Dr. Jeff Thompson:
The things that have changed in mining are almost entirely based on technology, right? Yeah. And so if you look at a, a, a mining control center it looks like they’re launching a rocket into space. I mean, you have all these large screens and they’re tracking everything and, and, and keeping up with where all the devices are, where all the humans are monitoring all their processing facilities. And it is a very different industry. And the other thing that has changed in the industry is they’re developing mines that are going to last 50 to 70 years. I mean, it’s not going to be, come in, there’ll be an influx into the economy, and they’ll be gone in five years. They’re gonna be part of the economy for a long time. And how do you help the communities, typically rural communities, manage through this process and use the resources associated with this mine or sy or system of mines that’s going on near them to develop where they’re going to be in 50 to a hundred years? I mean, how do you think that way rather than this boom bus cycle that was typically part of the mining industry?
Joe Gottlieb:
That’s Jeff Thompson, Provost at the University of Nevada Reno, speaking to the importance of staying current with the cutting edge of mining technology while simultaneously helping rural citizens of the state participate in the modern mining economy. So much has changed since the Moral Land Grant College Act of 1862 helped institutions invest in training a workforce to scale the agricultural and mechanical arts. Jeff and I talked about how technology is shaping Land Grant 2.0, how his institution has aligned to pursue this refresh mission and the Digital Wolf Pack initiative that makes sure no student is left behind due to gaps in digital equity. I hope you enjoy our conversation.
Joe Gottlieb:
Welcome to TRANSFORMED, a Higher Digital podcast focused on the new why’s, the new what’s and the new how’s in higher ed. In each episode, you’ll experience hosts and guests pulling for the resurgence of higher ed while identifying and discussing the best practices needed to accomplish that resurgence. Culture, strategy and tactics, planning and execution, people, process, and technology. It’s all on the menu because that’s what’s required to truly transform.
Joe Gottlieb:
Hello, welcome. And thanks for joining us for another episode of TRANSFORMED. My name is Joe Gottlieb, President and CTO of Higher Digital. And today I am joined by Dr. Jeff Thompson, Executive Vice President and Provost at the University of Nevada Reno. Jeff, welcome to TRANSFORMED.
Dr. Jeff Thompson:
Hi, Joe. Really happy to be here. So what do you wanna talk about?
Joe Gottlieb:
I’m glad you asked, Jeff. I would love to talk about your thoughts on Reimagining Land Grant to connect rural communities to the post AI economy. But first, share a bit, a bit bit about your background and your personal journey and how you got connected into the world of higher ed.
Dr. Jeff Thompson:
Of course, Joe. I have to tell you, I’ve, I’ve been in higher ed for quite a while and I’ve been very fortunate to work at this university. I can still remember when I first came on this campus and, you know, the beauty of the High desert and the Sierra Nevada as a backdrop with snow on them at the time. And of course, you know, they, they were very smart. They took me to Lake Tahoe, which is just, just out our front door. It’s a beautiful part of the country. And during the interview, the dean at the time of the College of Arts and Science Dr. Anne Ronald told me that if I came to this university, I could help build a great university. And that was something I would get to do. And I’ve held onto that thought through my entire career and treasured the idea of working with students and faculty in our communities to build a great university. And I’m, I’m very privileged to have had this job,
Joe Gottlieb:
This job. Love it. Well then, let’s set the stage for this discussion. Perhaps you can start with a bit of history, really, how the University of Nevada became a land grant institution, what that has meant over the years, and really how you would describe what the school has been known for in the recent past.
Dr. Jeff Thompson:
Absolutely, Joe, and, you know, this is a great time to have this discussion. University of Nevada is one of the original land grants and we just celebrated on October 12th, our hundred and 50th anniversary. So we’re 150 years old just a few days ago.
Joe Gottlieb:
Congratulations.
Dr. Jeff Thompson:
Ah, thank you. It was a great, great celebration. I mean, it’s a wonderful time to be at the university. And, you know, we were built as a historic land grant, which was to, to serve a community to provide education, but particularly in areas like mining, agriculture engineering, and some business because we were part of the economic development. Nevada’s been a small state for many years, small population, and we served in that role. And the state has begun to change. There’s been a huge influx in population and we’ve had to learn how to, to manage with the state as we change.
