On Saturday [Oct. 25], Nebraskans will gather at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln to call attention to a decision that will shape our state for generations.

The “Stop the Cuts” rally, set for 9 to 11 am at the Nebraska Union Plaza before the 11 am Nebraska-Northwestern football game, seeks to highlight $27.5 million in proposed budget reductions at our state’s flagship university. It’s the latest in a string of deep cuts over the past decade – reductions that represent faculty, programs, and opportunities that make Nebraska a place where people come to learn, grow, and stay.

Civic Nebraska’s stake in this issue isn’t immediately in which departments are reduced or which degree programs are spared. Our concern is broader and longer-term. The steady defunding of the University of Nebraska erodes public confidence in one of our most vital democratic institutions. 

We build confidence in institutions because democracy depends on them. When a university’s budget is slashed year after year, our state loses momentum, hope, and faith in what we can accomplish together. When a state consistently carves away at its university, it ends up starving itself.

Our own Juan Milan captured this sentiment with his reaction to learning an acquaintance’s academic program was being dismantled: “Twenty-seven and a half million dollars in cuts,” he wrote. “That’s the number. But numbers can’t tell you what that feels like … the people who built those spaces, the students they shaped, the sparks of possibility that never make it into a spreadsheet.”

Nebraska U. is “the lungs of this state,” Juan said. “It breathes life into classrooms, communities, and local economies. It’s where teachers, scientists, artists, and dreamers learn to imagine the kind of Nebraska they want to build and believe it’s possible.”

That energy flows outward into every corner of Nebraska – into rural classrooms, down our Main Streets, and through the lives of people who choose to build their futures here. That’s what we mean by civic health. It’s a shared belief that institutions can serve the public good, that education is an investment, and that our state grows by nurturing talent rather than watching it leave.

Those foundations weaken when we frame higher education as a partisan battleground or reduce it to a business ledger. And despite the temptation, these cuts are not about liberals or conservatives. Our state’s institutions contain every ideological shade, as they should. Besides, a great university doesn’t teach students what to think; it teaches them how to think. That process of reasoning, questioning, and understanding is democracy in practice.

If Nebraska is to remain competitive for bright minds from across the nation and the world, it must jealously protect its flagship university. Nebraska U. is a global ambassador for our state, an engine of innovation, and a cornerstone of our economy. For every dollar invested in the university system, 10 more return to Nebraska.

Saturday’s “Stop the Cuts” rally is one way for Nebraskans to show that commitment – to listen, learn, and understand what’s truly at stake. It’s a chance to stand for the idea that public education, accessible and excellent, is central to who we are.

We invite all Nebraskans who care about our shared future to make their voices heard. Attend the rally. Write your Regents. Call your state senator. Tell them what Nebraska U. means to you, to your community, and to our state’s future. When we stop investing in one another, we stop believing in ourselves.