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Message from President Schwichtenberg

Your legislators are working hard for you and have already started to develop the state budget for the next two years. The final budget will have a tremendous impact on Saint Paul College because we receive a large part of our funding from the legislature. Your legislators need to hear from you and other constituents about why Saint Paul College and the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities are important you and the State of Minnesota.

Please send a letter or other message to your legislators urging them to fund Saint Paul College and the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities System. You can send a message by clicking here: http://ga0.org/campaign/support.

Your voice needs to be heard and your voice can make a difference in the level of support that we receive at the Capitol this year. Adequate state funding not only keeps tuition affordable, but also helps make important investments in strategic areas. State appropriations are needed to cover inflation, to make critical technology infrastructure improvements to benefit students and to strengthen the state’s competitive edge in four key areas, laid out in the Minnesota budget request:

• Recruiting and retaining more students from groups traditionally underrepresented in higher education;
• Producing more graduates in science, technology, engineering and math;
• Increasing the number of nursing graduates to help avert a predicted nursing shortage;
• Supporting the growth of the state’s burgeoning bioscience industry by establishing Biosciences Center of Excellence.

You can also download a FAN Supporter Toolkit to help you advocate for the system’s request during the legislative session at www.fan.mnscu.edu/pdf/toolkit.pdf. Advocating for the system helps Saint Paul College!

Please share your passion for the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities and Saint Paul College by contacting your state senator and representative in the next few days. Your involvement is crucial to the level of state support that the system receives.

Your support is appreciated!

Donovan L. Schwichtenberg, PhD
President