FEATURED
Key Takeaways
- The University of Nebraska-Lincoln is cutting six underperforming programs due to a $27.5 million shortfall, but will retain its doctoral program in music, which has a negative ROI of -$789,477, defying typical trends in higher education.
- Economist Preston Cooper suggests that low enrollment and high fixed costs of PhD programs typically lead to cuts, yet influential faculty and other factors may be preserving this specific program.
ANALYSIS
University of Nebraska-Lincoln has no plans to cut its worst performing degree, even though other programs are on the chopping block due to a projected $27.5 million shortfall.
According to Chancellor Rodney Bennett, the school plans to eliminate undergraduate and graduate degrees in six programs: community and regional planning, educational administration, Earth and atmospheric sciences, landscape architecture, statistics, and textiles, merchandising, and fashion design.
Chancellor Bennett also proposed merging four departments into two and cutting funding for graduate assistantships in the colleges of engineering and arts and sciences, along with other cuts.
Yet spared from this is the university’s doctoral program in music, its worst performing program. Additionally, the music program has generated national controversy by awarding a PhD to a musical composition student after he created a drag show “Mass” that mocked Roman Catholicism. The performance was his final dissertation for his degree.
The doctoral degree in music has an expected return on investment of – $789,477, according to the Foundation for Research on Equal Opportunity, a think tank. Students who drop out of the program are actually a little better off and can expect a return on investment of -$554,106.
The College Fix reached out to the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and the Glen Korff School of Music about the eliminated academic programs. Neither responded to inquiries via email or phone in the past several weeks.
The decision to keep the program is “unusual,” according to a higher education economist who previously researched ROI for the Foundation for Research on Equal Opportunity.
“Often PhD programs are first to go as they have lower enrollments and are often money-losers for the university,” Preston Cooper told The Fix via email.
“But idiosyncratic factors may play a role–an influential faculty member who fights to keep the PhD program, for instance,” the American Enterprise Institute senior fellow said.
“There are fixed costs to operating the program: you have to employ tenured faculty, and there’s the cost of building space and supplies. These costs may not go down as the number of students falls,” Cooper said. “Past a certain point, the program may lose so much money that it simply doesn’t make financial sense for the school to continue offering.”
If the enrollment in the program is low, the university will lose revenue, Cooper said. This is under the assumption that a doctoral student pays tuition during their time at the university, which not every graduate student does, the higher education economist said.
“Low enrollment is often a big factor: if you’re employing several faculty members to teach a dwindling number of students, that program might not make economic sense for the university anymore,” Cooper said.
The statistics department has also questioned the data used in deciding what programs to cut, according to the Flatwater Free Press.
Music doctorate degree prompts creation of new council to address controversies
The music doctoral program may be the only one in the past year to prompt the chancellor to create a new council to address a controversy. Following The College Fix’s coverage of the drag show and the ensuing backlash from Catholic and political leaders, the school met with Bishop James Conley of the Diocese of Lincoln.
Chancellor Bennett promised Bp. Conley that the school would be finalizing a new “President’s Advisory Round Table on Community Engagement” by the end of the summer.
However, the school did not have any further information as of Oct. 1, as The Fix previously reported.
The university counsel’s office separately requested more time to respond to a public records list that sought a list of members and any governing bylaws for the committee. The counsel’s office promised a response by Friday, Oct. 24, although it previously had said information would be provided by the previous two Fridays.
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