Investiture Address Given by Chancellor Joanne Li

Good morning to our faculty, staff, students, and friends from across the world who could be a part of this ceremony today here in the Strauss Performing Arts Center in the heart of Omaha, Nebraska.

When I look out and see so many people here today to be part of this ceremony, I am truly touched, and inspired, by all of YOU. Please allow me to start today with words of thanks.

To my mother and late father, [Dr. Li wishes to thank you in Chinese.]

To my sisters, thank you for being here and celebrating with me today.

To Frank, my husband - thank you for always believing in me and being a patient coach and an amazing partner in this journey.

To my daughter Nicole and niece Bianca: life is so busy for young people. Thank you for flying in to be here.

To my in-laws, Rosie and Bob – thanks for flying from Naples Florida to come to sunny Omaha. To Fr. Mike, my brother-in-law, thanks for starting today with a prayer.

Regent Phares, along with our other seven publicly elected regents and four student regents, thank you for the trust and confidence you have placed in me, and the support you have shown UNO.

President Carter, thank you for the awesome words this morning, and the strong leadership you provide to the University of Nebraska system.

To Mayor Stothert, Rodrigo and Mary Lopez, and our many community partners, thank you for the continuing support of UNO and amazing partnership between our university and the city of Omaha.

To Elizabeth, Keristiena, Maeve, and Vivyonne, thank you as well for the beautiful words today on behalf of the UNO community you represent.

Last, but not least, please join me in thanking Dr. Jeffrey Gold for his leadership in the last four years of UNO. Thank you, Jeff.

HONOR THE PAST

The opportunity to stand here, where great visionaries like Dr. Ronald Roskens once stood is humbling.

He, along with the brave Maverick leaders beside him, built an amazing foundation of community service and access to academic excellence for all. Their work is the foundation upon which we build, and inspire, the future of Omaha.

This morning, I want to talk with you all about where we are going forward, but before we can talk about that, I feel the need to truly honor the history that has built to this moment.

The University of Nebraska at Omaha has been firmly anchored in the community as a cornerstone of economic and academic significance for over one hundred years since its inception in 1908.

Since those early days, UNO has served as a pillar of the community with strong ties to business, education, government, arts, and civic organizations and leaders. Thanks to generations of visionaries and the trust and investment from the community, the university has grown into a true bastion of academic excellence, athletic championship, and diversity and inclusiveness.

UNO is more than a university. Because of our city-wide partnerships and many service efforts throughout the metropolitan area, UNO is the intersection between university and city here in the heart of Omaha.

At UNO, we believe Omaha is our campus. On this campus, I have the privilege to meet people in every corner. Thank you for the warm welcome from every one of you

Omaha’s drive for excellence, adaptability, and collaborative service to community, combined with the amazing history of philanthropy and partnership made my choice to join UNO easy. Here, I feel deeply connected to what UNO stands for. Here, I am home.

Many people know I came here because UNO offered me a job. But some of you knew I came here because of Ted Carter. Our Nebraska university system president is a man with great vision and conviction. I respect Ted Carter very much because Ted (as we all fondly refer him) believes in and LOVES UNO. His passion for higher education and his appreciation of the good work being done by our colleagues here is observable and sincere. And, just like him, I know you have all taken time out of your schedules because you care about UNO as well.

In fact, your care made me realize how blessed I am to come in to work every day to serve this wonderful Maverick family. To be with YOU.

ACKNOWLEDGE THE PRESENT

This brings us, now, to the present. I want you to know, Mavericks, that I see you. As chancellor, I value decisive leadership that is clear and transparent to its constituents. This is why I have met with you in town halls, listening sessions, and my Cups with Jo so I could give you my undivided attention and find out what is most important to YOU.

From those sessions, I make a promise to you here. I will always be open and transparent, ready to listen, even if we may disagree. I will always care with attention and love with discipline because that is what a strong family does.

