I have spent most of my life in the broadcast industry, which makes it easy for me to relate to the faculty and staff at UNL who are upset about the budget cuts and elimination of programs at the university.

Let me explain.

Over the years, I have lost my job when the station I was working for changed formats. More recently, I lost my job when the station I worked for had budget cuts. I have worked in conditions where the employees knew layoffs were coming, but they didn’t know if they were going to be the ones let go, or if they would stay and be expected to do more with less.

I have walked into my office to find that friends I had worked beside for years were no longer joining me in the break room.

So, I can empathize with what the faculty and staff at UNL are going through. Maybe you can too.

And it sucks.

When Chancellor Rodney Bennet announced his plan to eliminate four different programs, the UNL Faculty Senate issued him a vote of no confidence. That’s understandable since the chancellor is upsetting the apple cart.

People don’t like change and uncertainty. That’s true whether you are a college professor with a PhD about to lose your job teaching textile merchandising, or a disc jockey with a high school education about to lose your job playing jazz records.

The UNL statistics department could tell you the odds were 100% that people were going to be upset with these changes, especially the 12 employees in the UNL Department of Statistics, since they are one of the programs being eliminated.

They, along with the 13 positions in the Earth and Atmospheric Sciences program, the 15 and a half positions in the Educational Administrative program, and the 11 jobs in the Textile, Merchandising, and Fashion design program, are all going away.

Higher education in this country is under attack, not only from the president and conservatives, but from parents and students burdened with higher education costs.

From the political side, the far right has a problem with what they call “woke” policies of higher education. For many kids, going away to school is the first time they will be exposed to people who are different than them. Some of them are way different. And for some reason, some people have a problem with others who are different colors and genders, or have different sexual preferences, or political views.

From the parents’ and students’ point of view, a college degree doesn’t have the same cachet it had in previous generations. Even if they get out of school with a high-paying job, it can take years to pay off those student loans. And if you major in a lower-paying but honorable and necessary profession like teaching or social work, it can take decades to pay off those loans.

Trade schools are making more and more sense to a lot of families. A man or woman who can learn to be a plumber, welder, or electrician at a community college can make bank without having to pay off loans the rest of their lives.

The Board of Regents was put in a tough position. In a perfect world, he probably would have loved to keep those programs and maybe even add some more. But we obviously don’t live in a perfect world.

Let’s be honest, are people really flocking to Nebraska to learn to be a fashion designer? Nebraska is a lot of things, but fashionable ain’t one of them. No offense to Omaha Fashion Week, but going to Lincoln for a degree in Textile, Merchandising, and Fashion Design makes as much sense as going to New York University for a degree in agriculture.

Yes, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln is going through a format change. I know what that feels like. And if this format change doesn’t give them the results they are hoping for, there will be more budget cuts and changes in the future.

One last thing. The University should teach a course on preparing students for the changes they will see in their field in their lifetime, because the world is rapidly changing. The career they’re getting into today will not look the same years from now.

I should know, I was in broadcasting.

Tom Becka is a long time Nebraska broadcaster who for over 30 years has been covering Omaha and Midwest issues on both radio and TV. He has been a guest on numerous national cable and news shows, filled in for nationally syndicated talk radio programs and Talkers Magazine has recognized him as one of the Top 100 talk show hosts in the country 10 times. Never afraid to ruffle some feathers, his ‘Becka’s Beat’ commentaries can be found online on Youtube and other digital platforms.

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