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[ Music ]
>> The thing we have that makes place great is we
know ourselves.
>> It's all about people and it's all about relationships.
>> To feel like you can walk up and have a conversation
with the leaders of the university,
to be able to get immediate feedback,
[inaudible] class size it's smaller.
That makes a difference for a lot
of our students [background music].
>> The community and how it embraces UNK I think also really
adds to the value of the educational
and life experience here at UNK.
>> I think our community takes a lot of pride and ownership
in the university, it is our university.
We recognize the value of the university,
we recognize the value of community growth, and the value
of having a safe community with jobs, good quality jobs.
And so it all fits into a nice community we call Kearney.
[ Music ]
>> Nothing's ever easy.
[Inaudible] rural Nebraska and it wasn't easy to bring
out new education and new buildings and new programming
to rural Nebraska and it was difficult.
But people's desire
for education has always been really strong
and they'll overcome a lot of hardships and a lot
of political difficulties to do what I think the citizens
and in particular the citizens
of rural Nebraska need and that's education.
And that's been the hallmark of whether it's Kearney normal
or the University of Nebraska Kearney.
>> This institution has been
through probably half a dozen name changes,
but once we became Kearney State College then things really began
to emerge pretty dramatically.
[ Music ]
Certainly the campus had not prepared for that sudden
and inevitable growth spurt that it went
on like an adolescent it just sort of popped up on the scene.
>> It was friendly, it was bustling, I just had a good vibe
from the people that were here, the students I met.
>> Good news travels rapidly
and that's exactly what happened to us.
We were very much on the cutting edge of this whole renaissance
of higher education in Nebraska, so it very gratifying
to watch how people begin to take recognition
of what was happening on this campus.
>> We didn't have enough classrooms for it,
the office space because we had
to hire new faculty, it was a deal.
I had better facilities from the high school I came from.
>> We were short of funding and facilities during
that time period and we were fortunate
to receive what we now call the West Center in 1972
that helped the campus a great deal with facilities.
But there was a need for a lot of facilities to be improved.
[ Music ]
>> When it comes to the college
of your choice Kearny State College invites you
to get to know to us.
>> Well I got here in 86 and the first thing I heard when I got
on campus was this buzz about the president
of the college not only saying
that Kearney State College was the best kept secret
in the State of Nebraska,
but that in fact we really were a university without the name.
>> I'm William Nestor, president of Kearny State College,
the most dynamic college in the Nebraska.
>> I think that there was an emerging future
to the institution that really wasn't evident yet,
but you could feel it, you could sense it.
>> We needed a change, we were much larger
than the other state colleges, but we were somewhat held back.
>> As Kearney State College had grown
in its numbers President Nestor had brought the issue
up with the Board of Trustees relative to budget.
>> It was really a point where Kearney had grown too large
for the state college system and they were more than the size
of the other institutions put together,
we did not fit very well.
And so the citizens of the community began to say look,
we need things for the campus.
We need better residence halls, we need better classrooms,
we need the opportunity to expand, help us.
>> The scuttlebutt was
that Nestor had been giving this conversation a go for two
or three times and the Board of Trustees was pretty adamant
that they weren't going to do much.
>> And those who knew Bill Nestor knew that he was a man
that did not understand N-O.
>> He was like a dog once he got a hold of you he was going
to shake you until he got what he wanted.
>> He was at the point of saying well then we may have
to shake the cage up a little bit
and see what other ways there might be to get a designation
as a university
and an accompanying larger fund of resources.
>> He just made it a mission, a personal mission,
a professional mission, to move this institution
to the next higher level.
>> He had a vision of what he wanted UNK to be
or Kearney State College and it was to be basically a university
of stature and he never wavered from that goal.
>> Well the goal is to prepare students for the 21st century.
It's a dynamic institution.
>> He not only had an imagination
that this is what Kearney State College could become,
but in his mind it was already there.
>> That's the reason today on our campus the lounge
that connects Nestor Hall is called University View
after Bill Nestor.
[ Music ]
>> Well I don't think there was too much controversy
about whether we were a university,
the controversy was more was well how would we be governed
if we became a university, would we be separate,
how could we still be part of the state college system.
