Back to School Excitement at SCSU Tempered After Budget Cut Announcement

(KNSI) — Classes begin Monday at St. Cloud State University, but some staff and faculty may not be carrying that same back to school excitement as they did last year.

That’s because officials with SCSU announced in April due to its ongoing budget deficit, the school will reduce staff and proposed reducing the number of majors offered.

According to the spring update, a 22% reduction in staff since 2013 has not kept up with the 38% decline in enrollment in the same period. The current proposed plan shows there are 37 positions not in the budget for 2024, and they would be eliminated. The total suggested 108 personnel reductions through 2028.

A new campaign called Save St. Cloud State was started in June by faculty, students and community members. They are asking the school to rethink its decisions.

SCSU offers 157 programs but says 75% of undergrad students enroll in 35 of them. At the graduate level, 24 of the school’s 80 grad programs account for 75% of enrolled students, which the school says is leading to a reexamination of its portfolio of offerings.

Save St. Cloud State Organizer Jenna Chernega, the President of the Interfaculty Organization, tells KNSI News those numbers don’t accurately portray the actual impact the cuts would have. She explained instructors in those endangered programs aren’t walking into empty classrooms. “They’re walking into full classes of students who are taking the courses for something other than a philosophy major. There may not be a ton of students in that particular program, but the courses they’re taking aren’t going to go away. Even if they eliminate that program, it simply means that a student won’t be able to get that program listed on their transcript. And so some of those very specific programs that have a few students in them don’t actually save the university a ton of money to eliminate, but they do keep students from being able to transcript or indicate to future employers that they are trained to do something in particular.”

One area of extreme concern is the Marriage and Family Therapy Masters program which is on the chopping block.

Chernega says, “community partners have come forward and said that they are devastated because they rely on St. Cloud State to provide the training for workers who staff their mental health facilities. Some of these cuts really don’t make much sense; like the Marriage and Family Therapy Program, which is pretty well enrolled for a master’s degree in Minnesota.”

There is always the option for students to take virtual classes from other institutions, but Chernega notes, as the pandemic revealed, some students don’t do well with online schooling and “if you’re trying to piece together an entire major based on courses from lots of different institutions, you lose the continuity of a curriculum that’s been designed to be taken in sequence by a faculty that works together.”

Chernega concluded she wanted to emphasize that SCSU is an important institution and they’re doing good work. “Each one of our campuses and mainstays really are critical to the communities that they’re in. They are not just institutions of higher education, but they are centers of culture and art and theater and music. They provide connections with the community and educate students for the betterment of our state. To see an institution like St. Cloud [State] struggle this much, and to face that struggle with the decision to make these drastic cuts which will only limit the the way that that institution can help bring more students in is really devastating. So that’s why we are literally trying to save St. Cloud State.”

In a statement emailed from St. Cloud State University to KNSI News, it says the school is moving forward with “taking bold steps to innovate and deliver a high quality education focused on the success of its students and meeting the workforce demands of our community.” Officials say the budgetary decisions affecting faculty are “difficult,” but they are moving forward with a multi-year plan.

As for the Save St. Cloud State campaign, the statement says, “Employees on our campus, instead of those outside of our university who do not represent our campus voice, created a plan and are implementing that plan. We know we must adapt to the changing higher education environment, that students have different expectations from the past, and that we must meet evolving workforce needs. Our latest efforts are working as we are welcoming the largest number of students residing on campus since before the pandemic.

“We appreciate the support from and ongoing dialogue with our campus faculty and staff who are genuinely interested in working together to find concrete solutions to save SCSU.”

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