Minnesota Daily
By Bryce Haugen
January 20, 2006
It was never even finished. But 44 years after construction crews broke ground on the $1.3 million structure, the Science Classroom Building and its baffling stairwells might soon be demolished. As a part of its bonding bill request to state legislators, the University is asking for $41.3 million to replace the aging facility with a science teaching and student services center on the northeast side of the Washington Avenue Bridge.
Read the full story at: http://www.mndaily.com/articles/2006/01/20/66724
Star Tribune
January 18, 2006
Patricia Lopez and Dane Smith
Senate DFLers and advocates for universities and parks say it's too stingy; the governor asks for "some attempt to live within reason."
From the state's first commuter rail line to a buffed-up Minnesota Zoo, from a $40 million science building at the University of Minnesota to wastewater and road projects, there's something for everyone in the $897 million public works bill proposed by Gov. Tim Pawlenty on Tuesday.
Read the full story at: http://www.startribune.com/587/story/188294.html
By Neal St. Anthony
Star Tribune
January 10, 2006
The University of Minnesota is asking the Legislature for $26.6 million, earmarked for more room for undergraduate students.
A $39.9 million expansion of the undergraduate facilities at the University of Minnesota's Carlson School of Management is the priority of the university's two-year capital budget headed to the Legislature.
To read the entire story visit: http://www.startribune.com/1069/story/173352.html<\a>
by Art Hughes, Minnesota Public Radio
December 1, 2005
Officials with the two state-supported higher education systems are optimistic about legislative support this coming session for a laundry list of basic maintenance projects. The University of Minnesota and the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities systems are seeking a combined $485-million for building and repairs. Of that, nearly $200-million is for work on ventilation systems, sprinkler installations and aging roofs that are typically out of the public's eye. Officials with the institutions have had a difficult time making the case for such low-profile projects.
To read the full story visit: http://news.minnesota.publicradio.org/features/2005/11/18_hughesa_funding/
From the Minnesota Daily
November 18, 2005
High energy bills hit U
By Than Tibbetts
Increasing energy costs have led to penny pinching at the gas pump and the potential for a home-heating crisis in Minnesota this winter.
Now the rising costs could affect tuition.
The Board of Regents last week approved a $14.6 million supplemental request to the state to help combat the effects of increasing energy costs.
Read the full story at: http://www.mndaily.com/articles/2005/11/18/66229
The $80 million in HEAPR funding is the University’s top priority.
Minnesota Daily
November 17, 2005
By Than Tibbetts
University officials are fixing for a fight.
When the University’s 2006 capital bonding request heads to the Legislature, one section of the request is almost certain to require a little extra attention: the Higher Education Asset Preservation and Replacement funds.
HEAPR money is used to repair and maintain existing campus buildings, and University officials say they consistently have to fight to make it a priority at the Legislature. The University is requesting $80 million in HEAPR money in its $206 million capital bonding request.
Read the full story at:http://www.mndaily.com/articles/2005/11/17/66211
Rising cost of college requires more work, more debt
by Art Hughes, Minnesota Public Radio
November 13, 2005
The rising cost for a college education has students working more and building up more debt. Earning money for classes also often requires students to take time off from school to earn money to pay tuition and other costs. While governments and institutions are shifting more money to financial aid, it's not enough to offset significant increases in what students and their families are expected to pay for a degree.
To read the full story visit: http://news.minnesota.publicradio.org/features/2005/10/24_hughesa_affordability/
Higher Education Appropriation Bill Summary
Appropriations
The University of Minnesota received an increase of $105,635,000 over the base for the 2006—2007 biennium. We had requested $126 million. These new funds are recurring, which will set our base entering the next biennium at $1.229 billion.
The Minnesota State Colleges and Universities received an increase of $107,500,000 over their base for the biennium. Much of this appropriation is in one-time funds. MnSCU’s base entering the next biennium will be $1.204 billion.
The enrollment adjustment has been eliminated.
