The University of Nebraska Board of Regents will meet on Thursday, Aug. 17, at Varner Hall, 3835 Holdrege St. in Lincoln. The meeting begins at 9 a.m. The meeting is open to the public and will also be live-streamed at www.nebraska.edu.
A detailed agenda is available here.
The meeting will lead off with the recognition of the 2023 recipients of the President’s Excellence Awards, the NU System’s highest honors for teaching, research, engagement, technology transfer, and inclusive excellence.
Awards include the Outstanding Teaching and Instructional Creativity Award; the Outstanding Research and Creative Activity Award; the Innovation, Development and Engagement Award; the Faculty IP Innovation and Commercialization Award; the University-wide Departmental Teaching Award; and the Inclusive Excellence Collaboration Award. NU President Ted Carter has announced individual recipients over the past several months. At the Board meeting, he will make brief remarks about each recipient and invite them to be recognized before the regents and public.
Items for the Board’s consideration include:
- A revision to the UNK-UNMC Rural Health Education Building—Phase II (Addendum XI-B-2). The revision incorporates the $10 million in state funding appropriated by the Legislature and Governor in 2022 to ensure it is included within the overall project budget. The state funds will be used to buy special equipment for the facility, which will be located on the UNK campus.
- Selection of Blue Cross Blue Shield as the third-party administrator for the university’s dental plan, effective Jan. 1, 2024. (Addendum XI-B-1).
- The awarding of Carter’s merit-based performance pay for FY2022-23 (Addendum XI-C-1). Given the university’s fiscal challenges, if the Board awards the pay, Carter will give the funds anonymously to charitable causes.
In bringing the item to the Board, Carter thanked elected leaders for their partnership in growing Nebraska’s rural healthcare workforce. “This public-private partnership will transform our state’s economy and quality of life for generations,” he said. “I’m very pleased with our progress so far and can’t wait to welcome students, faculty and staff to what I know will be a cutting-edge facility. As UNK and UNMC are proving yet again, big things happen when we work together.”
Construction on the building is set to begin this fall, with completion targeted for late 2025 and occupancy for early 2026. The expansion – which follows the opening of the highly successful UNK-UNMC Health Science Education Complex in 2015 – will allow for new and expanded UNMC programs in allied health, nursing, medicine, pharmacy and public health in Kearney. Students will be able to enroll in the newly expanded programs beginning in fall 2025, using existing UNK facilities until the new building opens.