OMAHA — University of Nebraska-Lincoln faculty in programs slated to be eliminated asked the Board of Regents on Friday to intervene in a budget-cutting process they say is plagued by faulty data and a lack of transparency.
More than a dozen faculty told the university system’s governing board pushing pause on the process would allow academic units to develop better data for the university to use in making a decision about what to cut.
Others said taking a break would allow UNL faculty to become more engaged in the process, telling the board they had largely been frozen out until this week.
Regents did not take any action on the requests on Friday. Public hearings for the proposed cuts, which aim to close a $27.5 million structural deficit at NU’s largest campus, are scheduled to continue through Oct. 10.
The faculty requests come days after the leaders of the programs on the chopping block asked UNL Chancellor Rodney Bennett to pause the process, alleging the procedures used for major budget cuts were not being followed.
In a response to the six department leaders’ request, Bennett said he believed administrators had followed the process outlined by the Academic Planning Committee.
“My office has carefully complied with the established procedures for significant budget reductions and will continue to do so,” Bennett wrote in response to the demand for the budget cuts be paused. “I am confident that the APC will do the same. It is critical that we proceed on the timeline established in the framework document.”
UNL faculty voiced their disagreement with Bennett in front of regents in the atrium of the Davis Global Center at the University of Nebraska Medical Center.
Sarah Zuckerman, an associate professor of education administration and the president of the UNL chapter of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP), said there had been no “meaningful involvement” by faculty in helping determine how best to use university resources.
“Faculty units identified for elimination were not provided with an opportunity to have a complete and accurate accounting of their contributions to UNL, to their students, and to the state,” Zuckerman said.
The Department of Education Administration, which prepares K-12 principals and superintendents, as well as leaders across higher education, enrolls 8% of UNL’s graduate students, Zuckerman added, and is the only program of its kind in Nebraska and across the U.S.
But faculty’s requests for information “have been met with delays, silence, or refusals,” she said: “As a result, bad decisions are being made using bad information.”
Crystal Garcia, also an associate professor in the Department of Education Administration who coordinates the Ph.D. program, said faculty could have joined in the effort to find savings but were effectively shut out.
“Our departments could have strategized to streamline our programs, identify shortcomings, and create strategic plans to address this over time,” Garcia said. “But is this what happened? No.”
Garcia said she learned her department had been tagged as “low ranking” on Sept. 3 and a week later was informed it would be eliminated. The cuts could be finalized by the first week of December.
“We must pause this budget-cut process, take a step back, and re-evaluate these decisions,” she said. “There is too much at stake to rely on rushed and ill-informed decision-making.”
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Faculty in UNL’s Department of Statistics — another program up for termination — said they had difficulty making sense of the data used by administrators as the basis for their decision.
Kent Eskridge, 38-year veteran at UNL who specializes in agricultural statistics, told regents the data did not capture the true staffing level and productivity of the department. When the statisticians asked for the data, which Eskridge said was part of the budget-cutting process, they were denied, he said.
“The discipline of statistics is focused on using good data to make solid conclusions,” Eskridge said. “Faulty data will lead to faulty conclusions.”
Another member of the department, associate professor Susan VanderPlas, was more blunt in her assessment of the data used by UNL administrators.
After trying to understand the data and methods UNL used to rank departments, VanderPlas said it became clear the data was inaccurate in many ways and incomplete in others.
“This analysis would fail the standards that I set for my students,” she said.
Faculty, staff and students from UNL’s departments of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences and Textiles, Merchandising, and Fashion Design also addressed regents on Friday.
Dakota Taylor, a graduate student in the textiles department, said she had planned to earn her terminal degree at UNL with the goal of one day working on the faculty, but was informed that her position would be cut within 30 days if the department is eliminated.
“I rely on my job to afford my education,” Taylor said. “For me, losing the job would jeopardize both my academic and professional path.”
And Robert Szot, a graduate student in the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, said UNL’s program was doing research no one else was doing in order to better understand tornadoes and develop accurate warning systems.
When the UNL team crosses the state in pursuit of storms, they always get questioned by Nebraskans who see the university logo on the side of their trucks, Szot said.
“When they see our vehicles with that logo on the side, they trust us to protect them, they trust this university to protect them,” Szot said. “Don’t betray that trust. Don’t cut the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences.”
In other regents’ business:
* The board eliminated a Bachelor of Science in industrial technology at the University of Nebraska at Kearney, as well as a master of science in horticulture at UNL.
* Regents recognized former Husker volleyball coach John Cook for his service to the university and the state. Cook, who retired in January after 25 seasons leading the Huskers, won four national titles and 14 conference titles.
Regent Jim Scheer of Norfolk read a resolution describing Cook as someone who “inspired the state and showcased the very best of Nebraska on a national stage.”
“The Board of Regents of the University of Nebraska extends its deepest appreciation to Coach John Cook for a career that transformed Nebraska volleyball into a national powerhouse, strengthened communities across the state, and elevated the visibility of women’s athletics,” the resolution stated.
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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