Latest news with #TimClare
Yahoo
10-07-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Nebraska education commissioner announces 2026 bid for NU Board of Regents
Nebraska Education Commissioner Brian Maher is the second announced 2026 candidate for the District 1 seat on the University of Nebraska Board of Regents held by Regent Tim Clare of Lincoln, who says he will not seek a fourth term on the board. (Candidate photo courtesy of Maher campaign | University of Nebraska-Lincoln campus photo by Aaron Sanderford/Nebraska Examiner) LINCOLN — Nebraska's state education commissioner officially jumped Thursday into the 2026 race for a vacant seat on the University of Nebraska Board of Regents. Commissioner Brian Maher of Lincoln, 63, a lifelong educator who has served as state commissioner since July 2023, said his 'vision' for NU is 'a report card for the future' focused on achievement, alignment and a pathway for students to enter and succeed in NU, affordability in tuition and taxpayer dollars and enhancing NU's appeal for in-state and out-of-state students. Maher also said he would prioritize helping NU gain reinstatement into the prestigious American Association of Universities, a similar goal of Regent Tim Clare of Lincoln, whom Maher is seeking to succeed. NU had been a member of the AAU for more than 100 years until it was voted out in 2011 for not meeting certain membership criteria. 'I'm running for the Board of Regents to ensure the next generation of Nebraskans has access to an affordable, high-quality education — and the opportunity to thrive here in our great state,' Maher said in a statement. 'The University of Nebraska has given so much to my family. It's time for us to give back.' The District 1 seat Maher is running for is held by Regent Tim Clare of Lincoln, who told the Lincoln Journal Star in April that he would not seek a fourth six-year term next year. The district includes the northern half of Lincoln, as well as the surrounding communities of Emerald, Malcolm, Agnew, Raymond and Davey. Maher is a first-generation college graduate who was born and raised in Hooper as the youngest of seven children. Maher and his wife Peg raised three children who were all educated at NU and competed in varsity athletics. Across a 40-year career in education, Maher's tenure includes being a teacher at Elkhorn and Clarks Public Schools; a school administrator at Waverly, Elkhorn and Johnson-Brock Public Schools; superintendent of Kearney and Centennial Public Schools in Nebraska; as well as at the Sioux Falls School District in South Dakota and as CEO of the South Dakota Board of Regents (the Nebraska equivalent of NU president). Maher earned a doctorate in educational administration from NU. In 2015, he was awarded the 'Nebraska Superintendent of the Year,' his final year in Kearney. Maher enters the race with the endorsements of all eight members of the officially nonpartisan State Board of Education that selects an education commissioner. The members are four Republicans and four Democrats. The state board last month unanimously voted to extend Maher's contract one more year, to July 2027. He was appointed in March 2023 on a 5-3 vote at a time when the board also was split 4-4, with one Republican joining Democrats. The Republican members of the state board endorsing Maher are Elizabeth Tegtmeier of North Platte (chair), Kirk Penner of Aurora, Sherry Jones of Grand Island and Lisa Schonhoff of Bennington. The Democratic board endorsing him are Deb Neary of Omaha (vice chair), Kristin Christensen of Lincoln, Maggie Douglas of Bellevue and Liz Renner of Omaha. Former Lincoln Public Schools Superintendent Steve Joel also endorsed Maher. Maher's immediate predecessor, former Education Commissioner Matt Blomstedt now works for NU as its associate vice president for government relations. Campaign spokesperson Derek Oden said Maher 'fully intends to continue faithfully serving' as commissioner through the campaign. If elected, Maher does intend to step down 'to fully commit himself' to the NU Board of Regents. That means the State Board of Education could be searching for a new ed commissioner in 2027, and the 2026 election could decide the partisan split of the board and the ease with which a new commissioner is selected. In 2026, the seats of three Republicans (Jones, Penner and Tegtmeier) and one Democrat (Neary) are up for election. Maher joins the officially nonpartisan race for regent with Lincoln entrepreneur Brent Comstock, 29, who announced his candidacy in early June. Clare is a registered Republican, and so is Maher. Comstock is a registered nonpartisan. The NU board is currently 6-2 majority Republican. Clare ran unopposed in 2014 and 2020 and won in 2008 with 58% of the vote. New district boundaries took effect in 2021 and match those of State Board of Education District 1, which elected newcomer Christensen with 58% of the vote in a highly watched election in November. She succeeded former State Board of Education member Patsy Koch Johns, a Democrat first elected in 2016. The top two vote-getters in the May 2026 NU regents race will advance to the November 2026 election. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
CBC
06-07-2025
- Entertainment
- CBC
From warzones to lockdown, board games can give a sense of control amid chaos
