Nebraska
University of Nebraska community responds to diversity office closures in Lincoln, Omaha • Nebraska Examiner
LINCOLN — The University of Nebraska-Lincoln and University of Nebraska at Omaha have closed key diversity and inclusion offices in the past year, leaving some student leaders worried that the work will fall to them.
UNL Chancellor Rodney Bennett on Aug. 20 announced the dissolution of the Office of Diversity and Inclusion, which came on top of $800,000 in related cuts in 2023. UNO similarly closed its Gender and Sexuality Resource Center this summer after shuttering its Office of Multicultural Affairs last fall, moving those services to other offices on campus.
Bennett, in his second year as chancellor, said in an email to faculty and staff that he made the decision “after considerable reflection and a thorough review of both the national landscape and the specific needs of our institution,” which he did not specify.
UNL Vice Chancellor for Diversity and Inclusion Marco Barker’s position will also be cut.
“We will reimagine how we approach this work at UNL,” Bennett wrote. “I fully grasp the weight of this decision and its implications, but a centralized approach to this work is no longer right for our institution.”
Student leaders raise concerns
Zein Saleh, internal vice president of UNL’s student government, said he was one of many surprised by the news. He said students understood the national and local pushback against diversity, equity and inclusion but thought UNL administrators were still supportive.
Saleh, a junior double majoring in political science and psychology, said the closure came without warning to students, who didn’t receive a similar email from Bennett or a chance to weigh in.
“The notion that this work can be decentralized, generally stripped of its funding, raises a lot of concern about the way in which it can be executed, not only across colleges but across divisions and units at the university,” Saleh said.
He said certain UNL departments have more resources than others, which could introduce disparities into the services that some students need. Saleh noted the Office of Diversity and Inclusion also helped with data and record keeping to keep UNL accountable.
‘Decisions seem surface level’
Ishani Adidam, a senior business administration major and student body president at UNO, said some of the concern comes in classifying the changes as “reorganizations.” She said a large part of belonging is physical space, so closing offices leaves some services more inaccessible.
“All these decisions seem surface level, but the more you dig into it, the more you realize that these resources don’t support just 100 students, they support 15,000 of us,” Adidam said.
Adidam pointed to the NU Board of Regents meeting in June when Regent Rob Schafer of Beatrice, the board chair, questioned funding for DEI programs and offices while other degree opportunities and employment positions were being cut.
UNO Chancellor Joanne Li confirmed at the time that her campus has such funding, which includes support for first-generation students and veterans. Adidam said those students are often not thought of as being “DEI,” in the way that race, gender and sexuality often are.
NU’s $1.1 billion state-aided budget was ultimately approved 5-2, of which about $1 million goes toward DEI.
Schafer said last week that NU must continue to evaluate how it conducts business and delivers its services. He supported Bennett’s decision as necessary and said that restructuring is necessary to better allocate scarce resources.
“If we truly want to eliminate all racism and sexism in our society then we should remove race and gender as factors in any and all decisions and actions that are made and taken,” Schafer said in a text.
No stranger to controversy
The University of Nebraska system has been no stranger to controversy around DEI in recent years, including criticism from Gov. Jim Pillen and multiple state senators:
Pillen’s past positions
Pillen said in a statement last week that he was “pleased” with Bennett’s decision but that the work of eliminating DEI and critical race theory wouldn’t be complete with eliminating one office.
“Although that office should never have been established in the first place, it takes courage for a leader to recognize a mistake and chart a new direction,” Pillen said.
In December 2018, among the eight elected regents, Pillen was one of seven to vote for Barker’s hiring, as were Schafer and Regent Paul Kenney of Amherst who later supported Pillen’s CRT resolution. Former Regent Hal Daub of Omaha abstained from the vote on Barker.
Pillen represented the regents on UNL’s N|150 Commission in 2018 as well that sought to articulate UNL’s mission and values from its first 150 years into the next 25.
