The social forces that surged throughout the turbulent 1960s crested in 1968. It was a turning point for a generation coming of age and a nation at war, as well as for higher education in Nebraska — 1968 was the year that UNMC was established.
Prior to 1968, the medical campus in Omaha was administratively part of the University of Nebraska in Lincoln. In 1968, plans were made to add the municipal University of Omaha (OU) to create a new NU system, and the resulting administrative reorganization officially recognized the medical center as a semi-autonomous campus in that new system. To accomplish all of this, it took a special bill in the Nebraska legislature, as well as a vote of the citizens of Omaha.
In October 1968, the Board of Regents reorganized the university’s structure to reflect the merger. A system administration was established, composed of semi-autonomous degree granting institutions: UNL, UNO and UNMC (with UNK added in 1991). UNL Chancellor Clifford Hardin was appointed as chief administrative officer of the new system. To administer each campus, the regents created three presidencies — titles changed to chancellor in 1971. College of Medicine Dean Cecil Wittson, M.D., was appointed to lead the new UNMC campus.
A psychiatrist and native of South Carolina, Wittson came to Omaha in 1950 to head the new Nebraska Psychiatric Institute. In 1964, he was appointed dean of the College of Medicine.
The Benson Sun newspaper named Wittson “Man of the Year” in 1966, with the banner headline, “Wittson opens new medical era in Omaha — dean’s energy and ideas move school ahead.” In 1967, the Nebraska Alumnus magazine called him the “dynamic dean.”
Wittson retired in 1972, becoming chancellor emeritus. A cover story about him in the Omaha World-Herald’s Sunday Magazine of the Midlands noted “$26 million worth (about $145 million today) of construction completed or under way during his seven-year tenure as dean and chancellor.”
As a result of the merger with OU and administrative restructuring, a number of other transitions took place by 1972: the NU College of Pharmacy moved from Lincoln to Omaha, becoming a part of UNMC; the School of Allied Health Professions was formed within the College of Medicine; and the School of Nursing became the College of Nursing. That same year, the new Basic Science Building was renamed in honor of Dr. Wittson.