NEBRASKA EAS DEPARTMENT CLOSURE No part of my thesis would have been possible without the
attention and investment of my advisor, Dr. Irina Filina, who began teaching geophysics at UNL during my sophomore year. Before taking her classes, I was positive I wanted to be a paleontologist, but her passion and expertise helped me shift my view towards geophysics, where my fascination remains to this day. At present, I’m working on a Master’s degree in Geological Engineering that utilizes geophysical methods, and I serve as a teaching assistant for classes that teach geophysics to undergraduate students. Acquiring that experience with geophysical methods in the field and the lab was crucial to building my career set so early on in my career, and Dr. Filina helped make that possible. Now a tenure-track faculty with ten years of service, and having advised more students than I can count, she’s continued to have a truly remarkable and irreplaceable impact at UNL. Earlier this year, she received a Fullbright scholarship to conduct geophysical research in Iceland, which includes a portion to take students along for a two-week field trip. She also sponsors the student chapter of SEG (Society of Exploration Geophysicists), which won an award for team research efforts last year at the SEG- EVOLVE geophysical conference. Her leadership has also helped multiple students present their own research findings at regional and national scientific conferences. I fall into this category as well, as it’s thanks to her that I was able to share my thesis at the Geological Society of America’s Regional Conference in my senior year at UNL. This is by no means an exhaustive list of her accomplishments and accolades, it’s just what came to my mind first when I think about her and all she’s done for me. There’s no way I could possibly thank her for all the tremendous work she’s done, for me and for all her students, but if you read through her website, you’ll find a testimony of the highest recommendation from me!
When the announcement came that EAS was being considered
for closure, it was the faculty like Dr. Filina who were the first outspoken defenders of the department. The NU budget crisis was not an unknown issue, but UNL was the only campus within the system that listed closing academic programs as one of its measures.2 The fallout to this announcement was swift and decisive. The news spread online, with hundreds of students, staff, and alumni (including yours truly) weighing in to provide their story with EAS and UNL.4 UNL’s chapter of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) got involved, helmed under the presidency of Dr. Sarah Zuckerman, who is also a professor in the Educational Administration department, one of the six programs on the chopping block. Even the general public got involved, with EAS receiving support from local news outlets and members of the community.5 The question everyone was asking was a simple one. “Why EAS?” The answer was also simple. In fact, it all came down to one word. Metrics.
When the NU higher-ups decided that part of the budget
reduction plan would involve cutting academic programs, they needed a system to evaluate programs to see which ones would stay and which ones wouldn’t. The Academic Planning Committee (APC) assembled a list of criteria by which each program would be graded, utilizing metrics that included student retention rate, number of credit hours taught, number of PhD graduates, and
research awards for the program.2 However, the exact nature of the metrics – especially the mathematics used to make judgments of what constituted a “low score” – were kept in the dark. The University would not disclose the exact metrics to anyone, not even when a request for transparency was put forth by the Flatwater Free Press.6 One particular metric that drew a lot of ire was the inclusion of the Scholarly Research Index (SRI), which was criticized as being hastily used and comparing different departments unequally. Dr. Zuckerman described it as providing different weights to faculty in different disciplines, resulting in apples-to-oranges comparisons between programs. It also omitted conference presentations and publications from faculty’s score for no apparent reason. Critics were also quick to point out that the director of Academic Analytics, the company that produces the SRI, has stated that this data is not to be used in a punitive manner, which the University was flagrantly doing.6
The groundswell of opposition to the UNL program closures
rang out for the rest of September, culminating on the second week of October, when members of the APC scheduled hearings with supporters of the six programs. These hearings were closed to the public, but recordings and transcripts were uploaded to the university’s website shortly afterwards. Outside the building where it was held on UNL’s Innovation Campus, protests were carried out by students, faculty, university staff, and community members from all over Nebraska for the entire week. The support for EAS itself was tremendous, with flyers and brochures passed out and signs held up everywhere, repeating the slogan “No Earth, no atmosphere, no Nebraska”.5 The hearing for EAS was scheduled for October 10, the final hearing conducted by the APC.7 Present were four current professors, one undergrad geology student, one Master’s meteorology student, and multiple alumni in various professions. For an hour, the department’s supporters voiced their opinion on the value of EAS to the university and to Nebraska itself, as well as their criticism of the metrics that were being used so unfavorably against the department.
One of the most glaring omissions from the University’s metrics is
that it didn’t account for the workforce opportunities that a degree affords students. Not only are over 92% of EAS graduates currently practicing in their field or pursuing advanced degrees, but these jobs are also the ones that are in increasingly high demand.4 Your job title doesn’t need to end in -ologist for a geology degree to be useful. One alumnus at the hearing works for the US Army Corps of Engineers in Omaha, and he hired two EAS graduates for geologist and geophysicist roles in the past five years.
Another metric that landed against EAS was their low ranking in number of degrees awarded. The annual number of students graduating from EAS has seen a lot of ups and downs since 2020. The peak academic year was 2021-2022, when 26 degrees in Geology and Meteorology were conferred.2 When I graduated in the Spring of 2019, I was one of only three BS in Geology recipients. Last academic year, only 11 degrees were conferred, which is the lowest the department has seen thus far into the decade. This is old news to anyone who’s been watching the annual number of “Earth Sciences” degrees dwindle over the recent years, and it’s no different at UNL.
4. “Earth and Atmospheric Sciences Calls on Their Community to Share Their Story.” Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2 Oct. 2025,
eas.unl.edu/news/earth-and-atmospheric-sciences-calls-their-community-share-their-story/. (Oct. 2025).
5. Lucrece, Karen. “‘No Other Program like This’: UNL Gets Pushback for Ending Earth and Atmospheric Sciences.” KLKN, 15 Sept. 2025,
www.klkntv.com/ no-other-program-like-this-unl-gets-pushback-for-ending-earth-and-atmospheric-sciences/. (Oct. 2025).
6. Wolf, Emily. “As UNL Proposes Steep Budget Cuts, Statistics Faculty Ask Leadership to Check Their Math.” Flatwater Free Press, 17 Oct. 2025, flatwater-
freepress.org/as-unl-proposes-steep-budget-cuts-statistics-faculty-ask-leadership-to-check-their-math/. (Oct. 2025).
7. Svehla, Corrie. “APC Hearings - Earth and Atmospheric Sciences.” 11 Oct. 2025. APC Hearings,
https://mediahub.unl.edu/media/25758. (Oct. 2025). 20 TPG •
Jan.Feb.Mar 2026
www.aipg.org
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