UNL Chancellor Harvey Perlman had a “Local View” article published in the Lincoln Journal Star in response to a complaint by members the Tribal Council of the Omaha Nation regarding the research and teaching of UNL Prof. Mark Awakuni-Swetland.

Prof. Awakuni-Swetland teaches and researches Omaha language and culture; some members of the Tribal Council believe that only tribal members should be authorized to do so. In his Op-Ed, Chancellor Perlman says that such attempts to limit academic freedom “strikes at the heart of what a university does.”