House/Senate higher ed: Restrictions on use of stimulus funds.

Senate: Emphasizes using the money to hold down tuition increases. From the bill:

10.28 This appropriation must be allocated to
10.29 mitigate the need to raise tuition and
10.30 fees for Minnesota resident students.

The Senate also requires MnSCU to submit a detailed plan describing how stimulus funds will be allocated, the effects on the amount of proposed tuition increases, and must describe any amounts allocated to other education and general purposes, including how those purposes mitigate the need to raise tuition. The plan is due to the director of the Office of Higher Education by June 1, 2009, who must approve the plan by June 15, 2009, and the director has the power to require changes. The director must confer with the legislature before approving the plan.

House: Places less emphasis on tuition reduction. From the House bill:

11.1 Appropriations under this subdivision
11.2 must be used as a bridge for budget
11.3 reductions in the biennium ending June 30,
11.4 2013, and may be used to retain faculty
11.5 and staff jobs, to provide severance and for
11.6 early retirement incentives, and to mitigate
11.7 the rising costs of attendance through
11.8 minimizing tuition increases and the support
11.9 of student employment opportunities.

In addition, the House imposes a cap on tuition increases.

Implications for MSUM: The House version seems to allow more flexibility in using the funds, and explicitly allows the kinds of things being discussed on our campus. The Senate's focus on tuition may reduce flexibility, though it ought to be fairly easy to argue that if you don't reduce staff tuition would have to increase even more. The requirement for a plan seems like a good accountability measure for MnSCU, though the timeline seems pretty tight. I don't know if our campus will know how it wants to use the money by then.