LINCOLN — Dr. Jeffrey Gold expressed optimism Monday about the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s ability to improve its academic standing and regain membership in the Association of American Universities.
The Board of Regents’ pick to be the university’s next president, Gold strongly endorsed the regents’ desire to get back into the AAU, the prestigious consortium of the nation’s top research universities that UNL was booted out of in 2011.
“We can put this together in a way that will achieve those goals,” Gold said during a UNL campus forum.
Gold, currently the chancellor of the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha, said the effort is not just about prestige.
The dozen or so metrics that the AAU uses to judge potential members are also important to the success of the University of Nebraska, Gold said, among them research productivity, publication by faculty members and the success rate of students, including those coming from disadvantaged backgrounds.
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“The things the AAU values are the same values that I have, and I’m sure you have, about what it means to be a great university system,” Gold said.
Gold took part in a series of forums Monday as part of a 30-day campus vetting process. He visited UNL’s agricultural East Campus, main City Campus and Varner Hall, home of NU’s central administration, with a total of about 300 people attending in person and roughly 400 more joining online. A majority of those attending in person appeared to be faculty or staff members.
On Monday, he also held his first forum at the University of Nebraska at Omaha. He jokingly compared the process to “speed dating.”
The regents have not yet set a date for a final vote on whether Gold will become the university’s ninth president, replacing Ted Carter, who left in December for Ohio State. But Regent Rob Schafer of Beatrice, chair of the board, said in an interview he’s working on setting the vote for sometime next week. He said he thought Gold’s hearings Monday went well.
While the vote appears to be a formality, Gold said he is taking nothing for granted.
“I know this is not a done deal,” Gold said.
During the Lincoln forums, there was much interest in the effort to getting system flagship UNL back into the AAU.
Gold said UNL already has the quality people and programs that can help the school get back to the association, and suggested those are not as well known now because of the state’s penchant for modesty.
Gold spoke of the need to explore whether better alignment of UNL with UNMC would assist in the effort. He said in a recent interview with The World-Herald he would not rule out merging the two campuses under a single leader — a return to the structure of a half century ago — if it would help the university move ahead.
Gold noted Monday that of the 71 members of the AAU, 57 have large academic health science centers within them.
He said any change in the relationship between UNL and UNMC would need to be done in a careful way, saying “change for change’s sake is a waste of time, expensive and usually self-defeating.”
Gold said there’s also a clear need to “break down some of the administrative silos” between the UNL and UNMC campuses that have made working together difficult. He said he has been told by faculty at both institutions that it’s easier to collaborate with faculty at other Big Ten or AAU schools than it is to do so with those from their sister campus.
“That is ridiculous,” Gold said, “and that has to stop.”
He also pledged that any alignment changes would be made with “total transparency” and input from the people impacted.
Gold noted the progress that has already been made on some AAU metrics. The university recently received approval from the National Science Foundation to jointly report research figures for UNL and UNMC.
An idea Carter had tossed out in December about branding all four University of Nebraska campuses under the flagship campus’ “N” logo received some pushback during the UNO forum.
Gold repeated his belief that any such changes would need to be careful and transparent, and added:
“I personally don’t see the Maverick brand going away,” he said, then gave a nod to the UNO hockey team. “Particularly on the ice.”
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Gold spent half the time in his forums explaining his background and how it helps him relate to the university community: First-generation college student. Pediatric heart surgeon. Faculty senate representative. Campus chancellor at both UNMC and UNO. Provost of the entire NU system.
He repeatedly told how he volunteered to work at Ground Zero in New York City on Sept. 11, 2001. That proved life-changing, inspiring the physician to bigger things and leading him to become medical school dean at the University of Toledo.
He said one of his most pivotal and poignant moments in his career came during his first year there.
A young woman who had just received her white coat as a medical student tearfully handed it back over to him. She said her father had just lost his job and her mother was being treated for cancer, leaving her unable to afford her textbooks for the first day of classes.
In the end, Gold handed her his credit card and told her to go buy her textbooks, and that they would work it out.
Years later, she graduated first in her class, and is now a residency program director at a major East Coast medical school. On the day she graduated, the young woman’s father handed Gold an envelope containing $164.23 — the amount Gold had paid for her books.
He said it taught him a powerful lesson: “If you treat our students like you would treat your own child, you can do anything you want to do, and you can make magic happen.”
He said taking care of student well-being is of utmost importance for the university.
In response to a question at City Campus, Gold called academic freedom a “core value” of the university.
“On a scale of one to 10, I support academic freedom at about 27 and two-thirds, approximately,” he said.
Gold also stressed the importance of agricultural extension, calling it “one of the most powerful tools any land grant campus has.”
Gold said during the UNL forum he also appreciates the importance of college athletics. He expressed pride in UNL’s powerhouse volleyball program and the fact that UNO’s hockey team and both UNL’s basketball teams made the NCAA tournament this year.
He also said he recently had an opportunity to meet for an hour and a half with Husker football coach Matt Rhule, who is working to turn around a program that’s been mired in a years-long stretch of mediocrity.
“What an incredible human being he is,” Gold said. “If anyone is going to do it, he is going to do it.”
Despite the large amount of “gloom and doom” in higher education today, Gold said he thought all the University of Nebraska campuses are in a position to excel.
Gold said he would bring to the presidency some new ideas and a great deal of energy — he said he sleeps only four hours a day, a product of his days as a medical resident — but is also aware there is a lot he needs to get to know. He said he is humbled, excited and “a little bit scared” of the challenge ahead.
“I am incredibly enthusiastic and positive about the future for the University of Nebraska,” he said.
Richard Moberly, dean of the law school in Lincoln, said he believed Gold’s background makes him uniquely qualified to lead the NU system.
“I’m thrilled that you are the priority candidate, watching what you’ve done at UNMC over the last 10 years,” he told Gold during the East Campus forum. “And I’m confident that if you can do the same thing for our system and our university, we’re gonna go to great places.”
World-Herald staff writer Julie Anderson contributed to this report.