U of M donors chastise firings and upheaval in Medical School tussle

University of Minnesota Medical School Dean Dr. Jakub Tolar could soon leave his job amid disputes over money and power at the university, but financial backers of the U say letting him leave would be a mistake that would worsen faculty instability at the state’s largest training program for physicians.

Tolar, who has led the Medical School since 2017, is a finalist for a leadership position at an academic medical center in Arkansas.

Last week, in a message to colleagues obtained by the Minnesota Star Tribune, the dean suggested that Dr. Rebecca Cunningham, the U president since last year, wants to replace him with a leader of her own choosing.

Faculty have repeatedly voiced support for Tolar over the past year in the midst of volatile negotiations between Fairview Health Services and the U over future funding for the Medical School and the broader academic health program, which includes research and patient care.

Losing Tolar “would be an insurmountable setback,” wrote John Schwietz, CEO of Minnesota Masonic Charities, in a letter to Douglas Huebsch, chair of the U’s Board of Regents. The U is suffering already, he added, from a worrisome pattern of departures by highly respected physician leaders.

Minnesota Masonic Charities has donated nearly $200 million over many decades in health care work at the University of Minnesota, including a $25 million gift for naming rights at the U’s pediatric hospital near its West Bank campus.

Fairview, a nonprofit health system based in Minneapolis, owns Masonic Children’s Hospital and jointly operates with the university the M Health Fairview network of hospitals and clinics.

Tolar was not available for comment and the U, in a statement, did not address whether Cunningham is trying to push the dean out.

Earlier this month, the University of Arkansas announced Tolar is one of four finalists to become chancellor in the school’s medical sciences center. He distributed a memo this month to department chairs at the U Medical School, saying he had “begun to explore other possibilities.”

“The signs — subtle at first, then less so — have suggested that the President prefers a Dean, or indeed any leader, of her own choosing," Tolar wrote on Dec. 8.

The memo indicates Tolar wants to stay at the U, but “is feeling forced to leave,” Lynne Redleaf, president of the Lynne & Andrew Redleaf Foundation, wrote in a Dec. 14 letter to regents at the U.

Her group has invested more than $20 million in the U, and is considering proposals to spend another $13 million.

She added: “The current situation is incredibly destabilizing, and this is not the time for a change in leadership at the Medical School.”

The U said in a statement that philanthropic giving to the university remains strong. Officials predicted the university would reach “a win-win-win solution” for long-term funding of the U’s academic health care program, which includes patient care, research and training.

As the Medical School dean, Tolar has been at the center of the debate over various proposals that would shift the balance of power at the U’s academic health program while potentially changing the flow of funds as well.

Fairview is the U’s primary partner in the program. The health system provides about $100 million in annual financial support and owns University of Minnesota Medical Center, a massive teaching hospital in Minneapolis. But Fairview says current funding levels aren’t sustainable.

Tolar loudly opposed a plan first announced in 2022 for Fairview to merge with South Dakota-based Sanford Health. The dean then led the U’s push, beginning in January 2024, to reacquire University of Minnesota Medical Center, which Fairview purchased in a 1997 financial bailout. In April, he defended Cunningham’s proposal for a new health system that would merge Fairview with Duluth-based Essentia Health.

As the Medical School dean, Tolar is board chair at UMP. The university says he raised serious concerns about the UMP-Fairview deal and was in the minority of UMP board members who voted against it. University officials later criticized the deal as “secret.”

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison has called for mediation among all three parties.

“We are committed to ensuring strong leadership of the Medical School and are, at this time, focused on forging an agreement that ensures ... long-term stability,” the U said this week in a statement.

U administrators say they were wrongly cut out of negotiations between Fairview and UMP. The deal could result in less funding for academic health programs, the U says, and too much control for Fairview.

But the university’s combative tone in opposing the plan has raised concerns among some faculty and staff.

“It has eroded faculty morale, impaired recruitment and retention, and jeopardized the reputation and effectiveness of Minnesota’s only public academic medical center,” the department chairs wrote.

“Finally, we affirm our strong and unanimous support of Dean Tolar as the individual who will work with both the University and UMP during this process, in his role as the academic leader of the medical school,” they wrote.

The department chairs also said they supported finalizing the UMP-Fairview deal over what they described as a “not viable” alternative being put forward by the U’s negotiating team. The university did not release details on this alternative.

The letter from the department chairs was cited during recent discussions related to the UMP-Fairview deal at the University Senate, which includes faculty, staff and student representatives.

Cunningham opened the first of two senate meetings by reassuring faculty some sort of deal ultimately would be struck between the U and Fairview, so doctors can keep treating health system patients after their current affiliation agreement expires at the end of next year.