07/25/2004

J.B. Milliken, the incoming president of the University of Nebraska, will spend his first days on the job traveling with his family from west to east across the state. The tour will begin in the Scottsbluff-Gering area at an informal meeting with university staff members and area residents in the Panhandle. It will continue through a number of Nebraska communities, including Sidney, Ogallala, North Platte, Lexington, Hastings, Kearney, and Grand Island. At each stop there will be opportunities for planned or impromptu visits.

Milliken will spend Thursday, August 5, in Lincoln getting settled in his new office and meeting with his staff, then head for Nebraska City to preside at his first Board of Regents meeting on Friday and Saturday, completing the journey from the western to eastern borders of the state. During the statewide journey, the Milliken children will take breaks to visit several museums, take a wagon train ride, see a zoo, shop at Cabela’s, and swim at a water park.

The idea, Milliken says, is to renew the family’s familiarity with the state and meet with as many Nebraskans as possible. “I hope the message is that I intend to be out and around the state a great deal talking with Nebraskans about their university,” Milliken said. Milliken and his wife, Nana Smith, lived in the state when he served as an administrator at the University of Nebraska from the mid-1980s to the mid-1990s, and all three of their children --Bennett, Caleb, and Anna-- were born during that time.

Some key events during the visit:

Monday, August 2

10:15 a.m. -- coffee with faculty, staff, and community leaders at the Panhandle Research and Extension Center, 4502 Avenue I, Scottsbluff

12:00 noon -- speech to Scottsbluff-Gering Chamber of Commerce, Gering Civic Center

Wednesday, August 3

10:00 a.m. -- coffee with faculty, staff, and community leaders at the West Central Research and Extension Center, 461 University Drive, North Platte

Wednesday, August 4

10:00 a.m. -- tour of the University of Nebraska at Kearney campus with UNK Chancellor Doug Kristensen

2:30 p.m. -- coffee with chamber members and other community leaders sponsored by the Grand Island Area Chamber of Commerce, St. Francis Medical Center, Grand Island

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For additional information, contact Sharon Stephan, (402) 472-7554, or Joe Rowson, (402) 472-7133.