On August 4, 2025 the Chancellor of the University of Nebraska announced significant budget challenges that require $27.5 million in cuts to remedy. The reasoning behind the deficit given despite several years of prior cuts was “a combination of downward trends in state appropriations, net tuition and campus allocations combined with historically high inflation of health care costs as well as property and liability premiums and utilities.”
A metric based approach was developed to analyze programs across the university on a level playing field. The only problem with this is among the 10 colleges on just the UNL Lincoln campus there are well over 100 programs all operating differently. For example, the Community and Regional Planning (CRPL) program ranked low despite its significant value in public engagement and community assistance across the state of Nebraska. The metrics did not account for this as CRPL is unique in it’s offering of this service.
About a month later, on September 12, I was sitting in my first College of Architecture Professional Advisory Council (PAC) meeting when the Dean announced that the result of the analysis recommended cutting CRPL and the landscape program altogether to help contribute a savings of about $700,000 towards the staggering $27.5 million cuts. We were all a bit stunned at first, then the anger set in as our programs, the ones we graduated from, were proposed for elimination. We quickly turned this anger into advocacy and started to plan.
The first step was a letter writing campaign. Over the course of just one month faculty, alumni, students, and friends were able to get over 3,000 signatures supporting the two programs via a student led petition as well as nearly 400 letters just for CRPL that came from across the state and country, from planning directors, state legislators, and even Representative Flood in the 9th hour.
The next step was the hearing in front of the Academic Planning Committee (APC) charged with making a recommendation on all the program cuts to the Board of Regents. This was a very focused hearing, with a curated set of speakers and a limit of 45 minutes to speak with 15 minutes for questions from the Committee. I was among several other professionals, a current student, and faculty who spoke to save the program. Perhaps the most encouraging part of this hearing was watching the hundreds of Zoom emojis of hearts and smiley faces floating up behind us on the screen as we spoke passionately about the need to save the CRPL program. The data spoke for itself. Our faculty brought in $3 million in research dollars, our students had a 100% job placement rate the previous year, students provide planning documents to small towns across the state who use them to apply for state funding for project implementation. These are just a few of the dozens of benefits the program produces that were lost in the metrics competing with larger programs on campus.
The faculty came prepared with an alternate plan that retains the two programs but offsets the $700,000 proposed cut. While a proposal that would cause some significant strain on the college, it would merge all four programs–architecture, interior design, landscape architecture, and planning–into one unit for reporting purposes. This would retain all current faculty, but eliminate unfilled positions as well as graduate teaching assistant (GTA) positions. It would also combined some classes or reduce their frequency.
This proposal is likely to save the two programs, but the announcement of the APC recommendation is not expected until October 24th and vote by the Regents until December 5th. The concern that remains is that $700,000 in cuts may be too steep for the College of Architecture to remain successful at recruiting and growing. One example is the elimination of so many GTA positions that make Nebraska competitive at securing program recruits that are comparing packages from multiple universities. With no funds or tuition assistance to offer, many will chose other programs.
This is why decision makers should be reviewing program contributions to the university beyond a basic line item budget cut. The programs are bringing in significant dollars in the form of grant funding, well beyond the $700,000 in proposed cuts the program could provide. Even considering a smaller cut, along with our community coming together to raise additional funds, would go along way to contributing to the necessary budget cuts while maintaining the strength of the programs as they exist today. We must do everything we can to protect Nebraska’s only accredited programs for planning and landscape architecture. If not, where will recruit Nebraska’s future planners?
The Planning Lady 
Leave a comment