UNL faculty hires now require chancellor approval amid statewide hiring freeze and budget cuts

The University of Nebraska-Lincoln will change some of its hiring approval processes this year after Gov. Jim Pillen announced in July that state-funded agencies and entities will lose some of their monthly budget allocations.

Starting Tuesday, all regular faculty positions, including both new and existing ones, will require the chancellor’s sign-off before recruitment begins. Interim Chancellor Katherine Ankerson wrote in a Tuesday email to all UNL faculty and staff that the change will ensure the hiring plans “remain aligned with the university’s academic priorities, long-term strategic objectives and available resources.”

But the hiring of “designated frontline service positions” won’t require Ankerson’s approval anymore. Going forward, the “cognizant vice chancellor” will give the final stamps of approval on those hirings. Those positions include security guards, police officers, research technicians, childcare teachers, custodians, groundskeepers and food service employees. Ankerson said this will remove an administrative layer and better support daily campus operations.

“Our highest priority remains supporting the people and programs that advance our land-grant mission of teaching, research, extension and service,” Ankerson said. “Achieving that goal requires us to continue making thoughtful, disciplined decisions about how we invest our resources, including our hiring decisions.”

The university has upheld stricter hiring approvals over the last several years as the institution has faced lower-than-expected budget appropriations from the Nebraska Legislature. But Nebraska’s budget issues have continued to balloon the last two years, leading to Pillen’s recent order to state leaders to find areas in their budgets that can be trimmed, even if that means reducing state programs and consolidating the state’s workforce.

Pillen said his recent measures have been necessary after the state paid out $307 million more in state tax funds than anticipated in fiscal year 2026, which ended in June. Tax receipts have continued to fall below expectations since March. If revenue losses continue to compound, state senators could be looking at a third legislative session where they’re forced to make deep cuts to state spending. Nebraska’s current budget deficit stands at $631 million for the next biennium, which begins in July 2027 and ends in June 2029.

University leaders warned that Pillen’s recent move to withhold budget allotments will have “significant” impacts on the university.

“What the governor’s office is asking of us is significant,” University of Nebraska President Jeffrey Gold said in July. “This new reduction in the current year’s budget represents more than $36 million across the NU system. We cannot cut our way to extraordinary, nor can we fully realize our mission of exceptional teaching, research and statewide engagement if we are operating in a constant cycle of cuts and related restrictions, without the ability to predict even a single year of stability.”

By way of full disclosure, members of the Nebraska Public Media newsroom are employees of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.