2023 was a year of change, achievement for Nebraska U

Dusk illuminates the Campus Visitors Center following rains, which reflect the welcome sign.

Craig Chandler | University Communication and Marketing

If hindsight is 20/20, 2023 may someday be acknowledged as a year of change and transformation for the University of Nebraska–Lincoln.

Throughout 2023, the university community continued in its mission of teaching, research and outreach, earned new accolades, performed groundbreaking and international headline-grabbing research, and conferred 5,508 degrees to the newest Husker alumni.

Husker Nation also broke records with the attendance of Volleyball Day in Nebraska, when it was announced during the Husker-Maverick volleyball match that 92,003 fans filled the 100-year-old Memorial Stadium. The feat of Husker faithful was broadcast and shared across the globe.

As we launch into 2024, Nebraska Today is pausing to take a final look back at the highlights and changing tides the university community experienced in 2023.

Nebraska volleyball players and fans take in the drone show at Memorial Stadium on Volleyball Day, Aug. 30, 2023.

New faces

The year began with the selection of a firm tasked with aiding the search for a new chancellor, following the December 2022 announcement that former Chancellor Ronnie Green would retire in June 2023. Ted Carter, now the former-president of the NU system, along with the Board of Regents, also formed a committee of faculty, staff, students and stakeholders to help lead the search, and held listening sessions in early 2023 to inform the process.

Campus said goodbye to Green in May, hosting a barbecue in his honor, and inviting him to speak during May commencement ceremonies, the last graduation he would preside over as chancellor.

Chancellor Ronnie Green hugs Charlie Foster as Jane Green hugs Reshell Ray in the reception line within Maxwell Arboretum.

Also in May, Rodney D. Bennett, former president of the University of Southern Mississippi, was named the priority candidate. The Board of Regents tapped him as the new chancellor June 22. Bennett began his tenure July 1 and hit the road to engage with Nebraskans.

In August, Carter announced his departure to lead Ohio State University. With the announcement, the Regents moved forward, launching a national search and naming Chris Kabourek, senior vice president and chief financial officer of the NU system, as interim president.

Many noteworthy appointments, including some new faces to Nebraska, were announced in 2023, and 153 were enrolled in new faculty orientation. These appointments included:

Dee Dee Anderson, vice chancellor for academic affairs
Elizabeth “Liz” Lorang, dean of University Libraries
Jim Coll, chief communications officer
Sherri Jones, interim vice chancellor for research and economic development
Christopher Marks, associate vice chancellor for faculty affairs

Chancellor Rodney Bennett rides in the cab of a John Deere sprayer.

Additionally, campus said goodbye to many longtime members of its community with the notable retirements of Sylvana Airan, John Hibbing, Danny Ladely, Jim Lewis, Brett Ratcliffe and Ron Yoder.

Orange cones and changing lanes

Campus construction continued in earnest in 2023, adding the familiar site of fencing, orange cones and detours.

Kiewit Hall, home of Nebraska Engineering, is scheduled to come online in January. Meanwhile, building of the new Westbrook Music Building is ongoing.

A boom lift outside of Kiewit Hall, which is being constructed.

Additionally, campus saw improvements to outdoor lighting, the University of Nebraska State Museum, which closed the museum at the end of 2023, and Henzlik Hall.

Impactful scholarship

The university again set records for research. In November, the Office of Research and Economic Development announced that sponsored research awards reached $194 million, an all-time high and a 12% increase over 2022. And, once again, Nebraska was among the top in patents awarded in the United States.

Husker researchers also grabbed headlines for their work. Notable research that garnered international attention included a study of nanoplastics released when microwaving baby products, led by Kazi Albab Hussain, a doctoral student, and the discovery of mouse mummies high up in the Andes Mountains by Jay Storz, Willa Cather professor of biological sciences. A first-of-its-kind study from John DeLong and colleagues found that a species of Halteria — microscopic ciliates that populate freshwater worldwide — can eat huge numbers of infectious chloroviruses that share their aquatic habitat. The discovery captured the global imagination.

Kazi Albab Hussain holds his son while removing a plastic container from a microwave — Kazi Albab Hussain (left) holds his son while removing a plastic container of water from a microwave. Hussain and colleagues at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln have found that microwaving such containers can release up to billions of nanoscopic particles and millions of microscopic ones.

