TOP HEADLINES INSIDE:
U PANEL DISCUSSES SOLUTIONS TO RAPE CULTURE PAGE 4
■■ U will open review of football sex assault case
THE U’S BIOETHICS CENTER HOSTED THE EVENT.
■■ Gophers men’s hockey season ends after loss
The review will examine the school’s handling of the case. PG 4
The team lost in the first round of the NCAA tournament. PG 6
PARTLY CLOUDY HIGH 51° LOW 31°
U OF M
MINNEAPOLIS
ST PAUL
EARLY WEEK
MARCH 27-29, 2017
ONLINE EXCLUSIVES AT MNDAILY.COM
BOARD OF REGENTS
STUDENT ISSUES
Regents mull hikes to Twin Cities tuition Resident tuition could rise by 2 percent; non-resident tuition could jump by 10 percent. BY KEVIN BECKMAN kbeckman@mndaily.com
COURTNEY DEUTZ, DAILY FILE PHOTO
Children play outside at the Community Child Care Center at the University of Minnesota in St. Paul on Jan. 30.
University of Minnesota students could see tuition hikes next year. At last week’s board meeting, the University outlined preliminar y tuition increases for Twin Cities campus students. Rates would remain the same for resident students across the system’s other four campuses. For resident students, tuition would increase two percent, under the University’s budget framework presented Friday. Nonresident, non-reciprocity students would pay $2,221 — or 10 percent — more next year. The school currently plans to freeze tuition for its coordinate campuses, though that plan may change as the budget process progresses. Because of highly competitive geographic areas and low student population, administrators tr y hard to keep tuition frozen on the school’s system campuses,
Hit with cuts, U-area childcare centers look for funds elsewhere U could receive u See TUITION Page 3
LEGISLATURE
Campus-oriented childcare providers are worried that less funding from the University of Minnesota’s student service fees will bode ill for student-parents.
BY DAVID CLAREY dclarey@mndaily.com
As University-area daycare centers face funding losses from student service fees next school year, student-parents and center directors are working to find alternative ways to fund childcare services. The Como Early Learning Center and Community Child Care Center — daycares that primarily serve University of Minnesota parents — have each received about $85,000 from student service fees in years past. Because of a new cap set for groups, each center will be eligible for a maximum of $55,000. Directors from the daycares and student-parents say the drop in funding could result in cutting : a sliding scale that discounts daycare ser vices based on parents’ income.
Though the University is attempting to alleviate decreased funding by offering a grant for student-parents, advocates say the grant — which the University has said has a funding pool of at least $100,000 — is less effective at helping individual parents than the sliding scale. On March 20, the Council of Graduate Students general assembly passed a resolution criticizing the grant and calling for greater support for the daycares from the University. The resolution states that the changes to the SSF process have “effectively decimated the ability [of the centers] to ser ve the [University] community.” It calls the grant “completely inadequate.” Leaders from the daycares have met with administrators and the Office of Student Affairs to continue to voice their concerns about the SSF changes. However, there’s been little indication that the University
u See HEALTH Page 3
u See BUDGET Page 4
Students call for more mental health resources system-wide BY OLIVIA JOHNSON ojohnson@mndaily.com
The University of Minnesota’s Board of Regents will bolster coordinate campus mental health services after concerns were
BY RYAN FAIRCLOTH rfaircloth@mndaily.com
sentatives called for an increase in funding for mental health resources for the coordinate campuses. “There’s an opportunity for tremendous impact with even the most basic investments on the system campuses,” Lauren Mitchell, student representatives to the board chair said Friday. To address the lack of access, the report
HEALTH
raised that the Twin Cities campus is allocated a disproportionate amount of funding. Student representatives to the board said in a presentation Friday that demand for mental health resources has increased system-wide, but the University’s four coordinate campuses have been overlooked while the University has increased funding on the Twin Cities campus, In its annual report, the student repre-
While the U is seeking $147.2M, the Minn. House and Senate has recommended less than $30M.
The Minnesota House and Senate want to give the University of Minnesota significantly less funding than it requested. The University asked for a $147.2 million increase over the biennium, but the House recommended $22 million while the Senate suggested a $29.6 million increase, according to higher education omnibus bills released last week. Gov. Mark Dayton recommended in Januar y the University receive $96.8 million. University of ficials say the lack of investment will likely require a tuition hike to cover the costs. The lack of suppor t for the University’s core missions and student success initiatives puts “upward pressure on tuition,” University associate vice president for budget and finance Julie Tonneson said at a House higher education committee hearing Thursday. T h e U n i v e r s i t y w i l l s e ar ch for
u See CHILDCARE Page 8
University student-leaders say coordinate campuses have been left out in mental health pushes.
far less funding from state Leg.
WEST BANK
U reverses decision to close Cedar-Riverside dental clinic Though it faces financial losses, West Bank leaders say its vital to the health of their residents. BY RAJU CHADUVULA rchaduvula@mndaily.com
Months after announcing the closure of a financially struggling University of Minnesota dental clinic in Cedar-Riverside, dentistr y school leaders have decided to keep it open. Input from community members and local and state leaders spurred the decision to keep the clinic open, which lost nearly $800,000 last year. Now, the burden is on the school to find ways to make
the clinic feasible. Todd Thierer, associate dean for clinical af fairs for the School of Dentistr y, said the clinic, which is mainly used by low-income residents, was slated to close due to the financial losses. The clinic’s reliance on reimbursement rates from Medicaid brought it to a point where the University couldn’t sustain the losses, he said. Thierer said the school was concerned that if the clinic closed, the nearly 7,500 people that it ser ves annually might not receive dental care. But the school felt confident that even though the clinic would close, people could take the light u See DENTAL Page 2
ELLEN SCHMIDT, DAILY
The University of Minnesota adult dentistry clinic at the Riverside Professional Building on Sunday.
VOLUME 117 ISSUE 47