Poor timing, Harvey. Poor timing.

[carlfense]

All UNL staff and students just received the following e-mail:

 

Colleagues;

 

This is the type of news I never like having to deliver to you. As I made you aware in an email last week, UNL is now called upon to reduce its budget. While the Legislature’s budget proposal calls for no reductions in our state funding over the course of the next two years---and as I’ve said before, that is a very encouraging sign---we still need to address increasing expenses. The longer we delay making the reductions the more costly it becomes to cash-flow the transitions in programs. Thus I am proposing cuts totaling $5 million now with the understanding we will need additional reductions in the fall.

 

The proposed cuts include:

-eliminating the master’s degree program in Classics in the College of Arts and Sciences, shifting existing faculty resources to the undergraduate program;

-eliminating the Secondary Art Education teaching endorsement program in the College of Education and Human Sciences;

-closing the Department of Industrial and Management Systems Engineering in the College of Engineering, eliminating most of the undergraduate and graduate majors in the department, but retaining the tenured faculty and the specialization in the Master of Engineering program;

-eliminating the undergraduate and graduate degree emphasis in Organ in the School of Music, Hixson-Lied College of Fine and Performing Arts;

-restructuring Academic Affairs to incorporate the administrative functions now carried out by the Office of Undergraduate Studies; this reduction includes eliminating the Dean of Undergraduate Studies administrative position;

-restructuring Admissions recruitment, eliminating three positions, of which two are vacant;

-moving IANR’s Educational Media personnel off of state funding to a self-funded model;

-closing and razing University Terrace and relocating existing occupants;

-discontinuing printing the class schedule; the document would be available in electronic formatting only;

-reducing the frequency of on-campus mail delivery from five days a week to every other day.

 

The reduction proposals would eliminate two pre-tenured faculty positions that are currently filled, 15 unfilled tenure-track faculty positions, 2 FTE filled non-tenure-track positions and 2 FTE vacant non-tenure-track positions. Additionally, 1.8 filled staff positions and 34.03 FTE vacant staff positions would be cut as well.

This includes 14.0 FTE retired faculty (Voluntary Separation Incentive Program, or VSIP) positions.

 

The serious impact of this reduction is the loss of approximately 56 course sections per year that will have to be absorbed by existing faculty. This also means a loss of student mentoring and advising capacity. These unfilled positions represent a significant loss of future curriculum enhancements, teaching innovations and research productivity. These reductions will be allocated across the academic affairs colleges in accordance with future strategic planning priorities at the college and campus levels.

 

Background documents on the proposed budget reductions with more details and the budget framework are available on the UNL website at http://www.unl.edu/ucomm/chancllr/2011budget/

 

The proposals now go to the Academic Planning Committee. The APC will hold hearings on the proposals and make recommendations back to me during the next couple of months.

 

I anticipate making final determinations on these reductions sometime in June, after taking into consideration the recommendations of the committee. I will let you know as soon as decisions have been made.

 

As I have said before, cutting our way to greatness is not a recipe for success. I fully recognize that these proposals take the university in the wrong direction toward the vision of becoming a top-ranked national university. Unfortunately, our available resources don’t always match with what it will take to make our vision a reality. We continue to accomplish a great deal with increasingly limited resources, and I appreciate the courage and integrity it takes for all of you to stay focused. I fully recognize that, while we have tried to recommend cuts that do the least damage to our central focus on undergraduate education and research, it is damage nonetheless. To label it as anything else would be disingenuous.

 

Again, I am sorry to have to deliver this news. I am very proud of this university and the tremendous forward momentum that all of you have had a part in making a reality.

 

Harvey

 

It's a little uncomfortable that this comes out the day after the Expand Their Experience $60 million+ stadium expansion . . . not to mention the baseball facility, the new arena, and the remodeled Devaney Center.

 

Oof.

[knapplc]

The athletic budget is entirely separate from the academic budget.

