Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s recently proposed budget cut has painted a dire picture for higher education. The governor has proposed a $204 million cut for Minnesota State Colleges and Universities. This amounts to a 15.7 percent cut from our adjusted base. On a per-student basis, this amounts to a cut of $1,571 per full-time student.

These cuts come on top of nearly $50 million in cuts higher education has already absorbed this year with the governor’s unallotment. There are limited options to deal with a cut of this size. Even if tuition were increased by the governor’s suggested limit of 15 percent each year, it would raise only $170 million in revenue, leaving a gap of $34 million for Minnesota State Colleges and Universities institutions.

Minnesota State Colleges and Universities is the largest system in the state, with 235,000 students in credit courses and another 130,000 in non-credit courses. Our enrollment is now at an all-time high, and projected to increase next year. A sagging economy usually means increased enrollment, especially for community colleges.

Our goal is to balance the budget cuts against the increased enrollment and the needs of our students without making the students carry most of the load. But reductions are inevitable.

From the beginning of this process, Riverland has been committed to preserving its career and technical programs. Although Riverland has been able to make the reductions without sacrificing employees or the career and technical programs, so important to the economy of our service area, our reductions have had and will continue to have a negative impact on the students.

We have eliminated all budget reserve purchases, which generally are used for the equipment in our career and technical programs that is necessary to remain up to date with the needs of business and industry. Even though we will not interrupt information technology services, we will spend more of the student-paid technology fees on salaries and less on new technology equipment.

Student access to financial aid will be limited because of the dramatic reduction of funds we traditionally use to match work study money from federal sources. This comes on top of a decrease in financial aid from the state.

Students with childcare needs have been and will be affected. More than 20 percent of our childcare grant recipients this year either dropped out of college or reduced their credit loads to half time because of the cancellation of the state grant program for spring 2003. In addition, Riverland had 59 students on a waiting list for the childcare grant that we were unable to award.

Once the legislature has acted, we will finalize our budget-reduction initiatives. Until then, we are working to develop a plan that can meet the demands of the state with the least amount of direct impact to students. The immediate future will be difficult for the college and its programs, but Riverland will continue to serve the needs of its students and its communities.

James Davis is interim president of Riverland Community College, which has campuses in Albert Lea, Austin and Owatonna.