Colleagues,
Yesterday, ahead of next week’s Board of Regents meeting, University of Nebraska System President Ted Carter announced the System’s proposed operating budget for the 2022-2023 fiscal year, and I wanted to make sure you heard from me about how UNO factors into these plans.
First, I want to commend President Carter for his commitment to student success by taking important and necessary steps to keep tuition costs flat during these tough economic times. Now, more than ever, access to education for all is of vital importance to not just prepare the leaders of tomorrow but provide opportunities for those ready to lead today.
At UNO, we understand deeply how much education can transform lives. With so many members of our student body being the first in their families to pursue a four-year degree and many more requiring financial support, anything we can do to help our students stay on track academically while reducing their financial burden is a must.
Our university is in an excellent position to achieve this goal even in the face of new challenges because of your hard work and commitment over the past two years identifying and implementing new, better ways to do things so we could stay on track fiscally all while weathering the COVID-19 pandemic.
I want to reiterate that while the specific operating budget for 2022-2023 provides further details, this year’s budget marks the third year of a three-year cost-reduction plan that was originally introduced by President Carter in 2020.
This means we are still committed to offering competitive pay, benefits, and opportunities for our faculty and staff and there will be no changes to the three percent pool for merit increases planned for 2022-2023 as part of President Carter’s three-year compensation support initiative announced last year.
Additionally, the positive work our campus has accomplished extending opportunities for our faculty and staff will be able to continue because we were able to put ourselves in a position to be nimble and responsive.
In the year ahead we must remain responsive and continue to look for additional efficiencies both at the system level and at UNO. We must be comfortable challenging the status quo and ask ourselves if we are doing things because it is the best way to do them or because it is the way we have always done them. In short, we must continue to think like Mavericks.
I agree wholeheartedly with President Carter that the needs of our students, state, and workforce are too important for us to just “hunker down” and wait out a crisis like COVID-19. And while there is no way to know what the future holds, what I do know is that our campus has already shown it can rise to address any challenge that may come our way.
Our students can only succeed in their journey if you have what you need to be successful, and I am committed to making sure we are accomplishing these shared goals by being strategic in the choices we make as a campus.
Thank you so much for what you do each day for our students, for our campus, and in support of higher education in our state. Together, we are building a bright future for Nebraska
Sincerely,
Joanne Li, Ph.D., CFA
Chancellor
