New University of Nebraska-Lincoln Chancellor Rodney Bennett has proposed $12-million dollars in budget cuts to help meet the university system’s projected $58 million dollar shortfall over the next two years.
The cuts include $2.5-million from eliminating vacant faculty positions, $1.4-million in graduate and undergraduate student teaching assistants and temporary lecturer positions, $940,000 from eliminating 15 vacant FTE staff positions, and $777,000 in layoffs of filled staff jobs.
Bennett’s plan also calls for finding $2.1-million dollars in alternative funding to save a number of graduate assistant, staff, and faculty positions. The numbers don’t include $1.15-million in cuts for the Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources, w
In a statement to the Nebraska Examiner, Chancellor Bennett said all those engaged with the budget process “recognize its significant effect, (but) the university has no choice but to make difficult decisions to address a structural budget deficit.”
Bennett added that UNL is “proceeding in a manner that allows us to continue to fulfill our mission as Nebraska’s land-grant and flagship university and remains consistent with our status as a Carnegie R1 institution.”
UNL’s first chancellor of color, Bennett pledged full support when he took over in July for the school’s diversity, equity, and inclusion programs, but his tentative budget plan cuts their budget by 46% and operating expenses by about 2/3rds.
UNL Vice Chancellor for Diversity and Inclusion Marco Barker described the cuts in an email to the UNL National Diversity Advisory Board as disappointing, but also said there are “many external pressures impacting higher education and diversity and inclusion that are outside of our control.”
Barker added that his office will continue work to “discern and reimagine the best strategies and structures possible to preserve and build on the progress we’ve made thus far” in the areas of diversity, equity, and inclusion.