Clifford M. Hardin, initially the chancellor of what was renamed the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, was critical to the creation of the University of Nebraska system and was named its first chancellor on July 1, 1968. In sixteen years as an administrator at Nebraska, Hardin greatly increased enrollment and improved salaries and benefits for faculty. After two years serving as the head of the University of Nebraska system, Hardin was named United States Secretary of Agriculture under President Richard Nixon.