Joe Gottlieb:
So you mentioned change, and it is afoot, that’s for sure. We’re about to learn a bit more about what it means in Nevada. And, and so to that end, right, these land grant related programs, you know, mining, agriculture, some engineering, some business about 15 years ago, I think, you know, the industry served by these programs really started to evolve. And I think you also alluded to the companies showing up in Nevada also presented new challenges. So why don’t we explain that to start with?
Dr. Jeff Thompson:
Sure. And so it, it, it came in a lot of different ways as Nevada, like many states we’re looking to diversify their economy. I mean, we we’re not, we have our traditional base where we still have excellence and there is still, well, agriculture and mining in our state will continue to serve those industries. But as we diversified our economy, I mean, companies like Tesla came and Apple and Google and new companies that were startups were coming to the area and their needs changed what we needed to provide our students and our, our faculty, but they also changed our communities. And so, you know, how we engage with the community was also changing when it’s not the traditional only the traditional role of a land grant. But how does a land grant evolve to, to meet the needs of our industries but also educate students for these industries going forward.
Joe Gottlieb:
So you talk about evolving land grant, you know, let’s, let’s just throw out this provocative term Land Grant 2.0. What, what is Land Grant 2.0? Tell me, tell me about that.
Dr. Jeff Thompson:
Well, land Grant two 2.0 is what is the future mission of a land grant university? I mean, we have a historic mission that we are tied to and, and we need to continue to be tied to that. But how do we serve the economies of the state? How do we serve the citizens of the state for their wellbeing, for their health? And how do we engage in training students so that everybody can participate in these new economies going forward? And again, it was what our land grants did originally, but the 2.0 society has changed, the country has changed. Our economies have changed, and everything’s going much faster in accelerating. So how do we not only serve our mission, but how do we lead in this space of, of being a service organization as a university but also an educational institution.
Joe Gottlieb:
So if we pick this apart a little, and I wanna, this is, this is officially a little bit of a double click on that last topic. So just to let you know you know, so Land Grant 1.0 was mostly about feeding the nation, like at the end of the day, right? With, we were this, this young nation that was about to, was experiencing great growth and the recognition of, of you know, the moral act. And the, and the, the leaders at the time was all about, okay, we gotta, we gotta invest, we gotta find, we have to put some incentives in place so we can literally figure this out. How do we scale this nation? And one of <laugh> one of the scale points was, was food. Absolutely. and, and, and it was a, it was preindustrial for the most part, and it was still very much about how do we scale farming now, it very quickly evolved to become, you know, industrial and post-industrial farming. And so that was a thing, but the net of it was a lot of this for land grant and lots of land needed for farming right in the industrial age was more concentrated than the farming economy. So getting back to those first principles. So for sure, farming on, on its own has, has evolved. Right. So you’ve been, you’ve been evolving with that, but I imagine mining another area of importance for Nevada has evolved just in terms of the tech used and what’s required to participate. Is that a fair statement?
Dr. Jeff Thompson:
No, a absolutely. And the things that have changed in mining are almost entirely based on technology, right? Yeah. And so if you look at a, a, a mining control center it looks like they’re launching a rocket into space. I mean, you have all these large screens and they’re tracking everything and, and, and keeping up with where all the devices are, where all the humans are monitoring all their processing facilities. And it is a very different industry. And the other thing that has changed in the industry is they’re developing mines that are going to last 50 to 70 years. I mean, it’s not going to be, come in, there’ll be an influx into the economy, and they’ll be gone in five years. They’re gonna be part of the economy for a long time. And how do you help the communities, typically rural communities, managed through this process and use the resources associated with this mine or sys or system of mines that’s going on near them Hmm. To develop where they’re going to be in 50 to a hundred years? I mean, how do you think that way rather than this boom bust cycle that was typically part of the mining industry?
