UNMC has made great strides in building a strong research program. This year, it also hopes to improve employee salaries and benefits.
Salaries and benefits should be among the university’s top priorities for the next budget cycle, UNMC Chancellor Harold M. Maurer, M.D., told campus employees Wednesday at one of two campus forums.
“Salaries have not kept up, nor have benefits,” Dr. Maurer said.
Dr. Maurer remains committed to building a strong research program, which “will ignite educational and clinical programs and build the medical center’s capabilities,” he said.
UNMC’s research enterprise has grown in the past 10 years. UNMC received $24.2 million in research funds in 1994, the year Dr. Maurer became dean of the College of Medicine. In 1998, the year he became chancellor, that number had grown to $30.9 million. Today, UNMC will cap its 2004 calendar year with more than $72.5 million in research dollars.
The goal for 2005 is to reach $100 million, Dr. Maurer said. He’s also set a “stretch” goal of $200 million in research grants by the end of 2009.
Meanwhile, UNMC continues to enhance its physical facilities for research, education and clinical care. The Nebraska Medical Center’s Clinical Center of Excellence, which will connect University and Clarkson Towers, will be finished in the fall of 2005.
Construction on a new $52 million educational building, the Center for Health Science Education, will begin in the summer of 2005. The $12.5 million current Good Manufacturing Practices (cGMP) Transplant Production Facility — designed to advance innovative therapies in oncology and transplantation — will be available in January 2006.
UNMC also plans to begin construction on a $74 million research tower, which will mirror the Durham Research Center without the auditorium, in January 2006. Private funding is leading the way on all the projects.
In addition, Legislative Bill 1100-2, if approved, could help pave the way for renovating a number of University of Nebraska buildings including UNMC’s Poynter, Bennett and Wittson Halls, the Eppley Science Building and the College of Dentistry in Lincoln.
“It could really be fascinating around here to see all the cranes,” Dr. Maurer said. “If we’re going to be a great, world-class medical center we need to have modern facilities.”
In addition, Central Administration is working to get the state to match private contributions for endowed chairs and professorships, Dr. Maurer said.
This week’s campus forum also included remarks by Human Resources Director John Russell and Employee Relations Director Jane Harris on preliminary results of the recent employee satisfaction survey and the programs put in place as a result of the initial survey in 2002. About 43 percent of UNMC employees responded to the most recent survey, Russell said. The survey results are being studied, he said, and will be shared in UNMC Today and with individual units in mid-January. The results will help Human Resources develop action plans and new initiatives for employees.
The 2002 survey led to UNMC initiating The Management Series and the Administrative Colloquium for managerial-professional staff and collaborating with Community Partnership in developing and presenting Foundations for Success. UNMC also created additional on-campus educational opportunities such as business writing, Spanish, communications skills, and conflict management courses.
“Every employee is important to the success of the medical center,” Dr. Maurer said. “It doesn’t matter what particular job that individual has. Every job is important because that’s what makes the medical center so effective.”