Part 1: Introduction
On October 29, the UNL AAUP chapter released a financial analysis conducted by Dr. Bonnie Fox Garrity, Professor of Business at D’Youville University and member of the Higher Education Expert Panel of the AAUP National. She has done these kinds of analyses for Oregon State, Fort Hayes State, and the University of New Hampshire System.
University administration has refused to be transparent in explaining the necessity of budget cuts that include program elimination and the termination of faculty. We have therefore decided to make Garrity’s findings public. This report follows one completed by the national AAUP in 2019, which found that at the time NU, unlike many state university systems, enjoyed strong support from the state and was in strong financial standing. While we note that state aid has not kept up with inflation, with just a 0.8% increase in each of the next two years, it is important to recognize that NU has state aid, unlike many state universities that might be best described as public-adjacent or state-located.
The current report similarly finds the NU system to be in healthy–even if reduced–financial standing. We are left wondering how these cuts are financially justifiable. Recognizing the general turbulence from the federal government and the potential that everyone’s health insurance is about to skyrocket because of the elimination of the federal ACA subsidy, there is still nothing in the report that suggests the necessity of cuts that impact instruction of this magnitude, or really at all.
The analysis, in fact, makes clear that investments in instruction and in full-time faculty who teach have diminished over the last six years, even as investments in administration and UNMC have increased.
NU administration has dismissed our findings to the press, yet they continue not to share more detailed budget documents that would justify their recommendations. We have had to make do with publicly available sources, including IPEDS (the Integrated Postsecondary Data System run by the National Center of Educational Statistics) data, data from other databases, and public NU System Budget documents. We would welcome more detailed budget information from system leadership.
You can read the full report below, along with the slides from 2019. We will be following up with a series of posts that highlight areas that we found particularly interesting or intriguing.
- AAUP Financial Analysis Part 2: Overall Financial Strength of the University of Nebraska System
- AAUP Financial Analysis Part 3: What about UNL?
- AAUP Financial Analysis Part 4: Expenses
- AAUP Financial Analysis Part 5: Instructional Investment
- AAUP Financial Analysis Part 6: Where is the Money Going?
- AAUP Financial Analysis Part 7: NU Bond Rating
- Has Anyone Checked the Couch Cushions at Varner Hall?
Based on this report, we would like to officially retract suggestions that faculty accept as an alternative to temporary reductions in salary or retirement contributions. There is no shortfall for us to shoulder as individual departments or collectively as a faculty and staff.
