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Note: The Senate Information Office has toll-free telephone numbers to enable citizens of Greater Minnesota to obtain general information about the Minnesota Senate. The telephone numbers are: 1-888-234-1112 (voice) and 1-888-234-1216 (TTY).
Update: April 1, 2004 4:05 p.m.
The proposal cuts $2 million from the Higher Education Services Office (HESO) budget for tuition reciprocity agreements, appropriates $1.39 million for a nursing loan program and provides $360,000 for the family practice residency program at United Hospital in St. Paul. The proposal also transfers money within the state grant program budget to fund a nurse scholarship program, to fund a first generation students grant program and to cover a change in the deadline date for financial aid applications. The net general fund impact of the proposal is a $250,000 savings.
Panel members briefly discussed the eligibility requirements for the first generation students grant program. Mike Lopez, assistant chancellor for the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities, said the system already uses "students whose parents have not attended college" as a definition of first generation students, but the bill uses the broader category of students whose parents have not graduated from college. He said the new definition will essentially invalidate the research the system has already done on bringing new families into the higher education fold. Sen. Claire Robling (R-Jordan) offered an amendment changing the eligibility to students whose parents have not attended a postsecondary institution. The amendment was adopted.
After the amendment was adopted, John Corbid, representing the Minnesota Private College Council, said there is no financial benefit to a family if someone attends college unsuccessfully. If the intent is to create a tradition of higher education, and better economic status, in families, then graduation is the appropriate standard, he said.
Division members also heard from representatives of HESO and the Dept. of Health on existing loan forgiveness and repayment programs for health care workers, including nurses. The agency staff pledged to work with Sen. Yvonne Prettner Solon (DFL-Duluth), who authored the nursing loan program provision in the proposal, on refining the new language and ensuring that it complements the existing efforts.
S.F. 2077, carried by Sen. Steve Kelley (DFL-Hopkins), and S.F. 2635, sponsored by Sen. Richard Cohen (DFL-St. Paul), set a state policy permitting research involving the derivation and use of human embryonic stem cells from any source, require health care providers to furnish infertility treatment patients with sufficient information to make an informed and voluntary decision regarding the disposition of embryos remaining after fertility treatment and prohibit the sale of fetal tissue. Cohen and Kelley both emphasized the importance of engaging the state in the next frontier of scientific research. Dr. Frank B. Cerra, senior vice president for health sciences, said the University of Minnesota is a world leader in stem cell research. He said the University has made promising research gains in the area of adult stem cells, but that embryonic stem cell research is needed to learn about stem cells in general and to find new treatments to alleviate and prevent human suffering. Embryonic stem cells, Cerra said, are not and will never become fetuses, because they have not been and will never be implanted. He said he has lived through two other major medical breakthroughs-the first heart implant and brain death-that posed similar ethical issues. Society managed those issues and will manage the issues related to stem cell research, he said.
However, Dr. Frank Preston, a retired professor of medicine at the University, said the embryos are human. Embryonic stem cell research is morally troubling, he said. He said the research with adult stem cells is far beyond where embryonic stem cell research is. To help the sick in their lifetimes, Preston said, policymakers need to give researchers more money for work with adult stem cells, rather than get distracted with embryonic stem cell research. He also said that researchers have had medical difficulties getting embryonic cells to react properly, while no such problems have presented themselves in research with adult cells. However, Cerra said that it is precisely because the medical community knows comparatively less about embryonic stem cells that more research is needed. Both S.F. 2077 and S.F. 2635 were advanced on a 5-4 roll call vote.
In other action, the division considered provisions in a medical care cost containment bill, S.F. 1760, carried by Sen. Linda Berglin (DFL-Mpls.). Members focused on three provisions aimed at reducing the staffing shortage in health care. The bill increases funding for the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities for nursing education, provides for loan forgiveness for nurses getting advanced degrees who commit to spending at least 20 hours a week as nurse-educators and creates a career ladder for low-wage health care workers to advance their skills. The panel recommended the full Finance Committee approve the provisions.
Division members also examined a draft amendment to the higher education omnibus supplemental budget bill, S.F. 2695, carried by Division Chair Sandra Pappas (DFL-St. Paul). The amendment contains the chair's recommendations for the bill, includes appropriation changes, prohibits marketing credit cards to undergraduate students, classifies illegal immigrants who would otherwise meet residency requirements as Minnesota residents for tuition purposes, creates a scholarship program for first-generation students, creates a loan program for low-income nursing students, changes the process used to select regents of the University of Minnesota and requires the Higher Education Services Office to enter into negotiations with Wisconsin regarding the tuition reciprocity agreement between the two states. No action was taken on the amendment.
