Riverland Community College officials are breathing easier after state officials allowed the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system access to their money last week.

MnSCU officials were notified by Gov. Mark Dayton’s office June 21 that Minnesota Management and Budget would allow MnSCU to access funds they’ve already collected from tuition and previous state payments.

“We’re all very comforted … that students are going to be accommodated,” said Ron Langrell, Riverland’s Executive Vice President of Academic and Student Affairs last week. “Those are individuals who in many cases are spending their own money to be able to go to school.”

MnSCU officials were worried in early June that a government shutdown would affect more than 67,000 students who are taking summer classes this year. They hoped the MMB, the state’s catch-all department for employee and treasury services, would allow them access to MnSCU funds in order to remain open. Since the MnSCU system only operates on revenue earned from tuition, college staff and faculty could be paid through MnSCU funds and still be considered state employees.

“We are deeply appreciative of the governor’s action to support uninterrupted instruction and services at the state colleges and universities,” said MnSCU Chancellor James H. McCormick in a statement two weeks ago.

Yet instruction and services aren’t safe yet. If a shutdown becomes a prolonged squabble, higher education officials don’t know what the effects will be, specifically with student enrollment and scheduling. Langrell said MnSCU officials were confident their funds would last sometime into the fall semester, but colleges and universities may not be able to collect tuition if a shutdown lasts for longer than a month.

K-12 public schools are constitutionally required to stay open, but school districts throughout the state have worried about whether funding would be present in the event of a shutdown. Many took steps to prepare for short-term loans or dip into reserves. Gearin’s court order considering K-12 education an essential service means districts will still receive per-pupil funding from the state during a shutdown.