UNMC Chancellor Jeffrey P. Gold, M.D., continued last year’s theme of “We Lead the World,” in his third State of the Campus address at the annual Faculty Senate Awards ceremony last Wednesday.
“We have a lot going on and if I put it all in this presentation, we’d be here until tomorrow night,” he said.
Instead, he narrowed his focus down to five areas: campus initiatives, construction and legislative updates, points of pride and the future vision, all which demonstrate how UNMC leads the world.
Campus initiatives range from an emotional well-being program that shines the light on the challenges of burnout and stress, the Bias Assessment and Response Team (BART) that works to resolve issues of bias, to all the innovative and modern interprofessional health education programs, such as iEXCEL#8480, e-learning and the Interprofesional Academy of Educators.
Energy conservation continues to be a major initiative. Dr. Gold reported that energy use on campus has been reduced by 25 percent while the campus grew to include Nebraska Medicine and an additional one million square feet of new building space. “Overall savings have been at least $10 million,” he said.
Also, TravelSmart’s first year has been successful with the enrollment of 933 people to walk, bike, carpool or ride the bus to work.
Uniting Nebraska Medicine and UNMC Physicians under one governance structure is a big accomplishment with major progress made during the past year. “With strong consensus by the Board of Regents and the Clarkson Regional Health Services, we now move to the final steps with UNMC Physicians,” Dr. Gold said.
Finding common values has been ongoing for Nebraska Medicine and UNMC for the past six months. These common values will be formally announced at the end of May. Dr. Gold provided a preview of the ITEACH values.
“As Abraham Lincoln said, ‘The best way to predict your future is to create it.’ That’s what we’ve done with these values,” Dr. Gold said.
“I want us to exceed expectations — and like our construction projects, always to over deliver, be ahead of schedule and on budget. We have to exemplify these values every day and every time we meet others.”