From Aron’s Desk

Friends, 

Following on the delights of graduation, our impressive implementation of early start across our programs, and my own paddling vacation; much of the work in my office has been focused on the meeting of the RFU Board of Trustees this week. We do good and important work at board meetings, including approving faculty appointments and tenure, setting the budget, and working through major strategic efforts of the university. 

Our board is engaged, dedicated, and always interested in learning more about the university. The meetings work well, and we are making some changes to have the board spend more time on campus during the meetings in the next year. For a long time many of the committee meetings have been off site, and we are moving those to campus beginning with this meeting. This particular meeting had been scheduled to be virtual, but we have moved it to be in person as much as possible, so we can all be together on campus. We are also doing our best to have board members spend more informal time with students in meals surrounding the meeting. 

This meeting marks the end/beginning of our board year, and we welcomed two new members to the board, Deb Anderson, MBA, chief information officer for Endeavor Health, and John Combes MD, chief communications and policy officer for the American Council on Graduate Medical Education (ACGME), the accrediting body for physician residency programs. The board elected its new officers during the meeting, and I would like to congratulate Chair Kim Darey, MD ‘04, Vice Chair Marty Manning MBA, Treasurer John Grady DPM ‘80, and Secretary Matt Primack PT’99 DPT ‘04 MBA for their unanimous election to their new officer roles. 

I have some thank-you’s to make as well. Chair Karen Miller, PhD, RN (Sr. Vice Chancellor, Dean and Professor Emerita University of Kansas Medical Center) and Secretary Lee Sacks, MD (Retired) Executive Vice President, Chief Medical Officer Advocate Health Care are rotating off as officers this year. Karen has been a kind and inclusive chair dedicated to our students, staff, and faculty. She has even taught a course for us. She understands higher education and has been a stalwart supporter of our education and research structures. While Lee has been secretary this term, he has previously been chair of the board and chaired the presidential search. I think he did an excellent job. Both Karen and Lee have been instrumental in my transition into this position, and I am so grateful for their wisdom, counsel, and support. I have so much gratitude for their service and support of me and the university.

Each board meeting includes several educational presentations for the board.  This month, Dean of Students Shelly Brzycki, MS and Associate General Counsel Michelle Kramer presented on student wellness and safety on campus. They used data from the Healthy Minds Survey data we discussed at Town Hall in the early spring and our recent efforts to improve security on campus including new training, limiting entrances, and special access systems for first responders. Our Interim Vice President for Institutional Advancement George Rattin presented on our work raising scholarship funds and support for our faculty and programs, which will be the subject of a future Town Hall session. And, our last educational session was on the Early Start program, which has started so early and so well this month. Early Start was the subject of June 12th’s Town Hall, check it out. 

The most consequential activity of the June meeting each year is approving the annual budget. Our goal for the year has been a breakeven budget, which we presented and was approved by the board. Just about the entire institution is involved in creating this budget. I appreciate the work of the deans, the college staff, our finance team led by CFO Gavin Farry, and everyone who figures out how we can do all we do on a budget with not enough levers. 

It is important to acknowledge the sacrifices our people have made to achieve to a break-even budget - we were in significant deficit as recently as 2024. As an example, over the last couple of years, RFU has reduced the institutional retirement contribution, which is still an excellent university benefit but admittedly smaller than it was. And although we have worked to limit tuition increases, tuition goes up to keep up with inflation. The major challenge facing us in the coming year is our negotiations with our insurers and health plans due to the rapid inflation in healthcare costs, led by specialty medications. These meds include life-saving and function-preserving medications like the new biologic and immunological medications, which can be absolutely life-changing for patients with cancer and autoimmune conditions. The GLP-1 receptor agonists are also important contributors to the rapid rise in our costs. We are working to find the best balance between access and affordability for our programs. The budget has been helped this year by our teams bringing in new grants, earning state support for our community programming, delaying some hires, and tightening our belts in other areas. Happily, we will avoid the raft of layoffs we have all seen at other universities in the last year. 

June is Pride Month, anchored by the anniversary of the Stonewall Uprising, June 28, 1969. In the world of the last couple of years, it is important I remember to you Stonewall and Pride Month. The progress our country has made in civil rights over 250 years has come in fits and starts, never in a straight line, and always with struggle. In 1853 the abolitionist Theodore Parker observed that “I do not pretend to understand the moral universe. The arc is a long one. My eye reaches but little ways. I cannot calculate the curve and complete the figure by experience of sight. I can divine it by conscience. And from what I see I am sure it bends toward justice.” Consistent with his American transcendentalist approach, Parker’s conscience can see what his eyes cannot: the bend of the moral arc of the universe toward justice. Our world struggles to escape the material and to linger even briefly on what our conscience might see or can see if we pay attention. Still, we all know what it means to be seen, and that our eyes are neither necessary nor sufficient to see those around us or the struggles they face. Before the month is out, I hope you will take a moment to channel your American transcendentalist heritage and see with your conscience the people you might miss with your eyes. Conscientiously look at Stonewall, Pride Month, and the panoply of humanity around us. In so doing, become visible to the conscience of others. Be seen and know you are seen.

Improving the wellness of all people with you,
Aron

Aron Sousa, MD
President