Regent Candidate Selection
The Regent Candidate Advisory Council will now make their recommendations to the Governor rather than the legislature. These recommendations will be due January 15 of each odd-numbered year. By the following February 15 the Governor must submit to a joint committee established in this legislation a slate of Regent nominations of one nominee for each vacancy. The new joint committee will have 20 legislative members, 10 from the House and 10 from the Senate with an equal number of members from the majority and minority of each body. By February 28 the joint committee shall meet to consider the slate of Governor’s nominees; the committee can only forward the Governor’s nominees for Regent for possible presentation to a joint convention of the legislature (all 201 members). If the joint committee does not recommend a Governor’s nominee, the Governor must submit a different nominee for the same vacancy. Although the legislation prohibits the joint committee from forwarding any names other than the Governor’s nominees, the legislation does not prohibit the joint convention of the legislature (the full body) from considering other names.
Rochester
$3.2 million was appropriated to HESO for the Rochester Higher Education Development Account ($200,000 for planning activities and $3 million for additional planning and development funds, initial funding for academic program development and funding for academic facilities).
An 11-member committee, the Rochester Higher Education Development Committee, is established that includes a U of M Regent or their designee, a MnSCU trustee or their designee, 6 people from the Rochester area, the commissioner of finance, one person with experience in postsecondary academic planning and programming, and one person with experience in postsecondary finance and planning. Some of the duties of the committee are: to develop a proposal for the establishment and implementation of expanded higher education programs or institutions in Rochester including addressing mission and focus of the programs, nature of the programs to be offered, site and facility needs, and funding sources and opportunities. The committee must also specifically address where expansion of the University of Minnesota in Rochester is the most appropriate method of meeting the region’s needs. The report is due on Jan. 15, 2006.
Financial Aid
The 4-year tuition cap is raised from $8,983 to $9,208 the first year and
to $9,438 the second year. This is enough to keep the Twin Cities and Duluth campuses under the cap for both FY06 and FY07. Morris will be over the cap in both FY06 and FY07; this was expected and funds have been budgeted to protect affected Morris students.
The 2-year cap is reduced from $6,913 to $6,567 the first year and to
$6,436 the second year. HESO is also directed to study 2-year proprietary institutions.
The Living and Miscellaneous Expense allowance is increased from
$5,205 to $5,350 for both years. This will result in grant amounts that are
about $75 higher for the lowest income students.
Total funding of the state grant program is sufficient to recognize the University's proposed tuition increases.
Funding for the state work study program is unchanged at $12,444,000 for
each year of the biennium and funding for the child care grant program is
unchanged at $4,743,000 for each year if the biennium.
Deaf Students
A deaf student who is a resident is entitled to tuition assistance for the tuition and fees remaining after deducting any federal or state grants or other public or private grants.
Applied Doctoral Degrees
State universities may offer applied doctoral degrees in education, business, psychology, physical therapy, audiology, and nursing.
HESO Mandates
The Higher Education Services Office (HESO) must develop and implement a process to measure and report on the effectiveness of postsecondary institutions in the state. A report to the legislature regarding the implementation of the process is due by January 15, 2006.
HESO must study the for-profit postsecondary education sector licensed or registered in Minnesota. They will study such things as tuition, program offerings, student debt load, and financial assistance.
HESO must consider developing data collection procedures and agreements to monitor the extent to which students who attend Minnesota postsecondary institutions under reciprocity agreements are employed in Minnesota after graduation.
HESO must commence negotiations with Wisconsin on the tuition reciprocity agreement that include the issue of disparity between the tuition paid by Wisconsin residents and Minnesota residents at campuses of the University of Minnesota with a goal of reducing or eliminating the disparity. Although the legislature does not mandate the reciprocity agreement it is assumed that this language will help HESO achieve a better outcome in their negations with Wisconsin.
HESO will convene an advisory task force to study and make recommendations on the current postsecondary funding policy. The CFO of the University or designee is a member. The recommendations will be submitted to the legislature by Jan. 15, 2006.
HESO will convene a group including representation from the University of Minnesota, MnSCU, the private education sector and Minnesota State Services for the Blind to develop a network to make available postsecondary instructional material in an electronic format or to identify other solutions, such as a national system, to address the specialized needs of postsecondary students with disabilities.
