University of Minnesota grad students' union sounds alarm over $225M budget cut

Graduate teachers and researchers at the University of Minnesota are worried they could be on the chopping block after the U announced $225 million in budget cuts are needed to balance the budget.

U officials say enrollment trends, rising costs and the unpredictability of state and federal funding were all factors forcing the massive cuts.

At a Friday morning news conference outside Morrill Hall in Minneapolis, the U's administrative headquarters, union leaders expressed frustration over what they call frivolous spending in the face of the proposed cuts.

"It sent a shockwave through the university," said Ben Lewis, president of GLU-UE Local 1105. "Everybody is extremely nervous that these cuts are going to come at the expense of what we all love to do: the teaching, the research."

Union leaders say the university has spent about $225 million on private consulting, coincidentally the amount projected to be slashed over the next two years. That's on top of learning that the cost of the U's health benefits for workers will increase for the first time in 12 years. Tuition also went up for the sixth year in a row.  

It's unclear at this point how and where administrators will make the cuts.