U president lists plans for $50 million budget bonus

A budget change, thanks to a flusher allocation by the Legislature, is giving the new University of Minnesota president his first chance to put some money -- about $50 million -- where his mouth is.

The U had approved a budget based on the "worst-case" scenario during the legislative session. The final agreement provided $25 million more than that in both 2011-12 and 2012-13.

That additional funding has given new President Eric Kaler the chance to invest in a few priorities right away. As he promised, he has recommended that a big chunk of the funding soften tuition increases, in part through one-time scholarships in the spring. Other proposals include $4 million for faculty hires and $3.1 million to offset cuts in training for health care professionals.

The Board of Regents will consider his budget amendments on Friday.

In a July interview after the budget deal that increased U funding, Kaler had said he was "grateful for that opportunity."

"It does give me a little more room to not only talk about things I'd like to do," Kaler said, "but invest in them."

It's too late to help students pay for this fall's tuition and fees, the university says. But in the spring, each low- or middle-income undergraduate student will receive a one-time scholarship of $310. That's $4.15 million spread out among 13,400 students on all campuses.

Tuition and fees have doubled over the past decade, reaching $13,060 for Minnesota residents this school year, not including room and board.

In a e-mail on Tuesday to graduate and professional students, Kaler noted that losses in state funding have "adversely affected tuition and support for graduate programs." He wants to invest $6 million over three years in a program called Doctoral Dissertation Fellowships, which has been shown to reduce the time it takes graduate students to finish their degrees.

"I hope this offers a glimpse of my desire to enable deeper scholarship and timely completion of your degrees," his e-mail said.

Graduate students have been hit hard by tuition increases locally and the elimination of federal subsidized loans nationally, said Emily Combs, president of the Council of Graduate Students at the U. So she's "very, very happy" to see that Kaler did not overlook them.

"It's really important to support timely completion," she said. "So this is probably one of the best places to put [the funding]."

• $4 million for new faculty hires, to restore about half of the more than 50 faculty lines left open due to recent budget cuts. Kaler suggests as many as 16 faculty in the sciences and engineering, as many as 10 in the College of Liberal Arts and as many as five in the Carlson School of Management.

• $3.1 million for a program that trains medical professionals. The state cut its funding in half starting this fall. About $2 million would go to the School of Dentistry to support clinical training at several sites, including those in Hibbing and Willmar.

• $150,000 for the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program, which gives students stipends to work on research projects with faculty. The investment would bring the total number of students in the program from about 800 to 900.