Political Notebook

Olmsted GOP blast RCTC leaders for attending DFL fundraiser

The Republican Party of Olmsted County sent out a press release this morning blasting Rochester Community and Technical College President Don Suppala and other college leaders for hosting a House DFL Caucus fundraiser tonight. They cite a flier sent out by the Minnesota House DFL Caucus that lists Supalla, RCTC Vice President Michael Bequette and RCTC Faculty President Chad Israelson as hosts for the fundraiser. The event will be at Bequette's Rochester home.

Republican Party of Olmsted County Chair Bruce Kaskubar issued the following statement: “I am extremely disappointed that the RCTC leaders — whose institution and individual jobs are supported by state taxpayers whether Democratic, Republican, or independent — are lending their names and titles to assist partisan fund-raising.”

He adds that by using their official positions to raise money for a political party, these individuals are violating MnSCU policies. You can see the full press release here.

Republicans are calling on the three RCTC employees to cancel their participation in the event and move it to a different venue. I have a call into RCTC President Don Suppala to get his side of the story, but have not heard back yet. I'll update the blog after I talk to him.

Carrie Lucking, director of public affairs for the House DFL Caucus, said this amounts to a mistake by a young DFL campaign employee who included the college officials' titles in the flier without their permission. This employee also did not ask their permission to list them as co-hosts for the event. She issued the following statement:

"This is the House DFL Caucus' flier and was not endorsed or approved by any MnSCU employees including President Supalla in any way.
 
The DFL campaign employees who created the flier did not know about MnSCU policy nor did they intend to include titles.  Apparently there were working drafts of the flier and the one with titles was accidentally given to someone to distribute. It was an honest, young employee mistake on their part to put titles on the flier and to allow the flier to be handed out without approval from President Supalla or the other hosts."

Lucking said the first she had heard about the problem was when I contacted her. She said no corrected flier was sent out.

 

Did Bruininks really say UMR might have to close due to budget cuts?

In a press release sent out by DFL Rep. Tina Liebling, it states that, "University of Minnesota President Robert Bruininks told legislators that budget cuts might force the university to close the Rochester campus."

Is that really true? As someone based at the Capitol, it was the first time I had heard such a forceful statement about UMR. So I decided to do a little checking. The bottom line is that statement is misleading.

That statement in the press release is based on testimony that Bruininks gave on Feb. 22 before the House Higher Education Policy and Finance Committee. During that testimony, he talked about what it would mean if the university is faced with a 15 percent to 20 percent cut in its budget. To illustrate the size of the budget problem, he listed off several examples of programs that would have to be totally eliminated in order to make up the funding gap.

At one point, he said, "We could eliminate all four coordinate campuses across the state of Minnesota that is $76 million in state support and not balance even the lower number of these projected cut."

The four coordinate campuses are Crookston, Duluth, Morris and Rochester. But this was clearly just an example to highlight the size of the budget cuts facing the university. He also provided an example that they could eliminate the U of M's College of Science and Engineering and close the pharmacy and dental schools and that would only save $83.5 million.

The Minnesota House yesterday passed a budget bill that would cut nearly 18 percent from the university's budget based on what they were forecasted to receive. A Senate version of the bill cuts U of M's budget by 19 percent. Bruinicks did say in the hearing that deep cuts would require the university to reasses how it operates.

"We would be forced to re-examine the impact and the financial viability of entire operations in the University of Minnestoa system, statewide services, entire schools, colleges and campuses, (and) the level of enrollment in critical programs," he said.

But at no point does Bruininks state that specifically the University of Minnesota Rochester campus may have to be closed.

I called Liebling to ask her about the statement in her press release and she said that it is her responsibility to review press releases that are sent out and she should have done a better job vetting that.

"I obviously have to take responsibliity for what goes out under my name," she said.