Content
UNL FACULTY SENATE MEETING MINUTES
September 1, 2026
Presidents Rich Leiter, Jamie Reimer, and John Shrader, Presiding
1.0 Call to Order
President Leiter called the meeting to order at 2:31 p.m.
2.0 Announcements
2.1 Welcome Back to the Faculty Senate
President Leiter welcomed the Senators back and reported that the Senate Executive Committee had a busy summer working closely with the administration to rebuild trust and improve morale, and he thinks good progress has been made in these efforts.
3.0 Interim Chancellor Ankerson
Interim Chancellor Ankerson stated that she hopes that the second week of the semester is off to a good start for everyone and noted that it is an exciting time with the students back on campus. She pointed out that there seems to have been a shift on campus with faculty members as the conversations she has had with some of them indicate a sense of optimism with their students, courses, and research.
Interim Chancellor Ankerson stated that the sense of optimism can be seen in the work that so many people have put into in developing the Our Bold Path Forward strategic plan which is a three-year framework that aligns with the University’s Odyssey to Excellence. She reported that since February, when the strategic plan was first discussed, there have been over 6,000 intersections of people expressing ideas through either written feedback, meetings, and further discussions. She noted that in June faculty, administrators, staff and students met for a day-long retreat where there were numerous round table discussions that were then summarized for consideration for Our Bold Path Forward strategic plan. As a result of the retreat, the web portal to provide further feedback on the strategic plan was reopened. She noted that the primary focus that emerged from the feedback and discussions was the need to keep the statement from the N2025 strategic plan, that every person and every interaction matters.
Interim Chancellor Ankerson reported that we had our largest graduating class ever in May and our research expenditures are the highest ever, but we are still healing from the pain of the budget reductions last year which resulted in the loss of real people and programs. She noted that some of the faculty from these impacted programs are still here and are teaching, advising, and still making a positive impact. She wanted to let the impacted faculty know that grieving is a process and when administrators talk about moving on, they should know that your teaching still really matters and that you are still considered as a full faculty member until your unit officially closes.
Interim Chancellor Ankerson pointed out she has spent a lot of quality time with the elected officers of the Faculty Senate Executive Committee this summer having candid conversations, and the officers pushed back in ways that made things better resulting in progress being made on how to be more transparent and to rebuild trust. She stated that trust is built one conversation and one follow-up at a time and noted that the ELT is working with members of the Senate Executive Committee to write the report due to the Senate in October outlining approaches that can be adopted to help rebuild trust and morale. She asked when the Senate receives the report to see it as a beginning rather than a conclusion. She pledged that she would continue to do a lot of listening and she would do her best to keep the faculty in the loop during these fast-moving times.
Interim Chancellor Ankerson reported that the enrollment numbers have not yet been verified but it appears that our overall enrollment number is down 1.6%, which is largely due to the graduate population, which is not surprising given the difficulties for international students. She noted that undergraduate enrollment is up 2.4% or 40 students and first-time freshmen is up by 111 students which is about the third largest freshmen class ever. She stated that transfer numbers look solid.
Interim Chancellor Ankerson stated that the President’s Council has decided to purchase a ChatGPT enterprise program for the university system because it can protect data collection and it controls the cost. She noted that what faculty, staff, and students work on for the university stays at the university. She pointed out that before people start using it, there is a small training portion that is required. She reported that CIO Haugerud will be meeting with the Senate’s Informational Technologies and Services Committee to discuss the ChatGPT enterprise.
Interim Chancellor Ankerson noted that the joint Higher Learning Commission (HLC) accreditation happened in June and there will be a site visit by an HLC team this fall. She pointed out that later this month there will be a joint summit of UNL/UNMC that will seek to enhance our partnership in education and research between the two campuses. She stated that the primary purpose is to explore collaboration opportunities and to define structural barriers that prevent further collaboration. She noted that President Leiter and APC Chair Professor Bradshaw have been invited to attend the summit.
Interim Chancellor Ankerson pointed out that she really believes in service and actively served on committees when she was a faculty member and as an administrator. She stated that she values each of the Senators for their service to shared governance which is critical to the growth of our flagship campus and as an R1 institution. She stated that she knows how very busy all of you are but noted that you are here because you believe that the faculty voice is important to the university.
Professor Vakilzadian, Electrical and Computer Engineering, asked if attendance to the joint summit is by invitation only. Interim Chancellor Ankerson stated that it is by invitation only because the size of the facility, which is between Omaha and Lincoln, only holds 100 people and 50 people from each campus have been invited.
