Lawmakers, higher ed officials vow to help Minnesota colleges and students hurt by flood
By Dave Olson
The Forum
Minnesota lawmakers and higher education officials visited Moorhead State University Friday, vowing to help students and faculty adversely affected by flooding.

Judith Eaton, chancellor of the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system, said legislators have told her the state will help schools cover flood-related expenses, promising $50,000 up front to those schools hit the worst.

Among the MnSCU schools affected by flooding or flood-fighting efforts are Moorhead State University, Bemidji State University, the East Grand Forks campus of Northwest Technical College and Northland Community and Technical College in Thief River Falls.

Eaton said MnSCU is looking at creative ways of resuming interrupted classes, including more use of interactive television and sharing space between sister schools in the state.

She said student aid also will be reconfigured to ensure that students do not face additional educational costs because of hardships they are going through and she said MnSCU employees will not lose pay for work hours missed because of the flooding.

"We are also helping, in any way we can, to locate employees throughout the area. That’s not so much an issue here in Moorhead, it is very much an issue at Northwest Tech in East Grand Forks," Eaton said.

University of Minnesota President Nils Hasselmo said the Crookston campus of the university has received about 400 flood evacuees. He said the campus has provided the refugees with temporary shelter, food and medical care and is helping relocate people to other areas.

Also, Hasselmo said, extension service workers have established a web site that provides information about the relief effort and helps people locate each other.

He said the university will keep employees on the payroll even if they cannot perform their normal duties and said special financial aid is being extended to students affected by the flood.

State Sen. LeRoy Stumpf, DFL-Thief River Falls, said the Legislature is already working on getting $750,000 to schools to help them cover higher-than-expected snow removal costs this year and he said additional support for flood-related expenses also will be forthcoming.

"The Legislature is committed to supporting the University of Minnesota and the MnSCU system in those extra costs that you’re incurring," Stumpf said. "We want to see strong, healthy campuses. ... Those students who have been dislocated or disconnected, we want them back. We want to see them graduate," Stumpf said.