University of Nebraska President Hank Bounds, Ph.D., announced Monday that he is launching a social media-based listening tour that will end with invitations to two Nebraskans to continue their conversations with him in person at the Husker football game against Northwestern.
Football with the president
At the culmination of the digital listening tour, Dr. Bounds will select two Nebraskans to continue their conversations with him in person at the Oct. 24 Husker football game against Northwestern. Those Nebraskans, each with a guest of their choice, will join Dr. Bounds in his Memorial Stadium skybox for the duration of the game.
They will be selected following three rounds of evaluation: the first based on depth of their question or topic idea, the second based on thoughtfulness, creativity and relevance, and the third based on opportunity for continued, meaningful discussion in-person.
To participate in “Nebraska Talks,” Nebraskans should tweet questions and topics of conversation to @hankbounds using #PrezUnplugged. Official contest rules are available here.
The “Nebraska Talks” tour, now through Sept. 30, invites Nebraskans to engage in a dialogue with Dr. Bounds, NU’s president since April 13, via Twitter about his goals and priorities, his thoughts on higher education in Nebraska and nationally, and other topics of interest to key NU stakeholders.
All Nebraskans are invited to participate by submitting questions and ideas using the hashtag #PrezUnplugged. Dr. Bounds will provide responses and suggest topics on his personal Twitter account, @hankbounds.
Dr. Bounds said the “Nebraska Talks” tour is a continuation of the listening tour he began at the outset of his presidency. Bounds has visited many Nebraska communities and continues to meet with a diverse range of university constituents as he forms his leadership agenda.
“I’ve spent my first five months on the job listening to and learning from Nebraskans about their hopes and dreams for the University of Nebraska,” Dr. Bounds said. “While I still have much to learn, I’ve been struck by how deeply people in the state care about the future of their public university. Nebraskans share my belief that the University of Nebraska can become one of America’s great universities. This Twitter listening tour is an opportunity for me to continue my conversations with Nebraskans about how we can work together to make the University of Nebraska a giant in higher education.”
Potential discussion topics for social media discussion include:
- NU’s efforts to ensure access and affordability;
- the university’s work in growing Nebraska’s economy, education and research programs across the university;
- the unique strengths of the four NU campuses and opportunities for cross-campus collaboration;
- the university’s partnerships with Nebraska’s business and agricultural communities; and
- the future of higher education.
It might be useful to add that employees are not eligible to win.
The Sponsor of this contest is the University of Nebraska, located at 3835 Holdrege Street, Lincoln, Nebraska 68583. Any individuals (including but not limited to employees, consultants, independent contractors, and interns) who have, within the past six months, performed services for either the Sponsor or any organizations responsible for sponsoring, fulfilling, administering, advertising or promoting the contest or supplying the prize, and/or their respective parent, subsidiary, affiliated and successor companies, and immediate family and household members of such individuals, are not eligible to enter the contest. “Immediate family members” shall mean parents, stepparents, children, stepchildren, siblings, stepsiblings, or any of their spouses. “Household members” shall mean people who share the same residence at least three months in one calendar year.