Professor Vakilzadian noted that over the summer the governor announced a 5% decrease in state funding to state agencies. He asked how that impacted UNL. Interim Chancellor Ankerson pointed out that the governor’s decrease was a spending restraint, not a structural budget reduction like last year. She stated that because of the governor’s mandate, the hiring freeze is being continued and to act quickly, we have deferred some maintenance such as some classroom modernizations, upgrades to some electrical and plumbing systems, and general maintenance of utility systems. Professor Vakilzadian asked if this was expected again in the future. Interim Chancellor Ankerson pointed out that the governor’s letter came as a surprise but noted that the state’s budget shifts widely and we have to see what happens with things like the price of corn and wheat. She stated that we need to think differently about UNL’s budget pointing out that it is no longer simply thinking about preserving what we did many years ago, it’s about how the university creates a better life for the people in this state and how the university creates improvements in many areas throughout the state. She noted that the university brings in 1,000 new Nebraskans each year and the university helps create vitality for the state. She stated that for every $1 the state invests in the university the return is $10 to the state. She noted that our efforts to move forward marries well with Our Bold Path Forward strategic plan which will guide us in many ways.
Professor Gel, Supply Chain Management and Analytics, agreed that a plan is needed to move forward. She noted that she understands the move to have joint HLC accreditation with UNMC and she thought this would help her access the UNMC libraries but was informed that as a UNL professor she could not access the UNMC libraries. She questioned if we will be sharing resources with UNMC. Interim Chancellor Ankerson suggested speaking with Dean Liz Lorang of the University Libraries. President Leiter pointed out that often the problem for gaining access has to do with publisher contractual limits but noted that the Executive Committee has been discussing the issue with the Libraries. Interim Chancellor Ankerson suggested using inter library resources. She noted that the HLC requires us to have a single landing page which will have both UNL’s and UNMC’s logos on it and pointed out that our websites will not go away.
Professor Rumann, Educational Administration, stated that in the budget reduction process it was listed that the Office of Student Life had state-aided positions moved to alternative funding. He asked for clarification on what this means. Interim Chancellor Ankerson noted that the budget is made up of different sources of money which can be funded differently. She reported that Student Life is funded by auxiliaries which are voted on by the students. She stated that these auxiliary fees come from things like housing and food services. She stated that the positions were moved off of state funding and are now completely funded by auxiliary funds. Professor Rumann pointed out that explaining what the alternative funding sources are would help to clarify some things with the budget reductions.
President Leiter wanted to underscore what the Interim Chancellor stated about service. He reported that the Executive Committee is working with the administration to have our deans, directors, and mid-level administrators recognize in faculty evaluations the service work faculty members have done. He stated that based on his experience, some administrators are starting to listen.
4.0 Executive Committee Elections
4.1 Executive Committee Election for One-Year Term
President Leiter noted that there were three nominations for the one-year term, and he asked if they wanted to address the Faculty Senate before the election. All three candidates declined speaking. He then asked if there were any nominations from the floor. Hearing none, the Faculty Senate voted. Professor James, Agronomy & Horticulture was elected and will begin serving immediately on the Executive Committee.
4.2 Executive Committee Election for Three-Year Term
President Leiter noted that there were three nominations for the three-year term, and he asked if they wanted to address the Faculty Senate before the election. Professor Reddi spoke to the Faculty Senate, the other candidates declined. He then asked if there were any nominations from the floor. Hearing none, the Faculty Senate voted. Professor Reddi was elected and will begin serving immediately on the Executive Committee.
5.0 Emergency Preparedness (Director Abby Schletzbaum)
Director Schletzbaum noted that she has been at UNL for two years now and would like to ask the Faculty Senate for some help in making sure UNL is a safe place to live, work, and to grow. She stated that she is seeking the Senate’s help in getting an active shooter prevention program pointing out that UNL does not currently have an online smart course in Bridge that everyone would be required to take. She reported that she has worked with the Journalism college to develop a video which is on the Police Department’s website (http://safety.unl.edu/emergency-response/shooting-incident/active-shoot…) and she encouraged Senators to share this information with their colleagues. She pointed out that these are stressful times that we live in which could manifest into mental health issues for some people and learning to recognize the signs of someone struggling and knowing what steps we can take to intervene could help prevent any active violence on campus. She stated that she can also meet with people on a one-on-one basis and she can provide 20-minute training sessions on active shooter prevention.
