September 2020 Board Minutes
Members Present: John Bernthal, Pat Crews, Dora Dill, Sue Gildersleeve, James Griesen, Kim Hachiya, Earl Hawkey, Tom Hoegemeyer, Julie Johnson, Doug Jose, Rita Kean, Jeff Keown, Linda Major, Kay Rockwell, Vi Schroeder, Alfred Stark, Don Weeks, Jane Zatechka
President-Elect, Kim Hachiya, called the meeting of the UNL Emeriti and Retirees Association (ERA) to order at 1:30 pm. Kim thanked Mike Zeleny for setting up the meeting/webinar and Pat Crews for preparing materials for the Wisherd Awards program for this meeting.
President, Don Weeks, announced the nominations of Pat Crews as President-elect and Chuck Hibberd as a new member of the Emeriti and Retirees Board of Directors. If anyone wishes to add nominees for either position, this needs to occur before or during the October meeting – otherwise, the bylaws stipulate that Pat and Chuck will automatically assume their new positions. If there are additional nominations, a formal vote will take place during the ERA’s November membership meeting.
Earl Hawkey reported that financial report has been provided to the Board of Directors and that the ERA has good financial standing.
Kim Hachiya introduced Ronnie Green, Chancellor of the University of Nebraska, to introduce and honor the recipients of the 2020 Wisherd Awards. There are three types of Wisherd Awards presented annually: (1) Outstanding Community Service Award; (2) Outstanding Service to UNL Award: and (3) Research, Scholarly and Creative Activity Award. All of these are funded by the Maude E. Wisherd Fund at the University of Nebraska Foundation.
Chancellor Green Introduced the recipient of the Wisherd Awards for 2020 Outstanding Community Service Award as Dr. David Forsythe, a Distinguished Professor of Political Science, the College of Arts and Sciences, Emeritus. David has been involved in setting up OLLI symposiums on topics such as women’s suffrage. He has been involved in the Unitarian Church and their efforts to assist immigrants from South America. Dr. Forsythe thanked ERA for the recognition and stated that it was an honor to receive this award from the Chancellor and the Emeriti and Retirees Association.
The 2020 Wisherd Award for Outsatnding Service to UNL was presented to Dr. Pricilla Grew, Vice Chancellor for Research Emeritus, who retired in 2015 after 22 years of leadership on campus. After her retirement , Dr. Grew has been heavily involved in the Arts at UNL (especially at the LIED Center), has served in the role of university coordinator for the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, and has contributed greatly to the activities and programs of the University of Nebraska State Museum. Dr. Grew thanked the ERA and her nominator, Dr. Jim Griesen, for this award.
A special Wisherd Award was created this year by the ERA Board of Directrs to honor Dr. Kay Rockwell. Kay has been instrumental as Professor Emeritus in volunteering in the Farmer-to-Farmer Program (F2F) of the Federal Government, a program that aims to improve production practices for subsistence farmers in Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania. Her project to provide goats to poor orphans to encourage their personal development and economic well-being has been a great success story and has improved the lives of over 150 African children and families. Kay thanked ERA for the award and her nominator, Dr. Susan Fritz.
Chancellor Ronnie Green then presented Dan Shattil, The Daily Nebraskan general manager emeritus, with a grant from the Wisherd Foundation to support a permanent display featuring members of The Daily Nebraskan Hall of Fame. “Recognizing the inductees in a permanent display will illustrate some of the university’s history by highlighting how The Daily Nebraskan’s reporting affected the campus, and how its staff, over time, impacted society after graduation,” Green said.
Chancellor Green congratulated the three recipients of the Wisherd Awards.
Chancellor Green introduced Shelley Zaborowski, Director of the Nebraska Alumni Association (NAA), who presented the Doc Elliot Award to Alfred (Bud) Pagel. This award honors a retired UNL faculty member who has exhibited a record of exemplary service, whose caring has made a difference in the lives of students and alumni and who has gone beyond traditional expectations. Bud thanked the association for the award.
In his presentation to ERA members, Chancellor Ronnie Green talked about the momentous changes on campus caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and how UNL has adapted and moved forward with its primary missions.
Green stated that early indicaters suggested that“enrollment was very solid” for the fall semester. The coronavirus sent students home early in the spring and had a harsh impact on UNL and other schools. UNL lost residence hall and dining hall income, summer conference and camp revenue, and cash from other sources. Green indicated that UNL expects to cut more than $30 million over the next three years, including eliminating vacant and presently filled positions. Enrollment decline also was expected to cripple UNL’s budget this year. Green said his budget for 2020-21 had anticipated a reduction of 9.5% in tuition money. He then indicated that he could not give enrollment specifics yet. But he told the body that “the best news of all is that enrollment is up.” The freshman class should be sound; but the International student enrollment will be down, but not as badly as feared.
In his overall assessment of the situation on the UNL campus, the Chancellor was quite positive and expressed thanks to the students, staff and faculty for their hard work, dedication and positive attitude in getting this highly unusual and challenging school year off to a good start. He then answeredquestions submitted by several ERA members on a variety of campus-related issues including efforts to control spread of the COVID virus on campus, the potential effects of COVID on the fall football season and the seasons for other sports, the status of construction projects on campus, the effect of budget cuts on academic programs and the satisfaction/dissatisfaction of students with their educational experiences in the new COVID-dictated learning environment.
Don Weeks thanked Chancellor Green for the great update and also for the strong leadership he has provided during this challenging time. Chancellor Green thanked the ERA for the opportunity to speak and indicated that he greatly appreciated the wealth of wisdom and dedicated efforts of ERA members in strengthening UNL.
President Don Weeks thanked Kim Hachiya and Mike Zeleny for their behind the scenes efforts in setting up the Zoom meeting. The next ERA meeting will be October 20th at 12 noon. Ryan Sothan, from the Nebraska Attorneys General’s office, will be speaking about scams focused on senior citizens. Weeks encouraged members to watch for the ERA newsletter that Julie Johnson, Doug Jose, Charlyne Berens and others are presently producing.