PERSONAL STATEMENTS FOR SPECIAL ELECTION TO ACADEMIC PLANNING COMMITTEE
ACADEMIC PLANNING COMMITTEE:
MAX MUELLER, CLASSICS AND RELIGIOUS STUDIES:
When I came to UNL in 2016, the outlook expressed to incoming faculty (a cohort of 33 tenured or tenure-line positions) by our administrative colleagues was an unprecedented upward trajectory. We were looking out on expanding horizons in research, student engagement, and societal impact. Since then, instead of moving from strength to strength, we have been told that we are moving from one crisis to another. At the same time, I have witnessed our colleagues, including in my cohort, (many of whom (including me) have been the only tenure-line faculty members hired since in their departments), keep up that initial spirit of excellence in scholarship, teaching, and service. If elected to the Academic Planning Committee, I will bring not only a wide range of service experience in my department, across the university, and across my discipline, but also a commitment to a spirit of abundance and creativity, even in the face of headwinds of more limited resources. I want to ask: what can we build? How can we creatively collaborate to reach greater heights in scholarship and teaching in order to better fulfill the university’s missions?
Here is a link to my background and experiences. https://classics.unl.edu/person/max-perry-mueller/
GUY REYNOLDS, ENGLISH:
After graduate work and an early career in the U.K. (at the Universities of Cambridge and Kent), I moved to UNL in 2003. My work in the English department has had three strands. As a researcher, I’ve headed the Cather Project – the university’s specialist unit devoted to the Willa Cather Scholarly Edition and scholarship on one of our most well-known alums. The Cather Project has raised large endowments to support literary research _-- one aspect of this mission was extensive engagement with the University of Nebraska Foundation. Within the Department I’ve been Graduate Chair and Chair of our Undergraduate Program; and have worked for two periods on our Advisory Committee. My teaching encompasses a wide spectrum of British and American literature from 100 to 900 levels; and I’ve also served as an ACE fellow (reviewing that program).
My Cather service has also involved fifteen years on the Board of Governors for the Cather Foundation in Red Cloud. This has given me an awareness of the impact of the university on a local, small-town community, and a keen sense of what ‘outreach’ might mean. Such service has also involved monitoring and reviewing budgets and fund raising.
I think my international perspective, my diverse service work within UNL, combined with a knowledge of our significance for the State, will enable me to make a strong contribution to the APC’s work at this difficult time.