S.F. 3002, carried by Division Chair Sandra Pappas (DFL-St. Paul), creates a low-income scholarship program. To be eligible, students must be the first in their immediate families to attend college and must be enrolled at an institution in the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system. The bill provides awards of $2,000, with a lifetime maximum of $4,000. Scholarship grants are awarded beginning with the lowest-income students in the state grant pool and working upwards along an income scale, until the funds available are exhausted.
S.F. 3004, sponsored by Sen. Yvonne Prettner Solon (DFL-Duluth), creates a scholarship program for low-income nursing students. Priority is given, under the bill, to students who are residents of rural or urban Health Professional Shortage Areas, as determined by the Dept. of Health. The bill provides for annual awards of up to $5,550 for tuition and fees, as well as $800 for books and supplies, for students enrolled in public postsecondary institutions. Students enrolled in nursing programs at private institutions are awarded $3,000 per academic year. The bill allows the award to be renewed up to three times, as long as the student is making satisfactory progress toward degree completion.
Panel members also heard a report from the group Growth and Justice. The report, entitled "Workforce First," focuses on putting the state on a path toward a strong economy and a decent standard of living for all Minnesotans. The division focused on the higher education recommendations in the report, including restructuring the state financial aid formula to help low-income and part-time students, adopting a program to encourage welfare recipients to attend college and encouraging online education by providing an incentive to businesses that pay for it for their employees. The report also recommends paying nonprofit training organizations for successfully moving low-wage workers up the ladder and expanding a state program in which businesses partner with postsecondary institutions to train employees in needed skills.
Representatives of the Midwest Higher Education Compact reviewed how the compact strives to serve institutions in its member states: Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio and Wisconsin. The compact follows six goals: enhancing productivity by reducing administrative costs, encouraging student access and affordability, facilitating policy analysis, facilitating regional academic cooperation, promoting quality programs and encouraging innovation. Compact President Larry Isaak and James McCormick, vice chair of the compact, reviewed the compact's cost-savings initiatives, policy research and data analysis, electronic dissemination of information and minority faculty development activities, as well as the Midwest Student Exchange Program.
Members also heard from representatives of the Minnesota P-16 Education Partnership on proposals for easing students' transition from high school to higher education and for ensuring the availability of high quality teachers. The partnership is a coalition of groups representing all levels of education, from preschool to higher education.
The panel, chaired by Sen. Sandra Pappas (DFL-St. Paul), began by hearing the recommendations of the Governor's Bio-Science Council. Louis Jambois of the Dept. of Employment and Economic Development, Doug Johnson of the Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota, Dr. Erick Wieben of the Mayo Clinic and Dr. Mark Paller of the University of Minnesota reviewed the proposals, which are contained in three bills. S.F. 2456, carried by Sen. Ellen Anderson (DFL-St. Paul), provides $20 million to design, construct, furnish and equip transportation, development and redevelopment infrastructure required to support bioscience development in the St. Paul bioscience corridor. S.F. 2754, authored by Sen. Steve Kelley (DFL-Hopkins), provides $70 million for operating expenses of the joint partnership between the University of Minnesota and the Mayo Clinic for research in biotechnology and medical genomics. S.F. 2757, sponsored by Sen. Richard Cohen (DFL-St. Paul), appropriates $40 million for projects in the biotech zone encompassing Minneapolis, St. Paul and Rochester. No action was taken on the proposals, as they were not before the division.
Division members also considered two other bills, which were laid over for possible inclusion in an omnibus higher education bill. S.F. 2777, carried by Sen. Satveer Chaudhary (DFL-Fridley), appropriates $750,000 to develop and establish a partnership between the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities and the biosciences industry. Sen. Ann Rest (DFL-New Hope) carried S.F. 1825, which makes changes to the tuition reciprocity programs with the states of Wisconsin, South Dakota and North Dakota.
S.F. 2022, sponsored by Sen. Steve Dille (R-Dassel), appropriates $5.1 million for renovation of the University of Minnesota Twin Cities Campus-St. Paul Dairy Barn. The measure specifies the renovation includes classroom, conference and computer lab space as well as a commons area for students, faculty and visitors. In addition, the measure provides that the dairy barn be renamed the Ben Pomeroy Student-Alumni Learning Center. S.F. 2670, also sponsored by Dille, appropriates $245,000 for the Joint Plant Pathology Center on the St. Paul campus of the University of Minnesota. S.F. 2569, sponsored by Sen. Becky Lourey (DFL-Kerrick), appropriates $1.985 million for projects at Northland Community and Technical College involving the relocation of a workforce center, remodeling to expand nursing programs and remodeling related to instructional and office space.
