By Jillian Whitney
Charlie Hurt was the second candidate to visit campus as possible senior vice chancellor for academic and student affairs on Jan. 22 in the Dodge Room of the Milo Bail Student Center.Hurt answered questions in the open forum to more than 35 UNO faculty and staff members, saying he would be a successful leader thanks to strengths in integrity, understanding and trust.
Hurt is a graduate of the University of Virginia. He earned his master’s degree from the University of Kentucky and his doctorate from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Hurt served as the provost and vice chancellor for academic affairs at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls from 2006 to 2007. He is currently serving as a professor in the University of Wisconsin-River Falls Computer Science and Information Systems Department.
“I, personally, think I would bring creativity and a sense of both integrity and trust to the vice chancellor position,” Hurt said. “One of things I do well is to work with a group of people and to help them move forward.”
With more than 20 years of administrative experience, Hurt said he would take UNO in a new and different direction.
“I can bring a different perspective to what is happening here. I can bring not necessarily ‘new’ ideas but ideas that are new to UNO,” Hurt said. “[That will] get people thinking and coming up with even more creative ideas.”
He said one of the things he wanted to do as vice chancellor would be to increase public relations and publicize the university’s accomplishments.
“UNO has an amazing story,” Hurt said. “This is an institution that needs to tell its story.”
He said he saw UNO as a university willing to move forward and he was the perfect fit. “I love to get out and talk to students about what’s going well, what’s not going well with the institution,” Hurt said.
The two remaining senior vice chancellor candidates, Terry Hynes and Suzanne Ortega, will visit campus by the end of January.
Hynes’ public forum was scheduled for Thursday. Ortega’s public forum will take place Jan. 30 at 1:30 p.m. in the student center ballroom.
