Moorhead, part of the MnSCU system, which faces a $50-million budget cut (Creative Commons photo by J. Stephen Conn via Flickr)

For Minnesota’s college administrators, the announcement of the Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s unallotment plans was a good news/bad news story. The size of the budgetary hit was not as big as they expected. But, it’s still a substantial amount. They were prepared for it, but it’s still coming.

The governor announced that the state’s two higher-education systems — which comprise 32 colleges and state universities, four University of Minnesota campuses in greater Minnesota and the Twin Cities’ U of M campuses — will each take a hit of $50 million dollars, or about a 3.6 percent drop. Many of these campuses are a couple of hundred miles away from St. Paul where the budget decisions are made.

Kurt Hanson, a provost of Northland Community and Technical College in Northwest Minnesota, said the recession hasn’t hit that part of the state too badly, because of its proximity to North Dakota, which is doing relatively well. His school primarily provides job training programs, two-year degrees and general education credits for North Dakota and Minnesota students. Several months ago the president of the Minnesota State College and University (MnSCU) system told the member schools to look for money to cut, Hanson recalls.

“What we were given was a target of about 11.7 percent reduction in our allotments,” he said. That meant a $1.5 million mark for Northland to hit for the 2010 fiscal year. “We achieved that through some efficiencies in course section deliveries. If we had a psychology course that had cap of 40 and we had two sections with about 20 students, we’d reduce it to one section.”

That’s also meant leaving some positions open if people left them. Hanson said he knows his school is the type of institution that people turn to if they lose their job and want to pick up classes or a degree that would provide people with job training. The recession can help keep enrollments for schools like this relatively high, and at Northland, the fact that tuition is holding steady for the second straight year is appealing to prospective students.

“We certainly feel that we will be an important part of retraining people for the downturn in the economy,” Hanson said in an interview.

Edna Szymanski, the new president of Minnesota State University at Moorhead, had a different situation to deal with: a deficit and a subsequent hiring freeze. Between that and the new budget, Szymanski said: “It’s my job to say, ‘No.’”

Szymanski said that she and her fellow system presidents were told to expect bad budgetary news. She said that the previous deficits combined with the new figures will probably mean about a $9 million hit. “It was our job to keep the university alive during the recession and we did.”

Szymanksi said she doesn’t see a lot of competition from other institutions including ones that are right across the river in Fargo, N.D. “[North Dakota State University] is a graduate institution that focuses on research for that state. We primarily provide undergraduate education and some graduate programs.”

The University of Minnesota system was prepared for a cut in the neighborhood of $73 million. The CFO of the system, Richard Pfutzenreuter, told the Star Tribune: “I was just telling someone, well, the front end of the car got taken off, but at least the whole car isn’t destroyed.”

Continuing the analogy, it’s the out-state campuses, like the one that serves Crookston, that are going to have drive this car.

University president Charles Casey said it’s important that people realize that the University of Minnesota includes campuses like his at Crookston, which serves some 1,200 students. Casey says that his campus tries to train students directly for work, and has been dropping two-year degrees in for newer four-year degrees, like Communication.

“Saying I feel a little bit of frustration would be an understatement,” said Casey, who noted that his school has been trying to cast a wider net in its recruitment while also addressing budget realities, like dropping extras such as hockey. Casey said the school is hoping that that scholarship and federal stimulus money will hold tuition down and enrollments steady.

“I think it’s the reality today and we have to deal with the situation we have and not make as many investments as we have in the last couple of years.”

Students, too, are worried about funding levels. Tyler Smith, president-elect of the Minnesota State College Student Association, told the Star Tribune that “we’re still disappointed about the continued cuts to higher education,” fearing big tuition increases in the future and “decreased quality today.”

Meanwhile, the states two university and college systems are looking for a way to handle whatever good news comes along and bracing for more bad news.

Raising taxes to solve the state’s looming $5 billion budget deficit has generally been a verboten subject. Gov. Tim Pawlenty, not surprisingly, has stuck to the no-new-taxes mantra that’s been the guiding philosophy of his two terms in office. His fellow Republicans at the Capitol have been equally adamant that the budget must be fixed without revenue increases.

Even Democrats have been reluctant to broach the topic of tax increases. Since Pawlenty unveiled his budget proposal last week, the party’s leadership has been notably vague in detailing what alternatives they might suggest for fixing the state’s fiscal crisis. Instead the Democrats have promised a two-week “listening tour” to hear how average Minnesotans suggest closing the deficit.

But there’s at least one legislator who’s not shy about suggesting that taxes need to be raised: Rep. Tom Rukavina. At the start of today’s meeting of the Higher Education and Workforce Development Finance and Policy Division, the Iron Range Democrat declared it “nuts” to believe the massive deficit can be fixed without additional revenues.

“The governor’s got to understand he helped create this mess and now he has to help solve it,” Rukavina said. “As much as he wants to starve the beast and cut government, I think this monster’s gotten out of control.”

Today’s hearing focused on proposed cuts to the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system. Pawlenty has suggested chopping $146 million from MNSCU’s 2009-2010 budget, part of an overall 8.2 percent reduction in funding for higher education. A parade of students and faculty members testified that such reductions would be devastating for the 54-campus system and its students, causing tuition to skyrocket and programs to be eliminated.

Travis Johnson, a business administration major at Lake Superior College, told the 21-member committee that he currently works a full- and a part-time job to pay the bills while he and his wife attend college. Arron Johnson, a senior at Southwest Minnesota State University, stated that he’ll graduate with more than $30,000 in debt.

Jacob Littler, president of the Minnesota State College Student Association, argued that funding cuts will inflict long-term economic harm on the state. “These institutions are often the driving forces in local and regional economies,” he said. “Without a strong MNSCU system it will be impossible for the state to meet its future workforce needs.”

Cindy Phillips, a business professor at Minnesota State University Moorhead and president of that school’s faculty association, said the college’s $65 billion budget will have to be cut by 14 percent under Pawlenty’s proposal. She noted that the college has already implemented a hiring freeze and reduced maintenance personnel by 25 percent.

“The stories you’ve heard from the students today are not unusual,” she said. “You could go into any classroom on our campus and hear the same story again and again. It’s very difficult for me to watch this change in the availability of the transformative power of higher education.”

Rod Henry, a business administration professor at Bemidji State University and chief negotiator for the school’s faculty union, questioned Pawlenty’s plan to require MNSCU to teach 25 percent of its classes online. “I am not a Luddite or a stranger to distance education and using technology,” he said, noting that he’s taught roughly 50 classes online over the years. “Online is not for everybody.”

Near the end of the 90-minute hearing, Rukavina expressed sympathy for the students assembled. “I know what you’re going through as far as the debt,” he said. “I’m nervous for all of you.” But he didn’t bring up the prospect of raising taxes again.