Wednesday, June 29, 2011 twitter.com/@msureporter
THURSDAY H 92 • L 74 FRIDAY H 87 • L 66 SATURDAY H 83 • L 67
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Minnesota State University, Mankato
WHAT WE AVOIDED
AVERY CROPP
staff writer
The Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system won’t shut down on July 1. The Minnesota Management and Budget office has allowed MnSCU to access their funds and keep campus operations going through the summer and fall terms. “A shut down would’ve had real, profound, and catastrophic impacts on the University,” Brian Jones, Director of Admissions said. “We routinely admit students in July. Last year we admitted 256 students in July, this year we’re projecting an admission of 270 in July.” According to Jones, there would’ve been a potential loss of 153 students, and if the shut down had gone longer, MSU may have lost more. Jones said that a government shutdown could’ve caused a lot of students to start looking at other colleges because they couldn’t visit MSU’s campus
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“If we lose out on the numbers of students in higher education, we receive less state funds which results in less of a tolerance for tuition increases,” Jones said. MnSCU approved a budget for next year Wednesday, despite not having a higher education budget passed at the legislature. MSU’s tuition price will increase by 4 percent. Assistant Vice President for Budget & Business Services Steve Smith, is anticipating that the tuition increase proposed will be sufficient to cover next year’s costs if state funding is less than what is expected. According to Jan Marble, Director of Student Financial Services, the financial aid office is usually expected to have 10,000 applications ready to go in September. Much of the processing has been ongoing for the past four months but the bulk of the processing for fall semester takes place during July and August.
“The timing would’ve been terrible, and with people out of work for an extended period of time the process would be slowed significantly,” Marble said. “If there were students relying on [financial aid] to pay [tuition] bills we could accommodate those billing deadlines, but students who are relying on [financial aid] to live would’ve been very difficult to accommodate.” International students on campus would’ve been affected as well. Thomas Gjersvig, Director of the Kearney International Center, requested that the center be considered an essential function of the state. The center has to comply with the federal reporting guidelines of the Office of Homeland Security. MSU reports these compliance requirements on the students’
behalf. Visa processing would not be affected as students apply for visas at a federal level at their embassies. Another concern for International students was that if there was an emergency in their home country, the international office would not be able to sign an I-20 which allows students to travel internationally. A plan for providing emergency contact people for student groups and faculty members studying abroad this summer was still in the works at the time MnSCU stepped in. Gjersvig believes that if MnSCU hadn’t stepped in, the office would still be considered an essential function, and at least one person would be there to assist students, whether it would be someone in the administration or in the international office. According to Assistant Director of Residential Life Torin Akey, if MnSCU hadn’t stepped
in and the government had shut down, students would’ve had to vacate the dorms at Midnight on June 30. Many of these students are international students. Akey said that Residential life was just beginning to find alternative housing for students in the dorms if they didn’t have classes. But there was no official announcement about what that plan would’ve been. “I look at this as a temporary relief to not have major consequences for state employees and for students, but I believe that a more permanent solution needs to be reached,” Akey said. Director of First Year Experience Nicole Dose said that because students wouldn’t have been able to stay in the dorms during a government shutdown, orientation programs that are currently going on would’ve been changed from a two-day event to a one-day event. Students would get advising and
What We Avoided / page 5
Head to page 9 to read up on the NBA Draft, the arrival of Ricky Rubio and whether or not the Minnesota Timberwolves can compete this season.