University of Minnesota President Rebecca Cunningham announced her recommended budget plan for the fiscal year 2026-27 on Thursday at the Board of Regents meeting.

Cunningham’s proposal asks for an overall fund increase of $235 million from the Minnesota state legislature, a 32% increase from the last fiscal year.

This year, Minnesota state leaders allocated 6.4% of available funds to higher education. Roughly 2% will go to the University of Minnesota.

Fiscal year 2026-27 biennial budget proposal breakdown

$120 million will be allocated to furthering the University’s core mission by increasing employee’s minimum wage and covering increased costs of general maintenance for University buildings. 

$30 million will be spent on “enhancing student experience” by prioritizing services for students, including classroom repairs, increased mental health services, new technology, and career and academic advising. 

$40 million will increase funding to the Saint Paul and greater Minnesota University campuses to promote job growth and research. 

$45 million will help to reduce healthcare workforce shortages, increase reach to underserved populations and continue research in prevention, treatment and care. 

The FY26 budget will be brought before the Board for review and action during their June 2025 meeting, and the FY27 budget will be reviewed the following year in June 2026.

Public Input

The Board discussed potential ways to bridge the gap between the regents, faculty and the student body at their meeting on Friday. 

Executive Director of the Board of Regents and Corporate Secretary of the University Brian Steeves announced the intent to implement monthly “listening activities” for the Board to connect face-to-face with students, staff, faculty and members of the broader University community.

These listening activities, set to launch sometime during the 2024-25 academic year, will feature structured campus visits from regents to participate in panel discussions, pop-up tables and receptions.

Board Chair Janie Mayeron said regents will attend the listening activities on a rotating basis and will not be expected to attend every event.

Steeves said this initiative aims to “meet people where they are,” by making conversations with regents more accessible for those who cannot attend the Board meetings.

This initiative follows the Board’s launch of a virtual forum in December 2023, which gave the public a way to reach the regents with their concerns or inquiries.

Steeves said that although the regents were overall happy with the virtual forum’s success thus far, they want to prioritize hearing student voices.

“The reality is that the virtual forum from what I remember… we didn’t have a whole lot of students that were actually using that, it was mainly the outside public,” Regent Mary Turner said. “We need to have a way to meet the students.”

Bylaw change

Regents discussed the potential of changing a bylaw that requires requests to appear in front of the Board to be made to the Board secretary in advance and ruled on by the Board Chair.

Mayeron presented the option of eliminating the ability for the public to appear in front of the Board in favor of focusing on gaining public input through other methods she described as more meaningful, such as the virtual forum and the listening activities.

Using the example of the pro-Palestinian groups being allowed to appear at a board meeting while the University’s male gymnastics team was denied, Mayeron said the criteria she has been using to determine which groups are given permission to speak in front of the Board comes down to whether she thinks having them there would have a meaningful impact on the Board’s decisions.

“At the end of the day, letting them come here just so they have the opportunity to be heard when we could not offer an alternative seemed unfair to them and didn’t seem like a good use of our time” Mayeron said about the gymnastics team.

Board members Doug Huebsch, Ruth Johnson, Penny Wheeler and Mary Turner supported officially adding language that would require the Board Chair to consult with one or more regents before ruling on the requests.

No consensus on an action was reached and the Board plans to revisit options during their next meeting Oct. 10-11.

Safety

University Police Department (UMPD) Chief Matt Clark announced that UMPD will launch a new interactive campus crime map this fall during his yearly safety update presentation for the University Twin Cities campus.

This map will be interactive and updated as crime happens, allowing users to visualize daily crime information in context, Clark said. 

Clark said in the last year overall crime rates are down, with the exceptions of aggravated assaults, which he attributed to two reports made at the University Medical Center in which hospital staff were assaulted, and another three assaults on uniformed UMPD officers. 

Clark announced several changes for the 2024-25 academic year, including the recent installation of turnstiles in 17th Avenue and Middlebrook residence halls following the positive response to those in Pioneer Hall. 

Additionally, 74 University buildings will now operate on University standard hours, opening at 7 a.m. and closing at 4 p.m. with restricted access via U card. Clark added there has been an increase in high-visibility blue phones and UMPD plans to install interior locks on classroom doors to enhance security.

Coming and Going

• Regents and Cunningham welcomed Charles Nies, the newly instated 10th chancellor of the Duluth campus to the University of Minnesota system.

• Kathy Schmidlkofer, the current President and CEO of the University of Minnesota Foundation announced her official intent to retire in the 2024-25 academic year. A nationwide search for the new President and CEO will be launched sometime in the next few months.