U of M president proposes tuition hike, staff cuts

Published 1:26 pm Saturday, June 11, 2011

MINNEAPOLIS — The University of Minnesota will eliminate hundreds of jobs, cut millions of dollars in academic programs, freeze wages and raise tuition rates as part of a budget presented Friday by outgoing President Robert Bruininks.

“We have to budget and plan for the worst-case scenario,” Bruininks said at a meeting of the university’s Board of Regents.

That scenario includes a cut of $71 million in state aid to $520.3 million next year. That’s the figure the Republican-controlled Legislature has passed and Democratic Gov. Mark Dayton has vetoed as too low. If their stalemate over the state budget continues through July 1, the state government could shut down and state funding for the university system would stop.

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Bruininks said the university had sufficient reserves to continue classes, research and caring for patients in its health care operations, but only for a short time. And he won’t be there to manage the crisis; Bruininks plans to step down June 30 after nine years as the school’s leader.

In his final budget proposal, Bruininks said the university projects overall revenue of about $3.3 billion for the next fiscal year. State aid pays for about 17 percent, with tuition and fees making up another 29 percent. The rest comes from sponsored research, gifts endowments and investments, and other student fees.