Session Year 2001, Special Session 1

Bill Name: SF0011

Providing for the financing of higher education and related purposes ARTICLE 1 -
APPROPRIATIONSAppropriating money to the higher education services office for
state grants, for interstate tuition reciprocity, for state work study, for
Minitex and MnLINK, for the learning network, for income contingent loans for
certain medical school graduates, for the Minnesota college savings plan
(formerly Edvest), for outreach services to historically underserved groups of
state elementary and secondary students, for grants to increase campus-community
collaboration and service learning statewide and for an increase in the dues for
the midwest higher education compact, to the board of trustees of the Minnesota
state colleges and universities for instructional and noninstructional
expenditures including a grant to Minnesota state university, Mankato for the
talented youth mathematics program, to the board of regents of the university
Minnesota for instructional and noninstructional expenditures, for primary care
education initiatives, for the agricultural experiment station and Minnesota
extension service, for the rural physicians associates and talented youth
mathematics programs, for the veterinary diagnostic laboratory and biomedical
engineering center, for the geological survey, for the natural resources
research institute (NRRI), for the center for urban and regional affairs, for
the Bell museum of natural history and for the Humphrey exhibit and to the Mayo
medical foundation for the medical school and for certain family practice and
graduate residency programs; requiring savings in the state grant program
resulting from increases in the maximum federal grant or other sources to be
used to provide additional decreases in the family responsibility for
independent students and to increase funding for work study programs; specifying
certain HESO tuition reciprocity agreements negotiation and financial aid
expenditures data collection and reporting requirements; requiring MnSCU board
direct allocation of appropriations to colleges and universities; designating
the northeast higher education district as the fiscal agent for the Arrowhead
university center; reducing the base appropriation for MnSCU and delaying the
development of college or university doctoral level programs or degrees;
requiring and providing for the MnSCU board to implement the Minnesota transfer
curriculum; requiring technical and consolidated colleges use of instructional
advisory committees; authorizing the board to waive tuition for eligible
southwest Asia veterans; requiring the board to distribute certain reserves to
campuses through a leveraged equipment purchase program, specifying a
participating campuses match requirement; requiring board development of a
central office services plan; requiring the university of Minnesota to continue
to provide support for the rapid agricultural response fund and sustainable and
organic agriculture initiatives and to maintain an experiment station advisory
council system; requesting the board of regents to review and analyze the
programmatic mission, scope and cost effectiveness of the extension service and
report to the governor and the legislature by a certain date; providing for
accountability of the state colleges and universities and the university of
Minnesota and specifying certain post-secondary planning report requirements;
authorizing certain fund transfers and extending the availability of certain
appropriations ARTICLE 2 - RELATED PROVISIONSCreating a Minnesota state colleges
and universities account in the state enterprise fund, requiring the
commissioner of finance to report to the legislature on account activity;
providing for additional deposits of tobacco settlement payments to the tobacco
settlement fund, requiring transfer of the additional deposits to the academic
health center account to be created in the medical education endowment fund to
fund academic health center programs and modifying the expiration date of the
tobacco settlement fund; expanding appropriations for certain post-secondary
educational institution enrollments under state appropriations for instructional
expenditures to certain persons from outside the state employed full time in the
state; extending the expiration date for the higher education and student
advisory councils; reducing the state grant assigned family cost responsibility
for independent students, modifying the definition of resident student relating
to independent students, clarifying the cost of attendance and modifying grant
eligibility; requiring and providing for higher education services office (HESO)
grants to encourage students participating in advanced placement (AP) and
international baccalaureate (IB) programs to attend a college or university in
the state; modifying eligibility for and increasing the maximum child care
grant; authorizing and providing for the board of trustees of the Minnesota
state colleges and universities to accept gifts to improve or acquire facilities
and to convey or lease real property for the benefit of state colleges or
universities or students, requiring reports to the legislature of capital
projects costing over a certain amount; providing for tuition refunds for
certain students entering military service; modifying eligibility and extending
the renewal period for public safety officers survivor education benefits;
extending the expiration date of the farmer lender mediation program; requiring
and providing for the MnSCU chancellor in consultation with the commissioner of
children, families and learning and selected school boards to implement a
comprehensive demonstration project to increase the number of high school
graduates academically prepared to enroll in college level courses; authorizing
the MnSCU board to use nonstate funds to remodel the top floor of Lawrence hall
at St. Cloud state university for student housing; establishing the commission
on university of Minnesota excellence to identify, evaluate and make
recommendations on development of centers of excellence achieving a certain
national ranking, specifying membership requirements and duties, sunset;
repealing certain MnSCU and university of Minnesota planning report
requirements, the authority of metropolitan state university to deposit tuition
receipts in a suspense account and the requirement for the boards to consider
the availability of physical space in planning for new program offerings at
particular campuses ARTICLE 3 MINNESOTA COLLEGE SAVINGS PLANChanging the Edvest
savings program to the Minnesota college savings plan; defining certain
additional terms; classifying certain data; providing for an annual fee and for
contributions to plan accounts; specifying the authority of account owners and
providing for the designation of beneficiaries; providing for a maximum account
balance limit and for the treatment of dormant or inactive accounts; modifying
the definition of family income, specifying certain residency requirements and
providing for the determination of the age of beneficiaries for matching grant
qualification purposes; specifying certain higher education services office
(HESO) director matching grant reduction requirements; providing for matching
grants for single beneficiaries with multiple accounts; requiring matching grant
forfeiture under certain conditions; providing for distributions from the
accounts; specifying certain renumbering, cross reference correction and term
change instructions to the revisor of statutes (ra)