‘Both programs will suffer': UNL music, theater schools facing budget cuts

The Glenn Korff School of Music could lose its music director under a UNL budget cut proposal.

University officials announced a proposal in September that would cut six programs and merge four others in response to a smaller-than-needed state appropriation. The potential budget cuts are meant to address a $21 million budget deficit along with an additional $6.5 million in proactive cuts.

The budget cut proposal included other cuts across campus, including eliminating a director position in either the Glenn Korff School of Music or the Johnny Carson School of Theatre and Film. The two schools would have a shared director and each would have an associate director and share other administrative, facilities and production staff, said Mark Button, executive vice chancellor and chief academic officer.

“With the university facing $27.5 million in budget cuts and several programs now listed for complete elimination, the College of Fine and Performing Arts reviewed its operations and came up with a creative proposal to reduce spending while building upon the strengths of the Johnny Carson School of Theatre and Film and the Glenn Korff School and Music,” Button said in a statement. “The proposal is not a consolidation, but a strategic alignment of administrative and staff resources.”

The university launched a voluntary separation program for tenured faculty 62 and older with at least 10 years of service to help address some of the needed cuts. University employees also didn’t receive raises this year, unless previously negotiated or related to promotion and tenure.

Felix Olschofka, director of the school of music and a violin professor, said he was initially surprised to hear that his position would be eliminated, especially when the music school was among the top 25 at the university during a metrics analysis of all the programs. That analysis included looking at instruction and research, including student credit hours, research publications and degrees awarded.

Olschofka said he’s worried that having one director for both the music and theater schools will hurt the programs.

“It creates competition between music and theater/film,” he said. “You have the wind band wanting to go to Ireland to a competition, to a festival, etc., and then you have perhaps a theater production you want to take on the road to Scottsbluff or anywhere else in the world. How do you, when you have one shared director, how do you advocate for both projects to the Hixson-Lied board? How do you do this for both units equally?”

Olschofka said no Big Ten schools, or schools in the Association of American Universities, have a shared director between music and theater, and he added that is typical of a dean’s job.

In addition to losing a director position, the two schools would also share a facilities manager under the proposal, which is the person who plans all the events. Olschofka said consolidating those positions between the two schools would put too much work on one person.

“Processing requests on a daily basis will be overwhelming for just one person,” he said. “Long term, both programs will suffer from that in terms of performance/production areas.”

The music school has around 400 students. Olschofka said it’s his job to make sure each student has the best possible education, including inviting guest artists, working with donors and hiring professors who not only have the right credentials, but also fit the program on a personal level.

“That's why we're here,” he said. “It's all about our students. We want to make sure they are successful.”

Olschofka started at UNL in 2023 after 13 years at the University of North Texas, which he said has one of the largest public music programs in the country.

“I was charged to continue building this program, because it's already very, very strong,” he said. “Now, with the new music building, we have a lot of wonderful projects in mind we want to produce here, and so it's a disappointment.”

Olschofka added faculty are presenting an alternative plan where “savings would come from streamlining certain mid-level administrative roles, consolidating an unfilled staff position, shifting a portion of ensemble support to an appropriate campus partner, right-sizing compensation for a specialized technical role, and phasing out one faculty line through planned retirement.”

Both the Glenn Korff School of Music and the Johnny Carson School of Theatre and Film have hearings to present the alternative plan and discuss the proposed cuts on Wednesday.

“I'm confident that we will be heard,” Olschofka said. “Our voices will be heard, and when I say we, it's not just Glenn Korff, it's also Johnny Carson. They have also interest in keeping the current structure with two directors, because in the end, long term, both programs most likely will suffer from this decision making today.”