BSU, NTC ponder low budget increase

I first started at the Bemidji (Minn.) Pioneer as an intern in the summer of 1996. That would begin six years as a news reporter, sports reporter and copy editor for a small, six-day-per-week daily newspaper in northern Minnesota. I wrote a large range of stories from multiple beats, to features to sports, my favorite being the coverage of the Red Lake Reservation High School basketball team named the Warriors. Here is a collection of my stories from my time at the Pioneer.

June 20, 1997

By Devlyn Brooks

Staff Writer

As state legislators look back on the 1997 legislative session and gloat about the supposed 7.5 percent increase in funding they gave to higher education, Bemidji State University and Northwest Technical College officials are scratching their heads wondering why the increases to their intuitions are under 3 percent.

According to figures released June 6 by the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system, BSU will be receiving a 2.98 percent increase over its 1997 fiscal year base funding and additional one-time money, leaving the university with an appropriation of slightly more than $18.4 million.

Northwest Technical College, the parent institution of NTC-Bemidji, is slated to receive a 1.69 percent increase over last year's base plus one-time money, resulting in an appropriation of almost $15.2 million.

However, according to BSU's Vice President of University Advancement Dave Tiffany, the numbers are preliminary and will more than likely change throughout the summer and even as late as December.

In all, BSU's operating budget will consist of about $29.8 million, including about $9.8 million in tuition, another $500,000 in added tuition if the Legislature approves a proposed tuition increase, $430,000 in reimbursed costs and assorted other revenue.

Northwest Technical College will be operating on a budget of more than $25.8 million, including $6.8 million in tuition, $168,000 in added tuition should its increase be accepted and $2.8 million in other miscellaneous revenue.

"These numbers will change. The (MnSCU) Board will make slight adjustments to this allocation in October and probably twice more before the end of the year," according to Tiffany. "But for our planning purposes, our fiscal year 1998 we're using (the figure) $29,770,694."

Both budgets, although tight, could become even tighter should the state not approve BSU's 3 percent and NTC's 2.5 percent proposed tuition increases. BSU's in-state tuition rates are now $52.50 per credit and would rise to $54.05 per credit. NTC's current in-state rate is $41.60 and would rise to $42.65. The combined tuition increase means almost $750,000 to the two institutions.

However small the base appropriation increase is, and however much it is affected in following months, it represents the first such increase in several bienniums that the MnSCU institutions have seen. Two years ago, BSU was forced to eliminate 10 percent of the university's position and lay off 15 people because of budget reductions, and NTC also made major adjustments during the 1993-94 academic year, according to Business Manager Ted Heisserer.

"There have been some small increases in the past few years, but nothing like this (year). What we've done when we've seen the state aid wasn't there was to reduce our expenditures," Heisserer said. "Each year I would rather whittle away at these things, instead of making drastic cuts. But if the funding isn't there. ... The funding isn't there. So, we are appreciative of the Legislature this year; the increase is going to do a lot to help out NTC."

Tiffany is less optimistic.

"This is a great improvement over the last three bienniums when we got less money or nothing at all," he said. "(But) I was hoping there would be more money in the base so we could have put money into new programs. At this point, it's a tight budget. It presents a real managerial challenge."