The Minnesota Election:

A Wake-Up Call for

the Morrill Hall Gang

at the University of Minnesota?

It was clear that no matter who was elected governor, the U of M would not be getting the additional funding it stubbornly plans to ask for from the state legislature.

Emmer promised a cut and the other two candidates promised to try to keep the same funding but warned that no increase was in the cards.

Yesterday's election is almost our worst nightmare at the U.  The GOP has taken over both the House and the Senate.  At least we will not have Emmer to deal with and all his baggage, since it appears that Dayton will squeak by, although this will take a recount. 

From MinnPost:

Even IF Dayton manages to prevail, his tax-the-rich agenda has no chance of going anywhere with a Legislature that will absolutely oppose any new taxes.

These new legislative leaders will be filled with anti-tax fire. Moderation is not what the new class of legislative Republicans is about. The new legislative leaders will be listening closely to the newcomers who put them in power.

So it is time to get your heads out of the sand over there in Morrill Hall and start deciding what we will do given certain probability of cuts.  What will tuition look like under certain scenarios for cuts?

And lets start doing some belt-tightening.  No unnecessary redo of Northrop, no "study to show how economically valuable we are" and a discontinuance of propaganda campaigns.

Unfortunately dealing with this situation is made even more difficult by the terrible timing of the replacement of the president.  This is one of the poorest examples of succession for a university president that I have ever seen.

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