Capital Bonding Bill Summary
In the University’s updated 2004 capital request, all projects were fully funded with the exception of HEAPR, which was funded at $40 million vs. the $90 million requested. The fully-funded projects in the University request are: Life Science (Duluth), Kolthoff Hall, Education Sciences (MRRC), AHC Education Projects, Recreational Sports Addition (Duluth), and District Heating/Utilities & Shared Football (Morris). The legislature also provided funding for the Farm Shop Maintenance Facility (Grand Rapids), Agricultural Water Management Projects (statewide), the University/Mayo Partnership (Rochester), and the Plant Pathology Research Facility at the University of Minnesota. The bill provides$134 million in state funding for capital projects; adding the University’s debt obligation of $35.9 , the total for capital projects was $169.9 million.
Pending Legislation Affecting the University
The University of Minnesota had legislation introduced that became part of the Omnibus Pension Bill that failed to pass the House before adjournment. This legislation would have excluded the U of M Police Chief from participation in the PERA Police and Fire Pension Fund, since this position is required under Board of Regents policy to be a P and A pension participant. Earlier in the session, the Minnesota Senate had passed the Senate bill by a vote of 56-1.
The Governor’s request for $15 million in funding for the Minnesota Partnership for Biotechnology and Medical Genomics is included in the on-going negotiations on the Omnibus Jobs, Environment and Agriculture Bill. Both sides have agreed to fund the partnership at the Governor’s level, however other issues were left unresolved and the conference committee did not complete their work prior to adjournment.
The Omnibus Environment Finance bill contains a provision to devote 20 percent of new permanent university funds (PUF) to the Department of Natural Resources, for the management of the minerals lands. PUF funds are currently used for scholarships and minerals research through NRRI.
Governor Pawlenty has proposed an increase in the cigarette fee of $0.75 per pack to generate additional revenue for the state. The Academic Health Center receives funds through a dedicated portion of the state’s cigarette tax. Cigarette sales are predicated to fall off with the increased cost but the Governor has stated that he intends to keep the AHC funding whole.
The Gopher football stadium legislation was had hearings prior to the close of session but did not make it to the House and Senate floors for voting. This legislation could be heard during the special session.
By David Ruth
Published on January 26, 2005
On Tuesday, January 25, Governor Tim Pawlenty unveiled his biennial budget proposal for 2006-2007, and University of Minnesota officials received the answer they were looking for in their 50-50 partnership offer to the state: "Yes."
Although Pawlenty's plan does not cover the full request, the University received 84 percent of the dollars it asked for. The money would go towards biosciences, attracting and retaining talent, and research support.
The total amount of new funding for the University in the governor's budget is $113 million, $7.5 million of which will be used towards a University-Mayo Clinic collaborative research partnership.
University President Robert Bruininks applauded the governor's budget Tuesday saying, "Governor Pawlenty has done a great service to all Minnesotans by recommending a substantial funding increase for the University of Minnesota."
Although Bruininks was pleased with yesterday's outcome, he stresses that there is still hard work to do. "Besides the legislature having to take up the governor's proposal, the University has its part to do in this agreement," he says. The University's part of the deal will be to find ways to reallocate approximately $15 million in each year and institute a tuition increase of 5.5 percent.
"Tuition increases are never easy," says Bruininks. "However, after suffering through budget cuts and double-digit increases in tuition the past few years, 5.5 percent should be much more manageable for students."
According to Bruininks, the good news for students is also the retention and recruiting of quality faculty and staff. "Students will benefit in the classroom," he says. "They have wonderful professors here and we need to maintain them and become more competitive in recruiting."
Bruininks has been talking a lot recently of the University's aspiration to be one of the world's top three public research universities and pointing out that the University has brought in more than $520 million in sponsored research awards. U.S. Department of Commerce statistics show that 39 jobs are created for every $1 million spent on university-based research. "Minnesota is in an enviable position of having one of the top research universities in the nation," Bruininks says. "We thank the governor for recognizing the importance of the University to the state."
Normally we don't like to promote these types of bad news stories. But we felt it was important to show how the budget cuts have impacted the U. Read how the U of M has slipped in the rankings as one of the top research institutions in the country.
Read the story here: http://www.startribune.com/stories/462/5199403.html
From the Minneapolis Star Tribune
A Taiwanese family struggling to save their three boys from a rare genetic disorder known as adrenoleukpdystrophu, or ALD, arrived at the University of Minnesota on Thursday with the hope that doctors here can reverse the march of the fatal disease before it's too late.