The commission’s work included a subcommittee for diversity and inclusion that culminated into a final report of which Barker celebrated when he was hired. He said it was “evident how much Nebraska saw diversity and inclusion as a growing priority.”
The Office of Diversity and Inclusion was also borne from those 2018 efforts, which included community input, a national study, workgroups and committees identifying UNL’s needs and a five-year NU-wide effort to address DEI in Nebraska, Barker wrote in a 2019 special report.
Regent Barbara Weitz of Omaha, who taught at UNO for 16 years and ousted Daub from the Board of Regents in 2019, said DEI is a complex issue that hasn’t been fully discussed among the board. However, she said, making NU a place for all won’t change no matter what NU does or how it describes that work.
“I know my work as a regent is keeping the university inclusive and welcoming of all students, staff and faculty,” Weitz told the Nebraska Examiner. “There is much work to be done to create a culture that embraces the imperative of being an open place for all.”
The ‘mission’ of the university
Ashley Rae Turner, a 2012 UNL alumna with a degree in fashion communications, said she didn’t have an ideal experience or feel as welcome as she could have during her time as a student. She said the exception was the Office of Academic Success and Intercultural Services, or OASIS, which a spokesperson said won’t be impacted by the Office of Diversity and Inclusion’s closure.
Turner said that was why she was excited, however, when ODI was created, because it would have been great to have had when she was a student.
“Following that, when we reactivated the [Nebraska Alumni Association’s] Alumni of Color Network [Advisory Council], I raised my hand and said I really wanted to be involved,” Turner said.
The office was the best way to help support alumni and current students while on the ground every day, she said, so she is disheartened and hurt by the Office of Diversity and Inclusion’s closure. She questioned what the message is to future and current Huskers.
Associate professor of practice Stephanie Bondi, who researches DEI structures in education, said the move signals to her that DEI isn’t valued and that academic leaders either ignorantly believe they’ve addressed community concerns or don’t want to address them.
“I don’t know how they achieve their mission, and why are we here if we’re not trying to achieve our mission?” Bondi said.
Turner said some alumni have already reached out and called for the alumni network to ask students not to come to NU or to leave, including Husker student-athletes. Turner said while she’s not making that call, she can understand where they’re coming from.
“We give money back to the university,” Turner said of alumni through the network. “I want to think that my dollars are actually going toward supporting students on campus who look like me, and this is not sending that message.”
Other restructuring shifts
Other parts of Bennett’s restructuring plan include elevating UNL’s student regent and the respective presidents of the Faculty Senate and Staff Senate to his cabinet. Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Dee Dee Anderson, who came to UNL from the University of Southern Mississippi, like Bennett, is now the vice chancellor for student life and reports directly to Bennett.
Bennett said three offices will share the role of respectively supporting and building a sense of “community and belonging” for faculty, staff and students. They are the Offices of the Executive Vice Chancellor (faculty), Business & Finance (staff) and Office of Student Life (students).
The existing UNL National Diversity Advisory Board will be renamed and elevated to become the Chancellor’s Advisory Board on Community and Belonging.
“It is incumbent on each of us to foster a welcoming environment for all members of our community,” Bennett said.
Faculty Senate President Peter Eklund and Staff Senate President Jordan Gonzales both said they were in favor of their own elevation. Gonzales said most changes were positive, and it was one of the first times that staff would have a formal seat at the table.
Eklund said he believes dissolving the diversity and inclusion office wasn’t something Bennett wanted to do.
“No one in higher academia has a clear crystal ball,” Eklund said in an email. “But, if I was a betting person, I would bet that the other campuses in the NU system follow suit, and not because they want to.”
Gonzales said he’s glad that UNL’s motto of “every person and every interaction matters” will remain and said his top priority will be ensuring all staff feel a sense of community and belonging.
