University of Nebraska proposes $450M stadium overhaul, multimillion-dollar academic cuts

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The University of Nebraska is planning a $450 million renovation of the Cornhuskers’ football stadium in Lincoln and at the same time looking to cut millions of dollars from the university system, leading critics to question whether officials care more about athletics than academics.

Faculty at Nebraska and nationally acknowledge the importance of athletics at a Big Ten university but said the divergent funding plans send a message that teaching and research take a back seat to Nebraska's football program.

"If an institution is putting zillions into athletics at the same time they are proposing cuts to academic programs and faculty, they have their priorities all wrong," said Irene Mulvey, president of the college faculty advocacy group American Association of University Professors.

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Mulvey, a mathematics professor at Fairfield University in Connecticut, said it's incumbent on university and state leaders to promote a university's core academic mission to donors to ensure those programs and staff are adequately funded.

The high-priced Memorial Stadium renovation was given preliminary approval this fall, even as the four-campus University of Nebraska system faces a $58 million budget shortfall that threatens to cut staff and academic programs. That includes deep cuts at the University of Nebraska at Kearney, where students and staff have protested the school's announced elimination of its geography and theater programs, as well as cuts to other humanities offerings and its cybersecurity program.

The University of Nebraska-Lincoln — the system's