Director Schletzbaum stated that she frequently hears people say that students grew up with active shooter training where they were instructed to follow their teacher, but what they learned in K-12 is different from the training we offer here. She stated that at UNL people need to run, hide, or fight in that order. She stated that the size of the campus, the number of buildings and people going their separate ways call for the difference in training. She noted that the more we can do to make sure the entire campus community is safe, the better.
Director Schletzbaum stated that the goal is to encourage general preparedness and pointed out that people may have received an email from their building reporter about restarting the fire drill program which had been cut during the pandemic. She reported that this must be done for us to adhere to the fire code. She stated that she would like to see every building have an emergency plan for how people are going to get to safety should there be a fire, gas leak, tornado, or active shooter. She stated that she would be very happy to work with people to help develop that plan.
Professor Hoerl, Communication Studies, asked if every building has a point person. Director Schletzbaum noted that each building has a building maintenance person and some buildings have a great plan while some don’t have any plan.
Professor Barton, Political Science, reported that some research is showing that fighting works better when there is an active shooter and she asked whether this evidence has been reviewed. Director Schletzbaum stated that she would like to see the scholarly research on this. She noted that the UNL Police follow the instructions of the FBI pointing out that we don’t want to put people in harm’s way if they do not want to fight. She stated that there are some building issues as well on campus with some places easier to lock down than others. She noted that the UNL Police Department members are trained in tactical response, and they respond very quickly to any kind of unrest or incident on campus. Professor Barton suggested that it may be better to have a department point person rather than a building person. Director Schletzbaum agreed that this would be helpful since some buildings house several departments that people may not know.
Professor Timmerman asked what the Faculty Senate can do to help facilitate emergency preparedness plans. Director Schletzbaum stated that finding a time when she can meet with departments to develop a plan with them would be helpful. She encouraged everyone to reach out to her if there are any questions or if they want to schedule a time when she can speak to their department.
6.0 Approval of April 28, 2026 Minutes
President Leiter asked if there were any revisions to the minutes. Hearing none, he asked for a motion to approve the minutes. Professor Timmerman, Extension Zone 2, moved for approval. Motion seconded by Professor Vakilzadian. The minutes were approved by the Faculty Senate.
7.0 Committee Reports
7.1 Academic Rights and Responsibilities Committee (Professor Kubick)
Professor Kubick reported that it has been an extremely busy year for the ARRC with many contacts from faculty members across the campus, mostly from those affected by the budget cuts. He stated that he had numerous meetings with faculty in departments and also individually with people. He stated that the committee was busy over the summer with two special hearing committees meeting during the summer and the work is still continuing for these committees.
Professor Kubick reported that Professor Peterson will once again chair the ARRC this academic year. He stated that there may be a couple of cases that might result in a written complaint, although the faculty members are exploring options with their deans. He pointed out that with the number of cases this year the ARRC is running up against how many special hearing cases can be done at one time given the number of people on the Academic Rights and Responsibilities Panel.
Professor Kubick noted that the ARRC has a new attorney, Jeff Kirkpatrick, who has taken over the role of the ARRC attorney after the previous attorney, Mary Kay Hanson, retired. He stated that Mr. Kirkpatrick has been extremely helpful to the ARRC with navigating all the procedures for the special hearing committees.
Professor Kubick pointed out that the ARRC is still waiting for the proposed revisions to the ARRC procedures that the Faculty Senate approved several years ago, to be placed on the Board of Regents agenda for final consideration. He stated that there have been numerous emails to the General Counsel office to try to move the approval process for the procedures along. He noted that the revised procedures would change the number of faculty members needed for special hearing committees from six to five which would help in times when there are high number of cases.
7.2 Faculty Senate Summer Executive Committee Report (President Leiter)
President Leiter stated that the Executive Committee was busy during the summer, some of the members participated in the June 19th retreat, mentioned by Interim Chancellor Ankerson. He stated that there was very robust discussion, and he believes there is momentum towards repairing some of the damage and ill will that occurred last year. He stated that the Interim Chancellor has been meeting with the officers of the Executive Committee and there have been informal but focused discussions. He believes that the administration is open to listening to the Faculty Senate and he said he is feeling optimistic that the campus is moving forward.
President Leiter stated that the administrators heard loudly and clearly from the Executive Committee that service work needs to be valued and recognized during a faculty member’s annual evaluation. He pointed out that we really need to get faculty members to participate in shared governance and this can be done through serving on Faculty Senate committees.