S.F. 2606, carried by Pappas, provides reserve funding for the state grant program to be used upon certification by the director of the Higher Education Services Office to the director of finance that the amount appropriated for state grants is insufficient to make grant awards through the end of the fiscal year. S.F. 2649, authored by Sen. Lawrence Pogemiller (DFL-Mpls.), creates a postsecondary study-abroad grant program and sets forth eligibility requirements.
A final bill, S.F. 2695, also sponsored by Pappas, makes technical and housekeeping changes to provisions relating to the Higher Education Services Office.
S.F. 1886, authored by Sen. Yvonne Prettner Solon (DFL-Duluth) appropriates $18.767 million for projects at the University of Minnesota-Duluth. The measure specifies $1.467 million be used to design a new building for the Lebowitz School of Business and Economics, $8 million to construct, furnish and equip the recreational sports facility and $9.3 million to renew the life sciences building. S.F. 2475, sponsored by Sen. Scott Dibble (DFL-Mpls.), appropriates $5.79 million for the design, remodeling, furnishing and equipping of basic science laboratories and a health sciences center for nursing at Minneapolis Technical and Community College.
S.F. 1755, sponsored by Sen. Thomas Bakk (DFL-Cook), appropriates $10.35 million to construct an addition to house all student services, high-tech classrooms, open computer labs, space for workforce development and faculty and administrative offices at Lake Superior College. S.F. 1784, authored by Sen. Sheila Kiscaden (IP-Rochester), appropriates $11.745 million to construct, using the design/build method, furnish and equip the renovation of the vacant Rockenbach gymnasium, selected areas of the Heintz Center and portions of the University Center Rochester main campus buildings all for use as a health sciences center for Rochester Community and Technical College.
S.F. 1949, authored by Sen. Dave Kleis (R-St. Cloud), provides the option for a state college or university to elect self-governance and provides for the administration of an independent state college or university. S.F. 2361, sponsored by Sen. John Hottinger (DFL-St. Peter), provides that the state universities offer undergraduate and graduate instruction through the applied doctoral degree, including specialist certificates, in the liberal arts and sciences and profession education. S.F. 2276, also carried by Hottinger, authorizes St. Cloud State University and Minnesota State University, Mankato, to prepare and submit to the Legislature a report on a plan to develop and offer doctoral level programs or degrees.
Members also reviewed S.F. 1923. The bill, which is in another division, deals with bonding for the University of Minnesota and the Mayo Medical Center. Under the measure, sponsored by Sen. Richard Cohen (DFL-St. Paul), $20 million from the bond proceeds fund is appropriated to the University of Minnesota for the purchase of a medical research facility in the city of Rochester.
The division also heard from supporters of a University of Minnesota proposal for planning money for a new undergraduate building for the Carlson School of Management.
Larry Goodwin, president of the College of St. Scholastica, said the Private College Council recognizes that higher education is vital to Minnesota's economic future. Baccalaureate degrees are the entry-level credential needed for full participation in the knowledge economy, he said. Looking at demographics, Minnesota will need 500,000 new bachelor's degree holders in the next 10 years to offset the retirement of the baby boomer generation, he said. However, all of the state's public and private institutions are on track to produce only 230,000 graduates, Goodwin said. The council recognizes that funding for higher education is limited, he said, and decided to focus on determining the best way to leverage higher education dollars in Minnesota. David Laird, president of the council, said private colleges represent the fourth largest private employer in the state and bestow one third of the state's bachelor's degrees, but account for only three percent of state higher education expenditures. Since 1968, he said, only two studies have been done on students' and families' experiences with college financing. A 1992 study underwritten by the Lilly Endowment, and encompassing the University of Minnesota, Minnesota State Colleges and Universities (MnSCU) and the private colleges, found that higher income families expected to receive high levels of public support for higher education, Laird said. Another finding of the 1992 study, he said, was that the median income of research university families is higher than the median incomes of families with students enrolled at either state colleges and universities or private colleges.
