The University of Minnesota Board of Regents voted Wednesday to approve the upcoming year’s operating budget, hiking tuition across all campuses and making cuts to academic programs.
The $5.1 billion budget outlines a 6.5% increase in tuition for in-state undergraduate and graduate students attending the Twin Cities and Rochester campuses. Nonresident tuition rates will increase by 7.5%, raising out-of-state tuition costs to nearly $40,000 a year.
Colleges across the University will additionally face a 7% cut to academic programs, student services, research and other general operating costs.
Undergraduate resident and nonresident rates will increase by 4% on the Crookston and Duluth campuses, and by 5% on the Morris campus. Graduate rates will increase by 6.5% and 7.5% for residents and nonresidents, respectively.
The budget, which has received growing criticism from faculty and students in recent weeks, passed in a 9-3 vote with Regents James Farnsworth, Robyn Gulley and Bo Thao-Urabe voting against it.
“If this tuition increase was really about fairness for workers, we would also be addressing significant pay issues for contingent faculty,” Gulley said.
Thao-Urabe said she is concerned the tuition increase will impact the students who they feel need the most help.
President Rebecca Cunningham said the unprecedented challenges faced by higher education resulted in a challenging budget year for the University, which she said has experienced over $40 million in cuts from the federal government this year.
Cunningham said while she acknowledges the budget cuts are confusing and painful, the University is one of many across the country facing these kinds of changes.
“It is easy to be in these seats in years where there is excess money, this is not one of them,” Cunningham said. “As a board, you’re being asked to approve a balanced budget during a year where the University received no increase in state funding from the state of Minnesota for the first time in decades.”
The budget includes a $60 million one-time allotment and $15 million in recurring expenses for strategic investments towards the University’s systemwide strategic plan. Cunningham said in Wednesday’s Regents meeting that some of these investments could include AI innovation, improving the Saint Paul campus and investing in student well-being.
The budget includes workforce reinvestments as part of the $15 million recurring funds, with a proposed 3% raise for eligible employees and a 1% adjustment pool, which will be decided by individual departments.
Faculty and students have criticized the money being allocated toward strategic investments, many deeming it administrative “bloat,” which Cunningham pushed back against at the meeting.
“It’s very easy to blame administrators than to look hard at our state and country and understand there is less money available to us to invest compared to years ago,” Cunningham said.
Regent Tadd Johnson said he is pleased that, despite it being a difficult budget, the board has a fiscal responsibility to keep the doors open and keep the university’s reputation intact.
Johnson added he is pleased that tuition increases will not be as severe at the Duluth, Crookston and Morris campuses.
Regent Mary Turner said, amidst unprecedented challenges, there is a need to balance current student needs with future investments.
Regent Janie Mayeron said passing this budget is important to address ongoing challenges, but also to uphold the University’s mission.
“It’s financially responsible that we are anticipating that we may need to call on dollars that we didn’t think we would ever have to call on before,” Mayeron said. “While it is, as I said, the most difficult budget I have ever had to confront, I believe that I don’t see a different way to do it.”