Star Tribune
Editorial
January 18, 2006
The best thing about the capital projects proposal Gov. Tim Pawlenty unveiled Tuesday may have been the tone with which it was delivered. ... Given his thinking on the MnSCU request, it's puzzling that the governor asked only for planning money for a medical biosciences research building at the University of Minnesota. Laboratories of the sort that would be housed in the proposed $60 million structure are crucial to achieving Minnesota's ambition to be a world leader in bioscience industries.
Read the full story at:
http://www.startribune.com/561/story/188931.html
Lori Sturdevant
Star Tribune December 31, 2005
The University of Minnesota has a solid feel again and is poised to take its place among top research institutions -- if things go well at the Capitol.
Let's play future state historian. It's 2036. Who did what in 2005 that you'd say shaped the Minnesota you know?
Sorry, politicians, but my guess is that it's none of you. (Come to think of it, the 2005 statehouse crew might not mind the omission. Quite a few legislators and one governor are already trying to fog voters' recollection of the partial government shutdown last July, and of the legal mess they made with their tobacco "fee.")
My guess: The name future historians will associate first with 2005 is Robert Bruininks, and the accomplishments they will laud will be connected with the University of Minnesota reform program dubbed "strategic positioning for the 21st century."
Read the entire column at:
http://www.startribune.com/314/story/155495.html
Minneapolis Star Tribune
April 29, 2005
The Minnesota House's lean higher education funding bill is ready for its date with a conference committee. Tipping higher education funding a more generous way this session is vital to this state's future. The Senate acknowledges as much with a more generous bill -- $33 million more to the University of Minnesota than the House provides.
Read the full editorial at:
http://www.startribune.com/stories/1519/5375328.html
Minneapolis Star Tribune
April 18, 2005
Rondi Erickson and Vance Opperman
"The urgency with which the Legislature has supported a new football stadium for the University of Minnesota sends a strong signal that it intends for the "U" to be "in the game" -- literally -- when it comes to collegiate athletics.
Now it's time for the Legislature and all Minnesotans to wake up to the realities of global economic competition unfolding around us with the same urgency."
To read the full story visit: www.startribune.com/stories/1519/5351075.html
This column was written by Rondi Erickson and Vance Opperman who cochaired the recent Citizens League report on higher education for Gov. Pawlenty.
By Thomas Sullivan, University of Minnesota provost
Pioneer Press Opinion Page March 17, 2005
We've been asked whether our goal of enhancing excellence at the University of Minnesota will affect student access. It's a fair question. Access to excellence in higher education is one of our state's most important priorities. Maintaining and enhancing excellence at the University of Minnesota is necessary to ensure the state's long-term economic and cultural success. Enhancing excellence also corresponds with what Minnesotans want for the university. Almost two-thirds of the state's residents want the university to be a top-ranked national university. The recent Citizens League report commissioned by Gov. Tim Pawlenty also recommends that the university "enhance its role and focus as a world-class public research institution (with) nationally selective undergraduate and liberal arts education."
The goal of excellence is fully compatible with access. We should be clear: The university has no intention of reducing the size of its undergraduate enrollment. One of our goals is to serve as a talent magnet for the state. A critical aspect of that goal is to improve our recruitment and retention of talented and highly motivated high school graduates who, when they do not come to the university, choose to leave the state, frequently failing to return. These future leaders seek an education at a world-class research university; providing such an education helps retain talent in the state.
Our pursuit of excellence does not imply any lack of attention to equity and to encouraging diversity in all its forms. Minnesotans expect us to be fair in our admissions policy. That is a commitment of this university. We pledge to do this by providing access to disadvantaged students who have been underrepresented historically and whose socioeconomic backgrounds make it difficult to attend the university in the absence of financial assistance.
The university is deeply committed to providing access to talented, qualified students from all walks of life, especially for those students of diverse racial, ethnic, economic and social backgrounds. This is an important value for Minnesota. To this end, we are offering substantial new scholarships to attract promising students who otherwise may not have been able to afford to attend our university.
At the same time, while we acknowledge that access to postsecondary education is vital to the future success of our citizens, not all students require, or are prepared for, the unique research and teaching mission of the University of Minnesota Twin Cities campus. The wisdom of the Minnesota system of higher education is that it provides access for all interested students to a wide range of postsecondary opportunities: excellent community and technical colleges and other forms of superb undergraduate education, both public and private, including unique opportunities at University of Minnesota campuses outside the Twin Cities.
This year the university's Twin Cities campus is on track to receive more than 20,000 applications for 5,300 freshman positions. We are pleased that Minnesotans select the university as the college they want their children to attend. But we have a limited capacity, and we need to make choices. If we accept unprepared or less motivated students, or those whose skills are better addressed by other institutions, we will be failing the citizens of our state and better-qualified students will be denied admission. Students as well as faculty affect the quality and reputation of a research university. The learning that occurs inside the classroom as well as the learning that occurs through interactions outside the classroom is affected by the talent and preparation of the students. We must provide access, but to meaningfully meet our statutorily mandated mission, we must provide access to excellence. The next generation of Minnesotans deserves no less.
