LINCOLN- While departments at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln look to do more with less due to millions of dollars in cuts, the chancellor is expanding his staff through private funds. UNL Chancellor Rodney Bennett has revived two positions: directors of university relations and external relations. UNL spokesperson Leslie Reed said the positions had existed at UNL under previous administrations.

Those positions, as well as two others in top campus offices, have been filled by former colleagues of Bennett from the University of Southern Mississippi. Those joining the university include Dee Dee Anderson, Ernest Franks, Jimm Coll, and Brian Morrison. Franks and Morrison will each be paid $180,000, Reed said. Neither will be paid through state funds or tuition dollars, Reed said. Anderson’s salary is $267,000; Coll’s salary is $250,000.

This month, Bennett proposed $12 million in budget reductions to shore up years of declining enrollment. Those cuts are separate from the University of Nebraska system’s $58 million shortfall and $2.3 million in academic cuts at the University of Nebraska at Kearney. Bennett also proposes cutting the budget of UNL’s Office of Diversity and Inclusion by 46% and reducing the funding for student teaching assistants and temporary lecturers by $1.4 million.

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