BUZZ
Citing declining enrollment and rising costs, the University of Minnesota president announced plans Thursday to implement major budget cuts over the next two years.
All five of the public university’s campuses will be affected by the $225 million budget reduction; however, specifics have yet to be decided, University President Rebecca Cunningham said, the Pioneer Press reports.
“Like colleges and universities all across the country, we are facing shifting enrollment trends, unpredictable state and federal funding, and rising costs,” Cunningham stated in an online message. “These issues are part of long-term sector trends that will continue for the foreseeable future.”
The $225 million represents approximately 12 to 15 percent of the university’s revenue, according to the message.
The planned cuts will accompany a tuition increase that the university’s Board of Regents approved in June alongside a total budget of $5.4 billion, KARE 11 News reports.
“This is not a temporary change — this is an institutional inflection point that asks us to think about our work in new and bolder ways,” Cunningham stated.
Budget cuts, tuition increases, program reductions, and campus closures have been a mark of higher education struggles across the country in recent years.
Recent examples of institutions implementing major cuts include the University of Nebraska, West Virginia University, University of New Hampshire, and Penn State University.
Reports of administrative bloat have prompted concerns about fiscal responsibility. Analyses by The College Fix and others have found ratios of administrators to undergraduates as high as one to one at some campuses, including many positions linked to DEI initiatives.
Many institutions also are facing a drop in enrollment due to factors such as declining birth rates, distrust in higher education, burdensome student loans, and a turn to trade schools and apprenticeships.
Notably, along with its budget struggles, the University of Minnesota also is facing three federal investigations into the MyGender Dolls project developed by its Institute for Sexual and Gender Health. The “therapeutic” dolls with “interchangeable genitalia” are designed for gender confused children as young as 4, The College Fix reported.
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