It is hard to think about the many consequences (both intentional and unintentional) that have occurred as a result of adapting to the COVID-19 pandemic. I imagine we don’t even know the full scope of those consequences just yet as they relate to the University of Nebraska community.

For example, it took an incredible amount of work by so many people to convert in-person classes to online courses. That scale of coordinated effort in such a relatively short time is mind boggling. The health and well-being of our students has always been foremost in our priorities, yet as we are forced to adapt, sometimes things fall through the cracks. As we navigate these shifts, these unintended consequences often take some time to surface.

Students and their families have been very patient. 

But one thing we missed while on our way to creating multiple options for classes, was what to do about student fees. Fortunately, the students on our campuses brought this to our chancellor’s attention, and leaders at the UNO campus were asked to consider the types of fees that exist, who was impacted by them, and what solutions should be considered.

I am happy to tell you that this process worked beautifully. The proposals suggested by students were used to make corrective new guidelines for how much students will pay based on their unique mixture of online and in-person classes. Additionally, fees will not be charged this spring for use of campus recreation and campus counseling services. We think this makes sense.

Going forward, we hope that everyone in the University of Nebraska family feels empowered to help us catch anything that may unintentionally fall through the cracks, so we can make these necessary adaptations as painless as possible for everyone involved.

Thank you for your diligence.

If you or your student have questions or concerns, please contact Cathy Pettit at StudentAffairs@unomaha.edu

*Barbara’s thoughts as written by Kate based on weekly (fascinating) conversations.

Something feels different this time. I don’t know if it’s the pandemic, the momentum of social movements, something in the water, or a combination of all the above, but something about this feels like a potential turning point in our history.

I’m speaking both about our history as a nation as well as our history as a community, and as an institution of higher education.

We have to be vigilant not to “return to normal.”

There’s a lot about “normal” that wasn’t working for everyone, and we have a unique opportunity to truly and deeply evaluate what we do and how we do it. We have the opportunity to build something better than what came before. Shouldn’t that always be the goal?

This is what I’m trying to keep in mind as we approach our June 26 regent meeting to approve a preliminary budget to send to the Unicameral. We are all budget, all the time. I’m not personally on the finance committee but we have been having meetings of up to (but no more than) four regents at a time in order to address concerns around the budget.

The scariest part of working on the budget is thinking about the impact it has on people.

If we end up dropping a whole program, or even part of a program, decisions like that are not easily undone. Whichever way we decide to go, there will be a ripple effect on students, faculty, and staff. We don’t take that lightly.

But instead of focusing on the fear, I like to focus on the future.

We’ve been looking at ways to not only save the school money overall, but ways we can help students save money while they’re pursuing their education. How can we support our faculty as they try to save money for the students? One example is how faculty select required materials for a course. UNO has been assisting faculty who want to revamp course materials so students don’t have to buy a bunch of $150 textbooks. We’re looking into other, more cost-effective ways to access that same information.

We also recognize that we have immensely talented and valuable faculty, and we need to figure out how to pay them what they deserve. COVID-19 has changed the formula on just about everything we’re having to consider this year, but we still should be investing in our faculty.

I think that the pandemic have given both parents and students a greater appreciation for incredible, hard-working teachers. I’m not sure that we’ve seen that same movement on the college level, but I would like to.

All of this is happening in huge messy whirlwind of re-working our budgets. It is a significant time for higher education and the University of Nebraska in particular.

Curiosity is critical. We need to be curious about the best ways to keep everyone on campus safe. We need to be curious about ways we can lighten our students’ financial burden. We need to be curious about what people do when they graduate, how it fits with what they’ve learned, and how to taper curriculum to real-world conditions.

This is valuable to us as a school, but also our society as a whole. Now is the time to look forward, not back.

*Barbara’s thoughts as written by Kate based on weekly (fascinating) conversations.

I won’t pretend to know everything there is about the University of Nebraska’s finances. There are a lot of highly intelligent people for whom this is their focus and I’m grateful for their dedication and insight.

My stint on the Business Affairs and Audit Committee has shed light on the complicated economics of higher education.

The committees have wrestled with a number of urgent issues, not the least of which is the issue of health insurance in the whole university system. The big question is how do we provide the best plans to meet the need?

Graduate and international students are required to have insurance.

It is critical to their ability to continue their studies that we offer the most reasonable plan we can. However the recent double digit increases in policy buy-ins and growing deductibles puts them between a rock and a hard place. This is simply not sustainable, not healthy, not working. We need to find a way to ensure the kind of access to education that brings diversity and talent to our community instead of driving students away through the many-faced specter of debt.

Capital expenses are another problem – how does the university use its borrowing/bond process? We have been using the same system for a number of years, but to evolve and adapt is to survive.

Finance staff have fortunately focused their efforts on some of these questions.

They developed a plan, for example, that would allow a better use of borrowed funds and how we present bonds. Instead of separate, smaller bonds, it was suggested we borrow more to take advantage of current interest rates. That may sound odd and the mechanism for buying bonds is too complex to explain here in a few short paragraphs, but suffice it to say that a new process would actually free up more capital and save significant resources.

Trust me, I understand why finances are not usually top of the list for cocktail party banter. It’s confronting, complicated, and honestly kind of stressful. But the more we talk it out, the more ideas we can generate, the better the future can look for everyone.

*Barbara’s thoughts as written by Kate based on weekly (fascinating) conversations.