University of Nebraska-Lincoln Chancellor Rodney Bennett unveiled the university’s final budget reduction plan Monday afternoon, which spared two programs that had been targeted for elimination.
Six academic programs were originally recommended for elimination. Now, pending Board of Regents approval, four will be cut for a total cost savings of $6.7 million. The programs are:
- Earth and atmospheric sciences
- Educational administration
- Statistics
- Textiles, merchandising and fashion design
In addition, the College of Architecture now faces a budget reduction of $700,000 – the same amount that would have been saved by cutting landscape architecture and community and regional planning.
The final budget plan will cut the College of Fine and Performing Arts budget by $350,000. Original reductions would have eliminated a director position at the college, requiring a shared director between the Glenn Korff School of Music and the Johnny Carson School of Theatre and Film.
Eliminating educational administration now involves cutting only 15.5 positions instead of 17 and will save $260,000 less. Those cost savings will now come from executive administration and staff efficiency cuts in the chancellor’s and vice chancellor’s offices and the business and finance department.
In an email to faculty and staff, Bennett said several areas of the original $27.5 million budget reduction plan were modified based on input to the university’s Academic Planning Committee.
“I have a strong conviction that even though what we are doing is very difficult, it is in the best interest of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s long-term future,” Bennett’s email said. “These are challenging times in higher education, and we must position ourselves in a place of financial sustainability to ensure we can continue delivering excellence in student success, research and service to communities throughout our state.”
The final proposal on budget cuts comes after the UNL Faculty Senate approved a motion last week to consider a ‘no-confidence’ resolution against Bennett. The motion called Bennett’s leadership into question, alleging budget reduction decisions were made on faulty metrics without input from faculty and staff.
The faculty senate will vote on the motion on Nov. 18.
Faculty and university administration have been at odds during most of the budget process.
Sarah Zuckerman, president of the UNL chapter of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP), said messaging about the cuts had changed from fiscal considerations to metrics that faculty and staff did not have.
“The chancellor says these cuts are based on metrics and measures, but these are things that were never shared with faculty,” Zuckerman said. “We write student learning objectives in our syllabi. We are very explicit about how students are graded. What it feels like is they have changed the rules in the middle of a football game, and they haven't even told anyone that they were doing so.”
A recent AAUP analysis of UNL’s finances stated the university was in “good financial health,” saying revenue exceeded expenses. Faculty and university community members protested before the Nebraska-Northwestern game to raise awareness of cuts and call attention to aspects of the cuts they deemed unfair.
Bennett’s email said the benchmarks programs needed to meet to stay operating were created with deans, college leadership, department executives and the Academic Planning Committee (APC). Programs that missed the mark were then reviewed with other qualitative metrics like workforce and public service needs.
The final plan will be voted on by the Board of Regents on Dec. 5.