. Green shared that in the particular incident earlier in 2014 which originally raised this question, the extension educators involved had completed all of the required steps to be on the board, but the board voted to bring in an annual meeting speaker known to have an agenda and views in direct conflict with documented science that extension represents to the public. Nebraska Extension therefore was seen as endorsing the views of that speaker, as the particular board in question represented the two extension educators on their board as “representing Nebraska Extension”. Dr. Green acknowledged that while we absolutely believe in and support academic freedom across the academe, we cannot have the translational arm of the Land-Grant University in a position where it is seen to be in conflict with the science that we represent.
Rec Center Use
The committee asked if Dr. Green knew why UNL Wellness does not encourage faculty/staff use of the rec centers by covering fees or discounting more. This is particularly a concern for staff positions, as many large corporations include this benefit. Dr. Green said that this is an excellent question, and he does not know but will ask.
Future of the Research and Extension Centers
The committee shared that some are concerned with an apparent centralization/focus towards Lincoln. There is an obvious advantage of being able to capitalize on the different agro-ecological zones across the state for research and extension. Dr. Green reported that a reorganization of centers has not been determined yet and that there certainly is no desire to “centralize toward Lincoln -- much the opposite for that very reason. From the report of the Statewide Resource Optimization Task Force presented to Dr. Green this past July, the only decision that has been made at this point is to close the operation at Dalbey-Halleck in southeastern Nebraska, but that is simply implementation of a decision that was made over 5 years ago by ARD where the cattle research program there was deemed to be excess capacity to our needs. In that case, financial proceeds from the divestment of the cattle and land resources will go directly to an endowment to fund research programs in the animal science department. The current focus and follow-up from the report is on Eastern Nebraska where a sub-task force group led by Deans Clutter and Hibberd are modeling how to better coordinate activities in the Eastern 3rd of the state with the facilities and people resources we have. Specifically, they are looking at the ARDC at Mead and if it is fully optimized relative to our mission. It is currently operated as a campus satellite center. Should it be the primary research and extension center for Eastern Nebraska instead to complement the Centers we have in the West Central and Panhandle regions of the state, including having resident faculty present? Is the site optimized in size and are the facilities located there appropriate to addressing contemporary 21st century needs of our mission? There is a task force group now working on what the design and model would look like were we to go to a three district model with eastern Nebraska anchored by a REC at Mead with satellite sites at Concord-Haskell, South Central Ag Lab, and GPVEC at Clay Center. The West Central and Panhandle districts would remain largely the same with the exception of additional facilities already under development in those districts. The task force will provide its initial report to Dr. Green in early 2015. Any changes in structure and model would not be implemented before a thorough vetting process with faculty and stakeholders during the remainder of 2015.
New Toolbox and Extension Branding
The committee reported that more information is needed on the new Extension logos and the new toolbox. Dr. Green and Zaneta shared that Jill is working on how to make the new UNL-wide toolbox logos readily available to everyone. There is still time to get this done. Nebraska Extension re-branding is a different question and extension faculty and staff should direct those questions to Dean Hibberd’s office. Dr. Green shared that an update on the toolbox will be covered hopefully at the next All Hands Meeting.
Liaison Webpage
The committee reported that they like the new design. They want a scenic picture instead of a group shot at the top.
The meeting adjourned at 3:00pm.
Recorder: Zaneta Hahn
Distributed electronically to the IANR Liaison Committee for review: 1/13/2015
Distributed electronically to the IANR Faculty: 1/16/2015
Upcoming Meetings:
Thurs, Jan 15, 2015, 10:00-11:00am (conference call for committee members only)
Fri, Feb 6, 2015, 2:00-4:00pm (Dr. Green joins at 3:00pm)
Mon, Mar 16, 2015, 2:30-4:30pm (Dr. Green joins at 3:30pm)
Fri, April 14, 2015, 9:00-11:00am (Dr. Green joins at 10:00am)