The University of Minnesota is asking state lawmakers for an additional $97.5 million over the next two years largely to cover an unexpectedly large drop in enrollment and a proposed tuition freeze.
The biggest portion of that funding — about $48 million — would help cover a tuition shortfall that Julie Tonneson, the U's budget director, said was unlike any she's seen in her 30 years working for the system.
"Without an increase to our base appropriation in that amount, it would mean significant budget cuts and tuition rate increases, more than we are already contemplating," she told the Board of Regents in a meeting Friday morning.
With the new request, the university now is seeking nearly $1.7 billion from the Legislature to cover its general operations over the next two years. That's in addition to the $950 million it is seeking from the state to acquire its teaching hospitals in reaction to the proposed merger of Fairview Health Services and South Dakota-based Sanford Health.
The request comes at a time when lawmakers are preparing to enter a new phase of budget negotiations. At a committee meeting Tuesday, university officials faced sharp questions from legislators who wondered why the U's projections had been so far off and why administrators hadn't given them additional details to properly vet the request.
"There is a big difference between a need and a want, and right now there is a crisis situation here, with declining enrollment," said Rep. Gene Pelowski, DFL-Winona, who chairs the House Higher Education Finance and Policy Committee and has asked the U to submit additional data to support its request.
The university hasn't yet released data that would show its enrollment projections for each campus and how those numbers changed after the U readjusted its data at the start of a new semester.
Myron Frans, the U's senior vice president for finance and operations, said in an interview Friday that tuition revenue for this year is set to come in around $966 million, some $24 million less than initially anticipated.