Dr. Jakub Tolar, dean of the University of Minnesota Medical School, will interview Dec. 17 and 18 for a new position in Arkansas.

Tolar, who has worked at the university for three decades, is among four finalists competing for the position of chancellor of the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS).

His Arkansas chancellor candidacy comes as uncertainty has surrounded the future of the University of Minnesota Medical School. A new operating agreement among Fairview Health Services, the University of Minnesota, and M Physicians has proven elusive despite years of talks.

Consequently, under the supervision of Attorney General Keith Ellison, Fairview and the physicians’ group recently reached a 10-year pact that defined key elements of the relationship. That deal drew the ire of the University of Minnesota administration, and all three parties have now entered a phase in which negotiations will be mediated.

A week ago, Ellison named retired judge Thomas Fraser to act as the mediator, with consultant help from Dr. Bill McGuire and Lois Quam, former UnitedHealth Group executives.

Tolar’s Relationship with U of M President

Tolar was named dean of the University of Minnesota Medical School in 2017 by U of M President Eric Kaler.

In a Thursday letter that Tolar sent to his health care peers, he revealed that he thinks Rebecca Cunningham, current U of M president and a physician, wants to bring in her own choice to lead the medical school.

“The signs—subtle at first, then less so—have suggested that the President [Cunningham] prefers a Dean/VP, or indeed any leader, of her own choosing,” Tolar wrote in a letter sent on his letterhead from the Office of the Vice President for Academic Clinical Affairs.

Vice president for clinical affairs is among multiple titles that Tolar holds, and the Thursday letter that he sent went to AVPs and directors within clinical affairs at the U of M.

In the letter obtained by Twin Cities Business, Tolar wrote: “I am profoundly thankful for each of you—steadfast, capable companions in the daily labor of advancing this school. If I have not said it often enough, it is not for lack of feeling. My loyalty to the University—OACA [Office for Academic Clinical Affairs] and the Medical School—is complete; my pride in what we have achieved together is unmistakable.”

Tolar then listed a series of accomplishments at the U of M, including “tremendous calm and consistent responses” to Covid-19.

“There are still so many ventures underway—fledgling, promising, taking shape—and if the choice rested solely with me, I would gladly devote the remainder of my career to seeing them mature here,” Tolar wrote.

Then he used a sentence to convey that he sees a new political reality at the University of Minnesota. “Yet institutions move according to currents that the individual cannot fully command,” Tolar wrote.

He did not disclose in the letter that he is a finalist for a leadership role at the University of Arkansas. But he did report that he’s on the job market.

“I have begun to explore other possibilities—an undertaking that, in academic life, proceeds at the pace of an old campaign, with long reconnaissance and slow advance,” Tolar wrote.

In a written statement to Twin Cities Business on Friday, the University of Minnesota said: “The University does not comment or speculate on personnel matters. We are committed to ensuring strong leadership of the medical school as we collectively forge an agreement that ensures the long-term sustainability of the University of Minnesota Medical School as part of the mediation with M Physicians and Fairview.”

Tolar, a native of the Czech Republic, received his medical education in Prague. In 1992, he came to the University of Minnesota, where he earned a PhD in molecular, cellular & developmental biology and genetics. He is currently a professor in the U’s department of pediatrics, blood and marrow transplant & cellular therapy.

“Should there be a path through this impasse, our institution remains my first and firmest choice,” Tolar wrote. “I have been tied to this place for 30 years—since my earliest days as a student—and my loyalty has never wavered. Yet history teaches the prudence of contingency, and it would be folly not to contemplate alternatives, however distasteful the thought. This is not a farewell, nor a valedictory, but simply an honest accounting of the moment we find ourselves in.”