Beginning July 1, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln will cut nearly $10.8 million from its 2023-24 budget by closing open positions and reducing administrative costs. Those cuts, however, will make up less than half of the budget deficit facing UNL. That $23.8 million deficit has largely been created by enrollment losses over the past two years. That funding crisis, exacerbated by the failure of state appropriations to keep up with the cost of doing business, will continue and, perhaps, worsen. Without finding additional revenue sources like raising tuition or cutting costs, the deficit for the University of Nebraska system as a whole could balloon to $80 million in 2024-25, with roughly half of that having to be accounted for by UNL, the largest of the system’s four campuses.