“Nebraska needs to attract top talent if we want to increase the state’s economic competitiveness and development,” Gonzales wrote in an email to fellow staff. “The university — and by extension our staff — will be a critical component to solving this grand challenge.”
‘Students don’t really want a lot’
Adidam said some of the classes she’s most resonated with have been related to DEI or access, including one during her sophomore year about how businesses implement the concepts.
“That’s what’s missing, or that’s what I think people are misinterpreting,” Adidam said. “It’s not just about race or it’s not just about gender and sexuality. It’s about taking an all-encompassing approach to education. Not giving that to students … is definitely, I think, what is holding us back as a university, but then also as the NU system.”
Saleh said the changes will place a bigger burden on students, particularly minority students and leaders, who often do larger amounts of labor and work in maintaining DEI commitments in colleges and universities.
Turner said it’s often people “who have the luxury of speaking from a place of privilege” who question DEI and who usually have the chance to talk with others who look like them or be generally supported.
Adidam said getting discouraged is something everyone faces, but along with Saleh and Turner, she said students “need to be resilient and turn that into resiliency.”
All three said it will be up to the NU community to spotlight the importance of diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility.
“Students don’t really want a lot,” Adidam said. “We just want to be supported and feel like we belong.”
Nebraska All-American running back Emmett Johnson is waiting for the NFL Draft next month. In his wake, his legacy in Lincoln influences the Huskers’ running back room.
The current guys wouldn’t mind being like Emmett.
And why not?
Johnson ran for 1,451 yards in 2025, and is expected to be drafted. Johnson played four years at Nebraska and his development across that time became a textbook for younger players to follow.
“It’s interesting,” Huskers running backs coach E.J. Barthel told reporters after practice Wednesday. “It’s one thing to talk about development and one thing as a coach you want to say here’s what we believe and here’s the opportunities that are on the horizon if you do this, do that. All the kids watched him {Emmett] do it. It makes my job a lot easier.
“Emmett’s just been an example … talking about where he needs to improve to the next spring [practice] and he’s continued to battle and fight and compete. Emmett’s second year as a full-time player he had to compete with Rahmir [Johnson] and Dante [Dowdell] …
“That turned him into the player you saw last season. Learning to compete brings out the best out of everybody … And then for Emmett to compete with him [Rahmir] in camp and throughout the season, that’s going to make you the player you’re going to be.
“That’s what’s most impressive about Emmett, that the ability to compete and want to compete. If you look at him at the [NFL] Combine, I think he’s one of the only running backs to do all the drills. I think it’s been told to me by some NFL people that they’re impressed that he’s not afraid of competition. I think that makes you a great player.”
The next generation
Barthel, who is in his fourth season at Nebraska, has enormous numbers on the stat sheet to fill without Johnson. His running back room is well stocked but inexperienced. The Huskers are coming off back-to-back 7-6 seasons.
Kwinten Ives, Isaiah Mozee and Mekhi Nelson each have limited experience. Each wants to be the main ball carrier in 2026. Combined, these three carried the ball 73 times for 295 yards. Johnson had 251 carries last season
“The one thing we pride ourselves here is honesty and transparency with our players,” Barthel said about Ives, a junior from Beverly, N.J. “And letting guys know exactly where they stand. And we challenge Kwinten.
“He’s going to have to maximize his role and show myself, show himself, show the staff that there’s a void here. And can you fill that void?
“That’s the reality. Not only did he do it in practice, he stepped up and he did it in the game [34 yards vs. Akron; 85 yards vs. Houston Christian; 14 yards on four carries in the Las Vegas Bowl].
“That’s a huge jump for him. His question had never been about ability. Last year it was the soft tissue injuries. So, he’s going to be challenged this spring to continue to focus on his body, keeping himself healthy, but he’s accelerating.
“He’s having his best spring that I’ve seen since I’ve been here.”
