As the University of Nebraska-Lincoln continues deliberating several proposed program cuts to close a $27.5 million budget deficit, a move to combine the leadership of two academic units into one has drawn fierce opposition.
On Wednesday, as part of a series of public hearings, UNL’s Academic Planning Committee will solicit feedback on a plan to put the Glenn Korff School of Music and Johnny Carson School of Theatre and Film under a single director.
The idea put forward by Chancellor Rodney Bennett in a Sept. 12 memo was part of an effort to achieve $1.1 million in administrative and staff efficiencies across several units at UNL, including the Hixson-Lied College of Fine and Performing Arts.
Bennett’s memo did not specify how those savings will be realized, but Mark Button, UNL’s executive vice chancellor, said the executive team worked closely with college-level administrators to identify reduction goals.
Those efforts were centered around making high-quality programs more efficient, Button told the Journal Star in September.
Along with the College of Fine and Performing Arts, the College of Business, College of Engineering and College of Journalism and Mass Communications will reduce staffing and look for other ways to cut costs, the university said.
“In each of these cases, it’s going to look a little bit different,” Button said.
UNL said combining resources at its school of music and school of theater and film — two of the three units within the College of Fine and Performing Arts — makes sense.
There are already several ongoing partnerships between both entities, Button said, in putting on performances and thinking of new ways to engage audiences.
Higher education, in general, is trending toward more interdisciplinary learning opportunities being offered, he added.
The university sees “all kinds of opportunities for integration,” the chief academic officer added, including ways that will attract more students to more innovative programs that cut across both academic disciplines.
“To get there, we need these two schools, and other areas of the university, working more closely together,” Button said. “In our view, that is better executed when you have a clear sense of leadership guiding those schools.”
But faculty and leaders within the Glenn Korff School of Music said the proposal would do more harm than good in the long run, both for its own offerings as well as that of the Johnny Carson School of Theatre and Film.
Felix Olschofka, who became director of the music school in 2023, said the structure proposed by UNL leaders would complicate hiring and promotion, curriculum review and even the awarding of student scholarships.
While the School of Art, Art History and Design — the third unit within the College of Fine and Performing Arts — will continue to have its own director, the music school and theater and film school would have what Olschofka described as a kind of “super director.”
Both the art school and the combined music and theater school — which is currently led by Hank Stratton — would answer to the college’s dean, Andy Belser, under UNL’s proposal. Neither Stratton nor Belser responded to the Journal Star’s request for an interview.
At the same time, Olschofka said the names of the schools would likely continue, which could add to confusion both internally and externally.
The music school was named in honor of the late Glenn Korff, a Hebron native who donated $8 million to his alma mater in 2013.
The theater school bears the name of one of the Cornhusker State’s most famous sons and longtime benefactors in Johnny Carson.
In 2015, the late talk show host’s foundation pledged $20 million to establish the Johnny Carson Center for Emerging Media Arts, which is headquartered in the former Nebraska Bookstore at 13th and Q streets, and in 2022 gave $2.5 million to create an endowed directorship for the center.
The Johnny Carson Foundation, based in Encino, California, did not return the Journal Star’s calls seeking comment.
Combining the two could be thorny; Olschofka said in addition to naming rights, philanthropic support often comes with specific curriculum goals and student outcomes in mind.
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Button said UNL has been in “close consultation” with the University of Nebraska Foundation and the university’s legal teams to ensure the agreements included in the philanthropic gifts continue to be met.
Olschofka said combining the two also creates practical issues UNL will have to work through.
“If you have one director running two separate schools that are not merging because of naming gifts, how do you advocate for resources for both schools?” he said.
As the director of the music school and professor of violin, Olschofka said he would not be qualified to determine good candidates for an open position in the theater school. The opposite would also be true, he added.
A joint director may also not have the expertise to ensure the curriculum of both schools meets accreditation standards, which Olschofka said is required particularly for the students pursuing a certificate as a music educator.
The leader of the Glenn Korff School of Music said his duties also include allocating scholarship dollars to students based on merit or need — funds he said are important for recruiting students to UNL.
Putting that job outside of the music school could result in fewer students receiving critical resources, he added.
And Olschofka, who managed the school through the construction of the new Westbrook Music Building located at 10th and Q streets, said ensuring the future of the Glenn Korff School of Music was also important to delivering on a promise to the state.
The state-of-the-art music building was funded through a 2021 law (LB384) to help the university address a backlog of facility maintenance projects.
The NU Board of Regents approved a plan to use $78 million in public funds generated through bond financing and $3 million in private funds to replace the original 1967 building.
It is the largest project to use the unique financing agreement to date and will host about 300 school of music events this year alone, along with countless rehearsals for student soloists, small and large ensembles alike.
“This was a gift to our community and we’re super happy to share it with visual arts and theater,” Olschofka said. “But we want to make sure our music students are not having to fight for the resources we were given.”
Criticism of leadership not new
The disagreements over the future of the program come as faculty at the music school continue to chafe under the current leadership of the Hixson-Lied College of Fine and Performing Arts.
In April, music faculty said they had concerns about “decision-making, resource allocation, communication, and academic prioritization” that had resulted from “a continued trend of centralizing authority and resources at the College-level — often at the direct expense of the School of Music.”
The low morale, diminishing funds to pursue priorities and movement of staff positions from the school to the college level would be reversed if the school could regain its autonomy, music faculty told UNL leaders at the time.
Button said the proposal to put both units under a shared director while allowing them to maintain their identities would not fundamentally alter how they operate, however.
Other UNL programs, including Entomology and Plant Pathology, as well as Agricultural Economics and Agricultural Leadership, Education, and Communication have been slated for a complete merger and will form new schools, he said.
That’s not the case with the proposed change for the schools of music and theater and film.
“We frequently hear calls for UNL to reduce administration,” Button said. “This is precisely what is being proposed.”
Along with the proposal to join leadership of the music and theater schools, UNL’s Academic Planning Committee will also hear appeals this week from the Department of Education Administration; Department of Textiles, Merchandising and Fashion Design; the Department of Statistics; and the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences.
Reach the writer at 402-473-7120 or cdunker@journalstar.com.
On Bluesky @chrisdunker.bsky.social
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Chris Dunker
Higher education/statehouse reporter
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