Joe Gottlieb:
Right. And would it seems another par another common trait in both farming and mining is that in the original land grant context, it was very labor intensive. And the labor involved was labor that had been taught in the case of farming for thousands of years. In the case of, well, in the case of mining, probably thousands of years too, because we were, we were digging in the, in the earth to make, to make tools to find, you know, find, you know, metals that helped us make tools for at least more than a thousand years. So that was something that was an asset that existed in the community. The, the, the traditions of farming and mining, it existed in the labor base. And this new era is all about much more specialized, much more automated, and frankly is also has the, has the potential to disenfranchise, you know, many in the community that would’ve been part of the original, the original program. Is that part of what’s making this tough
Dr. Jeff Thompson:
A Absolutely. And so yeah, the workforce has to come with a different skillset, right? They, and, and they also have to be agile because the industries are transforming very quickly, you know, as, as we move forward. And so something that worked 30 years ago in mining or agriculture certainly in where we live, there are different techniques. And, and so you have to be you need an educated workforce that understands why these processes change and, and what’s the benefit associated with the technology.
Joe Gottlieb:
It’s a fascinating problem to solve. And, and so now I wanna, I want to have you talk a little bit about some of the key federal designations that you’ve been able to leverage in your effort to implement Land Grant 2.0 there in Nevada.
Dr. Jeff Thompson:
Oh, absolutely. I’m excited to talk about, about this topic because one of the things we recognized early on was the industries associated with the new green economy. So in Nevada, we have mining, we have, we have lithium mines, we have the only lithium mine in the United States. We are going to be opening more lithium mines. But we also have the industry that’s building the batteries. So we have a Tesla Gigafactory and we have Panasonic. We’re building batteries for electric vehicles, and we also have startup companies. Some of them have become quite large, a company called Dragonfly that came from students on our campus who are developing lithium ion batteries for other industries. So we have the materials, we have the batteries, and we also have companies that have come in and, and startups, and some of them have been quite successful to do the recycling.
Dr. Jeff Thompson:
So for us, we start noticing all these different pieces. And we started talking about the, a loop, a loop economy from mining and processing minerals to making batteries to recycling all within a hundred miles of our campus. Wow. And we started looking at what are their opportunities that go with us? And one of them that came was through the CHIPS Act. And they’re called technology hubs or tech hubs from the Economic Development Authority. And you know, about 400 universities applied for the designation, 30 ish, got the designation. We were one of you know, less than 10 that were actually funded to do the work associated with developing this new economy in our area. That goes through everything from again, the mining mineral processing to the producing the batteries to the recycling, but all the other pieces that go with this the supply chains the community engagement the needs for schools, the need for transportation and trying to put all those pieces together to optimize the lithium loop, but also to support all the communities that can benefit from this economy going forward.
Dr. Jeff Thompson:
And, and that’s really the main part of our tech hub. One of the most significant parts of the tech hubs is, is called the Native Nations where we will be supporting the tribes, the 27 recognized tribes in the state, so that they can also benefit in a way they want to, I mean, by working with them to understand what their needs are and how they want to be engaged, but they have the opportunity to benefit from this lithium loop that is going on in our state.
Joe Gottlieb:
Interesting. so is there a, is there, how does that, how the, how might that participation vary for those tribes?
Dr. Jeff Thompson:
Well, and it’s, again, it’s different impacts. Some of it’s workforce, right? Some of it is also engagement with processes on schools, on roads on societal impacts, particularly healthcare. You know, how do we ensure that they benefit from healthcare opportunities that will be generated by having for example, you know, a battery factory close to, to their reservation. You know, how, how do we make sure there’s a benefit for them as, as part of this, right?
Joe Gottlieb:
Coming in the form of I would imagine so population synergies and, and the, and the, and the synergies around delivery of services, right? Like you’re, you’re gonna become a little less rural in some spots that are not by accident <laugh>,
Dr. Jeff Thompson:
That that is true. And, and the other part is in the places that remain rural, how do we make sure they have access to telehealth? So how do we make sure they have internet access so they can benefit from, from some of the new services that will be available in their area?
Joe Gottlieb:
That’s really interesting. Okay. Well, now we’re, we’re gonna, we’re gonna channel a little spirit, a little, little, a little school pride here. Yeah. I know your school mascot is the Wolf and you refer to your collective community as the Wolf Pack. So tell me about the Digital Wolf Pack initiative and how you’re supplying critical tools and skills to help students flourish amidst this refreshed mission.
