SaveOurStats

Update March 25, 2026: Faculty are looking for new jobs! The March 23, 2026, entry in the timeline below provides updates regarding where some faculty will be moving to next. 

Update February 12, 2026: More continues to occur regarding the elimination of the Department of Statistics. This website will continue to be updated to reflect those events.

Update December 5, 2025: Today was a very sad day for all of Statistics—The University of Nebraska Board of Regents voted 7-1 (9-1-2 including student Regents) to eliminate its Department of Statistics. There were more than 5 hours of testimony by more than 100 faculty/students/public (Statistics testimony) to support the four departments slated for elimination. Arguments of

did not convince the Regents.

We were overwhelmed by all of the support that we received from the statistical community over the last few months. Thank you.

What’s next? The department’s excellent faculty are now available for new positions. We are guaranteed employment until May 2027. Please contact us if you are looking for new faculty. Most of the department’s excellent students (80 BS/MS/PhD) are looking for new Departments of Statistics to complete their majors. Please contact our undergraduate and graduate committee chairs (U: Erin Blankenship, G: Souparno Ghosh).

 

Papers

 

Presentations

Chris Bilder presented "You can't do that with Statistics!" on May 14, 2026, at the Workshop on Applied Statistics in Agriculture & Natural Resources.

Chris Bilder presented "You can't do that with Statistics!" on January 28, 2026, at Kansas State University.

The Department of Statistics presented "The Metrics" in its weekly seminar series on November 6 at 12:30PM in the City Campus Union (Swanson Auditorium). Approximately 200 individuals attended in person and on Zoom.

The Department of Statistics presented "Save Our Stats" to the Academic Planning Committee (APC) on October 10.

Faculty members gave testimony at the following University of Nebraska Board of Regents meetings.

Abbreviations used:

 

Budget cut alternatives

There are alternatives to eliminating departments, laying off faculty, and discontinuing student majors. We provide an interactive budget savings app that was prepared by one of our alums to illustrate these alternatives.

 

Timeline

 

Original proposal

September 11, 2025: The University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) Chancellor has proposed the elimination of the Department of Statistics as part of $27.5 million in budget cuts. In this proposal, the department would be replaced by a distributed model for statistics that would retain five statistics courses (STAT 218, STAT 380, STAT 801, STAT 802, and STAT 870) and the consulting center. All faculty and staff in the department would lose their jobs. Most student majors would not be able to finish their degree programs.

The proposal has many major flaws:

 

Final proposal

November 10, 2025: Chancellor Rodney Bennett finalized his budget reduction proposal that continues to eliminate the Department of Statistics. Despite three committees showing the flaws in the original proposal and voting against elimination, there are no substantial changes to the proposal regarding the department. The "distributed model" is renamed the "collective" to hide flaws identified with it. In addition, the flaws found by the department with regard to The Metrics were not addressed. The next step is for the Board of Regents to vote on December 5.

How can you help? Participate in letter writing campaign #2! Please write to the Board of Regents. If you live in Nebraska, write to your elected member and copy the Corporation Secretary (Katie Hoffman, corpsec@nebraska.edu). If you do not live in Nebraska, address your letter to the Corporation Secretary. Please copy us on the letter so that we have a record of it. What should you write about? Ideas include:

The faulty data used and the faulty analyses performed led to the faulty conclusions about which departments should be eliminated. If possible, please have the letter sent by December 1 so that the board members have enough time to read them. Thank you for any help that you can provide. 

 

APC criteria

The Academic Planning Committee has a set of criteria for indicating that elimination of a program is inadvisable. Below are these criteria with our responses.

The program has achieved a national or international reputation for quality as indicated by objective evaluations

Yes! Grants: R01 NIH, NSF (Career, DMS, SES), Dept. of Education, USDA; lauded for undergraduate programs; books published and used by other universities; 2nd highest percentage of ASA Fellows in Big 10; national/international awards, ...

The program supplies significant instruction, research, or service that UNL is better equipped to supply than other colleges or universities

Yes! Undergraduate programs, faculty books (traditional and online), PhDs in statistics teach statistics, ...

The program is the only one of its kind within the State of Nebraska

Yes!

The program is an essential program for every university

Yes, see the Big 10 universities

The program’s elimination would have a substantially negative impact on education and societal concerns in Nebraska

Nebraska employers hire our graduates, importance of understanding statistics in a data-centric world, secondary education teachers in Nebraska: STAT 811T, STAT 812T, AP statistics

The program’s elimination would result in substantial loss of revenue currently derived from grants, contracts, endowments or gifts

Yes, our own grants PLUS grants that we are Co-I’s or consultants; Dr. Thomas Hoegemeyer’s letter regarding gifts to UNL

The program represents a substantial capital investment in specialized physical plant or equipment that could not be effectively redirected to alternative uses

Departments of Statistics do not have large capital investments

The program gives the University of Nebraska-Lincoln its distinctive character

Yes!

We are the Department of Statistics

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