Update from Stacey

The national news has intersected with work more than normal in the last few weeks. First, we are anticipating the release of the Supreme Court decision regarding race-conscious admissions. The decision will likely land in the next couple of weeks, and could change whether we can be aware of race as part of holistic admissions review. If the decision is more far reaching, it could impact financial aid and diversity programs in higher education.

For now, a small group of University professionals, including myself and Nate Peterson, are holding preparatory meetings to discuss how the University will respond to potential scenarios. University Relations is preparing a communications plan, and high-level communications have started with a message to communications directors.

The second issue is the debt ceiling. The House has approved a deal, and the Senate is likely to approve, but in the event a deal is not reached by Monday, there may be impacts to financial aid as well as other areas of the University. Essentially, if the deal is not reached, the federal government will have to stop paying certain obligations until it’s resolved. That could mean we are unable to obtain the funds we can disburse to students until a deal is reached. Again, we are watching the news and preparing, so we’re as ready as possible.

On a more local level, we are working through how to implement the financial aid programs recently passed by the Minnesota state legislature, the North Star Promise Program and the American Indian Scholars Program. See more information in the OSF update below.

Zooming in even further, we are waiting for the official word on the University’s merit pool for ASR, which will be distributed in salary increases for eligible P&A and Civil Service staff. The Board of Regents will review a proposal for a 3.75% merit increase pool at its upcoming June 8-9 meeting, and then likely schedule a special meeting the following week to approve the proposal. We will get a message out to supervisors and then all staff about our overall plan and principles for allocating this money.