Dr. Rodney Bennett
The UNL Faculty Senate voted 60-14 to approve the advisory resolution, which calls on the University of Nebraska Board of Regents and system President Jeffrey Gold to immediately review Bennett's fitness to serve and consider his removal or negotiated departure.
The vote comes as faculty challenge Bennett's $27.5 million budget reduction plan, which includes eliminating four academic programs totaling $6.74 million in cuts. The Board of Regents will consider the program eliminations at a December 5 meeting.
Among the programs slated for elimination is Educational Administration, facing a $1.69 million cut. The program has produced influential researchers and scholars in the field and operates within a department that faculty say should be advocating for higher education rather than dismantling it.
"Over the past two years our campus has been subjected to decision making from our Chancellor without our input – from cutting student support offices to now proposing academic program cuts, our voice seemingly has not mattered to leadership," said Dr. Crystal Garcia, Associate Professor of Educational Administration and Executive Committee Member of UNL's American Association of University Professors (AAUP). "This vote of no confidence was an interruption to this pattern of behavior and was a way for faculty to push back."
Faculty, she said, have spoken out in the media, through campus rallies, town halls, to the Board of Regents, faculty senate, and even through the Academic Planning Committee report.
"They have shouted from the rooftops. This budget process was not appropriately designed or carried out," she said. "Our Chancellor heard this time and again and instead of engaging our community in town halls to hear our concerns or suggest we reexamine the data, he continued to push us down a path to eliminate educational opportunities for students based on rushed and poor decision making."
