MINNEAPOLIS / ST. PAUL--In response to Gov. Pawlenty's recommendation to cut $185 million over the 2004-05 biennium from the University of Minnesota, President Robert Bruininks said the university's reductions are deep and painful..
"Higher education is critically important to our state," said Bruininks. "Minnesota cannot afford to squander our future by crippling higher education. A strong, quality higher education system improves our quality of life and is key to Minnesota's future prosperity."
Pawlenty's recommended $185 million cut is approximately 15 percent of the university's biennial state appropriation and is the highest reduction to the university's budget ever. "This is a historic budget reduction," said Bruininks. "It will require very difficult decisions, reductions and additional costs to students. Those decisions will have an impact on thousands of real people--our faculty, staff and students and their families--and it simply will not be business as usual here."
To put the reduction into context, Bruininks explained that $185 million represents the total amount of state support for the College of Biological Sciences, the College of Liberal Arts and the Institute of Technology for two years or, the entire amount of state support for the Academic Health Center and the Duluth, Morris and Crookston campuses for one year. "Clearly, the governor's proposal is a real reduction that will have a real impact," he said.
To manage the reductions, the university will aggressively reduce costs and may have to eliminate some programs and activities. In addition, it will seek to generate new sources of revenue. "Raising tuition will not be our first course of action; however, given a historic reduction of our base state funding, additional tuition increases are almost inevitable," said Bruininks, who also said it is too early to speculate on the size of an increase.
The governor's budget recommends that the university cap tuition increases at 15 percent a year for the biennium. Bruininks expressed concern over the tuition cap. "We're more than willing to do our share to help the state with this difficult budget challenge," he said. "However, I hope that legislators don't tie our hands. The university needs flexibility to make tough decisions and manage this budget with all of the tools at our disposal." A 15 percent tuition increase would generate $52.5 million annually.
Pawlenty recommended transferring the source of support for the university's Academic Health Center from the tobacco endowment to the tobacco tax. Specifically, 6.5 cents of state tobacco sales tax revenue per pack of cigarettes, or an estimated $21.5 million in fiscal year 2004, would be dedicated to the Academic Health Center to support health professional education and training.
"Minnesotans highly value the health care programs and training the university provides, and it is critical that the state of Minnesota maintain its strong commitment to providing this support," said Bruininks. To fill a $60 million deficit in funding for the state grant program for low-income students, the governor recommended a $30 million base budget reduction to the university. The university supports this decision to fully fund financial aid.
Bruininks said that the university's most important contribution to the state may be the 11,000 educated citizens it graduates each year, half of whom are professional students receiving master's or doctoral degrees and two thirds of whom stay in Minnesota. In addition, the university leverages the state's investment in its core academic programs to attract over half a billion dollars of research funding each year. "The university makes significant contributions to the state that it cannot afford to lose," he said.
Bruininks said that regardless of the size of the reduction, he is committed to maintaining excellence. "Minnesotans have high expectations for the university, and we are absolutely committed to protecting our core mission and a quality educational experience for students."
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Last Modified Tuesday, February 01, 2005
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