LINCOLN, Neb. (KOLN) - Between the pandemic, low enrollment numbers and rising education costs, universities are struggling. Doane is no different.
Doane’s Board of Trustees approved budget cuts that could eliminate 18 academic programs, but giving faculty one last chance to save them.
The programs on the table to be cut include majors and minors like physics, political science, religious studies and philosophy as well as organizations like the forensics team and honors program.
The elimination of these programs would cut $1 million from Doane’s budget, helping them cut the $3.6 million needed to balance their budget.
“If we don’t make these cuts we won’t have any savings and down the line we’ll have to make drastic uniformed decisions across the whole university,” Doane University President Jacque Carter said.
Carter said these programs were recommended to be cut after a months-long process examining the the university’s priorities and mission.
He said the programs approved to be cut have low enrollment, aren’t growing and are too expensive for the resources they require to keep them. .
Alumni from the forensics team, slated to be cut, said they could see how the travel costs required for speech competition.
However, what it brings to the community outweigh those costs.
“That’s why I came to Doane,” Kayla Starbuck, a 2018 Doane Graduate said. “It was a small school with a good forensics team. That’s why it was the only school I applied to.”
Starbuck said when she found out the team was going to be cut she was shocked.
“It’s a good recruitment tool,” Starbuck said. “It’s also fairly successful on the national stage and brings awards back to Doane so I don’t know why they would cut it.”
Another graduate who was on the forensics team, Dylan Douglas, said it provides invaluable experiences to students.
“The coaches helped me become a public speaker,” Douglas said. “I’m a teacher now and even talking every day in front of kindegarteners is easier.”
Ahead of the Board of Trustees meeting Monday, a petition to save the team garnered more than 2,000 signatures, citing in the petition, that the team brings in more tuition dollars than it costs to run.
Another program potentially being cut is the Honor’s Program, which provides unique educational experiences and travel abroad scholarships to Doane students.
Summer Mueller, a 2018 graduate of Doane, said she was in the honor’s program all four years. She told 10/11 NOW she believes the program embodies a liberal arts education.
“It took everything I was learning in all of my other classes and just amplified everything I was learning,” Mueller said.
She said it helped her develop critical thinking skills and gave her the opportunity to attend unique classes.
Carter said he didn’t want to make any cuts and feels for any employees and student impacted, as 17 staff positions will be eliminated.
“The desicions we’re making, we believe wer’e making in teh best interest of the greater university,” Carter said.
Between now and March, the faculty will come up with proposals to save the programs and they’ll be voted on again.
“I hope with the next few months of thought that will go into these programs and departments there will be some innovation and creativity that comes out of that that will make Doane better for everyone,” Carter said.
10/11 NOW reached out to several faculty members impacted by the cuts.
Several said they were too emotional about the potential loss of their programs and livelihoods to speak on camera.
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