State economist Tom Stinson to step down after 30 years, focus on teaching and research

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Tom Stinson has worked two jobs for the past 26 years.As a University of Minnesota applied economics professor, he can write an article for a journal, but he said “it’s not clear that anybody ever reads it.”As the state’s economist, the budget forecasts he makes are in the public eye right away.After projecting the state’s budget since the 1980s under five governors and three recessions, Stinson is retiring from the role to focus on teaching and research.Laura Kalambokidis, also a University applied economics professor, will replace Stinson in July.Stinson came to the University in the 1980s as a researcher for a U.S. Department of Agriculture field office on the St. Paul campus. He was selected as state economist in 1987 after a regional search.His main duty as state economist was to compile a state budget forecast to inform lawmakers as they create a two-year budget, a process he said “gets pretty hectic” when they’re due twice per year.Despite the chaos, Kalambokidis said Stinson has a “calm presence.”“There’s not a lot of harried running around the office,” she said. “He’s calm, he’s steady, he’s deliberate and he’s very generous with his knowledge and his experience.”Despite the long hours he and his small team spend behind the scenes in their offices compiling the forecasts, Stinson said he doesn’t feel like his work goes overlooked.“If you have to stand up and tell people ‘We have … less money than we thought’ in a press conference with eight or nine television cameras and 20 or 25 journalists standing there, I don’t feel like I’m overlooked at all,” he said.Working with five governors was interesting, Stinson said, because each one had a different style and expected different things from him.“It was my responsibility to figure out how to fit in that kind of environment and make sure that the governor got the best information,” he said.One of the big issues the state faces economically is improving the quality of its workforce.Because high school graduation rates have fallen statewide, Stinson said the quality of the state’s workforce is “under threat.”He also said the size of the state’s budget reserve could become a problem in the future.“Looking forward, our budget reserve really is too small compared to the size of the budget to provide protection” in economic turndowns, he said.One thing Stinson said he’d like to focus on in his research is how the state’s tax system has become more volatile.“The highs are higher and the lows are lower and the fall between them is steeper,” he said, adding that measuring tax volatility helps protect against economic shocks.He said he’ll teach a graduate course on public expenditures in public sector economics in the fall with Kalambokidis. The courses he teaches after that will be up to his department.A thoughtful, ‘professional’ economistTracking the nation’s economy as state economist always helped in the classroom as Stinson juggled the two jobs.“It made me a better teacher, I thought, because it was easy to bring in what was going on today and make the class a little bit more current,” Stinson said.Humphrey School of Public Affairs senior fellow Jay Kiedrowski hired Stinson for the position of state economist in 1987, when Kiedrowski served as the state’s commissioner of finance.“As I look back over my career, it’s one of the best selections I ever made,” he said.Kiedrowski said Stinson has integrity — an important quality for the position that requires objectivity through different political administrations.“He’d ponder what you were saying. Continue Reading

Unions appeal University of Minnesota Office of Information Technology employee layoffs

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Union leaders are fighting the layoffs of 25 University of Minnesota Office of Information Technology employees, citing problems with understaffing and the way the layoffs occurred.Representatives from the University’s clerical union have filed grievances on the layoffs and requested the University re-evaluate them. They also addressed the Board of Regents at its public forum on the University budget last week about the layoffs, which occurred late last month.OIT cited workload reductions as the reason behind the layoffs and insisted they were carried out according to the University’s policy, but union members objected and said it was executed disrespectfully.Employees were given their layoff notices and told to leave on the spot, said Melanie Steinman of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Local 3800 in an address to the regents. The employees were told to schedule an appointment to collect the rest of their belongings during non-work hours and were prevented from communicating with coworkers, she said.The layoffs occurred because of workload reductions and changes in the information technology industry, said OIT Associate Vice President Bernard Gulachek. Several employee groups were affected, including a Professional and Administrative senior manager, civil service employees and union employees from both clerical and technical areas.The affected employees work has changed significantly, and they are no longer needed, Gulachek said.“These folks were mostly folks that built networks,” he said, “and today we’re in more of a maintenance mode.”Gulachek said OIT approached the layoffs with sensitivity and tried to ensure the privacy of affected employees who met with their supervisors and a representative from the Office of Human Resources.Employees were asked not to discuss the matter with co-workers who may not have had a meeting yet. Gulachek said they collected essential personal belongings right away and scheduled a time to return for the rest.Gulachek said the process for the layoffs was standard in the information technology industry and followed OHR and University policies.“This isn’t the IT industry. Continue Reading

