My third New Year’s resolution is to remind President Jeff Gold that he is the NU system President and not the uberchancellor of UNMC.
To that end, I plan to attend the January 9th BOR meeting and speak out against the $800 million dollar deal to buyout Clarkson.
Will he or the BOR care? No. But at least it will be in the public record that UNL faculty are tired of having smoke blown up their asses about budget shortfalls when state aid continues to be shunted away from the flagship and are wholly unimpressed that 50-odd faculty members are being fired for no reason to save literaly pocket change in comparison to a nearly billion dollar deal with Clarkson, ontop of the $2.4 billion (with a B) Project Health building project.
Forget the $28 million hiding in Varner Hall. $800 milliom would pay my annual salary with benefits for 8,000 years. But I was told they couldn’t cover it for another six months, so I can look for an academic job next year. What???
I have nothing against UNMC. It is a gem, truly. It is the reason I was able to move my elderly parents here the year I was tenured. As Nebraska has a rising rate of Parkinson’s disease, UNMC has developed significant expertise in this neurological disorder. My father’s previous neurologist at Dartmouth-Hitchcock trained at UNMC.
But I do have a problem with a system leader who came from UNMC and apparently still only has eyes for the med school.
UNL Cannot be a Blood Donor Forever
We were told the merger between UNMC and UNL would strengthen UNL’s position to reenter the AAU. So far, that does not appear to be what is happening.
And it is not just UNL that is suffering. UNK is facing yet another round of cuts as the state’s public, regional, rural-serving university. Want to slow the tide of rural outmigration? Try investing in rural communities and institutions.
I think we, as faculty, across the NU system, need to remind Gold that he is the system president and that the system, and specifically, the flagship university, cannot be used as a blood donor to grow UNMC and then left to shrivel and die. Perhaps we might also need to explain to him where med students come from. Hint, it starts with K-12 education from kindergarten reading teachers to high school biology teachers. Strangely, education is something they all seem hot to cut, having significantly weakened CEHS by cutting two departments in December.
The cameo of the governor in the AI video at the December 5th meeting, and the governor’s statements of support of spending $800 million when there is a $500 million hole in the state budget, also make me think that Gold needs reminding that he doesn’t work for the governor. He works for the taxpayers of Nebraska. He works for the thousands of students across four campuses, plus the thousands of faculty and staff who make sure every day that those students get what they need to be successful.
Regent Schaffer made clear he did not want to see Gold ambushed by a vote of no confidence during his December 2nd visit to the UNL faculty senate and made even more clear that if that was to happen, his goodwill would evaporate. So we stopped it. Since Schaffer did nothing more than a half-hearted attempt to delay the EAS vote, I will now half-heartedly implore you not to bring a resolution of no confidence for Dr. Gold to the Faculty Senate. I implore you, oh-so-half-heartedly, not to vote for such a resolution.
Just kidding! A resolution of no confidence in Gold is probably the only one I will stick to this year!
