WINONA, Min. – Beset with enrollment declines and concomitant losses in state funding, Winna State University plans to eliminate 15 professor positions permanently from its staffing roster. These will be positions already vacant through retirements, buy-outs and attrition. Also, six administrative and staff positions will be left unfilled. Details were confirmed by finance Vice President Scott Ellinghuysen. He noted, however, that there are variables that still could jigger the numbers, like the level of state funding, which is dependent on the Legislature, and federal Covid relief. At this point, Ellinghuysen said, the university’s budget for the coming fiscal year will be reduced $4.4 million. At its peak several years ago, the budget was near $100 million a year. This is the fourth year of budget cuts as enrollment has slipped 6,350 – off 2,000 from its 2013 peak.
Earlier: WSU foresees more enrollment losses
Verbatim
Ellinghuysen to the Winona Post: “This is I would say our fourth major budget reduction in the last say five or six years. You don’t want to continuously be in a budget reduction mode. You’d like to be in a growth mode and be thinking a lot more about opportunities instead of always cutting your budget. So from that standpoint, the kind of cumulative nature of these budget reductions, I think it’s definitely starting to wear on people and on the institution.”