The Board of Regents barely got its Friday meeting started. Before President Rebecca Cunningham could begin her remarks on October 9, student activists interrupted the proceedings to protest the budget cuts and tuition hikes administrators announced recently.
The protesters were members of Students for a Democratic Society. University of Minnesota Police escorted them out of the meeting room as they chanted "money for campus, not for admin." After that, the meeting went on as planned.
SDS member Aria Marsack laid out what the group wants. "We're hoping for a reduction in the budget cuts, for more support from administration, more transparency and a change in how they handle the money," Marsack said. "I think it would be nice to see Rebecca Cunningham offer to take a pay cut like other University presidents have done in similar situations."
The protesters listed several grievances: $1.15 million added to Cunningham's contract benefits in July, $225 million to $260 million in budget cuts announced for the next 2 years, a second straight year of tuition increases, and less spending on academics.
The cuts at the center of the protest were announced September 24. The university said it will cut $225 million over 2 years across all its campuses and locations, which works out to 12% to 15% of allocated operating revenue. For comparison, the operating budget the regents approved in June is $5.4 billion. Cunningham pointed to shifting enrollment trends, unpredictable state and federal funding, and rising costs, and called the moment "an institutional inflection point." This also isn't the first round. The university has cut its budget for the past 2 years, which included tuition increases of up to 7.5% in 2025 and 4.5% in 2026 along with reductions to academic programs.
Once the meeting resumed, Cunningham blamed stagnant state funding, a deficit in Minnesota State Grant programs, and general economic uncertainty. "This is not a sudden change," she said. "We are announcing this new approach to budget planning so that we can plan with our community, transparently and with shared governance over the next one to two years."
Cunningham also pushed back on calls to cut particular departments. She argued that the gap has to be closed through efficiency improvements across the whole institution, not targeted reductions. Board Chair Doug Huebsch's message was short. "Change is difficult," he said. "But I know that as a University we will need to make tough choices."
The rest of the agenda was routine by comparison. The board introduced 2 new administrative leaders and heard reports from University of Minnesota Foundation leadership. Since the university is moving to a 2-year budget planning cycle, the fight over where the cuts land is likely to come back to the regents' table many more times before July 2027.