Today marks almost exactly the two-year anniversary of UNO’s announcement that we would go to spring break and then shift to remote learning upon the return to campus. Like many other campuses across the country, UNO has been challenged by the historic pressure and uncertainty of a global pandemic.

Friends, colleagues, the past two years have tested us. People always say, “only in crisis do we find out who we really are.” The last two years demanded that we must think differently. We have had to abandon long-held practices, adapt quickly, make mistakes, get up and do it all over again.

But Maverick family, we did not just survive, we THRIVED. That Maverick spirit and resilience – the core character of who we are as a university – is a significant factor in the path that has led us to this place.

Remember: We are the state’s top urban university, and we are the University of Nebraska.

We are Mavericks.

CELEBRATE OUR CURRENT INITIATIVES

My UNO family. You have embraced everything that makes an urban university strong. You were built to honor the journey of our students and recognize the trust that your community has placed in you. Yes, we have further to go, but there is so much you have done right already. In my short nine months as your chancellor, I am humbled by all the amazing achievements you have brought to this wonderful institution.

Your dedication to serve the community is second to none. Not only did UNO continue to offer our service-learning opportunities to the community through the pandemic, but while we embraced the emerging virtual environment, you EXPANDED the number of offerings to an all-time high of 249 service-learning courses and 153 community partners. Thanks to your dedication to our students and the community, we continued to provide that experiential learning for our students.

You have answered the call to make sure that a Maverick college experience can be more affordable. Through the efforts of Criss Library, our Digital Learning office, the UNO Bookstore, and General Education faculty and staff, UNO has been able to expand open access to promote more affordable texts and materials, making sure that more students than ever can have access to higher education. This collaboration has saved our students over $2M since Spring 2019, and ensured UNO stands at the forefront of an evolving higher education landscape.

You work hard to build lasting connections with our students. To our academic advisors and career counselors – the alpha and the omega of the student journey – I say thank you for your passion to serve our students. When I heard the lengths that our advisors and career counselors go to help our students succeed, I got emotional and proud. When students can see faculty and staff who know their story, who resemble them, and who fight for their success, they will be better able to relate and connect because our students know UNO cares. That connection is at the heart of our mission here and is a critical part of what changes a transaction into a true relation with UNO.

By ensuring our students feel connected to their school, we work hard to develop a self-sustaining, grassroots culture of kindness and ingenuity where Mavericks help lead future leaders. When students feel connected to their campus, they return time and again as invested alumni. And those alumni are the part of the proof of UNO’s impact on workforce development and economic growth.

Our impact is felt across the state of Nebraska. In a recent financial report conducted by Tripp Umbach and presented to the Board of Regents, UNO was found to have nearly $1 billion per year in economic impact in nearly every corner of the state -- $898 million to be exact. Or in other words, for every one dollar the state invested in NU System, we generated nine dollars in return. From improving student access to paid internships up through the development of cutting-edge research, UNO contributes to this impact.

Every action we take builds our momentum, and when we all work together, UNO goes to places. I am so excited to tell you that as of today, in just the first seven months of this fiscal year, UNO has already REACHED an outstanding $31.5M for sponsored research projects, surpassing our previous record of $26M in the highest year! Mavericks, this is because of YOUR passion, YOUR dedication, and YOUR inspiring work. And these awards will lead to greatly increased facilities and administrative dollars generated, which will help UNO sustain this upward trajectory in research. UNO’s momentum is unstoppable.

This growth is only possible because of your ability to show up, day after day, and prove to the world the meaning of Maverick Spirit. The amazing work across all our colleges gives Nebraska a competitive edge in attracting, educating, and retaining the talent we need to drive our state forward and improve everyone’s quality of life.

