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   from the issue of February 19, 2004

     
 
  Work across disciplines is a trademark of CASNR, dean says

Waller urges students: Listen for opportunities

 BY TOM HANCOCK, UNIVERSITY COMMUNICATIONS

Steven Waller’s career has been one of surprises.


Steven Waller became dean of the College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources in June 2002 after moving into administration...
 
Steven Waller became dean of the College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources in June 2002 after moving into administration from a post as an associate professor in range science. Photo by Brett Hampton.

 
Now dean of the College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources, Waller’s initial career goal was to be a forest ranger. But then some strong mentors helped him focus.

“It’s just being open to opportunities, and either being smart enough or lucky enough to pay attention to the right people in your life,” Waller said.

Waller grew up in Indianapolis. He met his future wife, Jessie Ellen Simone, while at Purdue University, where he earned his undergraduate degree in conservation in 1971. He also has a doctorate in range science from Texas A&M.

After his first job, as assistant professor in animal science at South Dakota State University, Waller came to Nebraska in 1978 as an associate professor in range science. He moved into administration on a partial basis in 1989, became interim dean in 2000 and full-time dean in June 2002.

While students often think professors and administrators follow a straight and premeditated strategy to reach a career goal, Waller said, his experience differed.

An introvert in high school, Waller avoided public speaking and envisioned himself as a forest ranger. He started college as a pre-forestry major, thinking he would spend his time in a forest, watching for fires and enjoying the environment.

Waller’s father encouraged him to pursue other possibilities. The turning point came at Purdue, when professor Pat Docter asked Waller to be a lab teaching assistant. Although he wasn’t particularly interested, Waller took the job to supplement his income, and found, to his surprise, that he enjoyed it.

The lab job brought more interaction with faculty, and a chance to see what faculty do. Waller found he liked the university setting. Docter advised him to attain a Ph.D. and bypass the master’s. Waller enrolled at Texas A&M in range science because it offered a particular topic of interest to him: nutrient cycling with radioactive tracers in a grassland ecosystem.

Few universities offer doctoral-level range science programs, Waller said. The discipline is small and tight-knit, offering opportunities to meet with others at conferences. Waller met UNL professor L.J. Perry at a conference, and set his sights on Lincoln.

Jim Stubbendieck, now director of the Center for Great Plains Studies at UNL, was a year ahead of Waller at A&M. Stubbendieck went to the Panhandle Research and Extension Center in Scottsbluff, then came to UNL in 1978 as an associate professor in agronomy. He recommended Waller apply in 1978 for an opening that Waller filled.

“Jim’s help and mentoring through the process was invaluable,” Waller said.

The move proved successful for Waller and his family. “I consider us Nebraskans. It’s just a wonderful place to be,” Waller said.

Waller believes strong relationships between faculty and students are key.

“I know how important the faculty role is in the lives of students. It’s much more than delivering lectures and grading exams,” he said.

Advising and mentoring, for example, are taken on by all professors, administrators and staff in the college. These relationships are as important as the roles of teaching, research and extension, he said.

Faculty have a significant professional and personal investment in the institution, Waller said, and have formed relationships with Nebraskans across generations. This investment serves the college well in comparison to its peers, Waller said.

Every university has faculty expertise, Waller said. “Uniquely different (at UNL) is the values and ethics that our faculty bring to the subject matter they teach,” Waller said.

Another strength, he said, is the college’s tight interdisciplinary focus. For example, the values of production and stewardship are shared across the agricultural and environmental disciplines.

“Across our majors,” Waller said, “what we have is a consistent ability to recognize the importance of both stewardship of the resources and the ability to properly utilize resources for food and fiber production.”

This focus is unusual, he said, and is important for students’ problem-solving abilities when they get out of school, because textbook cases don’t exist in the real world.

Waller said the climate at the university encourages these interdisciplinary efforts.

“What I have found, and what is so exciting, is that the collegiality across campus has improved over the time I have been in administration. There is more enthusiasm for doing things jointly,” Waller said.

Waller praises Chancellor Harvey Perlman and Arts and Sciences Dean Richard Hoffmann for encouraging inter-campus collaboration.

“We have been able to do so many things that we wanted to do for so long,” Waller said, such as the formation of a Statistics Department that brings together biometry, mathematics and other disciplines.

While budget woes have been challenging, Waller said they have raised some positive points.

“The budget’s been a dominant part of my life since I started the permanent position. I’ve only been dean during a period of budget challenge,” he said.

“It has been a time when people could retreat into a comfort zone and wait for things to get better,” he said. “But during this period our faculty just kept cranking along with innovation, new ideas and new courses, and the students have worked harder and harder.”

Waller said that future faculty retirements will require careful consideration in hiring replacements. The goal is to find the kind of young faculty members who have the same civic, community and professional service ethic, and responsibility to the traditions of the college, he said.

“I want them to be excellent researchers to the extent that they have a research appointment,” Waller said. “If they don’t they will still be excellent scientists. I want them to have that sense of commitment to the student. And I want the students to see the excitement of being at a Research 1 institution where knowledge is created.

“I want it all from faculty: be good with students, good in the classroom, and good scientists or extension people.”

Waller cites James Van Etten, Allington Professor of Plant Pathology and the only member of the National Academy of Sciences at UNL, as the exemplar. One would be hard-pressed, Waller said, to find such a prominent faculty member at another university who, like Van Etten, finds time to work with - or even just chat with - undergraduates.

“There’s no aura or status that takes faculty away from what is best for students,” Waller said.


GO TO: ISSUE OF FEBRUARY 19

NEWS HEADLINES FOR FEBRUARY 19

Waller urges students: Listen for opportunities
Second round of Gallup surveys coming up
UNL to host first water law conference
Big Red Road Show is Feb. 29
Education Expert Eisner to Lecture Feb. 26
Initiative could expand UNL’s role in research
Week calls attention to eating disorders

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