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Talks aim to solve budget
New budget balances $4.2 billion deficit and cuts funding for higher education
Gov. Tim Pawlenty's new budget plan could cut $30 million from Minnesota State Colleges and Universities (MnSCU) over two years.
SCSU's share of the cut would be $5.5 million each year.
SCSU administrators presented how cuts will affect campus during a town hall budget meeting last Thursday.
"We want to be ready," said SCSU President Roy Saigo. "We don't want to move too quickly. Everything is on the table."
State Grants
The new bill would also shift $60 million dollars from MnSCU to the state grant program. The state grant program is run by the Minnesota Higher Education Services Office (HESO). HESO requested an increase of $96 million for the next biennium.
"It's very positive giving the budget climate," said HESO spokesman Phil Lewenstein. "The major policy is to help students keep up with their tuition."
However, shifting money from MnSCU to HESO will change where the money will go. MnSCU distributes state funds only to public colleges and universities while more than half of state grant money goes to private colleges.
"The majority of the money goes to the students in private institutions who comprise the minority of the student population," said SCSU Provost Michael Spitzer.
Tuition
Part of Gov. Pawlenty's new budget plan could cap tuition raises by 15 percent per year.
"There's been a shift away from the idea of education as a social good to education as a private good," said Diana Burlison, SCSU's associate vice president of administrative affairs. "What that means is if you go (to college) you pay for it."
Burlison has calculated tuition increases for up to 9 percent.
"I don't know how much we can increase our tuition before it affects our enrollment," she said.
MnSCU Chancellor James McCormick would like to keep tuition increases below the double digits. President Saigo will make suggestions to the MnSCU board of trustees, who will determine next year's increase this summer.
Other possibilities
SCSU has already been cut about $2.2 million for the remainder of this fiscal year. Half of that is coming out of SCSU's reserve funds. The other half comes from offering early retirement and reducing new projects, salary increases, moving costs, severance and other costs.
Staff, faculty, students and community members had a chance to voice their concerns and ideas at the town hall budget meeting.
Many were concerned about jobs with the university. Burlison said that salaries will still go up 5 percent as well as fringe benefits. Because of contracts, most university employees cannot be abruptly terminated. There is still a hiring freeze and some positions that could be filled remain empty.
"By not filling certain positions we are making cuts," Spitzer said.
The Alumni Foundation was brought up as a possible revenue generator. The Alumni Foundation brings in $5 for every $1 spent and earned $3 million last year.
However, when people donate money they can choose to restrict the donation. Most people restrict their donations to scholarships so the donations cannot not be used for other parts of the university.
It was suggested that the university try to sell some land and rent out more facilities.
However, any land SCSU has is owned by the state, and any profit made off of it would go back into the general state fund.
There is some revenue made from renting Atwood Memorial Center and Halenbeck Hall.
There has been discussion throughout the different colleges and departments about possible ways to save money.
One way to save money is to increase class sizes.
SCSU could mandate that certain courses have 50 students and add new or additional auditorium classes.
"Hopefully, we can make some increase in revenue without reducing the quality of the programs," Saigo said.
Convincing legislators
The importance of affordable higher education was stressed at the meeting.
"We need to develop and present a very strong argument to the value of what public higher education provides to the state," Spitzer said.
Burlison also emphasized the importance of affordable higher education.
"Corporations don't come to Minnesota because we have great weather," she said. "They come to Minnesota for two reasons: because we have a highly educated populous and a good work ethic. If you take away those things, why would corporations want to come here? And then what happens to your business base? You can see the snowball effect and I think those are the kind of arguments we need to start making."
Burlison encouraged people to e-mail, call or write their legislators and share their stories.
"We have to be loud about what we want the government to do for us," Burlison said. "Don't forget, they work for us."
Information about SCSU's 2004-2005 budget is available online at www.stcloudstate.edu/budget/.
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