Barthel on Mekhi Nelson
“Off the field, he’s really maturing,” Barthel said about the sophomore from Wilkes-Barre, Pa. “When we’re on the road recruiting this cycle, he did a great job of getting the group together, making sure guys were meeting on their own voluntarily and coordinating all the things that we talk about during the season, as far as what we should be covering during their workouts.
“He did a great job as far as being a leader of that group in that sense. Right now, the challenge for him is going to see if he can take his body to the next level just like Emmett had to do.
“There’s no doubt he has breakaway speed and he has a competitive edge when he plays. The big challenge for him is focusing on his body. That’s going to be the big factor for him.
“As far as his skill set, as far as route efficiency, as far as his protection, as far as his rush skills, his ability to outrun the defense, his toughness, he’s very impressive.
“He’s going to continue to climb that ladder.”
Nelson was the Huskers’ second-leading rusher with 147 yards on 27 carries. He had 88 yards on 12 carries in the Las Vegas Bowl loss to Utah.
Barthel on Isaiah Mozee
“I look at him now as a real running back,” Barthel said about Mozee, a sophomore from Kansas City. “Last year, he was really transitioning and now his movements pre-snap, how he gets aligned, his eyes, all those things, he’s really truly bought into the position.
“The big thing for him right now will continue to be staying on that path and running the ball inside. That’s going to be the thing he needs to do to really grasp. Everyone knows what he can do in space. We know what he can do on the perimeter.
“His focus this spring is running behind his weight and becoming a really dynamic inside runner.”
The wild card freshman
The unknown factor is true freshman Jamal Rule from Salisbury, N.C. Rule was considered a three-star player who Barthel said was not recruited out of Charlotte Christian High.
“One of the reasons why we loved Jamal coming out of high school was because of his physicality and competitive edge, the way he ran the football in high school,” Barthel said. “It was evident in tape. It was evident when I went to go watch him play.
“The kid has a chip on his shoulder. He was the leading rusher at North Carolina his junior year … and then to run over 200 yards against Providence Day [School] in a championship game and to really not get recruited was a slap in the face to that kid. And so an opportunity for us to believe in him and everyone on the staff, everyone on our team seeing why we believed in him …
“That’s part of his attitude. Right now he needs to learn football. It’s one thing he’s got to transition from being a high school football player to really learning the cycle of the snap, development of his eyes in the run game and in the protection game.
“Those are the big things for him right now is just the details of football, is what he needs to learn.
“I think you could probably spot-play a young freshman, as far as their ability, but in order for us to rely on him, he’s got to be really diving into the details. And so that just takes repetition and experience … He’s going to gradually grow and so it’s really the meeting rooms, it’s the quizzing, it’s all the things off the field that are going to help him mentally play faster.”
Barthel has a challenging job this offseason — as do all of the Huskers.
“I’ve been their coach. I know where they need to improve,” Barthel said about his running back room.
With Emmett Johnson gone, there is a void to be filled, an opportunity for someone to step up.
Stay up to date on all things Huskers by bookmarking Nebraska Cornhuskers On SI, subscribing to HuskerMax on YouTube and visiting HuskerMax.com daily.
They say all roads lead home, and for Daniel Kaelin, that remains true as he returns to Lincoln after a year away from the program in 2025.
The former four-star Belleview West (NE) star heads into his sophomore season in his second stint as a Husker, ready to compete for an impactful role. Though he’ll likely be on the outside looking in, in terms of earning the starting job, after gaining starting experience at his previous school, he won’t go down without a fight.
Now, after roughly a week and a half of spring football practices in the books, Kaelin met with the media Wednesday. During his time at the mic, the Nebraska native touched on a variety of topics, including his decision to come home, an ego-less quarterback room in Lincoln, and much more.
It didn’t take long for the will-be sophomore to get asked about his decision to return to Nebraska. After explaining the values he got out of his time away, Kaelin described it as something he’s as excited about as he is thankful for.