We do this through amazing offerings such as our biology program which has served increasing number of students while expanding its research productivity. This program is a cornerstone discipline and helps to prepare our students for a wide variety of fields in health careers, informatics, and more. It has also seen a rapidly growing enrollment among our students – nearly 23% growth in the past 5 years – 1 in 4 degrees awarded from the College of Arts and Science are now in biology. Through partnership with UNMC, the biology program’s outreach to high schools through the Urban Health Opportunities Program helps selected seniors gain admission to UNO and UNMC. We are producing an amazing pipeline that prepares the next generation of healthcare professionals.

UNO, you prepare our students to lead and revitalize economic development by working to educate an agile, critical-thinking workforce who is equipped with skills in science, technology, engineering, and math. This philosophy is at the center of the great work that UNO’s STEM TRAIL Center does every day on our campus. Our goal is simple. We want STEM education to be accessible to everyone at any age or any stage of life.

STEM education provides our learners with the opportunity to participate in the H3 jobs: high-demand, high-growth, and high-wage. UNO is set up to develop a high-quality workforce that positions Omaha as a community, and Nebraska as a state, to be competitive in the future economy: not just one year, not just five years, but ten years and even 50 years down the road. UNO is leading this charge of producing competitive workforce for now and the future.

You also lead the world in amazing research. In our Health and Human Science facilities, you conduct awe-inspiring research in gait rehabilitation, fall prevention, extremely affordable 3D printing of prosthetics, and so much more. In our Biomechanics lab, you have one of the LARGEST databases of human arterial tissues in the world with over 1,000 samples. Many, like Mrs. Ruth Scott, will tell you that UNO has THE best Department of Biomechanics in the world. And your research and discoveries allow students to gain first-hand experience with this research, making them stronger leaders in their field before they have even completed their degree.

The work being done at the College of Information Science & Technology is another example where this idea of preparing the future generation through experience becomes integral to its process. At IS&T our colleagues, through their applied technology research, help build a deeper relationship with the community through their Learn and Earn Initiative. Our colleagues work with area high schools to connect students who are interested in applied science careers directly with companies and organizations who can help cover the cost of attendance at UNO while also paying for the work they do. This sort of first-hand, experiential learning and real-world impact is exactly the work that builds UNO’s reputation as a bridge of education and service to Omaha.

It is also important, as a university, to remember who we are here to first serve in our roles as faculty and staff. We are here to serve our students, first and foremost. This is demonstrated so well by our College of Business Administration who have set an amazing pace in our efforts to prepare our students for the workforce. Even during the economic decline in the spring of 2020, job placement rates for our CBA students were 83%, and regularly about 80% of our interns have received full-time job offers at the end of their internship.

In addition to preparing future Mavericks to take the lead, you are also working hard to safeguard the world. UNO’s National Counterterrorism Innovation, Technology and Education Center – also known as NCITE – plays a vital role in defense and a Center of Excellence for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Your work, first begun from an initial $250,000 grant in 2013 to expand their capabilities, saw great success very quickly in identifying threats and emerging changes in the way terror groups operate. After all, our students and researchers were the first academic group to identify what would later be known to the world as ISIS.

Since those early successes, NCITE has grown through a historic $40 Million in grants, and now collaborates with 50 research partners across 18 universities along with the U.S. Government. Because of your work, UNO is now recognized internationally for its expertise and foresight in the prediction and prevention of terrorist attacks.

Of course, this level of public service is not new to UNO. Our College of Public Affairs & Community Service celebrates its 50^th Anniversary this year, in fact. Our faculty and staff work to prepare future Maverick leaders who will lead with world-class expertise, and in a recent U.S. News and World Report ranking, UNO’s School of Criminology and Criminal Justice was top ranked with universities such as Northeastern, Rutgers, and Michigan State.

These economic impacts and services to the community are important, but we also know that workforce development is about enriching the people of the community. UNO, your creative works inspire and leading our community through arts and humanities projects. Our College of Communication, Fine Arts and Media exemplifies this with truly amazing works that embrace the diversity and inclusiveness of our university and city. In fact, this very weekend in the Weber Fine Arts Theatre you can attend “Crossing the Street” festival of short plays, poetry, and spoken word that celebrates performers across a range of ethnicities, ages, and the gender spectrum.