Read the full story at: http:www/startribune.com/stories/1556/5196154.html
Pioneer Press
Published November 10, 2004
By Kermit Pattison
"Echoing a report warning that Minnesota's system of higher education is in danger of slipping, Governor Tim Pawlenty on Tuesday proposed raising standards for college preparation, sharpening missions of public campuses and increasing the state investment in education."
This Pioneer Press article also reports recommendations made by the Citizens League in their report titled "Trouble on the Horizon".
"Our rankings are due to past investments and what we have now is not sustainable," said Rondi Erickson, co-chair of the study.
The report urged the state to exercise greater oversight by holding insitututions accountable to measureable outcomes and evaluate them with online report cards.
Pawlenty said more investment in higher education is needed in the wake of several years of budget crisis. He said his budget would give highest priority to areas with greatest payoff, such as investment in teaching and research at the University of Minnesota.
University of Minnesota President Robert Bruininks said he hoped the coming budget discussions with the state would prove less divisive than those of recent years.
To read the full story visit:
http://www.twincities.com/mld/twincities/living/education/10140408.htm
Minneapolis Star Tribune
Mary Jane Smetanka
Published November 10, 2004
"Minnesota's star status as an education leader is dimming, and changes are needed both in high schools and colleges if the state is to stop its slide toward becoming just another "cold small state," a Citizens League study concludes."
The article continues with recommendations from the Citizens League study and initial reactions from Governor Pawlenty and University of Minnesota President Robert Bruininks.
"Minnesotans have lost a shared understanding that education is a public good and not just a private one," said Rondi Erickson of Duluth, co-chairwoman of the League's study group. "We are losing our edge. We cannot sustain what we have, and our economic competitiveness and our way of life is at risk."
"In a state where we are trying to answer the question in a hypercompetitive world economy. 'why Minnesota?,' one of the first and most important answers is because we have a world-class teaching and research university or universities," Pawlenty said. "If that's the case, then we should make sure that's a pretty high priority on where the funds go."
One of the recommendations from the Citizen's League is:
Promoting excellence and adding focus by investing more money in research on the University of Minnesota's Twin Cities campus, which should become increasingly elite by being "nationally selective" in undergraduate admissions, and having MnSCU pursue "centers of excellence" on some campuses.
To read the full story visit:
http://www.startribune.com/stories/1592/5077738.html
Read a MPR story on youth voter turnout at the U and the impact that it had on the election.
Read the story here.
By Robert H. Bruininks
This article appeared in the Star Tribune on October 31, 2004
Visionary leaders in Minnesota's business community have for years known this truth: The University of Minnesota's ability to attract the best minds available is a critical asset in assuring a robust economic future for the state in general and for their companies in particular.
Within a global, knowledge-based economy, the University of Minnesota, as the state's only major research university, is the foundry for new ideas and innovations that help drive our economy. But in addition to that intellectual capital, the university is an important source of human capital, the skilled and knowledgeable graduates whose productivity makes our state and regional economy competitive.
Economist Richard Florida's work mapping the geography of talent in today's economy indicates that businesses increasingly seek locations where they can hire creative and skilled employees and that major research institutions play a starring role in attracting and retaining such talent within a region.
In our region, prominent business and community leaders associated with the Itasca Project have identified the university's role as a "talent magnet" that is essential to the state's future economy and quality of life.
Over the past decade, the university has improved central elements of student life and learning. By class rank and test scores, the academic quality of our student body has never been higher at the University of Minnesota.
Attraction and retention
But I believe much more must be done to retain Minnesota's best students and to attract more from elsewhere. Although the university offers nearly unparalleled opportunities for its students, we are uncompetitive for some top prospects because we lack sufficient scholarships.
The University of Minnesota ranks at the very bottom of the Big Ten in the percentage of freshmen being awarded merit scholarships. That simply isn't a rank we can maintain and also continue to compete for top students, the kind that will provide the innovations and the workforce for Minnesota companies in the future.
