September 23, 2026 Minutes

University of Nebraska – Lincoln

Academic Planning Committee

 September 23, 2026

Minutes

Members Present:  Belser, Bradshaw, Burkey, Button, Gay, Gonzales, Hanrahan, Harvey, Heng-Moss, Henson, Kain, Lindquist, Marron, Nelson, Savaiano, Sharif, Shrader, Smith 

Members Absent:  Kain, Schneider

Note:  These are not verbatim minutes.  This is a summary of the discussions at the Academic Planning Committee meeting as corrected by those participating. 

1.0       Call

Bradshaw called the meeting to order at 3:46 p.m. 

2.0       Approval of September 9, 2026 Minutes

Bradshaw asked if there were any corrections to the minutes.   Hearing none, he stated that the minutes were approved.   

3.0       Long Range Planning Committee – Administrator Needed

Bradshaw noted that the LRP still needs another administrator.   Belser volunteered to serve on the committee.   

4.0       Ad Hoc Subcommittee Working on APC Documents

Bradshaw reported that the subcommittee has had a few meetings and they will be meeting on Wednesday afternoons when there is not a regularly scheduled APC meeting.   He stated that the subcommittee is working on proposing revisions to the UNL Bylaws section on the APC.   He noted that eventually the proposed revisions will be sent to the full APC membership for review. 

Bradshaw stated that Shrader is unable to meet during the scheduled time due to his teaching schedule and asked if someone would be willing to take his place.   Savaiano volunteered to serve on the subcommittee.   

5.0       Interim Chancellor Ankerson

Chancellor Ankerson asked the Academic Planning Committee to do three things by December 2026: (1) revise the APC section of the UNL Bylaws and its operating procedures so it describes what the committee actually does and position it as a forward-looking planning body, (2) take a hard look at its own membership composition, and (3) review proposals against a published rubric built on the five pillars of Our Bold Path Forward. She framed all of it as raising the committee’s standing, not narrowing it, and asked members to spend less energy on budget reductions and more on designing the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s academic future.

Chancellor Ankerson advocated for a more accurate and stronger role of APC. The 2017 UNL Bylaws describe APC as “approving” and “disapproving” academic programs. Ther Chancellor said that authority belongs to the Board of Regents. APC reviews proposals and advises the chancellor, who carries the advice forward. Her argument: “advisory” is not a smaller word, and an accurate description is what gives the recommendation weight with her, President Gold, and the Regents.

Chancellor Ankerson suggested creating one rubric, applied the same way every time. Our Bold Path Forward (shaped by 3,700+ participants, including APC members in four sessions) gives the committee a shared definition of excellence. Its five pillars are teaching and learning; research and creative activity; partnerships and engagement; culture and environment; and stewardship and effectiveness. The Chancellor asked APC to use them as the lens for every proposal and to publish criteria so a department knows what APC will look for before it submits.

Chancellor Ankerson challenged the group to think institution-wide. Members bring their discipline, college, student body, or portfolio, but once seated their constituency is the whole university. The test question is “What does this do for the university we’ve said we want to be?”

Chancellor Ankerson wanted the group to plan, not only cut. Much of the past year was understandably dedicated to budget reductions. She called that necessary but not the reason APC exists and used her architecture training: budget shapes how a design is realized, but it does not replace the design.  The Chancellor pointed to data sets from the Executive Vice Chancellor’s Office, the Research and Innovation Office, and the Institutional Effectiveness and Analytics Office as tools, and asked APC to use enrollment and applicant-interest data when thinking about new programs.

Chancellor Ankerson asked APC to be a thought partner on what comes next. She raised general education (ACE, now about 15 years old) as an example of expansive thinking, with ideas such as shared processes, literacies, and proficiencies. The Chancellor stated twice that she is not asking APC to redesign general education this year. She also asked members to learn about competency transcripts and degree apprenticeships, and to treat workforce readiness as core to the mission rather than as “training.”

The Charge

 6.0       Other Business

Gay noted that Interim Chancellor Ankerson sent an email announcement about the Deloitte consultants coming to campus and were going to meet with campus leaders to identify opportunities for improvement.   He asked if the meetings had occurred.   Button reported that there was some early engagement during the summer with the Deloitte consultants and the meetings were to help them understand how the university operates and interacts with the system office.   He stated that the idea of hiring the consultants was for them to identify administrative efficiencies, particularly with operational efficiencies and administrative functions.   Nelson stated that she met twice with the consultants and the conversations centered around operational research functions and whether additional things would be needed to help coordinate UNL’s and UNMC’s research efforts.  She pointed out that the IT system at UNMC is much different than the other campuses which creates some difficulties with collaborative research.   She stated that there is a need to have the business and the operational functions with each campus communicate better and stated that some of our existing IT programs, such as SAP, will also need to be updated. 

Gay stated that Deloitte is an accounting firm and asked what qualifications they have to give us advice on the operation of the university.  Button pointed out that Deloitte is a business consulting firm.   He noted that there will be no changes to our fundamental strategies, but things like our Employee Resource Planning system need to be replaced.   

Shrader asked if there is little need for faculty input.   Nelson stated that she believes there will be more engagement opportunities with the faculty.   Lindquist pointed out that there are parts of his work that some of these potential changes could impact.   Gonzales stated that President Gold sent out a message about the Deloitte consultants and it included a hyperlink to an online form where people could provide feedback, but he heard that the faculty may be approached in a different way rather than gathering feedback on the forms.   He stated that he will reach out to see if the consultants can meet with the APC and with other faculty.   

Bradshaw asked if the Faculty Senate Executive Committee discussed AAUP’s letter to the AAU suggesting that UNL should not be readmitted to the AAU due to the elimination of academic programs and the firing of tenured faculty members last year.   Shrader reported that the Executive Committee did not talk about the letter much because the Committee thought that the bigger concern is about what kind of investments would need to be made in order for UNL to meet the criterion for re-admittance and how the investments could be made at a time when the university’s budget was being cut.   Bradshaw pointed out that the APC did not receive any communication from the AAUP about the letter being sent.   

Marron asked if there are UNL faculty members who are members of the AAUP.   Button pointed out that UNL has a local chapter of the AAUP which any faculty member is welcome to join.   He noted that he has met with the leaders of the national chapter several times, and the national President of the AAUP, with most of the discussions revolving around the APC’s role in the budget reductions and he conveyed how hard the committee worked within the challenging budget requirement.   He stated that he also provided details of the teach-out programs, and he has continued to answer their questions.  He noted that they had threatened that a letter would be sent to the AAU.  He stated that the AAUP perceives themselves as an advocacy group for faculty across the country.   

Hanrahan reported that the AAUP started back in the early 1900’s when wealthy people were trying to fire faculty members.  He pointed out that many faculty members from UNL were original signing members and UNL has a long history with the AAUP. He noted that the AAUP advocates general support for faculty when they feel that they have been mistreated and there is also a unionizing component to the organization.   

The meeting adjourned at 5:08 p.m.  The next meeting of the APC will be on Wednesday, October 14, 2026.   The minutes are respectfully submitted by Karen Griffin, Coordinator.