University of Nebraska-Lincoln Chancellor Harvey Perlman announced his proposal for more than $3.5 million in budget cuts Tuesday afternoon.
In addition to Tuesday’s cuts, UNL still has at least $1.5 million left to trim over the next year because of the Nebraska Legislature’s reduction to the overall university budget.
“All of these cuts reduce the attractiveness of the university in some measure,” Perlman said. “I don’t have a choice. The opportunities for finding things that will not have an impact are growing less and less.”
The largest cut proposed Tuesday was a $2 million reduction to the Office of Research. The office will be asked to use money from grants and contracts to support electronic resources at Love library.
The wave of cuts will remove 21 staff positions from UNL, but most of those positions are not currently filled.
The Institute of Agricultural and Natural Resources loses the most staff from these cuts, the lost jobs coming primarily from their Communication and Information Technology unit.
IANR has its own communications department with 18 staff positions. Currently, only eight of those positions are filled and each staff member will lose his or her job as part of the cuts. That department will be absorbed by the University Communications department, which has about 30 staffers, and UNL’s Information Services. The move will save the university approximately $1.4 million.
A vacant associate vice chancellor of academic affairs positions will also be cut, saving $80,000. That office hasn’t had a head chancellor since January, and Perlman said that position likely won’t be filled until next fall.
Another cut proposed Tuesday will affect the Lentz Center for Asian Culture and save $73,000. The director and a part-time staff position will be cut from the budget.
Lentz Center director Barbara Banks announced her retirement last year, but said she didn’t “have much of a choice” when she heard last summer that her position would be cut.
“I’m not upset,” Banks said. “But I’m sad about the collection.”
The art collections at the center will still belong to the university, but will no longer be open to the public. Perlman said guest curators or faculty members will be able to host exhibits at the Lentz.
But Banks was unsure of how practical that practice would be.
“I don’t know if people outside the museum community know how much work goes into an exhibition,” she said. “But maybe it will work out fine.”
ryanboetel@
dailynebraskan.com
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