The Board of Regents approved asking the Legislature to increase the University of Nebraska’s base budget by 4.25% in each year of the next biennium.
All eight elected regents and the four student regents voted August 13 in favor of the proposal. There was little discussion of the plan, but Regent Jim Scheer of Norfolk seemed to speak for most when he said more cuts to the system’s budget were unsustainable. The only tool the regents control for paying the university’s expenses is tuition, but tuition increases of the size to meet the needs would drive away students, Scheer said. “Education is the route to a better life for any individual, regardless of age,” he said. “I’m just hoping that the governor and his folks and the Legislature will take a stronger look at maintaining the system.”
In remarks he delivered earlier in the meeting, President Jeffrey Gold also said the series of budget cuts over the last few years had damaged the university. The university has always been a careful steward of the budget, he said, and has strived to manage repeated reductions in its budget.
“Our faculty and staff have consistently found ways to do more with less,” Gold said. “But after years of reductions, we’ve reached a point where continued cuts will, unfortunately, and increasingly mean doing less for the people who depend on us. We have lost talented individuals (and) valuable programs that make a difference to our students, our communities, and to the state. And at the same time, the need for public higher education, and specifically the need for this extraordinary university system, has never been greater.”
The university uses a rolling, multiyear average of the consumer-price index to calculate how much it will need to pay for salaries, benefits, utilities, supplies and services for the coming two years when combined with tuition revenues.
In addition to the increase in the base budget, the regents requested funding for three strategic priorities and two capital investments. The three strategic priorities are the Presidential Scholars Program, biomedical research support and the Nebraska research initiative. The Presidential Scholars Program offers full scholarships plus a $5,000 a year stipend to any Nebraska citizen who graduates high school graduate with a perfect 36 on the ACT tests. The money to support biomedical research would help NU researchers compete for federal grants. And the research initiative would help grow research programs to enable the University of Nebraska-Lincoln to rejoin the Association of American Universities.
In response to a question from Regent Kathy Wilmot of Beaver City, Gold said failure of the state to provide its share of the cost of the scholarships would lead to painful cuts. In addition to the Presidential Scholars Program, the university provides support for Regents Scholars, the Nebraska Promise program, and next generation scholars, among others. The total of all the scholarships based either on achievement or need is about $66 million. Without state support, Gold said, “We’re going to have to make some very difficult decisions as to whether all or none of these programs can be continued long term.”
One of the capital programs is the creation of a USDA Ag Tech Incubator and Accelerator. NU is asking the legislature to reappropriate $25 million for this project, which would match $25 million in private donations. Gold said getting commitments on the donations is delayed as the U.S. Department of Agriculture works on modifying the scope of the program. The modifications to this point have been to reduce the scope, he said, but the department remains committed to it.
The other capital program is the replacement of the university’s enterprise resource planning system, a computer and software system that manages most of the university’s human resources, finances, payroll, procurement, budgeting and other matters. The current system is aging and will no longer be supported by its vendor. The cost of replacing it is estimated at $25 million.
The university’s budget request goes to the Coordinating Commission for Post-Secondary Education. From there, it will go to the governor and the Legislature. If approved, NU would receive $734 million for 2027-28 and $765 million for 2028-29.
The regents also voted to eliminate nine academic programs, although none of them will result in the elimination of any faculty. Two UNL programs were eliminated. One is the major in ethnic studies leading to either a bachelor’s of arts and a bachelor’s of science degree; the other is the bachelor’s of science in insect studies at UNL. The elimination of the degrees in ethnic studies was justified on the basis of declining numbers of students pursuing majors. Instead, students are seeking minors in ethnic studies. The number of students graduating with a major in insect science has fallen below the level required by the state coordinating commission. Related paths exist for students seeking to study insects.
The board voted to eliminate both programs without discussion. During the period for public comment, however, Helen Moore, a retired professor of sociology, opposed elimination of the ethnic studies majors. As a land-grant university, Moore said, the university has a responsibility to address the needs of all citizens. Also, the ethnic studies program supports the work of students in other departments across the university. Moore said the faculty of the Ethnic Studies Institute were told the only choices they had were to eliminate the ethnic studies majors or eliminate the institute entirely.
The regents eliminated two certificate programs at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, one in medical nutritional information and the other in infectious disease epidemiology.
Two University of Nebraska at Kearney programs were eliminated: the master’s program in physical education exercise science and the master’s in long-term care management.
The regents eliminated three programs at the University of Nebraska at Omaha: a graduate certificate in business analytics, a master’s in industrial and organizational psychology, and a master’s in urban studies.
The creation of three other programs at UNO was approved by the regents. The three are B.A. and B.S. degrees in statistics and operations research, a post-bachelor’s certificate in financial planning and a master’s in early childhood inclusive, with “inclusive” meaning that it will prepare educators to work with children with varying needs, including disabilities. The early childhood inclusive program would enable graduates to work in facilities with both children up to 9 years old and those with disabilities.
In another matter, four students from the University of Nebraska Medical Center complained during the public comment session about the cost of living in student housing on campus. One of the four, Joanna Moody, said students in the Ph.D. and M.D. programs at the medical center typically have annual stipends of $32,000 to $34,000 a year. The rental for a two-bedroom, two-bath unit is about $25,800 a year, meaning a student would be spending 75% of her or his stipend on housing alone. Parking will be an extra $1,200 a year starting in July 2027.
“Even if a student gave up their car, didn’t pay for parking, and lived in the cheapest studio apartment in the new student housing building,” Moody said, “the annual fees (including tuition) would be approximately $56,700 annually. With federal loans capped out at $50,000 a year, there is no feasible way to afford the new student housing.”
Moody said the university had promised that the medical center’s students would have access to affordable housing. That promise, she said, remains unfulfilled.
