Bemidji State University Makes Cuts

In Order to Save Money, President Hanson calls for Early Retirement

By Natalie Reque

Bemidji State University is a serene campus settled on the banks of Lake Bemidji. Students enjoy the nature that surround the campus, and some of the accommodations  that help them during the rougher weather months such as the underground tunnels that help them get from one building to the next. However, even in this serene scene, there is a storm brewing on the horizon. For awhile now, the school has been faced with the necessity of cutting back on some of the facility members and departments in the university.

According to Dr. Mary Jo Hrenchir, an associate professor in the History Department, the Liberal Arts is mostly going to feel the hit. “President Hansen has to cut the budget drastically. What he instituted as a first step to stop the hemorrhaging is to offer early retirement to selected programs,” stated the professor  as she sat at her desk that she has sat at for eighteen years. “If the faculty chooses to take early retirement, their position will not be continued. That means that the program/department will lose those positions.”

 An example would be the history program.  Two of the four faculty members are eligible for early retirement; Hrenchir is one of the possible retirees. If both accepted the offer, those two positions would disappear. That means that the history department then would have only two faculty. It probably would be impossible to offer a history major with only two faculty.

 So the answer to the question of majors is that as of now no major has been cut -- but they very well may be. They could be lost through early retirement or retrenchment. The plan is that if enough faculty choose not to accept early retirement the President will have to start firing faculty. President Hansen sees the loss of faculty as a major step in cutting the budget.

President Richard Hanson came to office at BSU in the spring of 2010. Hanson, 60, was interim president of North Dakota State University since Dec. 1, 2009. Previously, he served as president of Waldorf College; professor of sociology, vice president for academic affairs and dean of the college at Augustana College. He was also associate vice president for academic affairs, associate director of human development in the Extension Service and director of the Family Studies Institute at North Dakota State University; and chair of the Department of Home Economics at California State University.

With his past experience, Hanson has started the budget process. “I think the Bemidji State University and Northwest Technical College match is a distinct challenge, and I look forward to it very much,” Hanson said according to the BSU Today webpage. “The pairing of this university and technical college is going to be one of the most fascinating in my career. The Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system is an attractive one in which to work, and I am pleased to be part of it.”

However, not everyone is seeing eye to eye with the president. History major Chloe Evans is very frustrated with the way the president and his staff has gone about the way of approaching this very important situation.  " My boyfriend and I move our lives up here to go to this school because of their great history program. It is so disheartening that we did all that work just to be faced with the situation that our major might be dropped," she said as she leaves one of her many history classes." I am also very offended by the way this issue was told to the students. No emails. No letters letting us know ahead of time. It was pretty much you showed up in class one day and they are talking about dropping classes and stuff. It was so rude."

 “Nothing has been decided yet,” said Senior Senate student Natalie Hursey. “We are working on a forum to let students know what is going on”

President Hanson seems to be having the same amount of stress as some of the faculty does about this possible change. As he said in an email, no programs have been "targeted!" “There is no hit list. There has been absolutely NO conversation about dropping the history program. However, I am sure of a couple things: There is fear; there is uncomfortableness created by the unsureness. All big transitions carry with them the ambiguity of not knowing what will happen. I have the same anxiety.”


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 Chloe Evans is just one of the many students who is worried about her future here at BSU.

President Hanson of Bemidji State University has had to deal with the tough job of cutting the school's budget. Photo courtesy of BSU directory.