‘I think this is a full-out five-alarm fire as to the state of higher education in Nebraska,’ says Regent Elizabeth O’Connor
By Zach Wendling | Nebraska Examiner
LINCOLN — The University of Nebraska Board of Regents voted Friday to eliminate four academic programs at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, three of them unanimously.
The eight-member board approved eliminating the departments of statistics, earth and atmospheric sciences, educational administration and textiles, merchandising and fashion design. Together, the cuts total $6.74 million; 51.5 positions will be cut, most of them faculty.
Eliminated programs
- Earth and Atmospheric Sciences ($1.85 million, 13 positions eliminated).
- Statistics ($1.75 million, 12 positions eliminated).
- Educational Administration ($1.69 million, 15.5 positions eliminated).
- Textiles, Merchandising and Fashion Design ($1.45 million, 11 positions eliminated).
There are 541 current students in the four cut departments, according to board materials.
The eliminated programs will be phased out over the next couple of years, with some additional department funds retained to support any remaining students who stay after the cuts. NU has a policy to help students who choose to stay after their programs are eliminated.
University of Nebraska-Lincoln Chancellor Rodney Bennett has said the programs that will now be eliminated fell below standards for granting degrees, in addition to falling low on a new metrics-based, targeted budget reductions plan that Bennett implemented to avoid across-the-board cuts.
“Positioning ourselves in a place of financial stability will ensure we can continue delivering excellence and student success, research and service to communities throughout our state,” Bennett said.
‘This hurts’
Of the student representatives on the regents, whose votes are nonbinding, one student regent supported all four program eliminations: UNL Student Regent Libby Wilkins.
“Nobody thinks this is good for our university. This hurts. This hurts every single one of us,” Wilkins said. “But I cannot vote ‘no’ when I understand that this would impact more of our students, our enrollment and the entire student experience at the University of Nebraska.”
Regents also unanimously approved merging four departments into two combined areas. The mergers will be finalized in 2026. Each is estimated to save $1 million. The departments to be merged are plant pathology and entomology as well as agricultural economics and agricultural leadership, education and communication.
‘Students won’t be marketable’
Of more than 100 speakers over five hours Friday, a vast majority of them students and faculty in affected programs, many said any students who remain won’t receive the same quality education, yet they will pay the same cost to attend. No speakers favored the cuts.
“A few faculty cannot provide the comprehensive curriculum, field work and experiential learning required for industry and government jobs,” said Dawn Kopacz, a professor in the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences. “Our students won’t be marketable.”
Many speakers urged regents to delay and find alternatives. An advisory group of faculty, staff and students told Bennett that his tight budget window didn’t allow time to solidify alternatives.
The cuts were announced Sept. 12. Bennett forwarded them to the regents Nov. 10.
Bhaskar Bhattacharya, head of the Department of Statistics, offered a proposal Friday to merge his department with the University of Nebraska Medical Center Department of Biostatistics. He also proposed stepping back from his leadership role if needed. Many educational administration faculty proposed a more cohesive administrative structure with UNMC and the central NU system office for administrative cuts, a plan they said has been years in the making.
At a special Nov. 21 meeting, regents unanimously authorized President Jeffrey Gold to merge UNL and UNMC as a joint accreditation unit, largely for research reporting and college rankings.
‘A laughable goal’
Susan VanderPlas, an associate professor of statistics, again called out the new Bennett-led metrics-based approach. VanderPlas and other statisticians at UNL said they reviewed the approach and found various flaws. They said they’d grade the data analysis an “F.”
VanderPlas said statisticians are usually “pretty quiet people,” but she said she saw this semester what it takes to get statisticians “pissed off”: “You really just have to come for the data.” She said statistics faculty found savings, but “no one in administration had ears to hear.”
“Eliminating statistics will cripple this university,” VanderPlas said. “It will damage its reputation, and it will make reentry into the AAU [Association of American Universities] a laughable goal.”
VanderPlas’ 9-year-old son, Alex, also pleaded to the board. He said he wants to stay in Nebraska and one day become a paleoartist or paleontologist. Alex told regents their job is to protect the university and ensure it helps Nebraskans, as well as Nebraskans like Alex who want to “study rocks and numbers and books and weather and other things.”
“Preserve them for the future and so more Nebraskans can be Huskers,” Alex said.
The AAU goal that VanderPlas mentioned has been a longstanding aim for the regents and Gold. In 2011, AAU members voted to boot UNL from the organization for failing to meet membership criteria. UNL had been a member since 1909.
Many faculty said these now-approved cuts put the AAU dream even more out of reach and will make it an outlier without critical departments. Many said the cuts also don’t consider net revenues for the departments and that UNL might be hurt more in the long run.
‘We had to make our budget numbers’
Regent Barbara Weitz of Omaha, during the meeting, opposed all but the educational administration cut and suggested a two-month delay. In response, Bennett stood by his budget plan and told Weitz, to laughs from faculty and students: “We considered every alternative that we could think of.”
“We had to make our budget numbers,” Bennett said. “So, the absence of any alternative plan that was feasible, I came forward with a final recommendation that’s been presented.”
After the meeting, Weitz confirmed by text her opposition to the cuts to statistics and earth and atmospheric sciences. She also said she intended to oppose the cut to educational administration. She said she had intended to support the cut to the textiles, merchandising and fashion design program.
Unclear future for Bennett
The UNL Faculty Senate voted 60-14 last month to express “no confidence” in Bennett. Just a handful of testifiers cited that action Friday. Bennett has not formally responded to the Faculty Senate decision but has continually said he adhered to all applicable budget policies.
