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Chancellor Asks Faculty to Affirm His Leadership
In May, faculty at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln voted in support of the institution's chancellor, Harvey Perlman, after controversy arose over the chancellor's plan to cut the institution's budget. The plan, made in response to a severe economic crisis in Nebraska, cut $7.5 million from the budget and terminated the existing positions of eight tenured faculty members. In a highly unusual move, the chancellor asked faculty to vote to support the administration's leadership ability in the face of budget reductions. He promised to rescind his plan and resign his position if faculty support was not forthcoming.
The chancellor made his request after a motion for a resolution of no confidence was introduced in the university's Academic Senate. Because the motion was introduced at the last senate meeting of the year, no action was to be taken on it until fall. Perlman objected to the delay, saying that it would allow the issue to "fester" over the summer. Although the university's AAUP chapter urged faculty not to participate in the chancellor's vote, since it was held outside the faculty governance structure, 1,024 of 1,434 faculty members eligible to vote did so; 914 voted in support of the chancellor.
Further budget cuts subsequently proposed by Perlman include the termination of fifteen additional tenured faculty positions, several staff and administrative positions, and two departments.
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