[carlfense]

The athletic budget is entirely separate from the academic budget.

Yep. It still looks bad to be cutting tenured faculty on the day after formally unveiling the enormously expensive athletic renovations.

[NUance]

Yeah, some of the cuts do seem silly. What does it cost to print out the class schedules, a couple thousand bucks? But I wish our federal gov't would take a cue, and do this. Maybe fire about 20% of the federal gov't "workers", And cut federal spending by 10% to 15%.

[Lyons in the Sea of Red.]

Well, there really wasn't much of an impact on the mainstream programs, which is good. But I feel for those who are currently enrolled in them. On another note, we are cutting these programs but we can afford to build an innovations campus or whatever, or did that get the axe?

[BIGREDFAN_in_OMAHA]

How about the history of giving contract extensions with huge buyouts? Again with Doc? C'mon!

[Cina]

Yup. I'm at UNL minoring in Secondary Art Education (one of the programs that has just been eliminated). As I am accepted into the teacher's college I'll be allowed to finish out my degree at UNL. However I have friends who were one semester behind me who are now given the options of choosing a different profession or transferring to a different university. Obviously we're pretty upset about this, and feel ourselves in the position of advocates for the art education program at UNL. Supposedly the budget won't be approved until June (although I'm pretty sure Perlman and the regents have already made up their minds) and we're going to be rallying as much support as we can for keeping the program. Although there's very little hope for saving it, if anyone would like to help by writing Harvey Perlman a nice e-mail it would be appreciated!

[UGAHusker]

It is possible that this is a political play. Pearlman says at the top that he is "proposing" the cuts; have they actually been made/approved yet?

 

Last year when the Georgia General Assembley submitted their proposal to cut a certain amount of funding from the University System of Georiga's budget, every state university president came up with a detailed list of exactly what they "intended" to cut, detailing the impact that each cut would have. It was made to look like a major bloodletting and the strategy was to incite the public and put the onus on the state legislators to pull the trigger. President Adams released an e-mail very similar to the one cited above. After much outrage, cuts were made, but were nowhere close to what the original proposals were.

 

I'm not sure if this is a similar situation, but things may not end up being as bad as he is proposing.

[okaive]

Man that sucks for the students. That is a huge hit. Hope all goes well for you in the end.

[Cina]

From what I've been able to ascertain, the state legislature is putting pressure on Perlman to cut costs significantly, though as of now there isn't anything official from the state side of things. I'm not going to hold out hope that it's a political ploy; from all I've heard from faculty the general feeling is that this news was not announced until so late in the semester because waiting until now makes it more difficult for organized opposition of it. That's speculation though, I hope the public does cry out enough that the legislature takes note, though the fact that they haven't officially cut anything yet makes me wonder why Perlman would pull such a stunt.My teaching methods class was in an uproar today, and we were going to have petitions and signs for the spring game but decided we needed more time to organize

[UGAHusker]

From what I've been able to ascertain, the state legislature is putting pressure on Perlman to cut costs significantly, though as of now there isn't anything official from the state side of things. I'm not going to hold out hope that it's a political ploy; from all I've heard from faculty the general feeling is that this news was not announced until so late in the semester because waiting until now makes it more difficult for organized opposition of it. That's speculation though, I hope the public does cry out enough that the legislature takes note, though the fact that they haven't officially cut anything yet makes me wonder why Perlman would pull such a stunt.My teaching methods class was in an uproar today, and we were going to have petitions and signs for the spring game but decided we needed more time to organize

 

To tell you the truth, you do have little time to organize, but you might not get another chance to speak out to such a large number of people. If I was y'all and as passionate as you seem to be, I would be putting those petitions and signs together as we speak. On game day, get up bright and early and go from tailgate to tailgate explaining the situation and getting signatures.

[Cina]

 

To tell you the truth, you do have little time to organize, but you might not get another chance to speak out to such a large number of people. If I was y'all and as passionate as you seem to be, I would be putting those petitions and signs together as we speak. On game day, get up bright and early and go from tailgate to tailgate explaining the situation and getting signatures.

