Rodney Bennett announces he will leave role as UNL chancellor next week
In a message Monday to students, faculty, and staff at UNL, Chancellor Rodney Bennett said he "will conclude my service as chancellor on Jan. 12."
Rodney Bennett will step down as chancellor of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln next week (Jan. 12), he said in an email to the campus community on Monday.
Bennett, 59, who previously led the University of Southern Mississippi for a decade before he was named UNL's 21st chancellor by former NU President Ted Carter in 2023, will depart UNL after roughly two-and-a-half years.
NU President Jeff Gold said Katherine Ankerson, who retired as UNL's chief academic officer at the end of 2024, would return to serve as interim chancellor.
Monday's announcement follows months of speculation about Bennett's future. Last September, to help close a $27.5 million budget deficit, Bennett proposed eliminating six academic programs and merging four others at the state's flagship university. The plan was met with widespread criticism from faculty, students and alumni, who said the rationale guiding the proposed cuts was based on faulty data and used a flawed process that violated university policies.
By November, the blowback reached its peak when the UNL Faculty Senate passed a resolution of no confidence in Bennett's leadership in a lopsided 60-14 vote.
The overwhelming vote was the first no-confidence resolution passed in UNL's history.
The NU Board of Regents later approved much of Bennett's plan to eliminate four academic programs -- Earth and Atmospheric Sciences; Education Administration; Statistics; and Textiles, Merchandising and Fashion Design.
But the board never brought Bennett's contract back for a renewal as the budget-cutting process oved forward.
The chancellor was given a three-year contract with an annual base salary of $720,000 along with other perks and benefits awarded to top NU administrators when he was hired in May 2023.
Bennett's departure also comes weeks after the university's governing board authorized Gold to finalize a plan of joint accreditation between UNL and the University of Nebraska Medical Center. The move places the University of Nebraska on a more equal footing with its Big Ten Conference peers, as well as with other members of the prestigious Association of American Universities, regents and administrators said.
