Nebraska regents to consider multimillion-dollar health project, programs for AI and esports • Nebraska Examiner

LINCOLN — The University of Nebraska Board of Regents will consider next week moving ahead with a multimillion-dollar health project meant to benefit the state’s health care capacity. 

The regents will meet Aug. 8 to consider the $2.19 billion first phase of Project NExT at the University of Nebraska Medical Center as well as NU’s two-year budget request for the Legislature next session. The board will also consider creating new undergraduate programs in artificial intelligence and esports media and communication, among other items.

First phase of Project NExT

UNMC is seeking regent approval of its more detailed plan for the $2.19 billion first phase of Project NExT, and for a green light to spend $50 million more in existing philanthropic funds for related design work.

The first phase has been dubbed Project Health: Building the Healthiest Nebraska. Its focus is limited to Nebraska, providing expansions and improvements to boost  research, education, clinical and community services aimed at benefiting the state’s health care needs.

On a broader scope, Project NExT’s overall investment could surpass $4 billion and include two future phases that partner with regional and federal agencies. That vision includes a civilian-military medical facility that would also respond to national catastrophic disaster events such as another pandemic or an overt attack.

The first-phase complex is expected to span about 1.26 million square feet on the former site of the now-demolished Munroe-Meyer Institute. Those boundaries are from Farnam Street to Dewey Avenue, between 44th Street and Saddle Creek Road.

The facility in part would replace the outdated,1950s-era Clarkson Hospital Tower as well as the Emergency Department and certain diagnostic spaces in the Hixson-Lied Center.

UNMC leaders say Project Health seeks to solve one of the biggest challenges in the current campus configuration: space. They say current facilities were not designed or constructed in a way that suits a modern teaching hospital.

“Project Health will provide the appropriate amount of room, support and ancillary space to continue the mission of training future healthcare professionals,” says UNMC materials prepared for the regents.

UNMC leaders say Project Health furthers the goal of growing professional student enrollment by up to 25% to meet Nebraska’s urban and rural health care needs.

They said the added capacity for teaching and research activities will also strengthen Nebraska’s competitiveness as it seeks readmission into the American Association of Universities.

University of Nebraska President Jeffrey Gold, who was UNMC chancellor from the time Project NExT discussions began and until he took his new role July 1, said UNMC’s mission is to “lead the world in transforming lives and communities.”

He said regent approval next week is a key step in moving the vision toward completion.

“This is critically important in making Nebraska healthier,” Dr. Gold said Thursday.

Biennium budget request

By Aug. 15, regents must complete their two-year budget request for state lawmakers to consider. The main contours that regents will consider for those two years:

• Annual 3% increases in salaries and fringe benefits and 5% increases in health insurance.
• $3 million for the Presidential Scholars Program, to expand the full-cost-of-attendance, $5,000 annual stipend for top-ACT-performing resident students. The plan is to include limited scholarships for students who score between a 32 and 35 on the 36-point scale. Top test takers would automatically receive the benefit.
• $3 million for “research excellence” that will expand NU’s research capacity and competitiveness in pursuit of readmission into the AAU.
• $10 million in funds to plan expansions for educational spaces in Omaha. These funds would be split between the University of Nebraska at Omaha’s Peter Kiewit Institute and a new College of Allied Health building at the University of Nebraska Medical Center.

The proposal states that NU leaders continue to explore the processes and structures that will allow NU to operate as efficiently and effectively as possible while maximizing impact, keeping tuition affordable and moving “toward its vision for excellence.”

“The University recognizes that resources are finite and that strong fiscal discipline is necessary to allow for investment in priorities,” the proposal reads.

Artificial intelligence, esports

Regents will consider a new undergraduate degree program at UNO: an in-person Bachelor of Science in Artificial Intelligence, which would be one of the first of its kind in Nebraska.

The program would help students become specialists or leaders to construct and implement AI systems and AI-driven technologies, according to the degree proposal. It would leverage existing coursework at UNO in computer science and data science and add just two new courses, which would be open to other students, too.

Proposed amendments to the NU Student Code of Conduct, also up for consideration next week, include specifying that cheating includes work that “an entity,” like AI, prepared.

At the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, regents might formally establish an undergraduate certificate in esports media and communication after offering a special topics course in the past year. That course, intro to esports, will become a permanent addition of UNL’s course catalog.

The 15-hour-credit certificate will be open to all UNL students as well as non-UNL students, such as from community colleges, other institutions or K-12 educators.

Among other items that regents will consider next week:

• Joining the Midtown Medical Center Bikeway Connection Interlocal Cooperation Agreement with the City of Omaha for a dedicated bikeway in Omaha, through UNMC. The project is estimated to be $15,125,000.
• Agreeing to a partnership with the City of Lincoln for $350 million, paid by the city, for streetscape improvements near UNL’s Westbrook Music Building replacement project. This would include a larger pedestrian sidewalk and buffer zone.
• Establishing an undergraduate certificate in wildlife habitat management at UNL.
• Naming a new feedlot center at UNL at the Eastern Nebraska Research, Extension and Education Center near Mead the “Klosterman Feedlot Innovation Center.” 
• Naming the exterior plaza by the Osborne Legacy Complex at UNL the “Sandhills Global Plaza.”