“It’s been really good,” said Kaelin. “Nebraska’s my home, and there are so many people on this team that I have a good relationship with. So, the transition has been really smooth. I’ve been enjoying being back, for sure”.
Leaving after the end of the 2024 season, Kaelin’s path towards competing for a starting job appeared to be full of obstacles. But a little over a year after he transferred to Virginia, the situation has changed dramatically. Back in the scarlet and cream, a year older and with more experience, the soon-to-be third-year player is enjoying his return, to say the least.
In his time as a Cavalier, the then-redshirt freshman saw action in seven games. Despite a sparing role, he still managed to throw for the first 339 yards of his career, while also scoring his first collegiate touchdown. Kaelin also proved to be a threat on the ground, with 12 carries for 72 yards.
In total, he amassed 400 all-purpose yards at Virginia and comes to Nebraska more battle-tested than before. Here, the 6-foot-3, 218-pounder will look to grow even more, but was asked to reflect on what he gained during his stay on the East Coast.
“It was my first time being away from home,” he said. “I think that year- doing things on my own- was probably big for me becoming an adult. I think I learned a lot about myself that way”.
Between personal development and his time on the field, Kaelin’s lone season at Virginia was not for nothing. Instead, a more mature version of the young quarterback is what the Huskers are getting back amongst their ranks. He also provides them with the third quarterback to have started a Power Four game in their career.
After discussing what he gained in his time away, Kaelin was then asked to explain how he landed back in Lincoln ahead of the 2026 season. To somewhat of a surprise, the Nebraska native suggested it wasn’t initially planned. Rather, the opportunity presented itself, and both sides agreed.
“I didn’t really even expect to be leaving the last school I was at,” Kaelin said. “Things kind of happened pretty quickly. When I got in the portal, I was able to get in touch with Coach Rhule, and when I knew that this was a possibility, it just made a lot of sense for me. It is really comfortable for me coming back home and being around people that I know”.
Using his past relationships with coaches and players such as Carter Nelson and Bode Soukup, the former in-state signal-caller is what you’d call back home. Confident, comfortable, and with a lot more to prove, he’ll look to make an impact on the field for the first time as a Husker this fall.
Kaelin was then asked to shed light on the dynamic within the quarterbacks’ room, and his response sounded similar to that of quarterback coach Glenn Thomas earlier in the day. Instead of pushing each other away due to competition, the position group is looking to help each other grow. In fact, Kaelin suggested it may be the most unified position group he’s ever been a part of, and something he views as a positive change.
“There’s egos,” he said. There’s money involved. I think that can create some tension or problems sometimes. There haven’t been any type of issues like that with the room that we have right now; it’s been great.”
While some suggest that his comment may be a back-handed dig at former signal-callers within the room, it’s clear that the Huskers no longer have an issue with competition in 2026. Instead, the group is pushing eachother to improve. And when spring ball and fall camp come to a close, the best man for the job will emerge with the others’ full support.
A big change since Kaelin was on campus in 2024 is NU’s retooled wide receiver room. After welcoming in a new position coach, the Huskers have been able to recruit, retain, and add several high-level players to the unit. When asked to offer his thoughts on the room, the will-be sophomore didn’t hold back his early praise.
“A big thing that we’ve noticed so far is we have guys that make plays,” Kaelin said. “We’ve been challenging them to- when the ball is in the air, it has got to be theirs. We don’t want 50/50 balls. They’ve got to go make plays. And so far, they’ve definitely been doing that. It’s been really impressive to watch”.
Not only are the Big Red’s pass catchers bigger, deeper, and faster than before, but it’s beginning to pay off for the offense this spring. There’s still plenty of time for the quarterbacks and wideouts to develop chemistry, but early reports suggest the relationship has started well.
For Kaelin, it was positive to see the metaphorical boy return as a man. Not only has he gained experience and found success on the field, but he’s also come back with a deeper understanding of what it takes to lead a team. By all accounts, it appears his teammates have taken a liking to him, so don’t be surprised if he sees the field in some role this upcoming fall.
