NU President discusses declining number of international and graduate students, but increases in credit hours

University of Nebraska President Jeffrey Gold addressed declines in international and graduate students during his State of the University address on Thursday.

Numbers for this semester will be released within the next week, he said, but the data so far shows that while there are fewer international and graduate students, there are more in-state students and freshmen. Gold said having fewer international students will have a financial impact on the university, but he said it will be offset somewhat by students taking more credit hours this semester.

“What it means statistically is that we're retaining our student body better and that they're taking larger credit loads towards graduation, which is exactly what we want to see them do,” Gold said. “We want to see them accelerate their time to degree, and that actually feeds the economic engine, but it also creates capacity, teaching capacity for us for the next year's incoming class.”

The four NU campuses are faced with more than $40 million in cuts these next few months, with the University of Nebraska-Lincoln facing the largest reduction of $27.5 million.

“But make no mistake about it, we cannot cut our way to excellence, and certainly we cannot cut our way to our extraordinary destiny,” Gold said in his speech.

Gold said although the university system reached a record high for fundraising this past year, it doesn’t make up for the cuts.

“It cannot replace state and federal funding because the foundation, in all of their expertise and all of these gifts, provides opportunities to innovate, provides opportunities to do things that are not in part of our core budget,” Gold said. “It doesn't pay for light bulbs and floor wax. It doesn't pay salaries for core faculty.”

Gold highlighted several programs and research projects from the last year throughout his address, including a clinical trial at the University of Nebraska Medical Center and Nebraska Medicine on multiple sclerosis. He said the trial has successfully treated at least one patient.

“It represents a major advance in efforts to address the root causes of all autoimmune diseases, and has a great personal significance to me,” Gold said. “As some of you may know, my mom tragically lost her life decades ago to a battle with MS at the prime of her life.”

He also pointed out advancements in agriculture and artificial intelligence with the university.

As the university faces continuing funding challenges, Gold said he wants to make sure community members know their thoughts are valuable. He encouraged people to reach out to his office and share any thoughts or ideas they have.

“I get a lot of mail in the president's office that we could easily ignore — complimentary mail, but also mail about people that have had bad experiences, their children have had unfortunate experiences, they didn't get the benefits package that they thought, you know, on and on and on,” Gold said. “We respond to every one of them. I personally respond to every one of those letters because I want people to feel that they're listened to.”