Dr. Jeff Thompson:
Absolutely. You know, we’re very proud of our Wolf Pack and and talk about the Wolf Pack way and how we operate so that, you know, we’re helping each other and that we’re an, an engaged campus across all of the things we do. And so the Digital Wolfpack Initiative is one of the things that I think the pandemic highlighted for us. I mean, we know that as this technological revolution takes place there are opportunities, but there are also gaps. And the gaps that we saw had to do with access, you know, so every student on our campus didn’t have the same access. So we came out with the idea of we need to make sure that every student has the same technology when they come to our campus, and that there’s a commonality associated with it. And so that’s the access.
Dr. Jeff Thompson:
And the second part is weaving it into all of our educational opportunities so that there’s literacy. So we talk about access and literacy for all of our students. And so the Digital Wolfpack Initiative is every incoming student is has a iPad, air pencil and a keyboard, but they’re part of their classes. So you see them using them in music whether they’re writing music, you see it in, excuse me, in in digital art and digital humanities. Students, their business pitch is done on an iPad. The science students are writing their reports for their labs on their iPads. The engineers are using it to solve, you know, some of their problems. We certainly use it in, in our math classes. And we even see it in you know, in healthcare. Because in healthcare, a lot of the recording of the patient information comes in a, a digital device that the, the healthcare provider’s carrying around.
Dr. Jeff Thompson:
So we, we’ve tried to build it completely through our system, but also work with our faculty to help them understand other ways they can use the, the device for assignments, but also for in the classroom. And then of course, we’re learning from the students. It’s something they come with a lot of knowledge on how they would like to use the devices. And so as you walk through our campus, you see students using the devices constantly. And so we’re trying to integrate it in the entire experience. So financial aid of appointment scheduling for tutoring, all those things can be done through the device. So it’s like a one stop piece for them, but it, it’s also about their future. I mean, they have to be comfortable with technology regardless of their major. They’re going to be using it. Mm-Hmm. <Affirmative> and I don’t even wanna be comfortable. I want to excel at this. It’s a competitive edge for our students going forward. But it’s, again, it’s an all in effort. We learn from the students, they learn from us we come up with ideas. The, the students respond and, and we move it forward. But it is the, again, it’s the idea of the Wolf Pack that this is something we are doing together as, as a university and with our students.
Joe Gottlieb:
I love this story because it, it actually, this is something business discovered quite a long time ago, meaning supply employees with a co at least a common tool set for digital work, that once it became apparent that, well, a lot of workers, at least that were doing digital work, that which had become digital over the last, you know, 30, 40 years, right? That became the, the, the, the, the natural standard. And with PCs, and in this case, iPads, we really do now have a, a point at which their prevalence in life has become so familiar. And for sure their use in, in business, I’ll call business in, in quotes, like general business. And I would put the delivery of education, you know, is just one of many modes of business, right? In this case. But it, but it, but supplying it to the student has been elusive. So undoubtedly, you must have asked around when you were trying to get this thing off the ground, did you also perceive that this was this is the exception, not the rule? And did you notice any patterns there?
Dr. Jeff Thompson:
Yes. There aren’t many universities that have gone down this path, and there have been, you know, I talked to a lot of people and they, they’ve done pieces of it, or they’ve done it for one major, or, you know, you hear about engineers or, you know but for us it was about picking one, one system. Yes. Because then there were some economies as we do this across all of our educational platforms. And, and that was very important to us as we were thinking about, you know, how we were gonna move this forward because it’s if every faculty member knows every student’s got the same device, it’s easier to play in the curriculum. And that was one of the pieces we were, we talked about. Now that means there’s one device but there are advantages to that too.
Joe Gottlieb:
Yeah, no, it’s the classic trade off in shared services, which of course, you know, haunts and enables all of it, if not other domains. Yes. And I gotta believe some of your faculty were found it difficult to imagine fitting into the box that was, okay, well, here’s what we have available to leverage on this one platform. The benefit is everyone has the same one, so the student’s gonna get a great value out of that, and you’ve got one place to go to add your quote unquote innovation or digitalization. But that was a keyhole to get people through, I imagine.
