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LINCOLN — The University of Nebraska Board of Regents on Thursday approved a 5% tuition increase for the next academic year, coming as state dollars for NU have slowed under the latest budget from Gov. Jim Pillen and the Legislature.
The regents approved NU’s budget beginning July 1 through June 30, 2026. Nebraska lawmakers approved a 0.625% increase in state dollars ($4.35 million), which is well short of the 3.5% annual increase regents had requested, primarily to cover inflationary pressures. The budget the regents passed also calls for $20 million in additional cuts across NU’s $1.1 billion “state-aided budget.”
Regents Rob Schafer of Beatrice and Kathy Wilmot of Beaver City opposed the regents’ budget.
Had Pillen’s initially proposed 2% cut to NU this next fiscal year been approved, regents said they could have considered a larger tuition increase or greater cuts. NU President Jeffrey Gold and Pillen, who served as a regent for 10 years before becoming governor, negotiated for what Gold described as a “modest” state increase.
Gold noted, the increase doesn’t cover the rising costs of employee benefits or strategic investments “required to sustain and build upon our momentum.”
“We are responding to these challenges and doing everything we can to turn them into opportunities with discipline and care,” Gold said, noting federal funding uncertainty has also complicated NU’s mission.
This is the third straight year that regents have considered tuition increases after freezing tuition for two years in response for the COVID-19 pandemic. Tuition increased by 3.5% in each of the past two years.
Multiple regents said considering tuition increases at all was “painful,” but they said it was their responsibility. Many said the alternative would have been to pass costs on to students or hurt the quality of education that Gold said Nebraskans expect and deserve. Gold said the proposal would still keep NU affordable compared to peer institutions, including within the Big Ten Conference.
“To be doing this really hurts,” said Regent Barbara Weitz of Omaha.
“It’s a hard day, and we have to make hard choices,” Regent Elizabeth O’Connor of Omaha said.
Regents Tim Clare of Lincoln and Jim Scheer of Norfolk, who succeeded Pillen, said NU needed to continue working with the Legislature to highlight the critical need for investing in NU. Clare said that while budget woes have “monopolized” attention, regents need to stand by Gold and his “odyssey to the extraordinary” strategic plan to improve NU.
“We cannot cut our way to prosperity,” Clare said. Gold told the Nebraska Examiner that NU is “laser focused” on high-value, affordable education and that it must be top quality. He said every time a student gets a degree, it must be associated with “world-class education.”
“The reality of it is it takes people, it takes focus, takes strategy, and, of course, it takes resources to make that happen,” Gold said.
Clare said rather than looking at state dollars as an “appropriation,” it should be framed as an investment — NU boasts a $10 return for every $1 investment, according to the most recent economic report commissioned through the Tripp Umbach consulting firm. Clare described the increase as a “tax” on students.
Scheer and Clare noted part of the reason state dollars are more rigid is a focus on property tax relief.
However, Scheer said, many entities receiving replacement revenue to lower or cover property tax rates still retain additional taxing authority to make up lost revenue.
Scheer, who served in the Legislature for eight years, including as speaker, said that in reducing property taxes, lawmakers have been “robbing Peter to pay Paul.” He said it comes at the expense of NU this year or other institutions of higher learning in other years.
“It is what it is, but I’m hoping the Legislature will have the ability to look deeper into their budgeting process to see what happens when you reduce the funding of the university,” Scheer said.
Clare said cutting property taxes isn’t the solution; broadening the tax base is.
“We have to figure out how we’re going to grow our state, and the university has to be at the table,” Clare said.
Scheer said the tuition freezes before he joined the regents also exacerbated the current situation, saying that, eventually, those costs come back “to bite you in the ass.”
Schafer suggested NU needs to consider a serious restructuring, without specifying what that could look like, which he said should be investigated over the next year.
Wilmot noted she didn’t support the tuition increase in 2024 and said the Legislature doesn’t appear to be changing course. She said she couldn’t “swallow” the proposal, knowing regents could return next year for another tuition proposal if the Legislature doesn’t increase NU’s funding during its next budget adjustments.
“I do believe we’re going to have kids now toss the towel in of going to college,” Wilmot said. “We are going to impact a lot of lives.” Part of Thursday’s meeting was whether to create a “multidisciplinary studies” major at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, roughly a catch-all degree program for students who have varied college credits.
The University of Nebraska at Omaha has had a similar program since 1951, leading UNO Chancellor Joanne Li to worry whether the same name could cause confusion.
Scheer, defending Li, said he wasn’t trying to pick winners and losers and urged his colleagues to consider the name, now or in the future.
“I don’t think it’s asking too much to try to protect that interest by that campus,” Scheer said. UNL Chancellor Rodney Bennett told the regents it might be a good idea to look at other “duplicative” programs in the future, which Li pushed back on. She said she wasn’t talking about “duplication” but merely about markets; Li has a doctorate in finance.
Schafer told Scheer that there are many other degrees with the same name, such as accounting, and that “a rose by any other name is still a rose.”
“Maybe not, we haven’t said what color it is,” Scheer responded.
Interim Executive Vice Chancellor Mark Button of UNL said the intention of the UNL program is to provide a flexible pathway for students from community colleges to come to the university. He said the proposal was developed with multiple community colleges and that such a program could be worthwhile at all NU campuses.
On the condition that Gold consider a name change in the future, regents unanimously approved the program at UNL, which officials said wouldn’t require additional faculty or funds.
A ‘forward-thinking’ NU Gold said the path ahead would not be easy, especially with financial constraints, but that there are “real opportunities” to be more nimble, innovative and intentional in serving Nebraskans.
“With a unified team and with a shared sense of purpose,” Gold said. “I have no doubt that the University of Nebraska will continue to thrive, to be one of our state’s and our nation’s greatest assets and an exemplar of superb and forward-thinking public higher education.”
Other items also unanimously approved were: * An undergraduate robotics engineering degree within UNL’s College of Engineering.
* A Diabetes Center of Excellence in Diabetes Care, Research and Education (C-DIACARE) in the University of Nebraska Medical Center’s College of Medicine to leverage existing UNMC dollars with external funding to coordinate NU research and education around diabetes (nearly 12% of the county had diabetes as of 2021). Dr. Andjela Drincic, a UNMC professor of diabetes, endocrinology and metabolism at UNMC, is set to be the inaugural director of the center.
* Neal Schnoor as the next chancellor of the University of Nebraska at Kearney, beginning July 1 with a $355,000 salary.