Kaler’s budget raises tuition for non-residents, freezes for residents

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President Eric Kaler presented his recommended 2013 – 2014 operating budget to the Board of Regents Wednesday, which proposes freezing in-state tuition for undergraduates but raising the cost of school for out-of-state students.Kaler heard mostly praise from Regents for the budget, though many had specific concerns, including questions about long-term funding for the University.”For the first time in decades,” Kaler said, the collegiate fee would not be raised in the coming school year. The president’s budget proposal would freeze tution for resident undergradate students for the next two years, leaving tuition on the Twin Cities campus at $12,060 next year.But some fees will climb. In addition to a $1,000 increase in tuition for non-resident students — who accounted for about 18 percent of students at the University last year — students will see an increase in room and board costs, some class fees and the student services fee.Most of the student services fee increase is driven by the new recreational center building and funding for more mental health resources on campus, said Richard Pfutzenreuter, Vice President and Chief Financial Officer at the University.Graduate student tuition will rise by an average of 3 percent in the coming year, according to the proposed budget. Among the graduate program increases, law students will see the largest tuition jump of about 9 percent.The increase in law school tuition will bring the cost to the median range for law programs in the country, Kaler said during the Regents meeting Wednesday.The Legislature granted most of the University’s funding requests in the Higher Education Omnibus bill, which passed last month, allowing for the two-year resident student tuition freeze. Kaler said the high appropriations by the state this year follows a six-year lull in funding for the University.Some of those appropriations will go toward grants for Minnesota students. Continue Reading

Failed bonding bill delays University of Minnesota renovations

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The renovation and reconstruction of several University of Minnesota buildings will have to wait another year after funding was cut late in the legislative session.A bonding bill that included almost $110 million for the University failed days before legislators adjourned, leaving projects across campus unfunded and some at the school disappointed.Though legislators don’t often pass larger bonding bills, which fund public works projects, in odd-numbered years, some indicated they would take advantage of the year’s low-interest rates and fund more projects, said University Chief Financial Officer Richard Pfutzenreuter.But the original bill failed to get the votes needed to pass, and buildings like the Bell Museum of Natural History and Tate Laboratory of Physics will remain the same a year longer.The bill also allocated $35 million for upkeep and renovation of University buildings.A smaller bonding bill was later passed but funded mostly renovations to the state Capitol.Right: Water damage litters the ceiling of the demonstration center in the Tate Laboratory of Physics. Due to cuts in the bonding bill, the Tate Lab will not receive funding for renovation and structural repair. (Photo by Jaak Jense)Staff at the Bell Museum had hopes for almost $50 million in state funding to help open a new museum with a 120-seat planetarium on the University’s St. Paul campus.“I’m not just disappointed for the Bell Museum; I’m disappointed for the University,” said museum director Susan Weller.The museum’s current building is about 70 years old and has some structural problems, including occasional flooding in the basement, which can put exhibits at risk.It’s also too small to host school groups larger than about 150 students, Weller said, which is the museum’s biggest drawback.“It limits how well we can serve the schools and the local community,” she said.The current building has other space limitations, Weller said, including a 20-seat theater, where tickets are often gone quickly and some are denied admission to events.This year’s attempt for a new museum isn’t the first — officials have pushed for a new facility since 1995, and the University included the museum in its capital request for the first time in 2008.With help from Rep. Alice Hausman, DFL-St. Paul, the new museum was closer to a reality this year.“This time we got very close, so it’s probably that much more disappointing,” Weller said.The bonding bill needed 81 votes, but fell only five votes short.At the Tate Lab, officials hoped for $6 million to begin planning renovations for the 86-year-old building.“Even though we’ve done things over the years to try to keep it up-to-date, it’s not in any sense a modern building,” said Ron Poling, head of the School of Physics and Astronomy.The “old-fashioned” building, where about 4,000 students take introductory physics and astronomy each year, has issues with space in its lecture halls and accessibility, Poling said.The $6 million requested from the state would be to fund two-thirds of the planning costs of the $85 million total renovation project.Legislators and Gov. Mark Dayton see the Tate Lab project as “part of a valuable package,” Poling said, adding that the Tate Lab project is in a “very strong position” to get funding in a future session.“[The Tate Lab] is where we do our physics educating and it’s extremely important for us to be able to get those facilities updated,” Poling said, “because there are a lot of students who are very dependent on our doing that job well.”A $35 million funding request for renovation and upkeep, known as Higher Education Asset Preservation and Replacement (HEAPR), was also left unfunded.These funds are for “emergency, critical, hold-the-place-together kind of projects,” Pfutzenreuter said. Continue Reading