And this summer, the Summer Music Theatre Academy will allow Omaha-area high school students the opportunity to learn from UNO Theatre faculty, Omaha South High faculty, as well as local and national professionals. These students and young artists will join national celebrities for the grand opening of the Gene Leahy Mall on the July Fourth weekend. I am so proud of the work our UNO community does to ensure that every member of the community can feel seen and understood.

Our Division 1 athletic programs continue to make strides. Our student athletes are competitive, driven and disciplined. Our coaches and athletic staff are committed to our student success. While providing the best student athlete experience, we are here to grow a whole candidate. UNO cares about our students in and out of their classrooms. I am so proud to share that our student athletes have achieved an average GPA of 3.48 for a D1 school.

In so many ways, UNO has arrived.

INSPIRE THE FUTURE

Now, regarding the future, I want everyone to be like the kid in the back seat. We must keep asking: “are we there yet?”

And the answer is - No, we are not and I will tell you why. We’re not there yet, because our work is not done when it comes to identifying the resources and instruction methods that our students need. We are not even close.

For context: more than a third of our students are classified as Pell grant eligible. Nearly 40% of our students are first-generation with many of them as the first one in their entire family to attend college. Almost a quarter of our students are called Nebraska Promise, with a household income of $60,000 or less. What does this mean? One in every two UNO students requires substantial financial help and/or academic support. We can and need to do more to ensure ALL our students are able to reach their goals.

At UNO, perhaps the most important goal is to empower our students through higher education and improve their social and economic mobility. If we can move students from the lowest tier, up one or even two tiers, then we lift not only our students, but their families, and by extension our community, and our state.

Our search for the best resources, the best methods that help our students succeed, needs to be a top priority, because ensuring the success of all our students will ultimately mean a stronger workforce to lead the future.

I believe a good university must be forward-thinking. But a great university must demonstrate its commitment to all humankind. We are here to uphold the morals and ensure success for all. We are here to build our community by inclusion, not exclusion. We are here to show that we achieve outcomes through collaboration, not vicious competition. We are here to demonstrate that true strength is lifting people up, not by pushing them away. As our state’s ONLY urban university, we are here to lead by example. We want to create a “House of Questions” featuring our recent donation from the artist Samuel Bak. We want to engage our community to ask questions on human rights, genocide, and the Holocaust but more importantly we want to challenge our learners to reflect the power of hope and the value of freedom.

We are inspired to live a motto that “all are welcome”. We understand diversity and inclusiveness are critical to build a vibrant workforce. We embrace technology in almost all aspects of our operation, yet we recognize the significance of humanity and personal relationships. The ability to love and care, the power to appreciate arts and history, the capacity to be creative and dream big: THIS is what UNO stands for. We build a university as part of a compassionate society, we do it not because every university says so. We do it not because it is easier to just check the box. We do it because it is the RIGHT thing to do.

There are two important tasks we must accomplish. FIRST, UNO must improve in student performance. UNO’s challenge in student performance is not only our problem. It is also a hurdle for the community. We can’t improve and advance if we don’t have honest discussion. We are not quite there, my friends. UNO from this point onward will commit to the following. Completion of degree, time to degree, high retention, and strategic recruitment. Let me repeat: Completion of degree, time to degree, high retention, and strategic recruitment. We will use our resources wisely and exert strategy to support the four goals while reducing student loans if not eliminating. Performance is the first and foremost of our responsibility to honor UNO’s commitment to our students, our state, and our community.

The SECOND task that arises from this commitment is that we are guiding the professionals for tomorrow by being a leader in workforce development. By focusing and emphasizing our people, UNO will build up regional stability and economic prosperity.

