Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Very I suppose you could say contentious, certainly. An emotional
Nebraska University Board of Regions meeting the other day when
the regents had to take up the Chancellor's recommendation for
budget cuts to stam a twenty seven million dollar gap
in funding, and the regions ended up accepting the chancellor's
(00:23):
proposal for programs to be cut. In a testimony taken
from a faculty and students and others, and we're joined
for a few minutes this morning by Border Regents member
Jack Stark. Jack, good to have you on. Good morning,
Good morning.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
I'm going to withdraw with you leading this week.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
Oh is that right? Yeah, well hanging. I got four
more days.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
After this one, Okay, okay, So.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
That was tough, wasn't that? I imagine Friday?
Speaker 2 (00:51):
Yeah, it was. It was very emotional, long day. I
left the house at seven am and got home at
seven thirty pm. We had one hundred and fifteen people
testify on those board of apartments Earth, Atmospheric Science, and
Educational Administration, Statistics and Textiles, So it was hard to
go through.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
I understand the pleas of the faculty and students who spoke,
but what I'm wondering is do they understand that at
some point, if if tough decisions are going to be
made and have to be made because of a budget shortfall,
somebody is going to get the acts. I mean, was
(01:30):
there any indication that they understand and did they have
an alternative to what you did?
Speaker 2 (01:36):
Well? Some of them combined departments. But I think this
is this is not this misunderstanding. This has been going
on for five to ten years, right, We've been carrying
this deficit. We keep kicking the can down the road.
And we had a clear message from the legislature and
from our taxpayers, but balance the budget. That's our job,
is regents, and so we had to follow those We
(01:58):
trust our team, We followed metrics and the result was
we had over probably over one hundred people plus we
had early retirements. So all in all, it was an
emotional day for a lot of them, and I understand it.
I've been through it.
Speaker 1 (02:13):
Not being on the inside. I don't know this to
be true, but it seems to me looking at the departments,
Earth and Atmospheric Sciences may have been the toughest one
because now you're talking about science, weather forecasting, that kind
of thing. Was that a particularly different difficult one.
Speaker 2 (02:32):
That was number one difficult. I mean, we really look
through a lot of discussion and thinking on that one.
We're going to be able to pick up business perceptions,
all of our students are going to be able to graduate,
and we're going to have other classes are taught in
other departments, so they'll be able to take to think,
some similar classes and some departments combined back and forth
(02:55):
and save some money. But that one was the really
most difficult one because of the community services that they
provide throughout the state.
Speaker 3 (03:04):
Jack budget cutting is a very challenging thing a higher ed.
You get tagged nationally by the educational leits as saying,
this is nothing but a community college out in Nebraska.
They don't care about anything other than football, and it's
not true, but that's the perception you get. So let's
take a look at the macro picture. How are you
guys strategically, and maybe this is a better question for
(03:26):
the president and the chancellors, how are you guys strategically
going to raise revenues. You got to get enrollment up,
you've got to get more people on campus. You've got
to find a way to generate more revenues that aren't
tied to taxes. Do you have a strategy for that
and what would it be.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
Well, that's the difficulty. We have a low birth rate
and we have inflation, and a lot of kids are
looking at trade school. Plus we got a half a
percent little over half a percent raised from the state
and inflation is up four percent. So in the last
ten years we've seen about a forty percent decline in
tuition and in funding has been similar. So we're facing
(04:04):
the same thing that other schools are facing. Ohio State
just cut three hundred and fifty courses fifty penn State
closed seven campuses, not departments, campuses, entire campuses. So it's
happening everywhere because of low birth weight and inflation.
Speaker 3 (04:21):
Yeah, but community colleges are bursting at the seams though, Jack,
You know, there may be fewer college students, but there
aren't fewer people looking for ways to enhance their professional
capacity once they graduate from high school. What's the marketing
strategy for the University of Nebraska. Can you honestly say
that we have visited every high school in Nebraska that
(04:42):
we have recruiting counselors at every high school in Nebraska
trying to convince kids to come to Lincoln.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
Well, I know, we have quite a budget for staff
doing that. But the problem we run into it's free
tuition at the community colleges and after two years, if
you're you can make seventy thousand dollars guaranteed jobs waiting
for you. We can't even get our students to graduate
from construction because they make seventy one hundred thousand before
(05:09):
they ever graduate. So we've got a lot of challenges
right now. We're trying to recruit. You're right, we need
more students, but everybody's in the same boat on that one.
Speaker 1 (05:17):
Yeah, the birthright thing is huge though. I mean you
have smaller, smaller high school classes graduating and therefore the
pools potential students is smaller. So the people that are
enrolled in these four programs jack already they'll be able
to finish, right.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
Yes, that's a misperception. They'll be able to finish, and
these courses are called in other departments, but they get
their degree, it's guaranteed. We're working with the faculty to
find other positions, and like I say, it's something that
we're looking at. All the other big ten schools in
the same boat, even the wealthy Ones, Ohio State ten ten,
(05:53):
and Michigan, et cetera.
Speaker 1 (05:55):
Yeah, that's incredible.
