Lloyd Jacobs

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Lloyd A. Jacobs began his appointment as the sixth president of the Medical University of Ohio in November 2003. He became the 16th president of the University of Toledo when MUO and UT merged in July 2006.

Prior to coming to MUO, Dr. Jacobs was chief operating officer of the University of Michigan Health System, one of the largest systems in the country, and senior associate dean for clinical affairs at the University of Michigan Medical School. He also held a faculty appointment as professor of surgery.

A native of Holland, Michigan, Dr. Jacobs, following graduation from high school, served four years on active duty with the U.S. Marine Corps, receiving an honorable discharge in 1962. He earned a bachelor's degree in 1965 from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, and an M.D. degree in 1969 from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore. He completed surgery residency training at Johns Hopkins Hospital, University of California at San Diego Hospital and Wayne State University Hospital in Detroit. A vascular surgeon, Dr. Jacobs began his career in academic medicine at Wayne State University in 1974, staying there for 15 years. He is the author of six book chapters and of more than 50 articles in peer-reviewed medical and scientific publications such as Journal of Vascular Surgery, Surgery, and American Surgeon, and has been a featured speaker at dozens of national medical and scientific meetings on topics such as vascular disease, managed care, medical leadership, measuring quality in health care and quality assurance.

In only his second year as the President of the newly merged university, he propose a sweeping set of changes in his "State of the University" address, entitled "Re-Engineering Undergraduate Education or Mass-Customization in Higher Education." [1] The controversial address proposed "mass customization" and "extreme student-centeredness," the reorganization of undergraduate curricula into what he called "modules and algorhythms," and the formation of an independent 501c3 organization dedicated to purchasing and "branding" distance learning modules in order to "retain flexibility" and provide students with a cheaper product. As he said in his address, "mass customization, custom co-creation, open innovation, custom integration are terms that are sweeping the business world. They can all be described as ways of implementing a philosophy of extreme student centeredness, and this concept may constitute the best hope for higher education."

In May of 2008, Jacobs was embroiled in a controversy for suspending Crystal Dixon, a associate vice president of human resources at the University of Toledo. Dixon, who is African-American, wrote a column in the Toledo Free Press on April 18th disagreeing with comments by the newspaper's editor that portrayed homosexuals as civil rights victims. Jacobs said that Dixon's comments "do not accord with the values of the University of Toledo" and placed her on administrative leave.