President Leiter pointed out that there are a number of uncertainties with the joint HLC accreditation, but the Executive Committee is getting a clearer picture of what is going on with it and the ELT is reaching out to get more information to us. He noted that there has been discussion about a Senate budget committee but we are trying to figure out how it would work, whether it is a duplication of the Academic Planning Committee, and whether the Faculty Senate could get more of a sense of how the budget is allocated. He noted that the Executive Committee will continue to work on this.
8.0 Unfinished Business
No unfinished business was discussed.
9.0 New Business
9.1 Open Mic
Professor Gay, Physics and Astronomy, asked the Executive Committee members what, in their opinion, is to be the most audacious, bold component of Our Bold Path Forward strategic plan.
President Leiter stated that in his years of experience, he has found that what it comes down to with these big administrative and visionary plans is just using common sense and just being civil and communicating with people. He pointed out that there is a difference this year from the previous year in that we actually have an Interim Chancellor who wants to listen and gather input from people before any decisions are made.
Professor Gay asked how many people hours have been spent on the effort to create a new strategic plan. President Leiter stated that one of his pet peeves is that we spend thousands of dollars to hire consultants rather than using some of the experts we have on campus. He noted that what the administrators need to do is really listen to the faculty, staff, and students to learn what the problems are and to hear suggestions of how these problems could be rectified. President Leiter stated that the systems office is spending $1.5 million for the Deloitte consultants and there will probably be consultants at the UNL/UNMC Joint Summit to help facilitate discussion. Professor Peterson, Agricultural Economics, asked how much money is being spent on these consultants. President Leiter stated that he does not know how much money is being spent on consultants.
Professor Vazansky, History, stated regarding the budget committee, has anyone looked at other universities to see if there is a model that we could potentially consider for a budget committee here. President Leiter stated that this is an idea that the Executive Committee has considered.
Professor Stevenson, English, noted that she has often heard that the Committee on Committees has difficulty finding faculty members to serve on various committees. She suggested that faculty members might be more willing to serve if they could attend meetings online. President Leiter reported that the Executive Committee has been talking about conducting a wellness poll for the faculty and to see what things the university can do to make improvements at UNL.
Past President Shrader stated that in regard to Our Bold Path Forward, we could make a bold path forward by hiring an administrator that can raise the money and get the resources that the faculty need to run the university properly and who will keep Varner Hall from taking away funding from UNL and from taking our autonomy away.
President Leiter reported that Scott Silversten has recently been hired as Chief Communication and Marketing Officer, and Interim Chancellor Ankerson is excited about working with him to help inform the public of all the things faculty members do and the contributions they make not only to the university, but to the state as well. Hopefully this will result in people who vote for legislators that support the university.
Professor Menon, Teaching, Learning & Teacher Education, asked if President Gold will be invited to come speak to the Faculty Senate to answer some of the questions that have been raised. She noted that, given the state UNL is in right now, it can be difficult to recruit a significant pool of candidates for a position, particularly an administrative position. She reported that the College of Education and Human Sciences has seen a lot of turnovers in the Dean’s position and they are once again having to find a new Dean. She stated that these are questions and discussions we should have with President Gold. President Leiter stated that we will definitely invite President Gold to speak to the Senate.
Professor Othoniel Rosa, Modern Languages and Literature, stated that many of the topics that the Faculty Senate is discussing could be addressed by having a faculty union. He asked if the possibility of unionizing the faculty has been discussed. Past President Shrader stated that there have been numerous discussions about it, but the Faculty Senate technically can not advocate for a union. He suggested that the Faculty Senate could hold a forum on the topic, but we are not allowed to advocate for it. Professor Newton, College of Architecture, seconded the comment and said that we will continue to get our budget cut until we start pushing back. He pointed out that his college has lost a lot of professors this year and people are having to do extra work. He questioned what the rate of turnover is for the university and pointed out that this information would be good to share with the public.
Past President Shrader stated that the Senators should individually check in our departments and colleges to gather this kind of information because the Senate Executive Committee has been told that exit interviews are no longer conducted due to the budget reductions so the administration does not have the data at this time about how many total faculty members have left. Professor Vazansky pointed out that the Bug Eater publication is looking for this information as well.
The meeting was adjourned at 4:19 p.m. The next meeting of the Faculty Senate will be held on Tuesday, October 6, 2026, at 2:30 p.m. via Zoom. The minutes are respectfully submitted by Karen Griffin, Coordinator, and Ann Tschetter, Secretary.