Nevada’s Private Sector And The Need For Improved Connections With Higher Education
By: Doug Busselman, Executive Vice President
Over the past couple of months there has been a lot of time, energy and cooperation expended to connect Nevada’s Land Grant University with one of the segments of the economy that this institution was originally intended to serve – agriculture. The proposal to do away with the College of Agriculture, Biotechnology and Natural Resources (CABNR) at the University of Nevada, Reno caused the state’s agricultural interests to rally in support of retaining the College as a College and with the cooperation of the University’s administration an agreement was reached to keep a revamped College in place.
More work is needed in infusing agriculture’s needs for research and education into the framework that has been crafted, but with the willingness of those at the College and the engagement of the stakeholders we can improve the relevancy of the programs and activities carried out to benefit Nevada as a whole.
During the work of the Nevada Vision Stakeholders group the same concept emerged in the conversations about how there needed to be more investment in research and development so the state’s higher educational community could provide a necessary bridge to take our state to the promised land of economic diversity. Included in the current draft of what the Vision group will be working to finalize at the Friday, May 14th meeting is a mention of this approach.
Although I am thinking the context of the proposed idea for increasing investment in higher educational research needs some tweaking, it does include the seed of the idea that needs attention. This light bulb went on during the discussions of the Vision group and has been increasing in intensity with the up-close experience in working on saving CABNR.
The nature of our conversations and interactions with Nevada’s Higher Educational community need to change and their interaction with Nevada’s private sector also needs to take on a different approach. For the most part the emphasis has been on how they don’t seem to have enough money (regardless of how much money they obtain from the various places they acquire funds) and we are lead to believe if they only had some more – they would eventually get around to doing something that would help make a contribution to the state’s well-being.
It is time for this “promise” to start taking shape and it can do so with University researchers connecting in an on-going fashion with the real world, outside the ivory towers. It also involves the leadership of the various institutions, which make up the state’s Higher Education System, connecting with the private sector for more than just fund-raising, adjusting their message to embody the details of what exactly is meant by “the new engines of the economy” and doing some show-and-tell on how their educational and research programs actually relate to delivery of these building blocks.
Although I think much of the actual components of the promise of the state’s Higher Educational potential is not actually available for use right now, it could be with a focus by administration to turn their colleges and research capacity into something other than a self-serving constellation of entities in search of more funding. Delivery of content and outcomes could be a new focus which would earn resources as well as benefit those picking up the tab.
Building a stronger economic condition for Nevada’s private sector, as partners who understand the value of there being a strong private sector, would serve us all much better than the current philosophy that the private sector owes Higher Education something – and they better start paying more…
Over the past couple of months there has been a lot of time, energy and cooperation expended to connect Nevada’s Land Grant University with one of the segments of the economy that this institution was originally intended to serve – agriculture. The proposal to do away with the College of Agriculture, Biotechnology and Natural Resources (CABNR) at the University of Nevada, Reno caused the state’s agricultural interests to rally in support of retaining the College as a College and with the cooperation of the University’s administration an agreement was reached to keep a revamped College in place.
More work is needed in infusing agriculture’s needs for research and education into the framework that has been crafted, but with the willingness of those at the College and the engagement of the stakeholders we can improve the relevancy of the programs and activities carried out to benefit Nevada as a whole.
During the work of the Nevada Vision Stakeholders group the same concept emerged in the conversations about how there needed to be more investment in research and development so the state’s higher educational community could provide a necessary bridge to take our state to the promised land of economic diversity. Included in the current draft of what the Vision group will be working to finalize at the Friday, May 14th meeting is a mention of this approach.
Although I am thinking the context of the proposed idea for increasing investment in higher educational research needs some tweaking, it does include the seed of the idea that needs attention. This light bulb went on during the discussions of the Vision group and has been increasing in intensity with the up-close experience in working on saving CABNR.
The nature of our conversations and interactions with Nevada’s Higher Educational community need to change and their interaction with Nevada’s private sector also needs to take on a different approach. For the most part the emphasis has been on how they don’t seem to have enough money (regardless of how much money they obtain from the various places they acquire funds) and we are lead to believe if they only had some more – they would eventually get around to doing something that would help make a contribution to the state’s well-being.
It is time for this “promise” to start taking shape and it can do so with University researchers connecting in an on-going fashion with the real world, outside the ivory towers. It also involves the leadership of the various institutions, which make up the state’s Higher Education System, connecting with the private sector for more than just fund-raising, adjusting their message to embody the details of what exactly is meant by “the new engines of the economy” and doing some show-and-tell on how their educational and research programs actually relate to delivery of these building blocks.
Although I think much of the actual components of the promise of the state’s Higher Educational potential is not actually available for use right now, it could be with a focus by administration to turn their colleges and research capacity into something other than a self-serving constellation of entities in search of more funding. Delivery of content and outcomes could be a new focus which would earn resources as well as benefit those picking up the tab.
Building a stronger economic condition for Nevada’s private sector, as partners who understand the value of there being a strong private sector, would serve us all much better than the current philosophy that the private sector owes Higher Education something – and they better start paying more…
Posted by Doug Busselman at 5/12/2010 6:07 AM 
Categories: Nevada
Tags: Nevada Nevada Vision Group University of Nevada Higher Education Research and Development
Categories: Nevada
Tags: Nevada Nevada Vision Group University of Nevada Higher Education Research and Development
Why won't any interest groups or politicians (right, left, or center) call for passing SB 398? The SAGE Commission says it would save the State tens of millions of dollars.
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