Colleagues,  

President Ted Carter provided an update to University of Nebraska System campuses on the challenging budget environment the NU System is facing. In the spirit of full transparency, I felt it was important to share with you – our faculty and staff – what this means for the University of Nebraska at Omaha.  

Candidly, UNO is not immune to the financial headwinds being felt by the NU System and around the country. Unprecedented inflation, demographic changes that have impacted enrollment, and muted revenue opportunities, are just some of the factors that have contributed to our new fiscal reality.  

President Carter has tasked the leaders of each university to manage these headwinds without compromising our priorities. As a leading urban-metropolitan university, our mission has never been more important. While we cannot avoid the difficult conversations and tough decisions ahead, we are going to work together to navigate this environment. In the coming months, we will look inward to determine the most impactful use of our resources. Throughout this process we will be guided by four principals: 

• Honor our student performance, workforce development, and social mobility missions in every decision we make.

• Exercise fiscal discipline, search for savings and efficiencies, and maximize every resource to mitigate the impact of this budget challenge.

• Maintain the growth mindset that has served us well in recent years, primarily by strategically recruiting underserved community, transfer, out-of-state, online, international, and adult learner talent pools to bolster our overall enrollment.

• Continue to be aggressive with our student retention efforts.

During this process there will be ambiguity, as I fully expect our budget outlook to evolve as we learn more from state legislators, NU System leadership, and campus partners between now and June. With that in mind, you can anticipate future communications and updates as new information becomes available.   

My only request is that we extend trust, patience, honesty, and kindness to each other. This will be a challenging process for everyone, so we will need to lean on our fellow Mavericks for support.  

Thank you,  

Joanne Li, Ph.D., CFA 

Chancellor 

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