College graduates tend to take up permanent residence near where they went to school. At the university, we know that most of the 11,000 students who graduate annually stay in Minnesota to live and work and contribute to the state's economy, culture and quality of life.
We also know that high school students admitted to the university who decide to go elsewhere -- most of them in the top 25 percent of their high school class -- choose out-of-state schools. When we lose them, Minnesota loses many of them for good.
Building scholarships
What's to be done? At the university, we've launched a multi-year scholarship drive to raise $150 million in new gifts, the biggest such effort in our history. I've made scholarships the top fund-raising priority across the university by pledging a university match to major scholarship endowments and designating October, a month when many of our alumni reconnect with our campuses, as Scholarship Month to focus attention on the drive.
Our fund-raising encompasses both merit and need-based scholarships. Severe budget cuts by the Legislature and governor have produced back-to-back double-digit tuition increases, meaning that while students might be better-prepared academically than ever, many of them also are more financially challenged than ever.
If the University of Minnesota is to meet its promise of being the talent magnet for the knowledge economy, business leaders must help make it happen. We need their help in persuading the Legislature and the governor that adequate support for the University of Minnesota is critical to the quality that allows a research university to attract hundreds of millions of dollars in competitive grants and contracts, as well as top scholars and students.
By the way, we're still awaiting action on a modest package of capital projects laid over from the 2004 session.
Case in point
But we also need the help of business leaders in creating scholarships. Let me describe how one visionary company, 3M Co., has done just that.
At 3M, a $1 million challenge grant was established by the company to match, on a 3-to-1 basis, scholarship gifts to the university from employees and retirees. As a result of the generosity of the company and its scientists, managers, sales representatives and workers at every level, a scholarship for top students majoring in business, engineering and science-related disciplines was created three years ago.
Nathan Olson is a freshman at the University of Minnesota this fall majoring in civil engineering. He was co-valedictorian of his class at Duluth's Marshall School, where he was captain of the cross-country team and a member of the student council. He competed in math league and mock trial and was named to the tri-state honor band.
Nathan is one of three National Merit Scholars that the university attracted this year with the help of the 3M/Alumni Undergraduate Merit Scholarships. So far, 56 students have received the 3M scholarships. They all have academic profiles similar to Nathan's (this year's contingent has an average 4.09 GPA), and like Nathan, they were recruited by Ivy League schools and other Big Ten universities. The 3M scholarship helped make the difference.
Nathan and students like him represent a big part of Minnesota's future. They might represent a big part of the future of your companies. They might be the doctors who care for your children and grandchildren. They might lead our classrooms and labs or our courthouses and capitol. And it might be your vision of the future that we all have to thank for helping to make it happen.
Robert H. Bruininks is president of the University of Minnesota.
This article appeared in the Star Tribune on October 31, 2004
House leaders debated higher education issues on campus last week. Read the stories below to hear what they said.
Read the MPR story here
Read the Minnesota Daily story here.
Minnesota's public colleges and universities are preparing to do battle on their next budget requests. Both the University of Minnesota and the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities systems say they're going to ask for less money than in years past.
Minnesota Public Radio story:
To read the story: http://news.minnesota.publicradio.org/features/2004/10/05_helmsm_uminnbudget/
Star Tribune (6/14/04)
By Frank Cerra
Imagine a future in which health care is truly about health rather than illness. Imagine a health care team in which nurses, physicians, pharmacists and even dentists work together on your behalf to improve the health of you and your family. And now, imagine that in the future, the overall costs of this health care are lower than current systems of delivering care.
That is the future we imagine and are working to develop at the University of Minnesota's Academic Health Center, home to the Medical School, Colleges of Pharmacy and Veterinary Medicine and Schools of Dentistry, Nursing and Public Health. As one of the nation's most comprehensive Academic Health Centers, we are well-positioned to prepare the next generation of health professionals who understand and value not only their own education but also that of the other health disciplines they will rely on in practice.
But our ability to continue delivering on that future of great potential took a direct hit this year when our public partners in the Legislature failed to pass a bonding bill. Our work takes place in an environment that benefits from rich support from the community and commitment from the faculty. Yet the campus' physical environment needs upkeep and renovation. We cannot educate tomorrow's physicians, nurses, dentists, pharmacists, veterinarians and public health professionals in yesterday's classrooms.
