After several vetting sessions on the road, Dr. Jeffrey Gold returned Tuesday to the midtown Omaha campus where he has served as chancellor for the past decade, reflecting on the major growth the University of Nebraska Medical Center has seen on his watch.
Gold spoke at a pair of UNMC campus forums as the priority candidate to become the University of Nebraska’s next system president, and also delivered his previously scheduled state of the campus address. Speaking to a familiar audience, he provided a concrete summation of how the institution has been transformed under his watch.
Thanks to the creation of a new college, departments and programs, enrollment is up 27% from 3,500 students to more than 4,500. The number of faculty members is up 69%.
Meanwhile, UNMC research awards have more than doubled to $169 million. And the university has raised more than $876 million in private funding, with more committed over the next five years, he said.
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“We have grown both in scope and in excellence in all of those areas, year over year,” Gold said. He attributed the gains to faculty and staff, students, community members and philanthropists who have “joined arms to make the med center what it is today, and hopefully what it will be for a long time into the future.”
During his UNMC presidential forums, which followed previous forums at the university’s undergraduate campuses in Kearney, Omaha and Lincoln, Gold again addressed questions about what it would take to restore the University of Nebraska-Lincoln to membership in the Association of American Universities. The university was removed from the prestigious consortium of the nation’s top research universities in 2011.
Gold said Tuesday he is studying what the university can do to be reinvited. If named president, he also would seek to meet with the executive director of the organization, with whom he worked for 10 years in Ohio.
One idea that has been floated for helping make UNL more attractive to the AAU — merging it with UNMC — was panned by one UNMC researcher, who said it would be a disaster. Gold has previously said he would not rule out any such systematic changes if they were found to help move the university ahead.
Gold noted that UNL and UNMC have been part of the same university system since 1968, and that many states organize their campuses in differing ways.
He also reminded attendees that UNMC and Nebraska Medicine rebranded early in his tenure in 2014, with a common logo and mission statement, a move that uplifted both organizations.
He repeated he has no predetermined notion as to what any university alignment change would look like.
“But I tell you this, if it is going to be done, it has to be done with total transparency, with a lot of input and an understanding of what the risks and benefits are going to be,” he said.
If named president, Gold said, the first thing he would do is meet with and listen to faculty, students and staff on the university’s campuses, as well as with farmers, ranchers, philanthropists, legislators and businesspeople across the state, to find out what they need from the university.
When asked whether he would address the system’s $58 million budget shortfall, Gold said the only way to deal with recurring structural deficits is to create recurring sources of revenue by growing enrollment, research, grants and contracts.
Leadership on the campuses have a strong focus on enrollment, he said, and former President Ted Carter did a lot of good work in that area. UNMC has bolstered enrollment by focusing on addressing workforce needs in the state, including adding new programs.
During a morning forum at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, Gold said he expects that a national search would be conducted to name his successor at UNMC if he is named president.
Gold expressed pride and confidence in the leadership team he has built in 10 years at UNMC. But he also noted that most of the deans, vice chancellors and others he has named to top leadership were found in nationwide searches.
“I am a very strong believer in the ability of a national search to bring talent to the community,” he said. He later added: “By the way, I think there will be a lot of people who want the job.”
Gold also was asked whether his wife of 50 years would move to Nebraska if he becomes president.
Gold acknowledged that his wife has continued to live in New York City with their adult daughter during his years in Nebraska. The couple also have a son and grandchildren in Chicago, he said, and “I live on an airplane” flying to see them.
He said he did not expect the arrangement to change if he becomes president. But he said he will spend much more time in Nebraska. He will maintain his home in Omaha, because a lot of university business is conducted in the city. He also will live in the president’s residence in Lincoln, and his wife “has every intention of being the first lady of the university and fulfilling every responsibility that entails.”
In response to a question related to the Legislature’s passage last year of a bill restricting gender-affirming care for minors, Gold gave a complex answer, mentioning the importance of supporting “our children in every way possible,” the doctor-patient relationship, and practicing evidence-based medicine.
“The university is not here to be an arm of one political ideology or another,” he said. “The university is here to try to stick to where the evidence is, to try to stay where there is science, and do everything that we can possibly do to empower the next generation of Nebraskans to be thoughtful, concerned and engaged citizens.”
Plans are being made for visits next week to North Platte, Scottsbluff and Curtis. University officials also are working to schedule a meeting at which the NU Board of Regents will decide whether to name him the head of the university system, with its 50,000-plus students and more than 16,000 employees.
World-Herald staff writer Henry J. Cordes contributed to this report.
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