The university also earned two large grants from the Mellon Foundation. A Husker team of historians and law experts were awarded a $1 million grant to establish an academic program enabling students to study marginalized groups in America’s history. In November, the Center for Great Plains Studies, in partnership with the Otoe-Missouria Tribe of Oklahoma, earned $1.58 million in funding for additional reconciliation efforts to reconnect the tribe to its former homeland.

Two Nebraska faculty received honors from the National Academy of Inventors. Daniel Ciobanu, professor of animal science, was named a fellow. Wei Qiao, Clyde Hyde Professor of electrical and computer engineering, was elected a senior member of the National Academy of Inventors.

Students place rocks on the Holocasut Memorial. In Jewish cemeteries the tradition is to place rocks on the grave rather than flowers. History of the Holocaust course students visit the Holocaust memorial in Lincoln’s Wyuka Cemetery.

Other highlights included:

A space suit-clad astronaut holds a potted corn plant, backgrounded by an autonomous robotic planter and a star-filled sky — Having developed a suite of technologies for better growing food on Earth — including Flex-Ro, an autonomous planter that can already seed a 5-acre field on its own — a Nebraska team is now looking to apply its agricultural expertise in space.

Impacts in (and out of) the classroom

Through classroom and extracurricular efforts, Huskers made an impact on campus and in the community.

The Rural Fellows program celebrated its 10th year of embedding students throughout Nebraska’s rural areas each summer to complete community projects.

Nebraska Engineering’s focus on service learning was a boon to the Lincoln Bike Kitchen, as students rebuilt bicycles for those in need.

Nebraska Engineering student Jacob Dalton (left) works with mentor Clayton Streich to repair a bike in the Lincoln Bike Kitchen. The Bike Kitchen is among a number of local organizations that the College of Engineering works with to offer service learning opportunities to its students.

In the classroom, students studied funky fermentations, got a masterclass from the touring company of “Hamilton,” designed an Art Chapel for the city of Lincoln, and curated an exhibit with Japanese peers for the International Quilt Museum. Law students began tackling cases in the new First Amendment Clinic.

The Husker Vote Coalition was named the Standout Nonpartisan Campus Student Voting Group award winner out of 178 nominated campuses during the 2023 ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge All In Awards Celebration.

Maggie Nielsen with the Husker Vote Coalition provides voter registration information to a student. [Craig Chandler | University Communication and Marketing] — Maggie Nielsen with the Husker Vote Coalition provides voter registration information to a student.

Individual endeavors also reverberated in Nebraska and beyond. Matt Price, a senior political science major, used his summer to help expand access to tax preparation by helping develop a high school curriculum program to train students as tax preparation helpers. And Luke Farritor, a senior in the Raikes School, became an international phenom as winner of the Vesuvius Challenge, an attempt to read scrolls recovered from the A.D. 79 eruption of Mount Vesuvius.

Student outreach and community service got a boost with the establishment of Engage Lincoln, a student-developed volunteer program housed in the Student Leadership, Involvement and Community Engagement Office.

In Memoriam

There were several notable deaths that were felt across campus in 2023.

Photo of David Fitzgibbon holding a video camera. — David "Fitz" Fitzgibbon

Longtime recorder of campus life, David “Fitz” Fitzgibbon, director of videography in University Communication and Marketing, died Jan. 20. William “Bill” Seiler, professor emeritus and 21-year chair of Communication Studies died Feb. 19. He served the university for 48 years. Broadcast legend Ron Hull died April 20. Barbara DiBernard, professor emerita in English and women’s and gender studies, and a trailblazer for the university and beyond, died Sept. 19.

Campus also said goodbye to professors, staff and supporters of various campus endeavors.

December celebration

Graduate Stella Lepkowski skips down the aisle at commencement. — Stella Lepkowski skips down the aisle as she celebrates being the sole December undergraduate in the College of Architecture. The Papillion native earned a Bachelor of Landscape Architecture.

The University of Nebraska–Lincoln capped the year with its annual December commencement ceremonies in Pinnacle Bank Arena. The event featured 1,159 Husker graduates receiving 1,172 graduate and undergraduate degrees. The grads hailed from 48 countries, 39 states (and the District of Columbia), and more than 150 Nebraska communities. Read more about how this newest group of graduates aims to change the world.