Zach Wendling
LINCOLN — The University of Nebraska Board of Regents voted 5-2 Thursday to approve next year’s budget with inflationary tuition increases meant to help wipe out a lingering budget deficit.
The approved $1.1 billion state-aided budget, made up of taxpayer dollars and tuition, will raise the cost of attendance between 3.2% and 3.4% across NU’s campuses. Campus leaders will need to find an additional $11.8 million to cut from their budgets in the next year, too, after cutting about $30 million in the past two fiscal years. Cuts haven’t been identified yet.
An additional $3.1 million that has bubbled up because of inflation will not be reallocated to the campuses and must be absorbed by next summer as well.
Interim NU President Chris Kabourek, who concurrently serves as NU’s chief financial officer, said the “reasonable” steps are expected to end an approximate $50 million budget deficit that NU has been looking to close for about 18 months.
“We could have stuck our head in the sand, but instead we dealt with it,” said Regent Tim Clare of Lincoln, who was board chair in 2023 when the most recent cuts began.
Tuition ‘somewhat of a double hit’
Campus chancellors, student regents and many elected regents joined Kabourek to defend the tuition increases, arguing they still kept rates affordable compared to other Big Ten universities.
Regent Kathy Wilmot of Beaver City said she could have supported smaller tuition increases, but not when families are already paying more on everything, including in state dollars to NU.
“To me, the families have already chipped in because they’re paying the taxes and things that we turn to the Legislature and everybody for,” Wilmot said. “Then, when we ask those students from those families to chip in again, I feel that’s somewhat of a double hit.”
Regents voted to increase tuition across the board 3.5% in 2023 for the first time in multiple years, after they had voted to keep rates flat for three years during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Regent Jim Scheer of Norfolk, a former speaker of the Nebraska Legislature, said tuition is a small part of the total NU budget (about 34%). He said the increases “may not be fair, Kathy, but that’s life.”
“I do think it’s only equitable that the students and their families participate in those additional funds because they’re going to receive the direct benefit,” Scheer said.
Scheer added that Nebraskans would benefit generally from the increased investments, such as through improved medical, legal or accounting services.
Opposition to DEI initiatives, programs
The other “no” vote came from Regent Rob Schafer of Beatrice, the board chair, who said the university shouldn’t fund any diversity, equity or inclusion initiatives or programs, especially as other degree opportunities and employment positions are eliminated.
Schafer said he’d like all DEI-related funding to be invested in teaching or research.
“We need to recruit and have folks — diversity — here, but we shouldn’t be using tax dollars to fund and promote certain races or genders above others,” Schafer said. “It ought to be a fair and level and equal playing field for all.”
Asked whether he’s seen the promotion of one race or gender at NU campuses, Schafer said: “Just the fact that we have funding and we’re promoting different things, I think there’s some things that we could just do better.”
Roughly $1 million of the $1.1 billion state-aided budget is annually spent on such programs, or about 0.1%, according to an NU spokesperson. The University of Nebraska-Lincoln cut $800,000 from its Office of Diversity and Inclusion last year, and the University of Nebraska at Kearney similarly cut $90,000 from its budget.
Campus chancellors said the funding is used for diversity offices but also to support students or staff who might be first generation, veterans, active military or have disabilities, as examples.
‘Offensive mode’ to prepare students
UNL Chancellor Rodney Bennett told regents that “as we think about our future in light of the environment that we’re in,” his campus is in ongoing talks about how to reimagine DEI-related work.
Bennett told the Examiner this is about how UNL can approach modifications or additions that might help the campus better serve its community. It’s too early to know what that will look like, he said, adding that “everything is sort of up for consideration,” including reductions or reprioritizing funds.
“I’d like for us to be positioned in an offensive mode as opposed to playing defense,” Bennett said.
State Sen. Dave Murman of Glenvil, chair of the Legislature’s Education Committee, sought to prohibit DEI-related funding at Nebraska colleges this year. Kabourek, on behalf of NU, testified against the bill. It never advanced from committee.
Bennett said the programs will continue to belong at UNL as students must be prepared to understand different multicultural, socioeconomic, geographic, racial and ethnic backgrounds.
“I think for our students to really be competitive and be job ready on Day One, having some appreciation in being able to embrace the workforce is really going to be important,” Bennett said.
Budget investments
Several regents and Kabourek said the budget could mean a renewed focus on investments rather than the cuts and tuition increases that have defined past budget cycles.
One such investment, through taxpayer dollars, will be $15 million for recruiting and operating costs for the Douglas A. Kristensen Rural Health Education Complex at UNK.
The Presidential Scholars Program is also slated to expand through a $1.5 million investment to support 50 students each year. The program, launched in February, covers the cost of attendance for Nebraska resident students who ace the 36-point ACT or score similarly on the SAT. These students also receive an annual $5,000 stipend and campus-led programming.
Seventeen students will be part of the first class this fall, and NU expects to launch an application process for students who score a 32-35 on the ACT to apply beginning next year.
“We want every young person who has a dream to think about how the University of Nebraska can help them pursue that,” Kabourek said.
Next NU president starts July 1
The balanced budget, a top goal for the interim president, should give President-elect Jeffrey Gold a “clean slate” to focus on his own priorities when he takes office July 1. The current UNMC chancellor and NU chief academic officer will take the helm with $1.5 million under his belt for priorities of his choosing.
Gold said new donors want a structurally balanced budget to invest in excellence and not help NU dig out of difficult recurring financial challenges, and he said the new budget “sets that stage.”
He signaled that competing for readmittance into the Association of American Universities will remain a top goal that NU will win in the end.
“Indeed, coming at this with a structurally sound budget, coming at it with an opportunity to invest in excellence, is relatively precedent-setting among the 70-some odd institutions that are currently members of the AAU,” Gold said.