When students are admitted to the university, they should know that we are committed to quality and excellence at each task we undertake and, ultimately, to their academic achievement. The value of their education and degree depends on it. Access to excellence is key to each student's success. It should be the state's and the university's first priority.
This recent Star Tribune editorial praises the University for the establishment of the Founder's Day Opportunity Scholarship, which aims to improve access and affordability for undergraduate students.
From Sunday, February 27, 2005
Star Tribune
"University of Minnesota President Robert Bruininks probably did not compare notes with a prominent national rating organization before giving his State of the University address last Thursday. It only seemed as if he did."
Read the entire editorial at http://www.startribune.com/stories/561/5261340.html
Below is an excerpt from an editorial published in the Pioneer Press on Friday, February 4th. To read the full text see the link below
We were as blindsided as University of Minnesota President Bob Bruininks by Gov. Tim Pawlenty's proposal for a campus in Rochester. Frankly, we think Bruininks has been a good financial steward since taking over the top job in November 2002. He has taken bold steps to put the U's fiscal house in order, shown an ability to innovate and compromise. We think it would be unwise for the governor to shun his counsel.
For the entire editorial click here:
http://www.twincities.com/mld/twincities/news/editorial
In today's Star Tribune read an editorial about the work of the Mayo-U partnership and why a commitment from the state is needed
http://www.startribune.com/stories/561/5187691.html
Read Lori Sturdevant's recent column on why the state needs to invest in the University of Minnesota. Sturdevant calls on legislators to invest in the only institution that can protect the state's quality of life
"Every plausible strategy for a state's success in a knowledge-based economy relies heavily on the presence of a first-class research university. It's the magnet for talent, the discoverer of knowledge, the breeder of industries, the disseminator of ideas and the solver of shared problems."
To read the full column see http://www.startribune.com/stories/562/5175074.html
The Minneapolis Star Tribune's lead editorial on Sunday, November 21, 2004, praised the U for its fiscal responsibility. Read the full text below.
Reprinted with permission from the Minneapolis Star Tribune
"A tighter belt/Inefficient 'U'? Don't believe it"
Neophyte Minnesota legislators (and occasionally, governors who should know better) are given to regarding the University of Minnesota as a bureaucratic behemoth that must be loaded with inefficiency and ripe for budget-cutting.
Legislators, meet Cliff Hoffman of Deloitte Touche LLP’s Minneapolis office. He has been auditing the university’s books for seven years. He just finished this year’s audit, and he wants you to know his findings: “The university has really tightened itself up. It is an excellent example of an organization that is very focused and very efficient. I’d call it a model of fiscal responsibility.”
That’s high praise for any $2 billion per year operation, let alone one as decentralized and stratified as a research university. It’s especially important that his message register at the Capitol this year. This state’s flagship university shouldn’t sustain further losses in state appropriations out of a mistaken notion that better business practices could easily bring it additional cost savings. Hoffman attests that better business practices are already in force on campus.
The auditor was impressed by the university’s management of the difficult financial hand dealt it by the 2003 Legislature. It coped with a 9 percent cut in its state appropriation in part by rigorously controlling expenses. Salaries were frozen and 500 positions eliminated, saving $3 million; changes in health insurance and other benefits resulted in another $5 million in savings. Permanent expense reductions totaled $20 million; “and that’s actual results. Usually, in these situations, there’s cost creep,” Hoffman said.
He also drew attention to a $62 million increase in revenue from grants and contracts, the bulk of them funding research. Total receipts for research at the University of Minnesota last year came to $509 million, topping the larger University of Wisconsin system and belying the claim that Minnesota’s flagship is not sufficiently focused on research.
The less positive part of the university’s financial story was the 14.7 percent increase in tuition for the 2003-04 academic year. It generated $60 million in needed new revenue, but did so in a way that imperiled access to the university by students of moderate means – especially when seen in the context of four straight years of double-digit cost hikes.
Last year, the books balanced nicely, with assets and operating cash both up, Hoffman said. “But obviously, this raises concerns going forward,” he added. Salaries cannot be frozen again, not if the university wants to keep its best and most mobile faculty on the job. Health care costs cannot be expected to go down again while they are going up for everybody else. Tuition increases are already pricing the university beyond the reach of too many students.
Meanwhile, Minnesota now ranks 21st among the 50 states in what state government spends per $1,000 of its citizens’ personal incomes on higher education. Higher ed spending my that measure has been cut in half since 1978 – even as Minnesota’s need for a highly educated workforce and industry-spawning research has soared. It’s time the Legislature stop asking its university for more efficiency and start asking what the state should do to keep its university strong.
In this Minnesota Daily column, Fran Zerr suggests shifting attention and energy from the election to important issues like advocating for increased state funding for the U. http://www.mndaily.com/articles/2004/11/05/11121
Read the Minnesota Daily editorial on how the University community must ratchet up its lobbying efforts in the state government.
http://www.mndaily.com/articles/2004/11/03/11060
A commentary by University of Minnesota president Bob Bruininks on the current effort to increase the number of scholarships for students at the U.
Pioneer Press
http://www.twincities.com/mld/twincities/news/editorial/9910417.htm