Almost a year to the day after he took office as the seventh president of the University of Nebraska, Hank Bounds, Ph.D., marked his formal installation by outlining an ambitious agenda for making NU one of the leading institutions in the country.
Before hundreds of guests Friday at Kimball Recital Hall on the University of Nebraska-Lincoln campus, including family members, friends, members of the Board of Regents and university colleagues, students, community members, Gov. Pete Ricketts and other policymakers, Dr. Bounds described to Nebraskans four broad “cornerstones” for success that he said will separate the university from the rest of the higher education world.
Welcoming Dr. Bounds
The following Nebraskans provided greetings to Dr. Bounds on behalf of key constituencies of the university:
- Gov. Pete Ricketts;
- Jeffrey P. Gold, M.D., chancellor of UNMC;
- Sam Meisels, founding executive director of NU’s Buffett Early Childhood Institute;
- Evan Calhoun, student body president at the University of Nebraska at Kearney;
- Susan Sheridan, George Holmes University Professor of Educational Psychology at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln;
- Katrina Brooks, assistant director of the Thompson Learning Community at the University of Nebraska at Omaha; and
- Matt Blomstedt, Nebraska commissioner of education.
“When I interviewed for this job, I said that the University of Nebraska had the potential to be a giant in higher education,” Dr. Bounds said during his address, part of a traditional ceremony in the academic world to celebrate a new era of leadership. “I said then — and I am even more convinced now — that we can be one of America’s great universities. …”
“Being a giant doesn’t mean we can be everything. Nor will becoming a giant be easy, particularly when you consider that we are operating in the most competitive higher education environment of our lifetimes. But if we focus on our priorities, then I believe we have an opportunity to define a new era in the history of the university.”
Friday’s ceremony, hosted by the NU Board of Regents, also included remarks from Board Chairman Kent Schroeder.
“Our mission to serve the state and its people has perhaps never been more relevant or important,” Schroeder said. “The University of Nebraska, like other institutions of higher learning, is increasingly called upon to lead the way in sustaining our state’s economic competitiveness, in providing an educated workforce, in ensuring excellent health care and quality of life, and in addressing the most urgent problems facing the world today.”
UNMC Chancellor Jeffrey P. Gold, M.D., welcomed Dr. Bounds as a fellow Nebraskan by choice.
“We decided that this was where we would live our days and make our mark,” Dr. Gold said.
“This university leads a Nebraska which once again asks its pioneers to ‘bust through’ — this time with technology, with creativity, in search of vistas never seen before. Vistas today that will become the foundation of an even brighter tomorrow,” he said.
Dr. Bounds became NU president on April 13, 2015. Previously he was commissioner of higher education in his native Mississippi.