“The Board of Regents’ recent decision to propose a tuition increase for undergraduate students has magnified how out of touch they are with the needs of working class students as a whole, and with the complexities of the intersectional identities of student”, said a statement from the student-led group Differences Organized (Do!).
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Josh Schoenfeld, UI Graduate and Professional Student Government president, took issue with that statement of support before the student presentations and the full board’s first discussion on the topic in the afternoon.
The protesters are calling for the resignation of President Eric Kaler as well.
The Board of Regents approved a resolution Thursday praising Ruud for increasing enrollment, cutting student debt, raising millions of dollars and hiring key administrators.
The University of Minnesota will raise tuition 2.5 percent for Minnesota residents, and 7.5 percent for nonresidents, on the Twin Cities campus this fall.
Some lawmakers have indicated they understood the regents would have settled for the amount that had been included in Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad’s initial budget earlier in the year.
But Rastetter made clear he’d be supporting the proposed increase.
“I have a lot to think about in the next few weeks”, McKibben said. The $2.2 million increase approved by the legislature, he wrote, is only 27 percent of that request.
“None of us as regents like days like today, in which we have to look at tuition increases, because we know what that does to students and their families and the needs that are there to receive that education”, Rastetter said.
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Rastetter stressed after the meeting the partnership between the state and the regents institutions and thanked the Legislature for it’s past support.
