Just Missing Minority Hiring Goal May Not Prove Costly for Nebraska University - Brief Article

Black Issues in Higher Education, Feb 3, 2000

LINCOLN, Neb. -- Even though the University of Nebraska system fell one person short of a state-required target for minority faculty members in 1999, it may not lose any state funding.

Officials at the university say the three-year average for adding minorities meets the target required by a 1997 state law. Eleven minority faculty members were added last year. The goal was 12.

The three-year average was 12.3. The university says in the report that is above the annual benchmark.

An aide to State Sen. Deb Suttle of Omaha, chairwoman of the Legislature's Special Committee on Gender and Minority Equity, said last month that the committee will meet in early February to determine whether to recommend withholding funding.

The law passed in 1997 sets annual benchmarks and requires the university to be in the top half of its peer institutions in employing female and minority faculty members by August 2002.

Missing a benchmark means the university could lose 1 percent of its state funding. This year that would be $3.5 million.

"I'm not sure if anything should be done about it," Mrs. Suttle said. "I don't know that I see any problems."

Lori McClurg, director of the state's Department of Administrative Services which received the university's report, said she would recommend that no funding be cut.

"I think the University has met their cumulative goal given to them by the Legislature," she says, adding that the university is making significant efforts to recruit and hire minorities.

University President L. Dennis Smith said in the report that he expects there to be even more increases in minority hires in the years to come.