UNO will invest in the economy of the future. We will deploy resources in strategic areas we believe will produce candidates and quality workforce. Five years from now, my wish is that UNO will be THE university of choice. By providing opportunity and exceptional education through inclusion. UNO shall embrace diversity and inclusiveness of thoughts and experiences.

We understand the challenges of people living in an urban setting. But we have compassion for candidates from western Nebraska, other regions, and international as well. Because as an urban university, UNO embraces all candidates.

At UNO: all are welcome. All can and will thrive here with us.

Higher education is and will continue to be defined by urbanization. In 1994, Harvard Business Professor Michael Porter suggested that urban universities spark new thinking and are well-positioned to revitalize economic growth. He was not alone in this belief. Carnegie Mellon Professor Richard Florida once argued that the city is a “fountain of economic growth and intellectual activity,” placing the university and its knowledge at the center of economic development and technology across the nation. By 2024, Omaha is projected to grow to 1M population. Our people are our strength.

UNO builds on our collaboration with the community – a true character of an urban university. We take leadership in economic development with traditional students, learners of all ages and backgrounds. We tackle local problems and national policy issues. Along with our business leaders and partners here in Omaha, we build our character on experiential learning and hands-on experience.

As a first-generation college student, I grew up poor. I know the journey to the finish line and the many hurdles our students face. UNO has and always will show compassion for those candidates. We will break the stereotypes these students face. At UNO, no matter how you arrived, your ambition and your passion is what will bring you forward.

It is for these candidates and many others that we have programs and initiatives like the Thompson Learning Community and many other organizations like Scott Scholars which is devoted to the success of our Mavericks and guiding them to lead Nebraska’s workforce.

UNO also has a tremendous heart. This is a significant part of what drew me here, and what inspires me now. Our goal is to educate students from all walks, all stages in life because education is a lifelong process. UNO will participate in reskilling and upskilling our current workforce by providing micro-credentialing for busy professionals. We will work with our community college partners to meet the demand of the workforce needs.

If I can share this vision with you today, I want to more than double the number of active internship opportunities our students have available. That’s right – DOUBLE. In fact, this very day – and from this moment forward – I am committed to working with our business leaders and employers in the region to provide paid internship for all our students so that our students can get one foot in the door to the house of opportunities.

To quote the Umbach economic study again, “There could be no better investment than in a program that focuses on internship opportunity because it has three major benefits: the interns make the partnering companies stronger, these opportunities lead to greater retention and alumni impact, and it helps develop greater social mobility for those from underserved or disadvantaged backgrounds.”

But we must also remember that UNO researches and tackles real problems as well. Let me give you an example. While UNO is proud that two-thirds of the teachers in the metro area hold a degree from UNO, the state of Nebraska is still tackling with teacher shortages. Similarly, we are here to tackle pilot shortages, the unexpected advancements of technology, and its potential risks to cyber crimes and national security to name a few. To be at UNO is to peer into the future.

YES, we have challenges, but as many of our colleagues will tell you:

Mavericks are independent thinkers and entrepreneurial risk-takers. To succeed, we must demonstrate courage, bravery, and honor. This will be our commitment to success for all. But, Omaha, the truth is we cannot go there on our own.

As UNO’s chancellor, I speak now to Omaha, to all of Nebraska. I ask you to come along on this journey with us. Colleagues, students, and community partners, I ask you to speak out for YOUR university. Join this choir and sing our song. If we want a better future for Nebraska, we must do it together.

Every GREAT city has a top-notch public research university. And UNO is the only 4-year public university in the city of Omaha. Investment in UNO is investing in the future of Nebraska.

I want to end my speech today by reading a wonderful quote from Brother Thomas as shared by our dear friend Bernie Pucker.

“We are not really whole unless we take responsibility for others, and for the whole world.”

I, and UNO, accept this responsibility to serve the world boldly.

To the world, I say: UNO has arrived. Are you ready to receive us?