Topic: Nu Program Highlights in the Areas of Food, Agriculture and Natural Resources, and the Future of the Nebraska Agricultural Industry

Authors

John Owens, University of Nebraska - LincolnFollow

Date of this Version

9-9-2003

Comments

Delivered September 9, 2003 to the Capital City Kiwanis Club.

Abstract

Tonight I would like very much to talk with you about the good news of the Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources at the University of Nebraska- Lincoln.

It is a pleasure to talk about good news. For the last two-plus years of my going-on three years in Nebraska, we have had a great deal of painful news to discuss, as Nebraska's budget crisis affected its land-grant university through budget cuts. Throughout the university and certainly in the Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources, cuts occurred that we did not want to make and never would have considered had they not been forced upon us. They were cuts our constituents did not like, either, and we have been through some difficult, difficult times, losing good programs and good people for lack of funding. These days we watch anxiously to see how the state's tax revenues come in each month, knowing if they do not match or exceed expectations, more budget cuts could occur, further diminishing what Nebraska's land-grant university can do for Nebraskans.