A bloated curriculum, underprepared students and underutilized facilities are driving major budget problems for Minnesota’s largest higher education system, formerly known as Minnesota State Colleges and Universities and now called Minnesota State.
Addressing those three challenges will take time, but each could save the system tens of millions of dollars each year, a 24-member task force told the governing board Tuesday.
Chancellor Steven Rosenstone last fall called for significant spending cuts because of declining state funding. Minnesota State projects its annual deficit will grow to between $66 million and $475 million by 2025 with no action.
“Sitting around and talking for a couple of years only makes the problem worse,” Rosenstone said.
The group said it would take a matter of months to start marketing the institutions together rather than competing for students and to increase post-secondary enrollment classes for high schoolers.
Their longer-term recommendations include:
- More shared presidents for metro colleges.
- Regional centers to handle admissions, human resources, payroll and more.
- Offering new types of credentials and degree pathways.
- More customized training for employers.
- Aligning online course offerings.
Trustee Margaret Anderson Kelliher was hoping for more details on the potential savings for each of the recommendations. The information was presented with wide ranges and timelines.
She also wondered what the higher education system could realistically do in partnership with K-12 institutions to “eliminate achievement and opportunity gaps,” as the report suggests.
Trustee Phil Krinkie was disappointed that 22 of the 24 task force members had ties to MnSCU.
He had several suggestions of his own: closing several campuses, charging more for high-cost programs, recruiting nationally for online programs, drastically reducing course offerings and lobbying for the authority to ask residents to approve special sales taxes for their local college or university.
“It seems to me we’re constrained a lot here by inside-the-box thinking,” he said.
Rosenstone acknowledged the path to balanced budgets will be difficult. The system will spend four months consulting with labor and student groups before producing an action plan in October.
He can expect pushback on a proposal to dissolve the two faculty unions, which now represent the colleges on one side and the universities on the other. The work group recommends replacing them, first at Metropolitan State University and 10 nearby colleges, with a part-time faculty group and a full-time group.
The task force said that move would save the higher education system $5 million to $25 million a year.
The Inter Faculty Organization, which represents university faculty, has said it would weaken the unions and hurt schools’ ability to hire top instructors.
The new ‘Minnesota State’
Minnesota State is the new name for Minnesota State Colleges and Universities, the system of seven public universities and 24 community and technical colleges. Trustees approved the new name on Tuesday. Websites and written material will be updated soon, followed by apparel and signs over the next two years.