To the University of Nebraska Community:
We are concerned that at the highest levels of the University of Nebraska system, decisions involving the future of the University are being made without transparency or proper governance and under improper exertions of influence by the legislative and executive branches of the state government. We fear that financial hostage-taking by members of the state government will result in changes by the administration in the intellectual offerings of the University and opportunities for our students. We believe it is imperative to express our alarm now, before irrevocable damage is done to the mission of the university and the value it contributes to the state of Nebraska. We insist that no radical changes be undertaken in the administration, academic programs, allocation of funds, or support for campus initiatives without appropriate faculty governance, transparency, and respect for academic freedom, which are core values of a healthy university.
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Members of the state legislature strongly tied to Governor Pete Ricketts, including senators Steve Halloran, Steve Erdman, and Tom Brewer, along with staff of anti-public-education nonprofits affiliated with Governor Ricketts, such as School Choice Lincoln, have leveraged a single campus interaction into a sustained attack on the University that has greatly surpassed the scope and import of the initial incident. These senators have called for an end to tenure, demanded further budget cuts, and have written a letter censuring the mission statement and curriculum of the Department of English. A number of that department’s faculty have since been aggressively targeted by sweeping open records requests made by the Governor’s allies, including a request that they turn over private email addresses and emails between the chair and faculty members who have publicly criticized members of the state government.
Under the pretense that the University is unsafe for conservative students, the Governor and his surrogates are opening the door to ideological intervention at the University from outside entities. Their lack of consistency in protecting and respecting students’ political views, particularly those that diverge from their own, reveals the political nature of this manufactured crisis. In contrast, we reaffirm what has always been our educational mission: helping students to understand a wide variety of ideas and viewpoints through the many classes they take, with the goal of producing informed citizens capable of making thoughtful independent decisions about how best to govern our society. We insist that this mission be respected and that the alarming politicized interventions in the work of the university be condemned and resisted, rather than validated by our administration.
Any ideological interference in university business from members of the state government will be a major blow to the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. It will diminish our reputation among our peer institutions in the Big Ten and have a detrimental impact on our ability to attract and retain world-class faculty, as well as to recruit and retain minoritized and underrepresented students, who will rightly fear that initiatives to welcome them and address their unique needs on campus will be characterized as hostile to the agenda of the overreaching state government.
We, the undersigned, expect our administration to stand for the values of the University of Nebraska, a large community of diverse people with diverse viewpoints, and the most significant institutional asset to the state of Nebraska. We understand this community as being committed to the pursuit of truth (wherever it may lead), to the inherent value of open discussion, and to the fundamental values of democracy and free expression. If the Governor or his surrogates in the legislature interfere with the intellectual freedom of the faculty, one of the state’s most precious resources will be squandered in a political power grab, as the quality of work at our university and the value of a degree from UNL will quickly decline. We insist that all levels of the administration respect the governance structures currently in place, and categorically reject political interference in the good work being done at our state’s flagship institution.
Dr. Julia Schleck
AAUP Nebraska State Conference President
Associate Professor, Department of English
Dr. Stephen Ramsay
Committee A Chair, AAUP University of Nebraska-Lincoln Chapter
Susan J. Rosowski
Associate University Professor, Department of English
Dr. Amanda Gailey
Associate Professor, Department of English
Fellow, Center for Digital Research in the Humanities
Prof. Timothy Schaffert
Susan J. Roswoski Associate University Professor, Department of English
Director of Creative Writing
Dr. Ari Kohen
Associate Professor of Political Science and Schlesinger Professor of Social Justice
Dr. Thomas Lynch
Professor, Department of English
Dr. Christina Brantner
Associate Professor, Modern Languages and Literatures
Former Director of Women’s Studies
Dr. Thomas C. Gannon
Associate Professor of English and Ethnic Studies
Ethnic Studies Academic Advisor
Native American Studies Liaison
Dr. Stephen M. Buhler
Aaron Douglas Professor of English
Dr. Patrick D. Jones
Associate Professor, Department of History and Institute for Ethnic Studies
Recipient of 2015 James A. Lake Academic Freedom Award
Mo Neal
Associate Professor Emerita
Department of Art and Art History
Grace Bauer
Professor, Department of English
Dr. John R. Bender
Professor of News-Editorial
College of Journalism and Mass Communications
Jeffrey L. Day, AIA
Professor of Architecture and Landscape Architecture
Director of the Architecture Program 2012-2017
Dr. Melissa J. Homestead
Professor of English
Program Faculty in Women's & Gender Studies
Dr. Frances W. Kaye
Professor, Department of English
Dr. John Janovy, Jr.
