Dive Brief:
- The American Association of University Professors is advocating against the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s return to a highly selective higher ed group following the university’s recent program and faculty cuts.
- UNL last year approved cutting four academic departments over heavy faculty pushback as part of a bid to slash $27.5 million from its budget and close a structural deficit. In January, the university also began laying off faculty, whose last day will be in May.
- In a Monday letter to the Association of American Universities, AAUP Todd Wolfson said that the group should not consider readmitting UNL until it “demonstrates a clear and credible commitment to restoring shared governance, protecting tenure, and aligning its practices with the principles that define leading research universities.”
Dive Insight:
UNL began undertaking significant cost-cutting initiatives under former Chancellor Rodney Bennett. Last summer, he attributed the multimillion-dollar gap in the university’s budget to insufficient state funding, declining tuition revenue and high inflation.
“Despite our best efforts to live within our means, our revenue has not kept pace with expenses,” he said at the time.
The university ultimately approved the elimination of four departments — educational administration; statistics; earth and atmospheric sciences; and textiles, merchandising and fashion design…