10 Questions for Nebraska's 20th Chancellor

Randy York's N-Sider

Official Blog of the Huskers

Thursday was a B1G day for Nebraska Athletics and its coaches, senior staffers and sport administrators, plus deans who had lunch with Ronnie Green, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s 20th chancellor. About 125 attended the West Memorial Stadium Club event, and The N-Sider felt fortunate to ask Chancellor Green 10 questions before his successful meet-and-greet session.

N-Sider followers know we ask serious questions about meaningful issues, but we also like pitching a few curve balls along with the softballs right down the middle of the plate. Let the record show that Green, our new chancellor, didn’t see a single pitch he couldn’t hit out of the park. Please join our conversation:

Q-1: You describe our unique, rich tradition as rationale for Athletics becoming the front door to the University of Nebraska. Can you share how honored you are to be chancellor and what will drive you to take UNL to new heights?

I really feel that our university has tremendous momentum and great opportunity at this point in history. I am privileged to lead this institution with a vision in place for growth in key areas—amongst others, global food and water security, early childhood education, laser physics, material sciences, and national defense. With the establishment of Nebraska Innovation Campus as an entrepreneurial hub for the state, we can look forward to helping to grow more jobs and businesses. We have the faculty talent in place to make an impact globally in many areas. It’s a humbling and exciting challenge, and I could not be more pleased to have the opportunity to give back to OUR university in this role in the years ahead.

Q-2: President Hank Bounds (above left with Green) initiated an independent assessment of Nebraska’s strengths and opportunities and confirmed that we’re a high performing athletic department under Shawn Eichorst's leadership. Why’s that important?

Nebraska Athletics is inextricably linked to the academic side of the university. Our student-athletes are students first, and with the positive climate in athletics set by the leadership under Shawn Eichorst, we know that Nebraska is one of the very best places to be a student-athlete in the country – and we have all of the stats to prove it!  

Q-3: I have coworkers who have heard you sing with your daughter Kelli at Lincoln’s Sheridan Lutheran Church. They swear that you both sound great. Does that mean you voted for UNL grad Hannah Huston to win The Voice?

Without a doubt. She is absolutely fabulous – and a genuine down to earth Nebraskan and UNL GRAD!!  I am working on her to do some “dueting” with the singing chancellor this fall at one of our home Husker games – the dare is on!

Q-4: Now that we’ve bounced from a serious assessment to the sound of music, I can’t help but ask a deep-rooted question. If you could sing a duet with anybody in the world besides your own daughter, who would you pick?

After our own Hannah Huston, my pick would beJosh Grobin. One of my favorite all-time pieces of music is Josh singing You Raise Me Up …

Q-5: Since you were raised on a beef, dairy and cropping farm in southwestern Virginia, you were a good fit at Nebraska. Does that mean 1) you talk to strangers, 2) you favor Runzas and Val’s pizza and 3) you believe in the legacy of Johnny Carson?

Yes, including the friendly index finger hello while driving;

Yes, Swiss mushroom especially, and...

Yes. Just look at what we're going to be doing building the new Carson Center for Emerging Media (pictured above)!

Q-6: I noticed that you’ve served on the animal science faculty at Colorado State, an intriguing college campus that replicated Disneyland’s downtown strategy. Be honest now. What’s cooler – downtown Ft. Collins or Lincoln’s historic Haymarket Area?

Old Town Ft. Collins is great, but Lincoln’s Haymarket wins hands down.

 At Nebraska's Spring Football Game last April, Ronnie Green received an honorary No. 20 Husker jersey.

Q-7: A colleague told me that your wife’s Twitter handle is Husker Jane. I’d be remiss if I didn’t ask you this very simple question – are you the luckiest man in the world?

Resoundingly yes for 30 years!  Not only that but I married Harvard graduate Jane Pauley – Harvard, NEBRASKA that is.

Q-8: Hearing that huge numbers of your family have earned degrees from UNL, you’re well equipped to lead Nebraska to record enrollment figures. In a nutshell, what’s the goal, the timeline and the secret ingredient to Git-R-Done? 

Actually members of my family have earned, or are working on, 15 UNL degrees – just trying to do our part to meet our enrollment goals! The enrollment goal I am suggesting for the university is 35,000 students by 2025. The secret ingredient is that there is no better place to be a student and to get a transformative quality education than Nebraska.

Q:9: You, Shawn and Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delany (pictured above) recently visited Chicago’s BTN headquarters. What makes the Big Ten such a special conference and what do you enjoy most when you visit the Windy City?

Chicago is an exciting American city, and there is so much to do. My visits now primarily focus on the Big Ten Conference. The Big Ten is unique in that it is not only a very strong athletic conference, but also a very strong alliance of some of the nation’s very best public and private universities from an academic perspective. The Big Ten universities really do play big.

Collectively, member universities last year logged $10 billion in funded research, far more than the $5 billion of the University of California System or the Ivy League’s $4.3 billion. Of total Ph.D. degrees awarded in the U.S. annually, member universities award 29 percent of Agriculture degrees, 18 percent of engineering degrees and 18 percent of humanities degrees. The group has saved $5.8 million in IT for its members and provides access to 120.5 million library volumes.

All-Big Ten punter/graduate agronomy major Sam Foltz wants to play in the NFL, then work on the family farm.

Q-10: My last question is designed for you to hit a base-clearing walk-off grand slam completely out of the park. In your humble opinion, why is Nebraska Athletics unparalleled academically, athletically and through life skills?  

No place has the commitment, the quality people, and the dedication to excellence of Nebraska – we are truly the best place on the planet to be a student-athlete – just read the stats!  What is so impressive is that we are committed to the whole person – not only their excellence in athletic performance, but in academic performance, in service to community, and in preparing them for success in life post-competitive athletics. I wish that all of our fans and stakeholders could experience the inner workings of the support for our student-athletes – it is unprecedented and phenomenal.

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