Support from alumni and friends of the College of Medicine has a huge impact. It comes in many different forms, but it makes our college stronger by allowing us to keep top faculty, enhance research, and provide students with the best education, while helping to temper the rising cost of medical education.
I want to take a few minutes to recognize this tremendous support and describe what a difference maker this is for the College of Medicine.
When I started as dean in 2011, there were 42 endowed professorships or chairs. Today, there are 78 fully funded endowed professorships or chairs – an increase of more than 85 percent.
Endowed professorships require $500,000 in funding, while endowed chairs require $1 million in funding. They are absolutely vital in the recruitment and retention of outstanding faculty. They make a strong statement to faculty that they are valued. When you are able to keep outstanding people, this translates to a better education for our students and research productivity for UNMC. They go hand-in-hand.
Just to give you an idea of some of the excellent faculty to receive endowed professorships or chairs, here are the seven most recent recipients:
Steven Lisco, MD – Myrna Newland, MD Professor of Anesthesiology
Cathleen Peterson-Layne, MD – Gail Walling Yanney, MD Professor of Anesthesiology
Neil Hansen, MD – Jud W. Gurney, MD Professor of Radiology
Julia Bridge, MD – Amelia F. and Austin L. Vickery, Jr., Chair of Pathology
John Windle, MD – Richard and Mary Holland Distinguished Chair of Cardiovascular Sciences
Dwight Jones, MD – Anthony J. Yonkers Professor of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery
Sean McGarry, MD – James R. Neff Chair of Musculoskeletal Oncology, Orthopaedic Surgery & Rehabilitation
In the past year, the College of Medicine also initiated a program to provide more scholarships to our students. To encourage more donors to participate, the college agreed to put in $1 for every $3 donated for significant new donations or substantial contributions to existing endowed scholarship funds. The program has been wildly successful.
More than $1.6 million has been raised in new scholarship support with 15 donors establishing new scholarship endowments totaling just over $1 million, six donors giving $180,000 to existing scholarship funds, and the College of Medicine making a match of more than $411,000.
Medical school is expensive, so this scholarship support is greatly appreciated by our students. For in-state students, tuition is $33,000 per year – one of the most affordable medical school rates in the country. But, for out-of-state students, our tuition has been $73,000 per year – the highest rate in the country.
We are addressing this large disparity and will be lowering the out-of-state tuition to one that is in line with other state schools and less than most private schools. We still will be going after the best and brightest students with a tie to Nebraska, but this will allow us to bring in a few more highly qualified students from outside Nebraska. These are students who we hope will stay in our state and contribute to our health care work force.
As most of you are hopefully aware, the College of Medicine Innovation Fund was created in 2015 to take the place of the Alumni Council’s membership dues program. I’m happy to report the program has worked splendidly, with alumni stepping up and increasing their support of the college.
In the first two full years since the creation of the Innovation Fund, the average gift to the Innovation Fund is almost three times the amount of annual dues. In addition, there was a 39 percent increase in donors to the Innovation Fund from FY 2016 to FY 2017.
This fantastic support for the College of Medicine should be a real source of pride for all of us. It’s indicates that people recognize how vital the college is to the health care of our state, how it has allowed our alumni to achieve successful careers, and they want us to continue to grow and prosper. I can assure you that I couldn’t be more thrilled to see all of this happen from my seat in the dean’s office.
Thanks for all your efforts on behalf of the faculty, students, and staff of the College of Medicine. Enjoy the warm summer days ahead. In less than three months, we will be welcoming the College of Medicine Class of 2022 to campus.