Dr. Jeff Gold, the priority candidate to become the University of Nebraska's ninth president, said he believes "the university is absolutely critical for the future of our state” during a public forum on Monday at the City Campus Union in Lincoln.
KATY COWELL, Journal Star
Dr. Jeff Gold, the priority candidate for the University of Nebraska President position, speaks during a public forum on Monday at the City Campus Union.
As attitudes continue to shift about the value of a college education, the preferred candidate to become the University of Nebraska’s ninth president said he has never been more confident in the future of higher education.
Jeff Gold, who was named the priority candidate to lead the NU system on March 20, told faculty, staff and students at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln he remains “bullish” about public higher education in particular.
“Higher education is changing radically across the United States,” Gold said at a public forum in the City Campus Union. “It’s not just the administration of it, but frankly the core value proposition.”
Last September, for example, polling conducted by The New York Times showed 41% of young adults said college is very important now, compared to 74% in 2010, while only about one-third of Americans said they had confidence in higher education.
Gold, 71, who has served as chancellor of the University of Nebraska Medical Center since 2014, a position he embraced after a long career as a pediatric cardiac surgeon, said he believes NU can help reverse “the doom and gloom.”
In his travels across NU’s “500-mile campus” stretching from Omaha to Scottsbluff, Gold said he witnessed the support for the university, whether it be from alumni, donors or just run-of-the-mill Nebraskans.
“There’s a number of things people communicate when you’re out in parts of rural Nebraska, but one thing is absolutely solid,” he said. “The university is absolutely critical for the future of our state.”
If his hiring is confirmed by the Board of Regents — the board will meet Friday but won't consider Gold's hiring at that time — the likely next president said it will be up to each member of the university to help develop a vision for NU and then communicate it “in a way that carries the weight it deserves."
Monday’s forum, part of a 30-day vetting period required for top NU administrators under state law, was also an opportunity for Gold to share his personal story and outline his views on leadership before his hiring can be confirmed by regents.
Gold told of growing up poor in New York City before his family moved to a farm in Tennessee for several years as his father pursued work in the textiles industry. He later returned to New York and graduated from the largest public K-12 education system in the U.S.
A trained engineer who went on to become a pediatric cardiac surgeon before starting in academia, Gold said he approaches leadership with a sense of pragmatism as well as a desire to do the best job he can.
“If some mom and some dad hand their baby over to me and said ‘I want you to do the best you can,’ they don’t mean almost the best you can,” he said. “They mean get the job done.”
Gold said he has found the same attitude among the Nebraskans that he’s met over the past decade: “People here are hardworking and dedicated, they mean what they say and they say what they mean and they know how to get the job done.”
Getting things done also requires being honest and transparent about one’s own limitations, not being afraid to ask for help when necessary, and being eager to surround yourself with “the best and brightest minds,” Gold said.
He added that he planned to ensure his team has the authority to act in addition to the resources they need in order to “stay out of their way.”
“Building a culture of trust and building a culture of personal honesty and transparency, to me, is the name of the game in all types of leadership,” he said.
Other issues Gold addressed on Monday:
* The president-select indicated he planned to pick up and carry the baton on a plan put forward by former President Ted Carter last year to see UNL rejoin the Association of American Universities.
UNL was voted out of the organization denoting prestige among higher education in 2011.
Gold said UNL has already done some "preliminary work" toward the goal of being asked to rejoin, including combining its research reporting with UNMC, which raised its stature compared to other universities, but said that effort and others were ongoing.
He also said he would need to continue studying the issue in greater depth in order to understand what kind of investment would be required to meet the metrics set forth by the AAU, but he indicated a willingness to work to meet them.
"The things that the AAU values are the same values I have, and I'm sure you have around what it means to be part of a great university system," Gold said.
* Gold also said the kind of academic activity sought by the AAU — research breakthroughs, creative activity, conference keynote speeches — are the types of experiences that will draw students to NU.
"When we are building academic programs to educate the next generation, they want to be exposed to faculty members who don't just read the literature but those who write the literature, who give presentations, who do the research, who do the scholarship or creativity," he said.
* Asked to explain how much he supports academic freedom on a "scale of 1 to 10," Gold rated his support for the bedrock of academia at "27 and two-thirds."
"I think it's one of the core values of higher education and needs to remain so," Gold said.
But he added that supporting academic freedom was just one way NU should be standing behind its faculty, staff and students.
The university should also do more to ensure its community is avoiding food or housing insecurity, has available resources to address mental health issues and addiction, among other challenges, Gold said.
He pledged to stand "on the front lines" in addressing those concerns if his hire goes through.
"We need to treat our students like they are our own children," Gold said.
Gold was scheduled to visit the University of Nebraska at Omaha campus on Monday afternoon and again Tuesday morning before forums at UNMC on Tuesday. He was at the University of Nebraska at Kearney on Friday.
Dr. Jeff Gold, the priority candidate to become the University of Nebraska's ninth president, said he believes "the university is absolutely critical for the future of our state” during a public forum on Monday at the City Campus Union in Lincoln.
Dr. Jeff Gold, the priority candidate for the University of Nebraska President position, speaks during a public forum on Monday at the City Campus Union.