Dr. Jeff Thompson:
Yeah. It wasn’t simple. I mean, it wasn’t something suddenly everyone agreed to. So, you know, we, we’ve done a lot of work, but, but also had to provide, you know, a lot of training for the faculty that if they weren’t using this type of device, you know, how do we open up the opportunity for them? And also, you know, after you get a few people who <laugh> can be the evangelist for the program, I mean, other people will come along and, and, and see some of the, some of the opportunities that come with it. So yeah, it’s it’s like most things at a university, I,
Joe Gottlieb:
Well, you, you’ve just named another best practice in managing change, right? So find, find the early adopters, find those that are receptive, are excited by the prospect of doing some pioneering. And before you know it, you get the next tier. And once that tier goes down, you know, even those that are initially reluctant can come along for the ride. That sounds really good. Okay. Well, the last bonus question I’m gonna throw at you since I’ve given you a few already, is how did you, how did you orchestrate, how did, as an organization, right? You’re the provost, like you’ve got a really important role in this, and yet you’re, you’re, you’re the, you’re the delivery arm of the primary reason that the university exists. But you, you’ve got, you’ve got teammates, right? There’s other parts of the, the institution that must function. And so how did you work together as a team to, to orchestrate this change and, and, and make room for it and defend it as a priority and soldier through
Dr. Jeff Thompson:
<Laugh>? So, so, so first I have to tell you that, you know, in, in the first meeting, at least one person told me, yeah, let’s not do this <laugh>. So, so you, you have to get past all the people that can tell you all the reasons why it’s not gonna work, right? And you, you need to listen to their voice. And maybe sometimes they were right. But it really came back to what we had learned during the pandemic about the number of students who, when we went online, didn’t have access because they didn’t have a device Mm-Hmm. Didn’t have access because they didn’t have availability of the internet at the time they needed it. And were struggling because, you know, there wasn’t digital equity, right? And so let’s talk about who our students are and let’s talk about solutions. And it was clear that everyone cared about supporting all of our students and making sure everyone’s going to have the opportunities that they should have when they graduate from the university. And from that, you know, building the coalition that, you know, okay how do we, how do we support students? And, and Joe, that’s for me, in the end, it’s always about the students. I mean, there, there are a lot of other pieces, but the, the primary thing we are, we, we want to do is make sure our students have a excellent education that they see opportunity and, and they can see something in themselves going forward that they may not have thought was there.
Joe Gottlieb:
Yeah. You, you’ve named really, again, another best practice for how you make something big like this happen. You tied it to mission and your strategy for how you were going to reinvent the Land grant institution in, in terms of what it would do to enable its community to participate in this emerging economy. And when you are talking about that, you, you tap into the excitement about what it means to be a part of, you know, the University of Nevada, and that moves mountains. Turns out it moves that moves mountains now when you keep, and, and that became a North star, right? So I, I get it. And that’s it’s really exciting to see this thing, this thing in motion. And I really appreciate you sharing. So it’s probably a good time for us to summarize. So for our listeners, what are three takeaways that you would offer them on this topic of reimagining Land grant to connect rural communities to the post AI economy?
Dr. Jeff Thompson:
Well, and those are certainly a big question, <laugh>, and as, as I, as I, I look at summarizing, so I, I appreciate this, Joe. But, but the first part is, you know, the Land grant mission is the same, the mission is still there, and so we’re holding onto the mission, but how you serve that mission has to change. Technology has changed. So this change is driven by our technology, and so it requires a change in approach. And it’s not as easy and make, probably is never easy, but we, we need to look at other ways to enable, to make sure our communities can participate in the economies that are coming. And it’s just, it’s not very straightforward. And so it, it, it’s again, something that we need to be cognizant of. And of course, progress requires certainly engaged leadership. You have to leverage resources that you may not have thought of before. And you gotta take some risks. You have to be willing to take risks to move forward.
Joe Gottlieb:
Great summary. Jeff, thank you so much for joining me today,
Dr. Jeff Thompson:
Joe. I really appreciate it. And it was great fun talking to you.
Joe Gottlieb:
And thanks to our guest for joining us as well. Hope you have a great day and we’ll look forward to hosting you again on the next episode of TRANSFORMED. Yo, stop the music. Hey, listeners, have transformed. I hope you enjoyed that episode. And whether you did or not, I hope that it made you stop and think about the role that you are playing in your organization’s ability to change in the digital era. And if it made you stop and think, perhaps you would be willing to share your thoughts, suggestions, alternative perspectives, or even criticisms related to this or any other episode, I would love to hear from you. So send me an email at Info@Higher.Digital or Joe@Higher.Digital. And if you have friends or colleagues that you think might enjoy it, please share our podcast with them as you, and they can easily find.
