By the Numbers: Aim 3: Emphasize and prioritize research and creative activity across the college

Aim 3: Emphasize and prioritize research and creative activity across the college

In the summer of 2022, the faculty at our college joined forces to identify areas of excellence within our academic community. As a result, we established a dedicated section on the college's website, specifically designed to showcase and promote our research and creative activities. This section serves as a valuable resource, providing information on our research centers and highlighting the notable achievements of our faculty in their respective fields.

To strengthen our commitment to research and faculty development, we welcomed a new associate dean for research and faculty affairs, Cory Armstrong, in August 2022. The associate dean has made it a priority to support our faculty by organizing workshops aimed at advancing their research and creative endeavors. These workshops were held throughout the year for tenure-track and non-tenure-track faculty, focusing on reviewing promotion and tenure policies and procedures. Additionally, the associate dean established the Faculty Innovation and Exploration Series, a formalized platform for brown bag workshops that rotates topics between teaching, research/creative activity, and diversity.

In the fall of 2022, the university launched an external mentoring program that provided faculty with funding to engage with a mentor outside UNL. Five faculty participated in the program during 2022-2023, including:

• Kelli Boling, assistant professor 
• Ciera Kirkpatrick, assistant professor 
• Brian Petrotta, assistant professor 
• Jason Stamm, assistant professor 
• Jessica Walsh, assistant professor 

During the 2022-2023 academic year, several faculty members enthusiastically submitted grant applications as part of the University-wide Grand Challenge initiative. All the applications were interdisciplinary and submitted in collaboration with partners across the UNL campus. We have compiled a list of these outstanding projects, showcasing the diverse research range within our college.

• Changmin Yan: Release of Micro- and Nano-Plastics from Plastic Food Containers Characterization: Risk Assessment, Socioeconomic and Health Impacts
• Changmin Yan: Improving Healthcare Access for Underserved Populations
• Changmin Yan and Jemalyn Griffin: Inspiring Outcomes for Children through Equitable Early Childhood Education Experiences (E4)
• Bryan Wang: MindVerse: A Multi-layer and Cross-domain Computing Framework to Model How Information Drives the Human Emotional Universe
• Bryan Wang: Quantum Approaches Addressing Global Threats
• Cory Armstrong and Bryan Wang: Community Climate Resilience on the Great Plains
• Bryan Wang: Nebraska Experiential Program for Innovative Quantitative Education (EPIQuE)
• Maria Marron and Byran Wang: Media and Information Literacy (MIL) in the Age of Algorithms
• Ciera Kirkpatrick and Jessica Walsh: Scientific Nebraska

Furthermore, we have fostered collaborations with other colleges at UNL to secure an additional year of access to Sprinklr, an advanced social media analytics software. Our Public Insight Lab utilizes this software to analyze social media activity, supporting various research projects. Recognizing the importance of survey data, the associate dean for research and faculty affairs worked alongside faculty from the Methodology and Evaluation Research Core and the Office of Research and Economic Development to obtain a university-wide enterprise license for Qualtrics survey software, expanding its accessibility to our faculty members.

We also continued our tradition of winning the University of Nebraska Research Slam, when Valerie Jones took home the grand prize on Nov. 15, 2022.

In November of 2022, the University of Nebraska Foundation initiated a comprehensive fundraising campaign, Only in Nebraska, with the goal of raising $14.7 million for our college over the next five years. Within this campaign, our college's fundraising priorities include a focus on raising $5 million to establish endowed professorships. These professorships will provide our faculty with graduate assistants and offer additional research support, further enhancing our academic environment.

By embracing these initiatives and collaborations, our college is dedicated to fostering a vibrant research and creative community that empowers our faculty to excel and contribute to knowledge and innovation in their respective disciplines.

Review of the targets

In the fiscal year 2023, the University underwent a budget cut that reduced available faculty funding in the college by approximately $150,000 or the equivalent of two faculty lines. Despite this reduction, the college maintained the number of tenure-line faculty at 20.

The college saw a slight decline in peer-reviewed publications dropping from 20 in the calendar year 2021 to 17 in the calendar year 2022.  The college had three faculty departures in 2022-2023, two professors of practice and one professor. Beginning in the fall of 2023, the college will welcome four new faculty, including three assistant professors. We expect the increase in tenure-track faculty will increase our peer-reviewed publications in future years.  

Review of the Strategies

Uninitiated: Indicates that work has not started on a strategy beyond a couple of initial conversations
In Progress: Indicates that work is actively ongoing on the strategy
Finished: Indicates that all work is completed or that the remaining work is maintaining the existing level of activity