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December 11, 2010
Final Story

The Budget Crisis Appears Again

President Hanson Addresses the Students

By Natalie Reque

President Hanson relaxign before the meeting.

       President Hanson was elected the new president of Bemidji State University for a lot of reasons, but the main one was because of his expertise in cutting back on schools budgets. Bemidji State started seeing these changes almost immediately following his inauguration. However, it was not until around October that students started to really panic. There were rumors that some departments and classes were being cut out of the school and this would lead to some majors not being offered. This rumor was the start of an epidemic of many rumors to come.
      However, President Hanson set up a meeting on Thursday night at six o'clock located in Haag Saur 100 to squash these rumors and set the record straight. Michael Meehlhause, student co-president for the student senate began the meeting with some facts. "The state of Minnesota is now facing a 6.2 billion dollar deficit, and there has been many cuts all around the state. We all must know that Bemidji State University is not immune to these cuts," said Meehlhause. "We are looking at somewhere around a five million dollar cut to the campus, and there are going to be changes."


Hagg room 100 filled up as more concerned students came in.

       The meeting dove into them talking about how there are going to be changes for the better of the school but without going into details. President Hanson refused any questions that were asking which departments and programs exactly were going to feel these cuts. "Maybe this is a pipedream on my part, but I think we will come out of this stronger. We won't be as big or as broad, but we will be stronger in some very important ways," Hanson said in a very reassuring voice. He mentioned that BSU will still have attractive programs and strong faculty, but that there will be some changes.
       The questions started coming, and one of the first dealt with how many staff members of the school took early retirement. According to the president, eight staff took early retirement at BSU and two at Northwest Technical College. Ten total staff took the board-incentive retirement program. These positions will not be replaced.
       One student asked if he could give a broad category of areas where the percentages of cuts are going to be. "I am going to have to speak very broadly, but the most important fact to know is that we are not going to take everything out of construction- out of faculty and classes. I think you are going to see an impact across all categories. I wish I could tell you it's going to be an even 20/20/20 but that information is not available yet." When he sat with the faculty last week, one of them had made a very important fact saying that this is not going to be just a instuctural cut but a recalibration of this school.
       The most talked about subject was how students are going to be able to finish their degrees if already declared. When these new changes were first being talked about, students were thinking that because of all these cuts, that there majors were not going to be offered or allowed to finish. However, according to Hanson, these changes are not going to be instant. This new plan for changes will be starting over the next two years. "If there was a program that was sited for cutting, every student that has declared that for a major who is a junior and above of this year will finish in that major. Now if you are an incoming freshman, and wanted to declare a major that has been marked to be cut, then we are probably not going to do that."


There will be another meeting held in January.

          The most touchy situation is going to be cutting faculty and deciding who stays and who goes. One lady in the crowd raised her hand to ask if this process is going to involve how students evaluate the teachers or is it going to be based on seniority. "If we were to cut individual faculty from departments but not the program, first we would have to follow the rules that come with cutting faculty from schools. There is a huge set of state rules that needs to be followed, and that contract needs to be honored." This contract can be accessed from the MNSCU site under IFO. Next, there is going to be some formal feedback that the dean and President will be looking at to see who should stay or not.
             If it were up the Hanson, throughout all these changes, there would be no rise in student tuition. But that would be too good to be true. If tuition was not touched, there would be a half a million dollars to come up with to cover the deficit, and right now with the school already behind five million, that would be impossible. "However, we will not be feeing the students to death," the president declared. "Ladies and gentlemen, you need to realize that that these new changes are going to be for the better of the school and you."
           As the meeting wrapped down, there was a feeling of reassurance. One student was really relieved. "Coming to this meeting really made things clear," said Chloe Evans, a senior. "Being that I am in the history department, and before this meeting there were rumors that it was being dropped and I could not finish my major, etc. This was a big relief to come and hear."
          "One thing I do not particular like is the fact that I will have a smaller catalog to choose from being that I have not declared a major," said freshman Alonzo Melton. " All these changes still make me feel like maybe I want to move to a different college that will for sure be offering a lot more."  This meeting that was held last Thursday was only a preliminary one. The school hopes to have everything ready to present to the students and faculty by the beginning of this next semester. President Hanson said that the deadline to have the whole recon structured plans in place by March 1.

Just some of the students that came to meeting.