Bounds formed “budget response teams” in the NU system to find efficiencies and discovered more than $20 million worth, the university has said.

NU Regent Howard Hawks of Omaha said the university was lucky to have him, but Hawks was frank about the demands on Bounds.

“Everybody knows it’s a tough job when you’re not getting the funds you need to do it the way you want to,” Hawks said. “This has really been a wear-and-tear job for all four years that he’s been here.”

Bounds said his relationships with state senators and Gov. Pete Ricketts are good. But his kind of job, he said, has only become tougher with more state funding constraints and harsh competition with other institutions for enrollment growth. The number of college-age Nebraskans is for the most part flat, he said.

The NU system includes institutions in Omaha, Lincoln, Kearney and Curtis, with satellite campuses and programs elsewhere in the state as well.

“This has been the experience of a lifetime,” Bounds said Monday. “It’s also been very demanding.”