MnSCU passes budget with tuition freeze
Trustees of state-run colleges and universities have approved a budget that freezes undergraduate tuition next year.
MnSCU had originally proposed a 3 percent tuition increase, but received millions of dollars in state funding to keep tuition flat.
MnSCU faculty and staff will get a 2.6 percent compensation increase. Inter Faculty Organization President Nancy Black said it's the first increase faculty have received in four years. MnSCU will also spend $17 million this year to retain high-performing faculty and staff.
The budget includes more than $11 million for workforce development projects, including more training equipment for students. MnSCU received less than a fifth of what it had requested from the state for its workforce initiative.
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Chancellor Steven Rosenstone told me MnSCU will still make it work:
"Clearly it provides a tuition freeze for students, which is a wonderful thing. But it also means that much of the innovation we had hoped to provide this year -- and growth in programs to better serve students in key sectors of our state -- aren't going to be able to happen. ... We're pleased for the focus on affordability, we're pleased for the $7 million to help with the purchase of equipment a year from now. But it's going to be a very tight couple of years."
The operating budget is about two and a half percent larger than last year’s.
MnSCU also wants to spend 14 percent less on campus construction and renovation than it did last year, and will demolish about a dozen unused buildings across the state to save tens of millions of dollars in operations and maintenance. Trustees approved that budget request.