The University of Nebraska – Lincoln has a recently announced a budget cut proposal, which would include the elimination of six programs. These six programs are:
- Community and regional planning
- Statistics
- Earth and Atmospheric Sciences (including Geology and Meteorology majors)
- Textiles and Fashion Design
- Landscape Architecture
- Educational Administration
What will happen to the people who work in these departments?
The six programs listed above will be eliminated under the new plan. Majors will be removed, more than 70 professors will be laid off, and many courses will no longer be available. Hundreds of students will not be able to finish their degree programs.
Is there anything we can do to prevent these departments from being cut?
While the Chancellor has proposed these cuts, the Academic Planning Committe (APC) can recommend changes to the proposal. The APC is currently hearing appeals from these departments, and the APC will make a final recommendation on October 24th, this year.
Until then, you can show your support for any department you think shouldn’t be cut via the APC Budget Reduction Feedback Form (linked below. The button sometimes does not work on mobile devices, but you can use the following link to get to the page: https://apc.unl.edu/fall-2025-budget-reduction-feedback-form/ . If Clicking the link does not work, you can try holding down your thumb on the link and selecting “open in new tab”).
How much of a difference could my opinion make?
A substantial amount!
Everyone knows that the people who work in the Department of Statistics are not in favor of the department being cut, but if you show your support, it could show that the people of Nebraska care about statistics.
Maybe you are…
- a person who took statistics in college and loved it
- someone who took statistics in college, hated studying for it, but nonetheless thought the field was important
- A person who has never taken a formal statistics course, but loves statistics and science.
- Someone who hopes they never have to take a statistics course, but still supports having a statistics department in our state.
Regardless of your background or level of personal interest in the topic, your thoughts and opinions on this plan are valued, and all of us here at the UNL Department of Statistics greatly appreciate you taking the time to express your support.
I don’t want these departments to be cut, but if the university doesn’t remove them, won’t they have to remove other departments instead?
There are many options available that would not require whole department removals or layoffs that are currently planned.
Here at the Department of Statistics, we believe that the best solution to the budget problems is one that does not involve any department being cut. If you are interested in learning more about potential alternatives, we have set up an interactive tool that lets you experiment with different alternatives and see how much money they could save.
The app has A LOT of options, but you don’t have to make a plan from scratch, as we have already included a few presets that you can see on the front page once you click the link.
Save Our Stats 