Professor Emeritus, Biological Sciences
Dr. L. Janelle Dance
Associate Professor of Sociology and Ethnic Studies
Associate Director of the Institute for Ethnic Studies
Dr. Gerard S. Harbison
Professor of Chemistry
Former Chair of Academic Planning Committee
Dr. Jeannette Eileen Jones
Associate Professor of History and Ethnic Studies
Dr. Emily Kazyak
Associate Professor of Sociology and Women's and Gender Studies
Dr. Andrea Bolland
Associate Professor, School of Art, Art History & Design
Dr. David Moshman
Professor Emeritus of Educational Psychology
1997 recipient of James A. Lake Academic Freedom Award
Dr. Barbara DiBernard
Emerita, Professor of English and Women's & Gender Studies
Dr. George E. Wolf
Associate Professor Emeritus, Department of English
Recipient of 2002 James A. Lake Academic Freedom Award
Dr. Jennifer McKitrick
Professor and Department Chair, Department of Philosophy
Dr. Stacey Waite
Associate Professor of English and Director of Composition
Dr. Amelia M.L. Montes
Associate Professor, Department of English and Institute for Ethnic Studies
2017/2018 Fulbright Scholar
Dr. Kelly Stage
Associate Professor of English
Director of Medieval and Renaissance Studies
Dr. Craig J. Eckhardt
Professor Emeritus of Chemistry
Gregory E. Rutledge, Ph.D., J.D./M.A.M.C.
Associate Professor, Dept. of English and Institute for Ethnic Studies
Dr. Sitaram Jaswal
Professor Emeritus, Department of Physics & Astronomy
Dr. Khalid Sayood
Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Dr. Bob Haller
Emeritus Professor of English
Four-time UNL AAUP President
Founding President of the Academic Freedom Coalition of Nebraska
Dr. Edmund T. Hamann
Professor, Dept. of Teaching, Learning, & Teacher Education
Dr. Miles Bryant
Emeritus Professor of Educational Administration
Dr. Jack Vespa
Assistant Professor of Practice, Department of English
Dr. Paul Olson
Kate Foster Prof. of English emeritus, Department of English
Dr. Stephen Hilliard
Professor Emeritus, Department of English
Dr. Joy S. Ritchie
Emerita Professor of English and Women's and Gender Studies
Dr. Alice Kang
Associate Professor of Political Science and Ethnic Studies
Dr. Alison G. Stewart
Hixson-Lied Professor of Art History
School of Art, Art History & Design
Dr. Guy Trainin
Professor of Education, Department of Teaching, Learning, & Teacher Education
Dr. Linda Ray Pratt
Professor Emeritus of English
National President, AAUP 1992-94
1994 recipient of James A. Lake Academic Freedom Award
Elizabeth Ingraham
Associate Professor, School of Art, Art History, and Design
Dr. Thomas M. Carr, Jr.
Professor Emeritus of Modern Languages
Dr. Laurie Thomas Lee
Professor, Broadcasting
College of Journalism and Mass Communications
2013 recipient of James A. Lake Academic Freedom Award
Dr. Vicki Schlegel
Associate Professor
Department of Food Science and Technology
Dr. Michael W. Hoffman
Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Former Chair of Academic Planning Committee
Dana Fritz
Professor, School of Art, Art History & Design
Dr. Sidnie White Crawford
Willa Cather Professor of Classics and Religious Studies
Dr. Mike Lippman
Associate Professor of the Practice
Dept. of Classics and Religious Studies
Kathleen A. Johnson
Professor of Libraries
Sandra Williams
Associate Professor
School of Art, Art History and Design
Dr. Bedross Der Matossian
Associate Professor of History
Dr. Dave Billesbach
Dept. of Biological Systems Engineering and School of Natural Resources
Fellow, Center for Great Plains Studies
Dr. Adrian S. Wisnicki
Associate Professor, Department of English
Faculty Fellow, Center for Digital Research in the Humanities
Dr. Peter Dowben
Charles Bessey Professor of Physics
Department of Physics and Astronomy
Center for NanoFerroic Devices
Dr. Erica DeFrain
Assistant Professor, University Libraries
Dr. John Bailey
Richard H. Larson Distinguished College Professor of Music
Dr. Gerard Adams
Associate Professor of Practice, Plant Pathology
Dr. Helen Moore
Emerita Professor, Department of Sociology
Past Aaron Douglas Professor of Teaching Excellence
Dr. David M. Harwood
Professor, Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences
Dr. Edward F. Becker
Professor of Philosophy
Dr. Joy Castro
Professor of English & Ethnic Studies
Dr. Catherine Chia
Associate Professor, School of Biological Sciences
Dr. Robert F. Diffendal, Jr.
Professor Emeritus, University of Nebraska
Past President, University of Nebraska-Lincoln Faculty Senate
Past President, Nebraska State Conference of the American Association of University Professors
Dr. Robert Brooke
John E. Weaver Professor of English