UNL faculty can learn how to amplify the impact and reach of their research and creative work across the state through strengthened relationships with the university’s extension resources during a March 18 session sponsored by the university’s Cooperative Extension Division.
The inaugural Engagement Colloquium will take place from 3 to 5 p.m. March 18 at the Nebraska Union. Chuck Hibberd, dean of UNL’s Cooperative Extension Division, said faculty who are interested in finding ways to form new partnerships through cooperation with our 150 county-based extension educators are encouraged to attend.
The session will provide faculty with an overview of such strategic partnerships and guidance on ways to leverage this valuable resource.
The colloquium is part of the two-day Eureka: Engagement In the Modern Land-Grant University conference, taking place March 18 and 19 at UNL.
“The conference is focusing on what engagement in a modern land-grant university should look like,” Hibberd said. “The colloquium is an important part of that discussion.”
Lou Swanson, vice president for engagement and director of extension at Colorado State University, will deliver the colloquium’s keynote speech in the Nebraska Union Auditorium. Swanson has spent most of his 24-year career focusing on the sociology of agriculture and rural community studies and is CSU’s first vice provost for outreach and strategic partnerships.
During his keynote, Swanson will prompt listeners to rethink what it means for extension and engagement to be “campus-wide” as well as externally demand-driven.
The event also will feature an engagement fair for attendees to learn about projects and initiatives that engage Nebraskans. It will take place in the Nebraska Union Ballroom. For more information, click here. To register to exhibit at the fair by the March 12 deadline, click here.
— Steve Smith, University Communications