At the Board of Regents meeting on Nov. 21, several public commenters urged the board to reconsider cuts to academic programs at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln (UNL) and stressed that consolidation with UNMC should not proceed at the expense of academic quality.

John Schroeder, identifying himself as Faculty Senate president at UNL, said the consolidation process felt "top‑down" and warned that UNL faculty, students and alumni are "baffled" by how the decision was reached. Schroeder said he fears UNL risks being treated as a "branch campus" and called for greater transparency and faculty input on changes affecting the campus.

Susan Vander Plass, a member of UNL's Department of Statistics, presented numerical details she said underpin the department's value: "The value generated from the classes that are slated to be eliminated this year is about $2,100,000. The savings from cutting my department is about $1,750,000," she said, arguing those figures do not support eliminating the department and that cuts ignore external research grants and the program's growth trajectory.

A UNL law student, Blake Aspen, urged the board to support Chancellor Bennett and to prioritize stability for the university during difficult budget decisions. Aspen said that public calls to undermine the chancellor would not help the university and that Regents should "serve with integrity."

The board heard these public comments before voting to approve the HLC consolidation. The meeting transcript does not record a detailed budget reply from administration to the specific dollar figures presented by speakers; administration and Regents instead focused their discussion on the accreditation consolidation, research accounting benefits and commitments to preserve student pathways. The record shows that the consolidation vote passed and that the president was authorized to set a formal date once remaining procedures with the HLC and Department of Education are complete.