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UNL Moving Forward
By John C. Owens
President J.B. Milliken’s goal for the University of Nebraska is that we will be the best university in the country in terms of serving the interests of the citizens of the state. As a fervent believer in the land grant university system, I say amen.
That’s exactly why the Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources exists. We bring the resources of the university to Nebraskans. We’re an economic engine for our state and we contribute to Nebraskans’ good life through our research, teaching and Extension education programs.
Currently, we have several leadership positions open in IANR, including the chair of the biochemistry department, district directors for the Northeast Research and Extension Center and the Panhandle Research and Extension Center, head of the agricultural leadership, education and communication department, and head of UNL’s Animal Science Department.
Knowing the latter is of special interest to you, let me focus here on that national search for which we‘ve established a search advisory committee that includes Jay Wolf as a committee member.
As that search moves forward, we seek the absolute best person for the job. We’re looking for someone who can lead the animal science department in a state with a tremendous livestock industry to even greater heights. We expect this person to think and lead strategically, to provide vision, to be creative and innovative, and to work with faculty, staff, administration and clientele to significantly increase student enrollments and develop and lead robust, competitive and strategic research and Extension education programs so very critical to Nebraska and its future.
We seek someone who relates well to the industry and has a feel for its needs and direction. We seek a leader who can relate to potential students as well as their families and friends, which translates to a leader who helps attract students and who will inspire them to enroll at UNL. We’re looking for a person who’s equally at ease at a county fair, livestock show or scientific laboratory. UNL’s research and Extension programs clearly have served the industry well in the past. We need to make sure we have the leadership that will keep us effective in meeting the needs of the livestock industry that will develop over the next 20-30 years. For example, results from fundamental research at UNL have led to great strides in the understanding of beef cattle genomics, an area of study that did not exist all that long ago. Our new leadership should help us identify and take advantage of new and emerging scientific developments, which ultimately will help improve the profitability of Nebraska’s livestock industry.
Changing social, political, economic and natural resource environments will present new challenges for Nebraska’s livestock industry. We seek leadership that will guide our research and Extension programs toward helping the industry address those challenges. Our new department head must have the vision, skills and energy necessary to provide that direction through effective consultation with the faculty, staff and with stakeholders like you.
We will search as expeditiously as possible and will find the best candidate available to lead this department forward.
UNL’s commitment to the beef industry is constant and strong. Of the top five cattle states in this country, only one – Texas, which leads the nation in cattle numbers with 14 million – has more beef research feedlots than Nebraska.
Texas A&M University has five beef research feedlots. Nebraska, second in the nation with 6.65 million cattle – fewer than half the cattle in Texas – has four UNL research feedlots.
We lead the nation in feedlot research on a per capita basis and we don’t expect that to change. UNL was an early leader in developing a use for distiller’s grain in cattle feed, which has provided a significant economic gain for the industry.
Beef is also big in our Extension programming, which occurs throughout Nebraska through the 83 UNL County Extension offices serving all 93 counties and at UNL’s four Research and Extension Centers.
On the UNL campus, we have an animal science teaching program that was built correctly. I’ll put the University’s traditional agricultural programs up against any in the country. These programs must stay strong and funding is absolutely crucial to academic strengths. Tuition dollars provide significant funding for UNL’s agricultural programs and tuition dollars are, of course, generated by student enrollment.
This fall we have 231 undergraduates in animal science. This is the first time our animal science enrollment has topped 200 undergraduates since 1998. Lots of people across Nebraska have been working hard to raise the number. We are glad to see it grow and we look forward to it growing even more. We sincerely thank each of you who have played a role in this wonderful increase at UNL.
While academic programs in animal science differ from state to state, meaning it’s not always an apples-to-apples comparison, we see student numbers in nearby institutions signaling significant room for growth here in Nebraska.
Our neighboring land grant university to the north, South Dakota State University, is said to have approximately 265 undergraduate animal science majors. South Dakota has a population roughly one million fewer than Nebraska’s.
I’m told our neighboring land-grant university to the south, Kansas State University, has 655 undergraduate animal science majors. Kansas has a population roughly one million more than Nebraska’s.
Other animal science undergraduate enrollments reported from around our region include Oklahoma State University, 698; University of Missouri-Columbia, approximately 370; Colorado State University, 711; Iowa State University, 742.
We have the capacity to educate far more animal science students than currently are enrolled at UNL and it’s important that we do. The same is true for UNL’s other two large academic, agricultural departments – agronomy and horticulture, and agricultural economics. We must see more students there as well.
One way we grow is by building on our traditional strengths to attract students with more diverse interests than our traditional programs currently draw. We’ve long talked about producers diversifying and adding value to their products. When we add new educational programs such as equine science or companion animals to meet new needs, we’re doing exactly the same thing – diversifying and adding value.
Widening UNL’s offerings to draw more students provides students with an excellent education and increases the university’s student numbers while allowing IANR to keep the traditional agricultural programs strong. In the College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources, increasing student numbers ultimately increases Nebraska’s agriculture-related workforce because 70 percent or more of the College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources’ graduates remain in Nebraska. Retaining an educated, skilled workforce that comes from academic majors associated with agriculture strengthens Nebraska’s economic base where, once again, one in three jobs is associated with agriculture. Agriculture is critically important to Nebraska’s future and is important at both the production and academic levels and everywhere in between. That’s why, working together, we need to build even stronger agricultural programs.
If I can provide you further information or if you’d like to discuss anything, including IANR’s role in Nebraska’s future, please contact me at jowens@nebraska.edu or by calling (402) 472-2871, or writing me at John Owens, 202 Agricultural Hall, P.O. Box 830708, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, NE 68583-0708. Y By John C. Owens, NU vice president and IANR Harlan vice chancellor.
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