State funding cuts spur universities to ponder privatization - Dolph C. Simmons, LJWorld

Due to shrinking state funding, Minnesota’s School of Law and the Carlson School of Management are looking at the possibility of operating without state funds, relying on private support. Those in favor of the plan claim being self-reliant would give the schools more control over how they operate and offer more incentive to improve and increase their private giving. In the face of likely cutbacks, universities are studying ways to maintain or elevate their excellence within their own complex. Officials at the University of Minnesota, one of the nation’s largest and most respected state-aided universities, currently are giving serious study to the possibility of depending on private money rather than unreliable state funds to support several of their schools. The new University of Minnesota president, Eric Kaler, who has been on the job for less than a month, will make the final decision, but he is faced with huge budget cuts and pressures to hold back on tuition increases.