Bennett again declined to directly address the Faculty Senate action Friday but told the Examiner that budget and academic reductions are never what a chancellor wants. He previously served for almost a decade as president of the University of Southern Mississippi, which faced almost annual budget cuts while he was there.
“I have a lot of empathy and sensitivity for all the individuals that will be impacted directly and certainly for our campus community,” Bennett said. “We have a lot of work to do ahead of us in terms of implementation. We’re going to do that with a lot of care and concern for everybody who’s impacted.”
Bennett’s contract ends June 30. It has not yet been extended, and Bennett repeated Friday he does not know if or when that might happen.Regents have scheduled meetings in February, April and June. In October, Bennett told the Examiner he desired a contract extension.
“You got to talk to the boss about that,” Bennett said when asked again if his contract would come up for a vote soon. Gold was not immediately available for comment.
Regent Kathy Wilmot of Beaver City again publicly thanked and defended Bennett’s work.
Regent Paul Kenney of Amherst, board chair, read a resolution in support of Gold that he said had unanimous board support. While the resolution was not included in board materials, according to Kenney, regents commended “all the leaders from across our campuses who have stepped up in [these] difficult budget decisions at this time.”
A broader reductions plan
UNL’s cuts and mergers are part of a total $27.5 million budget plan put forth by Bennett.
The remaining parts of his plan do not require Board of Regents approval, such as $2 million in private philanthropy to cover mandated tuition waivers and an early retirement plan for long-time tenured faculty, which 69 faculty have been approved to accept by Jan. 5.
Of reductions, $21 million is a structural deficit as UNL expenses continue to outpace revenues. The rest is “proactive” and meant to “help safeguard against repetitive budget reduction cycles.”
Bennett told the Examiner that of the cuts that did not require regents’ approval: “Everything is moving along at sort of the pace that we expected it to move along. Nothing is complete yet, but we were sort of in line with the deadlines.”
No longer will ‘kick the can’
Regents largely cited the need to act now to mitigate future cuts and said that part of the reason UNL is in its current predicament is a decade of relying on cash reserves.
“We cannot continue to kick the can,” said Regent Tim Clare of Lincoln, the longest current serving regent now in his 17th year.
Regent Jim Scheer, a state senator between 2013 and 2021, including serving his last four years as speaker of the Legislature, said he was empathetic with every single person who spoke. He said he would be advocating the same had he been in their shoes.
“But from my perspective, I’ve got to make sure that there is a university for people to go to, not just next year, but 10 years from now,” Scheer said. “Shake your heads, but it’s true.”
Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen appointed Scheer to succeed him on the board after Pillen became governor in 2023, after 10 years as a regent. Scheer ran unopposed for election to a six-year term in 2024. Pillen, in January, proposed a 2% cut to NU’s budget. After months of negotiation, NU secured a 0.625% increase in state dollars. Regents last year requested a 3.5% increase.
Scheer placed blame for many NU budget problems on slowing legislative investments over the last decade. He and many others have said those investments have not kept up with inflation and NU has run at more than a $100 million loss each year, which isn’t “chump change.”
To those who attended Friday’s meeting, Scheer said maybe five of them raised their hands and said they went to the Legislature. Scheer told those in attendance: “We got to the game late.”
“Without those extra dollars, we run into a problem where we’re just like everybody else,” Scheer said. “The university has got a checking account, and it’s got to balance.”
Many faculty and students and some regents predicted there might be more cuts to come in the future. Kevin Hanrahan, a professor of voice and voice pedagogy and new chair of UNL’s advisory Academic Planning Committee, said there is no more “fat” to trim, which UNMC Student Regent Brock Calamari echoed.
Last-minute delay fumbles
Regent Rob Schafer of Beatrice said he listened to the speakers and that, of all cuts, the earth and atmospheric sciences cut was the one he thought could use more time to reconsider.
Robert Szot, originally from Texas, said he specifically came to Nebraska for graduate studies in meteorology. He was among the earth and atmospheric sciences students to uplift the life-saving nature of meteorology and geology work. He and another student noted Nebraskans depend on the life-saving data, which includes storm chasing research teams.
Szot said Friday’s action might be remembered similarly to the 2003 “hasty” decision to fire Husker head football coach Frank Solich after a 9-3 winning season.
“Nebraskans will either remember December 5, 2025, as the day the Board of Regents voted ‘no,’ stood up for the state, chose to be visionary, or the day that sent this university to a spiral for which it never recovered,” Szot said.
Deborah Bathke, the state climatologist, said cuts at the federal level make it even more important to maintain state expertise. She said cutting programs doesn’t make weather and climate challenges disappear, just harder to address.
Schafer’s motion failed 4-4. It required 5 votes. Schafer, Weitz and Omaha Regents Jack Stark and Elizabeth O’Connor supported a delay. Clare, Kenney, Scheer and Wilmot opposed it.
Scheer said he didn’t want to give “false hope” that something “miraculously” would change by the regents’ next meeting in February.
‘Stick with us’
O’Connor said regents have been warning people for years that regents would soon be cutting at the “heart” of NU. She said Friday reached that point.
“We’re past the time now of the university warning people,” O’Connor said. “I think this is a full-out five-alarm fire as to the state of higher education in Nebraska. I’m sitting on this board, and I’m telling you, we’re scared.”
Scheer and Stark said the cuts could one day be reversed, with Stark offering a “big ask” to those impacted.
“Stick with us,” Stark said. “We’ll get through this, somehow.”
