Honors, Inc.

Academics across the country are having an allergic reaction to the corporate model of operation being adopted by many universities. Terms like branding, collateral materials, budget controls, marketing strategies, and outcomes are causing a panic among faculty who believe that a customer satisfaction approach to higher education is anti-intellectual and that it leads to grade inflation, teaching toward evaluations, and learning as product, not process. Honors programs in particular, often the standard bearers of undergraduate academic standards, are being asked to market themselves not only to the top prospective students, but also to the university administration at large. Honors is frequently the default focus group expected to show the rest of the university programs and departments ‘How it is done,’ or rather, ‘How it is done according to standard.’ By ‘it,’ of course, I mean marketing our curriculum, selling our program, and branding our product.

Agriculture Builders of Nebraska Inc.

It’s a pleasure to be able to speak with you today. I want you to know that Virginia and I are delighted to be in Nebraska. And I’m especially happy to have arrived in the state at a time where I can, on my 7th day on the job, learn so much about UNL just by reading the state’s largest newspaper.

Agriculture Builders of Nebraska, Inc. Morning Session

Good morning! On behalf of the Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources representatives here this morning, I want to express our very real pleasure in being with you, and our very great appreciation of all that you do. We in the Institute value the Agriculture Builders of Nebraska highly. Your support for our work and the wise counsel of ABN members has been invaluable to me personally since my arrival in Nebraska, and I know that is true of the entire Institute, as well. In fact, the thoughtful perspective and the confidential advice of the ABN Executive Committee in the recent third-round of budget cutting decisions we faced in the Institute helped me work through what we had to do in that very, very difficult round of cuts.

Agriculture Builders of Nebraska, Inc.

There’s a story that a construction foreman one day noticed one of his workers pushing his wheelbarrow upside down around the work site. “Hey,” the foreman shouted, “turn that thing right side up!” The man with the wheelbarrow looked at him in surprise. “Don’t be silly,” he said. “Every time I do that, they put bricks in it!” I think of that story sometimes, in the midst of these difficult economic times, as our states, its people, and its university, in turn, wrestle with budge cuts. Wouldn’t it be great if we all could just turn our wheelbarrows over and say, “No thanks, no more brick! No more heavy loads to haul!”

Agriculture Builders of Nebraska, Inc.

What a pleasure it is to be with you here this morning! And How startling it is to realize a whole year has passed since we last gathered at this meeting. So much has occurred in that year.

Agriculture Builders of Nebraska, Inc. Annual Meeting

Those of us in the Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources at your land-grant university view ourselves as partners with Nebraska. Taking the resources of this great university to the citizens of our state is a mission we take very, very seriously. We work hard to apply the university's resources in a diverse number of ways to benefit Nebraska. Today it is my very great pleasure to have this opportunity to provide a brief report to you, our partners, on some of the ways we are returning your investment in us to benefit our state.

Agriculture Builders of Nebraska, Inc. Annual Meeting

It's such a pleasure to be here with you this morning. Each year I look forward to this opportunity to visit with you, to hear your thoughts, to thank you for all you do for the Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources, and for the University of Nebraska. We truly appreciate your support and your hard work on our behalf. I think Nebraska is extremely fortunate to have ABN at work in our state.

Agriculture Builders of Nebraska, Inc. Annual Meeting

Let me start today by saying thank you. Thank you, each of you, for your strong support of the Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources and the University of Nebraska.

Agriculture Builders of Nebraska, Inc.

Good morning! There's a lot of information I want to share with you in a short amount of time, so I'm going to get right to it.