Speaker 3 (05:56):
Well, Indiana has the largest active alumni in the entire country,
eight hundred eight thousand, you know, active alumni and the
average age is forty nine. Nebraska has four hundred and
seventeen thousand. You know, it's about it's in a state
where you know, there's more competition, but you've got to
find a way to get kids to see the value
of a higher education degree. And that's the challenge. Yeah,
(06:19):
and I have more on that and just a bit Jack,
thank you so much. That's Regent Jack Stark, University of
Nebraska Border Regions here
Very I suppose you could say contentious, certainly. An emotional
Nebraska University Board of Regions meeting the other day when
the regents had to take up the Chancellor's recommendation for
budget cuts to stam a twenty seven million dollar gap
in funding, and the regions ended up accepting the chancellor's
(00:23):
proposal for programs to be cut. In a testimony taken
from a faculty and students and others, and we're joined
for a few minutes this morning by Border Regents member
Jack Stark. Jack, good to have you on. Good morning,
Good morning.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
I'm going to withdraw with you leading this week.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
Oh is that right? Yeah, well hanging. I got four
more days.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
After this one, Okay, okay, So.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
That was tough, wasn't that? I imagine Friday?
Speaker 2 (00:51):
Yeah, it was. It was very emotional, long day. I
left the house at seven am and got home at
seven thirty pm. We had one hundred and fifteen people
testify on those board of apartments Earth, Atmospheric Science, and
Educational Administration, Statistics and Textiles, So it was hard to
go through.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
I understand the pleas of the faculty and students who spoke,
but what I'm wondering is do they understand that at
some point, if if tough decisions are going to be
made and have to be made because of a budget shortfall,
somebody is going to get the acts. I mean, was
(01:30):
there any indication that they understand and did they have
an alternative to what you did?
Speaker 2 (01:36):
Well? Some of them combined departments. But I think this
is this is not this misunderstanding. This has been going
on for five to ten years, right, We've been carrying
this deficit. We keep kicking the can down the road.
And we had a clear message from the legislature and
from our taxpayers, but balance the budget. That's our job,
is regents, and so we had to follow those We
(01:58):
trust our team, We followed metrics and the result was
we had over probably over one hundred people plus we
had early retirements. So all in all, it was an
emotional day for a lot of them, and I understand it.
I've been through it.
Speaker 1 (02:13):
Not being on the inside. I don't know this to
be true, but it seems to me looking at the departments,
Earth and Atmospheric Sciences may have been the toughest one
because now you're talking about science, weather forecasting, that kind
of thing. Was that a particularly different difficult one.
Speaker 2 (02:32):
That was number one difficult. I mean, we really look
through a lot of discussion and thinking on that one.
We're going to be able to pick up business perceptions,
all of our students are going to be able to graduate,
and we're going to have other classes are taught in
other departments, so they'll be able to take to think,
some similar classes and some departments combined back and forth
(02:55):
and save some money. But that one was the really
most difficult one because of the community services that they
provide throughout the state.
Speaker 3 (03:04):
Jack budget cutting is a very challenging thing a higher ed.
You get tagged nationally by the educational leits as saying,
this is nothing but a community college out in Nebraska.
They don't care about anything other than football, and it's
not true, but that's the perception you get. So let's
take a look at the macro picture. How are you
guys strategically, and maybe this is a better question for
(03:26):
the president and the chancellors, how are you guys strategically
going to raise revenues. You got to get enrollment up,
you've got to get more people on campus. You've got
to find a way to generate more revenues that aren't
tied to taxes. Do you have a strategy for that
and what would it be.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
Well, that's the difficulty. We have a low birth rate
and we have inflation, and a lot of kids are
looking at trade school. Plus we got a half a
percent little over half a percent raised from the state
and inflation is up four percent. So in the last
ten years we've seen about a forty percent decline in
tuition and in funding has been similar. So we're facing
(04:04):
the same thing that other schools are facing. Ohio State
just cut three hundred and fifty courses fifty penn State
closed seven campuses, not departments, campuses, entire campuses. So it's
happening everywhere because of low birth weight and inflation.
Speaker 3 (04:21):
Yeah, but community colleges are bursting at the seams though, Jack,
You know, there may be fewer college students, but there
aren't fewer people looking for ways to enhance their professional
capacity once they graduate from high school. What's the marketing
strategy for the University of Nebraska. Can you honestly say
that we have visited every high school in Nebraska that
(04:42):
we have recruiting counselors at every high school in Nebraska
trying to convince kids to come to Lincoln.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
Well, I know, we have quite a budget for staff
doing that. But the problem we run into it's free
tuition at the community colleges and after two years, if
you're you can make seventy thousand dollars guaranteed jobs waiting
for you. We can't even get our students to graduate
from construction because they make seventy one hundred thousand before
(05:09):
they ever graduate. So we've got a lot of challenges
right now. We're trying to recruit. You're right, we need
more students, but everybody's in the same boat on that one.
Speaker 1 (05:17):
Yeah, the birthright thing is huge though. I mean you
have smaller, smaller high school classes graduating and therefore the
pools potential students is smaller. So the people that are
enrolled in these four programs jack already they'll be able
to finish, right.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
Yes, that's a misperception. They'll be able to finish, and
these courses are called in other departments, but they get
their degree, it's guaranteed. We're working with the faculty to
find other positions, and like I say, it's something that
we're looking at. All the other big ten schools in
the same boat, even the wealthy Ones, Ohio State ten ten,
(05:53):
and Michigan, et cetera.
Speaker 1 (05:55):
Yeah, that's incredible.
Speaker 3 (05:56):
Well, Indiana has the largest active alumni in the entire country,
eight hundred eight thousand, you know, active alumni and the
average age is forty nine. Nebraska has four hundred and
seventeen thousand. You know, it's about it's in a state
where you know, there's more competition, but you've got to
find a way to get kids to see the value
of a higher education degree. And that's the challenge. Yeah,
(06:19):
and I have more on that and just a bit Jack,
thank you so much. That's Regent Jack Stark, University of
Nebraska Border Regions here
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