Tag: Nebraska

  • University of Nebraska System offers buyouts to tenured faculty amid budget woes

    University of Nebraska System offers buyouts to tenured faculty amid budget woes

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    Dive Brief: 

    • The University of Nebraska System is offering buyouts this fall to tenured faculty members eligible for retirement across its four campuses as the institution’s leaders look to shave $20 million from its budget.
    • Buyouts will be available to tenured faculty who will be at least age 62 at their date of separation and have worked at least 10 years in the system. More than 500 faculty members will qualify, according to reporting from Channel 8 News. 
    • In a Friday message to faculty and staff, system Chancellor Jeffrey Gold said the buyouts would position the institution “for long-term strength and financial sustainability.” The system has made several rounds of cuts in the past few years in the face of rising costs and limited state funding increases. 

    Dive Insight: 

    Like many other higher education institutions, the University of Nebraska System has sought to lower its expenses amid myriad financial headwinds, including rising labor costs and state and federal funding challenges. In June, system leaders approved plans to cut $20 million from its budget for the 2025-26 fiscal year and raise tuition by an average of 5%. 

    Those moves come after system leaders slashed $11.8 million from the most recent budget and $30 million from two years prior. The system has also offered several waves of buyouts over the past 15 years, though the payouts have decreased, according to the Lincoln Journal Star. 

    In this case, those taking the buyouts will receive 70% of their annual base salary in a lump sum payment. In 2019, eligible faculty who took buyouts got 80% of their annual salary and in 2014 they received 90%, the Journal Star reported. In 2010, eligible faculty received 100% of their salary. 

    Faculty members who take the latest buyouts will separate from the university next summer. 

    However, not all faculty members who apply will automatically be approved. While the system plans to allow as many interested employees to participate as possible, an FAQ said “each campus reserves the right to limit the total number of participants in order to preserve the viability of programs and services, as well as to remain fiscally responsible.”

    The news comes as the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, the system’s flagship campus, plans to slash $27.5 million from its own budget by the end of the year to remedy a structural deficit. The cuts could include eliminating or merging academic programs. 

    Earlier this month, UNL President Rodney Bennett said will review a planning committee’s recommendations for cuts and present final budget recommendations to Gold in October. 

    UNL officials also plan to grow extramural grants and contracts and boost revenue through higher enrollment and retention. They also hope to see increased revenue from the system’s tuition hike, which raised in-state undergraduate tuition from $277 to $291 per credit hour. 

    The other institutions in the Nebraska system are the University of Nebraska at Kearney, the University of Nebraska at Omaha and the University of Nebraska Medical Center.

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  • University of Nebraska looks to cut another $20M from its budget

    University of Nebraska looks to cut another $20M from its budget

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    Dive Brief:

    • University of Nebraska System leaders aim to raise tuition and cut millions of dollars from the institution’s budget after state allocations fell well short of inflation and their request. 
    • Its fiscal 2026 budget proposal calls for $20 million in spending cuts to the four-campus system’s core budget and a 5% average tuition increase. The state’s board of regents plans to vote on the budget at a meeting next Thursday. 
    • The reduced spending comes on top of $11.8 million in permanent cuts for the current fiscal year and $30 million the year before. The system joins other major state institutions making cuts amid state and federal funding shortfalls.

    Dive Insight:

    University of Nebraska System President Jeffrey Gold said in a statement this week that the public institution needs to “manage every dollar with discipline, care and transparency” while maintaining affordability and educational quality. 

    The system is feeling the squeeze from inflation in labor and operating costs while also contending with federal and state funding challenges, according to a presentation from Anne Barnes, the university’s finance chief. 

    “We will need to continue to reduce spending and make increasingly difficult choices to ensure fiscal discipline as we have done for the past decade evidenced by over $100 million in cuts and internal efficiencies,” Barnes said in the presentation.

    Fiscal challenges for the university include an increase in state funding of just over 0.6% — well short of the university’s requested appropriations based on a 3.5% inflation rate. However, the 0.6% uptick is still better than the 2% cut recommended by the Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen recommended earlier this year.

    The Trump administration’s policies are also weighing on the university’s budget, including interruptions and cuts to federal grants and contracts, as well as moves to limit reimbursement for research overhead costs, the university said. 

    The National Institutes of Health’s 15% cap on overhead funding — blocked permanently by a federal court in April but appealed by the Trump administration — would mean the University of Nebraska would need to cover an additional $27 million to sustain its research, Gold said earlier this year. 

    The university’s flagship Lincoln campus has coped with budget pressures by freezing hiring, a move that follows staff cuts in recent years. 

    Looking at the fiscal year ahead, the university plans to shrink spending on staff salaries by 4.2%, while it expects faculty salaries to grow 3.2% based on collective bargaining agreements and tenure promotions. 

    With the proposed tuition increases, the University of Nebraska anticipates overall tuition revenue will increase 4.6%, though it expects nonresident and international student revenue to fall 3.1%. 

    The proposal calls for increasing in-state undergraduate tuition at the UNL from $277 to $291 per credit hour and out-of-state tuition from $888 to $932. 

    The university said that even with the tuition hike, Nebraska “would remain one of the most affordable institutions of higher education among its peers” in the Big Ten Conference.

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