During the pandemic, Tim Clare was sitting in his "miser's cave" of board games, when he realized there was something missing from his life. "My first moment of real sort of panic was, Oh my goodness, when am I going to get to play games again?" Clare told The Sunday Magazine guest host Nora Young. "I'd sort of taken them so much for granted until that point, it had never occurred to me how much of the fabric of my life they were." Clare is a board game journalist and author of Across the Board: How Games Make Us Human. He's travelled the world talking to people about games, and has found that there's something special about what a game like Catan or Parcheesi can do. He says board games like Monopoly or Wingspan are more than just a fun thing to do on a rainy summer day. They can give people a chance to take control of their circumstances, especially during chaotic times, and make choices in a situation that likely won't affect your life one way or another. Board games in a crisis Clare says board games can be especially important during times of crisis. He says that during the First World War, soldiers were playing Parcheesi in the trenches. "There's a reason they were doing that, and I think it's because it provides a really, really important thing that humans need, which is relief and escape and freedom," said Clare. And there are more recent examples too. Clare recently spoke with a Ukrainian soldier stationed on the front lines of the war with Russia, while his son was in the Netherlands as a refugee. Despite being apart, the two connected online to play a board game called Blood Bowl, a fantasy football game featuring teams of elves, dwarves and goblins from Games Workshop's Warhammer universe. "It was a game that they played together when they were together, and that they were continuing in each other's absence as a way of staying connected," said Clare. "There's literal bombs falling out of the sky and someone's taking the time to set up all these little models.... I think it should tell you something about how important that this is, that that was one of his priorities." Scott Preston says during the COVID-19 pandemic, people who were stuck inside with their family dusted off old copies of games in their basement or found a way to play online with friends. "They just had lots of time to sit and play with each other," said Preston, an associate professor who teaches and researches board game design and history at the University of New Brunswick. So much time, in fact, that it created a board game boom. "The whole industry saw an explosion of sales and interest and new people coming into the hobby during COVID," said Preston. Making choices Preston says board games are set apart from movies and books, or other hobbies that can distract you from life's problems, because they give you a level of choice, depending on what you play. "Games, because they are an interactive medium, you do have a different sense of control over what happens," said Preston. "Games give you the sense that … you are making decisions and have some control over your fate." It's even different than video games, which are also interactive and similarly enjoyed an industry boom during the pandemic, he says. "Board games still give us something that we can't get from video games, that sitting down at a table across from people in a physical space and interacting with them. And that's a very powerful social benefit," said Preston. Clare says it also allows you to tackle social situations that you may not in real life, such as a conquering army in Risk or a shrewd negotiator in Monopoly. "Every game is a form of role play. Every game, even if you're playing checkers, to a certain extent, you're getting into the role of being an adversary against your friend who's sitting across from you in the cabin," he said. "Like, you don't really want to defeat them on this battlefield." Part of the fun, and why you're able to take on these kind of roles, is because the outcome just doesn't matter. When you compare that with the frequent, sometimes weighty decisions a person makes in their life every day, deciding whether you should build a hotel on Park Place in a game of Monopoly doesn't seem like so big of a deal. For the same reason, the uncertainty that comes with many games is also freeing. "When so much seems of such huge import, giving ourselves permission to spend half an hour, an hour, doing something where the outcome, whether we do well or badly, is not going to be hugely disastrous, I think it's an important refuelling place," said Clare.
RNZ News
22-05-2025
- Entertainment
- RNZ News
Game Changers: how board games are making a comeback
Board games can be the subject of pure delight or intense anger - some people play them every week; others flat-out refuse. Either way, board games are making a comeback, and author Tim Clare says there's something out there for everyone. In his book The Game Changers, he argues games are a human universal instinct. With examples from Roman anti-cheating devices, to organised crime card syndicates to the combative domestic bonding ritual of Monopoly. Tim's book explains how games help us learn to be better losers and make smarter decisions. To embed this content on your own webpage, cut and paste the following: See terms of use.
