Dear colleagues,
In response to Governor Pillen’s spending reduction memo last week, University of Nebraska System President Jeffrey P. Gold and Chief Financial Officer Anne Barnes have communicated the need for each campus to reduce its spending authority by five percent this fiscal year — a reduction that amounts to $13.9 million for the University of Nebraska–Lincoln.
While we will meet this challenge, I am disappointed that I even have to share this message with you. A reduction in spending of this size, arriving at the start of our fiscal year and on the heels of recent and painful reductions, is a serious setback. It is not a sustainable path for our university, nor for the health and vitality of our state.
Our Executive Leadership Team has worked with urgency since receiving the Governor’s memo to develop a plan that meets this obligation while safeguarding what matters most: our people and the programs that carry out our land-grant mission of teaching, research, Extension and service. That plan reflects the priorities I have consistently heard from you — protecting instruction, our research and Extension enterprises, our student experience, and our colleagues who make this critical work possible.
To absorb this reduction, I have chosen to defer planned investments in classroom, technology and infrastructure improvements rather than compromise our core mission or the people who carry it out. These are one-time resources, built over years, that we are now redirecting, and these decisions are not without consequence. I acknowledge this will be felt by students, faculty and staff. Additionally, we must and will continue to be fiscally responsible and disciplined in our hiring, travel and operating expenses. You can view the NU System message and our frequently asked questions page to gain more clarity as we navigate this together.
UNL is an indispensable importer of talent to Nebraska, drawing students, staff, faculty and researchers here and keeping many of them to build their careers and lives. Every dollar the state invests in this university returns roughly ten dollars in economic and social value. Continued disinvestment in our university erodes that engine at the very moment Nebraska most needs the talent, discovery, innovation and opportunity that a strong flagship university provides.
Despite this setback, I remain confident in our bold future because of the belief in our mission, intellectual contributions, resolve, professionalism and care for one another that you show every day. I am deeply grateful for the work you do for our students, our state and the world. This work matters and makes a positive difference for our collective future.
Sincerely,
Katherine S. Ankerson
Interim Chancellor, University of Nebraska–Lincoln