As a rule, I don’t make New Years resolutions. But I will make an exception for 2026. The work of reclaiming shared governance and academic freedom at UNL is far from done.
My first resolution, continue to pay attention to the BOR, has been easy to keep so far with yet another five alarm fire of a meeting scheduled for Friday, January 9th. In addition to voting on increases to the price of room and board across the campuses, the BOR will vote on a deal to takeover all of the Nebraska Medicine facilitities.
If you haven’t seen it yet,the Nebraska Examiner published a piece on January 2nd about plans for NU to buyout Clarkson Regional Health Services of their partnership in providing medical care and hospital services to UNMC, largely in the form of purchasing the buildings UNMC and associated Nebraska Medicine currently occupy. This little manuever will cost $800 million in taxpayer dollars.
Money Launderying at the Med Center
This $800 milliondeal includes a $500 million buyout of Clarkson’s private part of the public-private partnership and $300 million to purchase real estate currently occupied by UNMC and Nebraska Medicine. From these transactions, $200 million is then slated to come into the NU Foundation. Clarkson also has stated that they will use the proceeds to create a foundation to fund grants to make Nebraska the healthiest state.
These little nuggets strike me as an intriguing form of money laundering.
First, NU will take state funds that are not allocated to specific purposes, give them to a private entity, which will then then give them back to the University in a way that they can only be used for a specific purpose through the NU Foundation. As we learned about in the budget analysis, restricted foundation funds cannot be used for the general budget, only for specific purposes. And then state funding that flows through Clarkson is going to create a new foundation to provide external grants to… UNMC, most likely. Maybe Creighton, but probably UNMC.
I was led to believe at the December 5th meeting that they could not kick the can of less than $7 million in salary savings down the road another few months because NU is bleeding money. Actually, I didn’t believe that at all, but it certainly was stated.
It was also stated to my face by UNL administrators that the BOR will not give us a full academic year to look for new jobs because they want our salaries off the books as soon as possible. Seven million dollars is literal pocket change in this almost-a-billion-dollar real estate transaction. The actual savings, of course, once revenue is considered, is likely to be on par with the change in my car’s center console, which these days consists solely of gum wrappers.
And while President Gold apparently thinks this enormous real estate deal can be accomplished without taking even more money away from other campuses, the fact that the entire state has a budget hole on par of $500 million, any public funding used for this clearly is going to be public funding that is not going into the whole university’s budget.
I’ve read that this deal may be funded by borrowing money. If so, that would appear to be why maintaining an A++ Bond rating was more important to BOR that preparing meteorologists and school principals, cutting edge textiles research, and the entire field of statistics. But just like if you or I make a big purchase on credit, we are going to be paying more to cover both the cost and the interest. We have been repeatedly told that the University must live within its means, tighten it’s belt, reign in spending. Taking out an $800 million dollar loan at a time when you supposedly cannot keep your University whole hardly sounds like responsible budget management.
Unfortunately, Aaron Sandford’s reporting does not include why this use of public funding to buy out a private entity is necessary in the first place. However, the BOR meeting information seems to indicate that Clarkson simply just doesn’t want to play ball anymore, leaving the taxpayers holding the bag for this public-private partnership.
If It Quacks like a Duck and Stinks like a Fish
This latest money to UNMC maneuver stinks.
Members of the Nebraska Medicine Board think so too, and that Board has launched a website outlining their opposition. They write, ” The Regents are proposing to spend nearly a billion dollars in taxpayer money at a time that they are actively making cuts across their campuses. ” Yes, I too find that shocking. Where is this money coming from? How can there be a budgetary crisis that requires cutting active programs with hundreds of students while spending $800 million on things no one asked for?
They continue, “As a state-controlled entity, Nebraska Medicine would be at the mercy of state budgets, and investments in the health systemmay be diverted to plug growing budget holes.” At the same time, the state is making a move to control Nebraska Medicine; it has been making similar moves to take over school funding. I am the last person who wants to argue against adequate state aid to Nebraska’s schools. We don’t have a property tax crisis; we have an underinvestment in public education crisis. However, from superintendents to school boards and advocacy groups, I have heard concerns that increased state aid would leave the education budget at the mercy of the state. This of course, is problematic as the governor and legislature blew a hole in the budget by cutting income taxes and tax rates are scheduled to go down again, leading undoubtedly to a larger hole in the state budget. And of course the governor sprinted to sign on to the federal voucher program, after years of failure to shove the funding of private schools with public dollars down the throats of Nebraskans, signalling that he doesn’t care what people vote against, he will have his way with education in the state.
As much as it pains me to be on the side of privatization of any type of human service from education to healthcare, the Nebraska Medicine Board seems well justified in it’s fear of a government takeover. And I have no interest in the government controlling my healthcare.
Showing Up
If you too are concerned about where $800 million is coming from after having watched 52 of your colleagues summarily dismissed in December and 500-something students told the BOR only cares about them insofar as they continue to make tuition payments, you can go to the public BOR meeting at Varner Hall on January 9th at 9 am. You can let the secretary know, but for matters on the agenda, anyone who shows up may speak for three minutes.