 

We were pretty well prepared to, but couldn't get enough people in agreement. Our main goal is to make as many people aware of the situation as possible. We're working on creating an art installation (we are artists after all) on the streets of downtown Lincoln, writing arguments for the importance of art ed, getting statements from faculty and trying to contact local news outlets. Several of us were ready to charge down over the stadium, but others were of the opinion that the spring game would be populated by out-of-towners who wouldn't really care about the UNL budget cuts :/

[UGAHusker]

To tell you the truth, you do have little time to organize, but you might not get another chance to speak out to such a large number of people. If I was y'all and as passionate as you seem to be, I would be putting those petitions and signs together as we speak. On game day, get up bright and early and go from tailgate to tailgate explaining the situation and getting signatures.

 

We were pretty well prepared to, but couldn't get enough people in agreement. Our main goal is to make as many people aware of the situation as possible. We're working on creating an art installation (we are artists after all) on the streets of downtown Lincoln, writing arguments for the importance of art ed, getting statements from faculty and trying to contact local news outlets. Several of us were ready to charge down over the stadium, but others were of the opinion that the spring game would be populated by out-of-towners who wouldn't really care about the UNL budget cuts :/

 

The goings on of the state's flagship institution should be of concern to all of the state's residents, at least I would think so. Also, out-of-towners can provide a signature . I just think the more awareness that you can drum up in a short period of time, the more your cause will benefit. Then again, it is pretty easy for me to make suggestions from a thousand miles away!

[Cina]

To tell you the truth, you do have little time to organize, but you might not get another chance to speak out to such a large number of people. If I was y'all and as passionate as you seem to be, I would be putting those petitions and signs together as we speak. On game day, get up bright and early and go from tailgate to tailgate explaining the situation and getting signatures.

 

We were pretty well prepared to, but couldn't get enough people in agreement. Our main goal is to make as many people aware of the situation as possible. We're working on creating an art installation (we are artists after all) on the streets of downtown Lincoln, writing arguments for the importance of art ed, getting statements from faculty and trying to contact local news outlets. Several of us were ready to charge down over the stadium, but others were of the opinion that the spring game would be populated by out-of-towners who wouldn't really care about the UNL budget cuts :/

 

The goings on of the state's flagship institution should be of concern to all of the state's residents, at least I would think so. Also, out-of-towners can provide a signature . I just think the more awareness that you can drum up in a short period of time, the more your cause will benefit. Then again, it is pretty easy for me to make suggestions from a thousand miles away!

 

I completely agree! If I had a ticket to the spring game I'd be drummin' up support while I was there. We almost had an unnamed someone who may or may not frequent the Lil' Red costume to hold a sign as well

[gobiggergoredder]

While the Legislature’s budget proposal calls for no reductions in our state funding over the course of the next two years---and as I’ve said before, that is a very encouraging sign---we still need to address increasing expenses.

 

 

What a great example of leadership (I agree timing a bit rough). Making a tough decision that I can't figure is really popular with anyone.

 

While the right complains about 'Planned Parenthood' and the left about 'Defense Spending' we all get get caught in the middle. I work for an industry that demands cost reductions every year. We are mandated to exceed previous levels of output at lower costs every single year. We all gripe and complain about how we are going to do, but we know the alternative.....What we will do will go to China.

 

Suck it up America. We can't continue like this. We need to make cuts in everything. If there was a serious need for secondary art education then this wouldn't be an issue. Maybe instead of a protest, you could actually go recruit some students for the program....Maybe then it would generate some revenue. That would be too proactive. That's not the American way. We must complain, point fingers and sue instead of examining the true root cause. It's unfortunate that 30 secondary art teachers won't be able to graduate with $120K in student loans only to find a $25K job. We need to stop the politics and start making real cuts.

 

Keep it up Harv!