September 29, 2025, Lincoln, Neb.—Nearly 2,300 signatures and 230 letters of support have been submitted on behalf of people and institutions across Nebraska and the U.S., urging the University of Nebraska–Lincoln’s (UNL’s) Academic Planning Committee to maintain and grow the university’s Landscape Architecture program. Nebraska’s only Landscape Architectural Accreditation Board-accredited pathway to licensure, this program is one of six up for elimination campus-wide. The Nebraska/Dakotas chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects and ASLA national have helped lead the charge to save it. The cut would constitute less than 0.01 percent of UNL’s budget.
“Landscape architects grow our economy and design Nebraska’s safe, healthy, resilient communities,” said ASLA Nebraska/Dakotas Chapter President Josh Johnson. “The landscape architecture program is essential to the university’s mission as a comprehensive land-grant university. Without it, there would be no institution in the state committed to training landscape architects and the many in Nebraska who aspire to the profession may leave the state for training and never return.”
UNL’s program meets urgent workforce needs, supporting a state-level industry that has exceeded national industry growth by 206.2 percent. Enrollment in the program has grown by 40 percent in the last nine years. 100 percent of graduates from the program find work, and 71 percent of those graduates stay in-state. In Nebraska, landscape architects earn a mean annual wage of $79,470 versus $58,080 across all occupations. The state is home to at least 18 active landscape architecture firms, all of which rely on UNL graduates to meet workforce needs.
Further, landscape architects contribute valuable expertise to the state, collaborating with planners to design and improve parks and other public spaces, prevent and mitigate flood damage, and more. Over the last four years, landscape architecture has contributed $1.15 million in in-kind time to Nebraska communities.
“Landscape architects are highly skilled STEM professionals who must be licensed to carry out their jobs to protect public health, safety, and welfare,” said ASLA CEO Torey Carter-Conneen, Hon. ASLA. “Landscape architects design the spaces where people play, workers commute, and communities come together. Nebraska, and the world at large, needs more landscape architects, not fewer.”
The proposed elimination of UNL’s landscape architecture program reflects a troubling national trend, but Nebraska has more at stake. In 2023, West Virginia University reversed a similar decision after public outcry. If UNL’s program is cut, Nebraska will lose its direct pathway to professional licensure in landscape architecture—weakening the state’s workforce and accelerating brain drain.
The UNL Academic Planning Committee is expected to begin evaluating the future of the landscape architecture program, and others on October 1. The committee’s recommendations then move on to the university’s chancellor on October 24. UNL’s Board of Regents will make the final decision about program cuts in December. Other programs up for elimination include community and regional planning; earth and atmospheric sciences; educational administration; statistics; and textile, merchandising and fashion design.