I happen to be on faculty senate so I conducted a survey
and looked at all the colleges and universities
within a 17 state area kind of in the Midwest here
and compared all the schools based on enrolment,
types of program offered and found that yeah,
we were one of the largest institutions offering
graduate degrees.
And there were only a couple of us still called a college.
We also conducted a name survey of the faculty
if we did become a university what should our name be
and the runaway winner in that was Nebraska State University.
>> There was a clear division among the alumni because many
of them thought they would lose their identity if we became part
of the university system.
So they were proud Kearney State alumni,
they were proud Nebraska State Teachers College alumni,
but at the same time I think they knew
that it also would enhance their degree as well.
Students were concerned with cost,
but we generally had very strong student support
for having the university experience.
>> My good friend, Scott Moore, we decided that we wanted
to get involved in the student government.
I must say that, you know, it made me feel like, you know,
the university valued me because they trusted me
to join these meetings on behalf of the students.
>> There were more people who were really
like this is a bad idea than there were it was a good guy.
And the one guy who was saying this is a really good idea
and really pushing it was Nestor.
And in terms of being a good poker player everybody just kept
saying it isn't going to happen, it isn't going to happen.
And Bill was the guy who said well,
you know what it's going to happen.
If we have to play hardball politics with it this and that,
if I have to use all of my political capital.
And I think the Board
of Trustees never really believed him.
Things took a turn towards reality when Jerome Warner,
Senator Warner, sort of picked up this issue
as a priority issue for himself in the legislature.
>> I got wind of the fact that the senator
from Kearney was gathering other senators' names in support
of a resolution for the legislature
to bring Kearney State and the three other state colleges
in as a separate university system.
The primary problem was we would become competitive
and that's to me a real danger.
Therefore, I got a hold of Senator Warner immediately.
>> Senator Warner who was the Dean of the legislature
and had been there for many, many years,
was head of the Appropriations Committee,
was the most powerful senator in the state.
He told the story of sitting on his tractor thinking
about this issue, deciding you know Kearney really was a
university and the best way to handle that was to bring them
into the university system.
>> It was a difficult situation
because there were several legislators that were not
in favor of us moving from the state college system
to the university.
>> You know, I think one
of the comments was Lincoln rues the day
when they ever brought Omaha into the university system.
And the people in Omaha were offended saying,
now wait a minute we did not dilute the university system.
Well that brought all the Omaha senators on board.
>> I think UNO and the medical center were instrumental
in our being able to move in a different direction.
>> But you know the bill winds up being challenged in court,
the majority of the Supreme Court agrees
that it's unconstitutional.
But if you know your law
and your history it takes a super majority
in the Nebraska Supreme Court
to overturn an act of the legislature.
And so that process, even though a majority
of the Supreme Court said it is unconstitutional
because they didn't have a super majority the law
became effective.
And then in 1991 well, we officially became part
of the university system.
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>> I must say it has been one of the joys of my life
to see the accomplishment as a result of that
that had occurred both in terms of the university as a totality
and as an individual part of the university system.
It's just marvelous, it's almost beyond belief.
[ Music ]
>> Now that said, that doesn't mean
that everything fit together the way that you thought it would.
>> You know, a name doesn't make you great.
You got to walk the talk.
>> Once the legal issue was resolved there were a lot
of questions.
>> There was a transition team developed to work with Lincoln
to help organize our thought processes
and our behaviors and whatever else.
And I can remember about the second
or third transition team meeting that we had and one
of these high-rollers said wait a minute, wait a minute,
don't you understand what's happening here.
You're joining us, we're not joining you.
>> I think the challenges were that we had whole new systems
that we had to work with and also the expectations
for the faculty and the staff changed as we became a part
of the University of Nebraska system.
We went to more of a sort of about research and such as that.
>> That was one of the issues.
Now whether it came because we were a university issue
or whether it was the evolution of higher education
because I think that's part of it.
>> I think both the faculty
and the administrative community together they looked
that one right square in the eyes and didn't blink.
And decided two things.
One, yes we're going to ratchet up our requirements
for research, we're going to ratchet
up our scholastic requirements for faculty, but we're not going
to do that at the cost of leaving the students.
We're not going to leave our undergraduate students behind.