As head of the Academic Health Center, I've been challenged by my colleagues in the private sector to think and act more like a business person. After all, this is a $650 million enterprise with many of the same business issues found in the private sector. We have human resources issues, including a salary freeze that will be lifted only at the end of this fiscal year and that makes it difficult to retain valuable faculty. We have customers to serve, including the clinics and hospitals who hire our graduates; the people of Minnesota, who expect well-prepared health professionals; and our students, who expect a top-flight education that will prepare them for practice. And we have facilities to manage, maintain and improve.
This year, a smart businessperson would take a look at our fraying facilities that desperately need maintenance and make the capital investments needed to meet the expectations of those customers. Interest rates are at historic lows, and now is the time to invest in capital assets. But we can't take that action alone. Despite having considerable accountability for the outcomes of this enterprise, neither I nor any other leader at this university has the ability to raise the capital needed to invest in core maintenance without the action of our historic partners -- the state Legislature.
There is a cost to this delay -- and we have a recent example to illustrate this fact. The Translational Research Facility taking shape on campus was delayed a year when the previous governor vetoed our bonding authority. That one-year delay added $1 million to the overall cost of the project -- money that wasn't provided when the bonding was finally approved. To cover the costs of the building, we cut funding from other important areas. For a relatively modest investment of $18 million, the health sciences educational facilities on the Twin Cities and Duluth campuses would gain major improvements.
The current delay in bonding could increase the cost of rehabbing classrooms by 20 percent. Those expenses either will be added to the bonding request we make of our state partners or will be absorbed by our strapped academic programs.
These are not decisions a businessperson is forced to make.
The enterprise we run is designed to position and prepare Minnesota for the future. That's what this strong public research university accomplishes on behalf of this state. Unlike a business, however, our public status requires us to partner with elected leaders to accomplish many of our goals.
This year, we managed our portion of the partnership by graduating nearly 750 new doctors, pharmacists, veterinarians, nurses, dentists and public health professionals. Our faculty competed successfully for $260 million in research funding that benefits Minnesota and its economy. And our clinics cared for about 638,000 patients, including nearly 44,000 that were cared for at our Veterinary Medical Center.
Our elected partners in the Legislature, however, didn't manage their portion of the work portfolio. The failure to act on needed capital investments would, in the private sector, lead to a dissolution of the partnership. For us, that's not an option we can or would pursue.
What this institution needs to meet the hopes of the future is elected leaders who are truly interested in a viable partnership with us. The health care sector and the future health of this state are too important for any other alternative.
Frank Cerra is senior vice president for health sciences at the Academic Health Center, University of Minnesota.
Mary Jane Smetanka, Star Tribune
June 12, 2004
University of Minnesota officials reluctantly passed a 2004-05 budget filled with tuition increases and cuts Friday, and then defiantly signaled that they are ready for a very public fight over further cuts in state funding.
The $2.6-billion budget includes tuition and fee increases for undergraduates that range from 12 to 14 percent as well as staff cuts. While most of the cuts are largely invisible to the public -- a secretary here, a professor there, 60 cows sold from an agriculture program -- officials said that if state funding is cut again, the kind of budget slashing that hit the University of Minnesota Extension Service last year and that raised hackles all over the state is just the beginning.
"The people of this state don't understand [that] we are approaching an emergency," said Regent Frank Berman. "The university is being placed in jeopardy, real jeopardy, for the lack of support we're getting from the state. We are going to start losing programs that the state needs and wants."
"...We can't keep having budgets with salary freezes, we can't keep [raising tuition 14 percent] and hope our students have access. ... The time has come to recognize that this institution and what it stands for is being placed in jeopardy."
President Robert Bruininks said Minnesota's health care system would be "third world" without the physicians, dentists, veterinarians and pharmacists produced by the university. A plan to produce more pharmacists on the Duluth campus has been held back because money to add facilities were in this year's bonding bill, which never passed the Legislature. And Bruininks bristled at what he called misconceptions that the university did not suffer much when the state cut base funding to the school by $185 million for the 2003-05 biennium.
