Regents vote to eliminate four programs at UNL after more than 100 speak out against cuts

The University of Nebraska Board of Regents voted to eliminate four programs — educational administration; earth and atmospheric sciences; statistics; and textiles, merchandising and fashion design —at the Lincoln campus during its meeting Friday.

University of Nebraska-Lincoln officials said the cuts will result in $6,740,000 in savings. The eliminations are part of $27.5 million in budget reductions, including $6.5 million in proactive cuts. The NU system is set to cut $40 million across all its campuses.

The vote came after more than 100 people spoke against the cuts in public comment, which lasted over five hours. The boardroom in Varner Hall was filled as the regents put in their final votes. All eight regents and one student regent voted to eliminate educational administration. Barbara Weitz was the lone regent to vote not to cut the other three programs, alongside three student regents.

Regent Tim Clare, who supported all the cuts, said in his 17 years on the board, they’ve “kicked the can” for too long.

“We're not making these choices because the programs lack value,” he said. “We are making them because we must ensure that the University of Nebraska can remain strong, sustainable and competitive for future generations.”

Several of the regents, including Jim Scheer, pointed blame for the eliminations to the state legislature, which has been decreasing its state allocation to the university.

“Over the last 10 years, our dollars from the state have equaled to about $100-and-some million loss a year, with keeping up inflation and others,” Scheer said. “That's not chump change. That’s a lot of money.”

Kelsey Burke, sociology professor and a representative for the UNL chapter of the American Association of University Professors, said the cuts were avoidable.

“They made it sound like they've been kicking the can down the road and they have to cut somewhere,” Burke said. “That is not true. Every single department that was cut, that was eliminated today presented proposals for how they can and will increase revenue to our university, and we were not heard.”

Nadjia Logans, a graduate student in statistics, said she felt their concerns fell on deaf ears.

“These are human beings, not just a number on a spreadsheet,” Logans said. “We need to consider the real impact when we do things like this and make tough choices, because it's even tougher when these professors have to tell their kids that they don't have a job anymore, or these students have to tell their parents that they don't have a program anymore.”

Logans said she chose the statistics department because of the faculty and opportunities it offered her. Now, she doesn’t want to stick around.

“I'm the first grandkid to go to grad school, and a lot of my family members didn't have the opportunity to go to college,” she said. “Now I have to explain to them that I'm not getting that degree. I have to let them know that the program's gone.”

Regent Kathy Wilmot voted for the cuts and spoke in support of UNL Chancellor Rodney Bennett, who brought the proposal forward for the campus.

“I know specifically for most of the board, he was given a difficult task,” Wilmot said. “I'm sure then he passed that task on to other individuals, and I feel like all of them, through this time, they have maintained their professional and caring demeanor, and that has to have been hard in the face of all the accusations and the negativity that was directed to these people.”

The UNL Faculty Senate approved a no-confidence resolution about Bennett’s performance in November. Throughout the budget reduction process, professors have criticized administration for the lack of faculty involvement, using faulty data and a short timeline.

Robert Szot, a master’s student studying meteorology and climatology, said he was disappointed the regents didn’t delay the vote, which regent Robert Schafer had initially requested but ultimately failed.

“There's so many problems that this process has been gone through that's no way to run a university with the amount of cuts and the impact of these cuts,” Szot said. “Especially with the department that covers meteorology in a state right in the middle of the Great Plains, it's so important, and you just have to get it right.”

Bennett said university officials will help students in impacted programs find ways to finish their degrees.

“One of the ways that we may do that is to limit the number of courses that they can choose from to get to completion,” Bennett said. “The implementation process will be really important. For instance, instead of having five classes to choose from, we may limit that to three classes to choose from, in a hypothetical situation.”

Chris Olson, who is studying grassland systems and data science within the statistics department, said he feels the administration hasn’t shared plans for how students will be able to finish their programs.

“There's no guarantee that the very important courses that we need to take within statistics and data science are going to be there for us to take,” Olson said. “They say they'll find other courses or help us do it through other universities, but that doesn't give us the education that we came here to get.”

Board members voted against two of the recommended outcomes from the Academic Planning Committee, which is a group of faculty and students who held hearings in October for all of the impacted programs. The committee had voted to keep the statistics department and the earth and atmospheric sciences program, which the regents ultimately cut.

More than 100 spoke against cuts

There were more than 100 people who spoke during public comment over five hours. All but one spoke about the cuts, and all those speaking about the cuts were against them.

Speakers brought up many concerns with the proposed eliminations, including the impact on the state and other departments on campus and issues with the budget reduction process. Several said faulty data was used to judge their program. Others spoke about the impact on the workforce and the future of students attending the university.

Alex VanderPlas, the nine-year-old son of associate statistics professor Susan VanderPlas, said he wants to be a paleoartist or paleontologist someday, but he’ll need meteorology and geology classes to get there.

“If you cut those departments, how will people at UNL become scientists?” Alex asked the board.

He said if his mom’s position was eliminated, he would likely have to move.

“My friends, some of them have parents in other departments that will be cut,” Alex said. “That means our community will be torn apart.”

Kyra Mauntel, a sophomore geology major, said it was the best decision of her life to come to UNL.

“You are ruining UNL’s national reputation permanently if you eliminate this department,” Mauntel said.

Ross Secord, an associate professor in earth and atmospheric sciences, said with $6.5 million of the cuts being proactive cuts, the elimination of departments isn’t really a needed cut to happen now.

“Importantly, as stated by the Chancellor's Office, the $6.5 million gained by cutting academic programs is above and beyond the amount needed to close the ongoing structural deficit at UNL,” Secord said.

Andrea Basche, a professor in agronomy and horticulture, said she’s worried about the ripple effects if the other departments are eliminated. She asked the board to note how much the university invested in sports like volleyball.

“I’m asking for you to show that same investment in us on the academic side, not more cuts,” Basche said. “Show us support, value our experience, and we will continue to be the economic engine that drives this state and that stops exporting young people.”

Basche called the cuts “unthinkable.”

The board also voted to merge two sets of departments: entomology with plant pathology and agricultural leadership, education and communication with agricultural economics.