The most recent study, said Doug Shapiro, surveyed 501 graduates of the class of 2002 in early 2003. Shapiro, vice president of research for the private colleges, said the study showed that the average total amount of loans students took out to pay for college was $22,100, which represents a 50 percent increase over the last 10 years. However, Shapiro said, 91 percent of respondents said borrowing money for college did not impact their choice of major or career. In comparing students who received state grant aid against those who did not, he said, no statistical differences were found in college attended, ability to graduate in four years or less or satisfaction with the college experience. He said there are also no statistical differences in average personal income for full-time employed graduates or the ability to find full-time employment between the two groups, even though there was a $40,000 difference in family incomes between the groups when the students enrolled. Laird said the last statistic was among the most significant. It is a challenge to find another area in the state budget where that sort of transformation occurs, Laird said.
The full study is available from the Minnesota Private Colleges Council website.
In other action, division members, chaired by Sen. Sandra Pappas (DFL-St. Paul), heard from Dr. Peter Agre on the importance of higher education. Agre is a 1970 graduate of Augsburg College, a professor at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and the recipient of the 2003 Nobel Prize for chemistry. "Nothing that any of us do anywhere is more important than the education of our children," he said. Agre said science teachers are more important than Nobel laureates for the nation's future. It is important for everyone to know about science, he said; otherwise, those without knowledge are at the mercy of others.
Division members also heard briefly from President Larry Litecky, Century College, and Allen Johnson, MnSCU associate vice chancellor for facilities, on a science laboratory project for which Century College requested bond proceeds. The project was not included in the governor's recommendations.
The first report, initially released in September 2003, focuses on tuition reciprocity. Minnesota has tuition reciprocity agreements with three surrounding states: Wisconsin, North Dakota and South Dakota. The Office of the Legislative Auditor (OLA) found that South Dakota has not made a payment to Minnesota in recent years, contrary to the requirements of original agreement. The report also indicates that students from Wisconsin usually pay tuition rates at Minnesota schools that are less than those paid by Minnesota residents at the same schools. OLA staff also surveyed Minnesotans about why they chose to leave the state for higher education. According to the report, Minnesotans cited academic preferences more than other factors as an important reason they decided to attend school outside Minnesota, however, most Minnesotans who attended school in a reciprocity state said that they would not have been willing to pay nonresident tuition to attend that school. There has been a modest net outflow of reciprocity students from Minnesota to states with which Minnesota has tuition reciprocity agreements, but a significant percentage of departing students return to Minnesota to work after graduating from college, according to the report.
Compensation of faculty and staff at the University of Minnesota was the focus of the second report, released Feb. 17. OLA staff found that about 67 percent of total University expenditures, or about $1.4 billion, were devoted to salaries and benefits for faculty, staff and student workers in FY 2003. The report also examines the comparison groups used by the University to evaluate faculty compensation. In 2002-03, the average compensation of faculty at the Twin Cities campus was 3 to 11 percent below the average of its comparison group, compensation at the Morris campus was 3 to 6 percent above its comparison group average and compensation at the Duluth and Crookston campuses was 8 to 31 percent higher than comparison group averages, according to the report. OLA staff also compared the salaries of upper-level administrators and professionals at each campus, finding them to be comparable to the average of similar higher education institutions.
Copies of both reports are available online from the OLA. (Use the links provided above.)
The panel heard from representatives of the Dept. of Finance on the governor's recommendation for higher education in general. The governor recommended a bonding level of just over $162 million for higher education, split between the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities (MnSCU) system and the University of Minnesota. The recommendation for MnSCU totals $88.6 million, including $49 million for asset preservation, $10.2 million for the renovation of Pasteur Hall at Winona State University and $9.6 million for the renovation of Hagen Hall at Minnesota State University Moorhead.
The governor's recommendation for the University of Minnesota totaled $76.6 million-$38.8 million for asset preservation, $9.3 million for renovation of the Life Science Building at the University of Minnesota-Duluth, $16 million for the renovation of Kolthoff Hall on the Twin Cities campus and $13.3 million for the Education Sciences Building on the Twin Cities campus. Representatives of the University also spoke to the division and presented their full list of requests, which totaled $155.5 million. The full request included 5 additional projects and provided $52 million more in asset preservation. Division members also heard from MnSCU representatives. The full request for the system included 32 total projects, as well as asset preservation, for a total of almost $275 million.
Information about capital budget requests is available from the Dept. of Finance online.
Specific information about the University of Minnesota's capital budget request is available on the university's website.
Information about MnSCU's capital request is available online.
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