Again, he’s far from guaranteed the starting job here in Lincoln and will have to beat out two players with more experience than he has. Still, it is more than likely that he will take his first snaps as a Husker at some point in 2026. Were he to take meaningful reps, the third-year sophomore has already been tested before, and that gives Nebraska reason for optimism about the room.
Overall, he sounded as if he was preparing to be more than ready when his opportunity comes. Returning home did not come without a price, but don’t expect Kaelin to remain silent his second time around. The Huskers are looking for a player who can reliably make plays, and it’s hard to argue that there would be another player in his position group who cares more about the program than he does.
Still, he’ll have to prove his skill is worthy of deserving that chance. Spring should tell a lot about where he stands.
Nebraska
In a first for Nebraska, federal judge awards attorney’s fees to immigrant who was detained without bond hearing
For the first time, a federal judge in Nebraska has awarded court costs and attorney’s fees to an immigrant who prevailed in a lawsuit challenging his detention without bond.
Senior U.S. District Court Judge John Gerrard, an appointee of former President Barack Obama, issued the ruling on Tuesday and awarded $1,535.23 to Edgar Eduardo Cadillo Salazar. Gerrard had previously ruled that Salazar’s detention at the Cass County Jail without bond was unconstitutional and ordered the government to provide him with a bond hearing or release him from custody.
Under the federal Equal Access to Justice Act, individuals and businesses that prevail in civil lawsuits against the federal government can file a motion to hold the government liable for attorney’s fees and court costs. Judges can order the government to cover those costs unless they find that the government’s position was “substantially justified,” or if “special circumstances make an award unjust.”
Before last summer, when the Department of Homeland Security revised its longstanding interpretation of statute, only immigrants who were encountered at the border or other ports of entry were subject to mandatory detention. Immigrants encountered after residing in the U.S. were typically subject to discretionary detention and eligible for a bond hearing.
The new interpretation has led to detention without bond for tens of thousands of immigrants who would have previously been eligible to bond out – and it’s led to an endless stream of wrongful detention lawsuits in Nebraska and around the country. A Reuters investigation found that federal courts have ruled against the mandatory detention policy more than 4,400 times.
In Gerrard’s order granting Salazar’s request for attorney’s fees, he said the government’s position that all undocumented immigrants are ineligible for bond hearings was not substantially justified.
“This ‘new understanding’ of a decades-old statute has resulted in the government detaining hundreds of thousands of nonviolent individuals, often without due process or other constitutional protections,” Gerrard wrote. “It has also sparked thousands of lawsuits where courts have ordered release of those wrongfully detained, for which neither immigration courts nor the Department of Justice have seemed prepared.”
He continued: “The government has not provided any justification, let alone a substantial one, for its radical departure from the historical treatment of noncitizens who entered the United States without inspection. Its arguments rely purely on statutory interpretation; the government apparently expects it can transform an entire area of administrative law because it unilaterally decided that, for thirty years, everyone was wrong about what a statute meant.”
Salazar was later denied bond by an immigration judge and remains in custody, according to his attorney, Alexander Smith.
Two similar motions were denied last month by U.S. District Court Judge Susan Bazis, an appointee of former President Joe Biden. In both cases, Bazis had ruled in favor of the detained immigrants, and they were later released on bond per her orders. But in her opinions denying attorney’s fees under the EAJA, she found that the government’s position on mandatory detention was “substantially justified.”
“The Court cannot say that the Federal Respondents’ pre-litigation decision to treat [the respondent] as being subject to mandatory detention, while not ultimately correct in this Court’s view, lacked a reasonable basis in law or fact,” Bazis wrote in a footnote of her opinions.
The issue of mandatory detention is currently under consideration by the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals, which covers Nebraska and other Midwest states. In oral arguments last month, the appellate court’s conservative judges appeared friendly to the mandatory detention policy.
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