So what we're going to do is prioritize
for our campus undergraduate research
and place a big emphasis
on our faculty not only doing their research, but engineering
into that research model,
a way to continually engage the undergraduate students.
>> It took some time, but I was really proud
of the faculty how they really got involved
in a little different atmosphere.
>> The thing that I remember most is the sense
of [inaudible] energy that this institution developed
for itself.
>> The newer faculty were absolutely delighted,
it's like wow we get to be here in the ground floor
of this very exciting thing that's obviously going
to be long and transitional, but it's very --
it's all headed in the right direction.
I mean we're talking about resources, collaboration,
advanced research, you know, moving pedagogy forward.
It was -- it's a very exciting period of time.
>> It was a very different place, a different institution,
but with the same ethos, the same sense of commitment
to students, undergraduate,
as well as graduate students in selected program.
So it was a wonderful mix of old and new.
>> It seems like our name and our prestige went up immensely
and I think that helped us to gain more recognition not only
in the state, but in the area and even in the country.
>> If you really look at the heart
of what's made it better it's the quality
of the faculty we were able to attract.
The faculty was always good at Kearney State College,
I mean and they were tremendous teachers, very dedicated
with the resources they had.
But once we became part of the University of Nebraska
and that was on the job description we got a whole
different type of candidate, young,
aggressive faculty members who had a research ability
that enhanced their teaching and they loved to teach.
And so what was always the foundation of the campus
and that is caring for students and teaching was enhanced
by the quality of the faculty who came in.
>> Maybe we lucked out, maybe it says a lot about the type
of people who make up the Kearney community.
Maybe it says an awful lot about how fortunate we were
that the older faculty and leadership worked very well
with the new faculty that came in.
But when it was all said and done we sort of came
out of the tunnel at the other end as the University
of Nebraska at Kearney.
with our character and our community intact.
>> People worked hard when we were Kearney State College,
but the resources just weren't there.
When you walk across campus now you see the remodeled business
school, you see the health education center,
you see the new education building, Lunar Hall of Science,
the athletic facilities, the intramural facility.
These are things I really don't think would have happened
if we'd have stayed in the state college system.
So what you see -- physically see at UNK is a direct result
of being in the University of Nebraska system.
And with that comes the quality education
that the students want and get.
[ Music ]
>> It is the best place for an undergraduate to go in the State
of Nebraska, that's what's important.
There is not a reduction in quality because we are
in the center of the state, high quality.
So Kearney is what Kearney has always been student-centered it
just now has a much higher quality of faculty,
facilities and private support.
Small faculty student ratios remain the same.
That is the hallmark of the campus.
We know who you are, we care who you are and we have the quality
to enhance your value and make you a tremendous citizen.
That will never change here.
>> To the people that have been here before myself laying
down the base or the foundation I would say
that they have done an excellent job.
That their work and their dedication, their passion is not
in vain and it's just amazing what they have done.
>> The last 25 years have gone so quickly
and I don't think anybody could have envisioned the massive
change that has happened physically
and from a people perspective on this campus.
But that's the last 25, I think the exciting times are what's
the 25 years hold.
>> The future couldn't be brighter.
Collaboration for example with the University
of Nebraska Medical Center.
That collaboration between the Colleges of Nursing
and Allied Health Professions at UNMC and UNK bodes well
for the future, not only in those college areas
and the delivery of healthcare to rural Nebraska,
but also in terms of next steps with other colleges.
We've begun to make similar steps in collaboration
with UNL in engineering.
>> Our ability to access programming
to collaboratively work with the other campuses should never
be underestimated.
So I see more targeted programming, more collaboration
with the other campuses leveraging their strength
and our strength.
I see University Village growing and enhancing the community
of Kearney making Kearney a great place to come to live,
to work and also to engage with the university.
>> The partnership that we have in our community is outstanding
and this is another example where we can work together
and meet needs of the community
and also the needs of the university.
The success of UNK it's pivotal to the success of Kearney.
>> Universities do lots of things
that are really important to society.
I want to make sure that the University
of Nebraska is the best place in the country to be a student.
And one of the ways that we can do that is to ensure
that students regardless of what their background is graduate
on time, and that our campuses are accessible,
affordable.
Kearney can do that and Kearney can lead the way
for the rest of the country.
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