University of Minnesota faculty and students urge regents to reject budget cuts and tuition hikes

University of Minnesota faculty, students and staff urged the Board of Regents to reconsider significant budget cuts and tuition hikes in the first public forum Thursday since the U announced the measures last week.

Officials are proposing a 7% cut to academic programs while increasing tuition at the Twin Cities and Rochester campuses by 6.5% — the biggest increase in 14 years for the flagship campus.

Nearly 20 people had the chance to talk for three minutes each, with many worrying the U will have to do more with less in the coming years.

“I think this is a reckless way to plan for the U’s future,” said Claire Halpert, director of the Institute of Linguistics, of the academic cuts.

She said entire programs and hundreds of jobs would be lost. Meanwhile, she said, the budget includes $60 million in a strategic investment fund and $15 million toward the U’s systemwide strategic plan. She urged Regents to reconsider the budget.

Officials have said flat funding from the state, the impact of inflation and declining federal support for research spurred the need for the tuition spike and budget cuts in the $5.1 billion proposal, which the board will vote on next Wednesday. But students and faculty have warned that the funding reductions and tuition increases could lead to fewer instructors being employed at the U and fewer students who can afford to enroll.

Nora Livesay, a staff member in the American Indian Studies department and editor of the Ojibwe People’s Dictionary, called the proposed budget an “abdication” of President Dr. Rebecca Cunningham’s responsibility and an abandonment of the U’s ethical principles.

The budget “squeezes small departments out of existence,” she said, adding that her department is starting a doctorate program but doesn’t even have a graduate program coordinator.

“Please reject this budget,” she said. “There’s nothing strategic about it.”

Several faculty members said they were there to voice support for the budget’s proposed salary increases for faculty — a 3% merit increase and a 1% bump to make compensation more competitive. Both would be for selected faculty only, with decisions made at the school or college level.

“We need to invest in our people,” said Colleen Flaherty Manchester, a professor at the Carlson School of Management. “If we decide to defer that investment, it’s not fair to our students.”

Katherine Dowd, a School of Mathematics administrator, said she believes all U employees should get the 3% increase, including instructors that don’t have tenure.

“It’s a modest but meaningful investment,” she said.

Gavin Pendal, who works for the U’s Waste Recovery Services, said if cuts are to be made, they should “start at the top” with administrators’ salaries.

“We cannot sustain ourselves on poverty wages and high health care costs,” he said, referencing an unsettled contract between his union, the Teamsters, and the U.

Other employees shared the same message.

“Settle our union contracts with real wage increases that keep up with inflation,” said June Huckendubler Kendall, who tends to the U’s lab animals.

Public comments will be accepted online through Tuesday.

Christina Gallup, a faculty member at the Swenson College of Science and Engineering in Duluth, said the budget’s administrative bloat— or even the perception of it — could hurt the U’s chances for future state funding at the Legislature.

“They’re going to wonder what we’re doing,” she said.

Four people at the forum opposed the North Wind land sale due to its links to the defense industry; the U finalized a sale in May to a company to build the Minnesota Aerospace Complex on 60 acres in Rosemount at UMore Park.

Also on Thursday, new provost Gretchen Ritter’s selection was approved by the board on the consent report, despite some faculty’s concerns about the lack of public transparency in her hiring. She will be paid a $675,000 salary and receive a $75,000 retirement account contribution for each of the next five years.

The Twin Cities campus’ tuition hike would bring tuition costs to $16,132 a year for undergraduate residents of Minnesota. Room and board, plus fees, would also go up 6.8% at the flagship campus. For out-of-state undergraduates in the Twin Cities, tuition would rise 7.5%. At the U’s Duluth and Crookston campuses, tuition would increase by 4%, with a 5% increase for the Morris campus. Graduate student tuition will jump 6.5%.

Tuition costs for undergraduates elsewhere in the system range from $12,116 at Crookston to $19,224 at Duluth for nonresidents.

William Luther, an incoming junior at the U’s Twin Cities campus, said the tuition burden puts a bigger burden on students. The increase would hurt students who don’t qualify for the Northstar Promise but are on the edge, he said.

“I ask this university to reconsider budget priorities,” he said.

The proposed budget sets aside one-time money to support research; the U is expecting a 10% to 30% decrease in research funding plus additional losses to the “indirect costs” that come with those grants.

The U isn’t alone in increasing tuition significantly. Minnesota State, the largest system in the state with 33 schools, is considering tuition increases that would likely be the largest in more than a dozen years. Officials have proposed increases ranging from 4% to 8%. The Board of Trustees will vote on that budget Wednesday.