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LINCOLN — The University of Nebraska Board of Regents on Friday finalized academic cuts at the University of Nebraska at Kearney, bringing total reductions at the central-Nebraska campus to $4.5 million this academic year.
Regents voted 8-0 to eliminate three undergraduate degree programs and 7-1 to eliminate a master’s degree. A faculty advisory committee at UNK agreed with UNK Chancellor Neal Schnoor’s recommendations to cut the four programs.
NU President Jeffrey Gold said the programs faced low or declining enrollment. Various aspects of the degrees are available across the NU system in other ways, he said.
Schnoor said the cuts were made in consultation with deans, faculty and chairs and are “proportional” to other reductions at NU’s three other campuses in Lincoln and Omaha. In total, NU campuses systemwide finalized plans to cut $43 million in the fall 2025 semester.
“We did not take any decision lightly,” Schnoor said.
The following degrees were eliminated as part of $2.2 million in recent academic cuts at UNK:
- Higher education student affairs, master of science in education.
- Music comprehensive – music business emphasis, bachelor of music.
- Modern languages — German emphasis, bachelor of arts.
- Modern languages 7-12 teaching endorsement — German emphasis, bachelor of arts.
Regent Kathy Wilmot of Beaver City asked that regents vote separately on the master’s degree. She said her concern was “some of the changes that are occurring that I’ve been told” and that she needed to visit privately with Schnoor. She did not elaborate further and said that she did not “feel comfortable” supporting the measure at this time.
“This is for my ease, I guess I’d say,” Wilmot said of why she wanted a separate vote.
Schnoor said enrollment numbers had diminished in that specific program and that it “so closely duplicates” a successful graduate counseling program. He said the decline makes it “financially difficult” for UNK to continue the program.
Regent Barbara Weitz of Omaha, chair of the regents’ Academic Affairs Committee, said she and David Jackson, NU’s chief academic officer as executive vice president and provost, will be looking at advisement for students “whose dreams and coursework seem to have to change because of these decisions.”
The regents have heard concerns in recent meetings, especially after approving $6.5 million in academic cuts to the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in December, that students and faculty in eliminated programs are left in a nebulous space after the cuts.
“There was no plan when the vote was taken to close the department. There is still no plan. It’s still a problem. It all hasn’t just gone away, it’s just not your problem,” Erin Haacker, a UNL professor in the eliminated Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, told the regents Friday.
Jackson reaffirmed NU’s commitment to help any affected students complete their degrees.
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