Bruininks said that unlike some state workers, who got experience-based raises during the first year of the biennium, university employees took a true pay freeze and paid higher health insurance premiums as well. Unlike the state, he said, which pushed costs into the future to deal with its deficit, the school took the pain now.
"What we did not do was rely on reserves to balance this budget. I promised you last spring . . . that we would not use the easy way out," he said.
Tuition pressure
Two-thirds of the coming tuition increase is due to the state budget reduction "and nothing else," Bruininks said.
"We face very serious problems," he said. "I don't think we should be off the hook; we still will be setting priorities and making choices." He said the school needs to work out a "renewed partnership with the state of Minnesota, a partnership that recognizes that the university is absolutely critical to the state's future."
The state's general fund appropriation of $550 million in the new budget bumps state support to the university back near 1998 levels. Tuition, on the other hand, is at an all-time high. While half of Big Ten universities have not set tuition and fees for next fall, on the Twin Cities campus those costs for resident students likely will remain third among public schools on the list, behind only Penn State and Michigan. The school has begun a campaign to raise money for endowed merit scholarships that would increase the number of students receiving privately funded scholarships from 4,500 to more than 6,700.
What happens to tuition in the future depends on funding, Bruininks said. "There may be no way to shield students from large tuition increases," he said. But university Chief Financial Officer Richard Pfutzenreuter said the school is running out of less drastic options.
"We had a hard freeze on salaries, and we can't do that again," he said. "We pushed health care costs down to employees, and we can't do that again. Then we're back to high tuition increases, and we can't keep doing that. So what are our tools for next year?"
Officials worry that if salaries are frozen again, faculty members will begin to leave. About 550 jobs at the university were eliminated during this biennium, through layoffs and not filling vacancies. About 200 of those positions were cut from University Services, where janitors are cleaning more buildings, jobs have been consolidated and technology is doing some work that people once did. The four-campus university system has almost 19,000 employees.
Bruininks said that if funding forces more cuts, the school might have to begin "planned abandonment" of some university units.
The board also passed a dramatically reduced capital budget for 2004-05. Hopes for almost $188 million in renovation and health and safety improvements to university buildings were lost when legislators didn't pass a bonding bill. The $44.2 million budget includes some classroom and lab renovations, window replacements, air conditioning improvements and the like. The board resolution includes a clause allowing other items to be added if a legislative special session yields a bonding bill.
A job review
In his second annual job review, regents praised Bruininks for his handling of the school's budget difficulties and said he has made the school better despite those problems. They said they want him to develop "a new funding model" for the school and to make a renewed effort to convey the university's importance to Minnesotans. Bruininks got high marks for building strong and trusting relationships both inside and outside the university, for focusing on the school's academic strengths and building programs in cutting-edge areas, and for managing controversies such as the student riots and the issue of guns on campus.
The board also appointed neuroscience, neurology and psychiatry Prof. Apostolos Georgopoulos to a McKnight Presidential Endowed Chair, a high honor for faculty members. The McKnight chairs give recipients about $50,000 in new research support each year.
Mary Jane Smetanka, Star Tribune
June 12, 2004
The University of Minnesota is saving roughly $16 million a year by going to self-insurance rather than staying with the state's health insurance program, a Board of Regents committee was told Thursday.
Last year, the university dropped out of the state plan after 34 years of participation because school officials thought they could save money and offer more health plan choices to employees through a self-designed plan. Annual out-of-pocket costs for employees went up. But the average employee contribution of 20 percent of the cost of their health care premium is less than the 25 percent that the average Minnesotan pays, officials said.
"I would say the program is stable and reaching its goals," said Frank Cerra, the university's senior vice president for health sciences.
To save on drug costs, the school is exploring the possibility of starting its own pharmacy on the Twin Cities campus to serve employees, which Cerra said could yield significant savings.
This year, the cost of self-insurance is projected at almost $124 million, with employees paying about $23 million of that amount in premiums. The total does not include co-pays, deductibles and other out-of-pocket expenses for employees.
As a group, university employees are healthier than the general insured population but have a higher rate of certain ailments because they tend to be older, Cerra said.
The university started offering flu immunizations in the fall, has a campus walking program, and is exploring other ways to emphasize prevention, screening and education, and to reward employees for losing weight, eating well and generally watching their health.