U Of M Announces Massive Budget Cuts As 'Baby Bust' Looms

MINNEAPOLIS, MN — The University of Minnesota will cut $225 million from its budget over the next two years, as colleges across the region brace for a shrinking pool of 18-year-olds.

President Rebecca Cunningham announced the reductions Thursday in a letter to the university community, the Star Tribune reported.

The cuts will hit all five campuses starting July 1, 2027, and equal 12 to 15 percent of the system's allocated operating revenue.

Cunningham cited changing enrollment patterns, uncertain state and federal funding and rising costs. The cuts follow a June budget that planned to eliminate roughly 230 jobs and raised tuition for a sixth straight year.

Cunningham called the moment "an institutional inflection point," CBS Minnesota reported.

Her letter did not specifically mention birth rates, but the timing lines up with the long-predicted "enrollment cliff."

Birth rates fell about 17 percent after 2007 as families held off on having kids during the Great Recession, and the oldest of that smaller generation is now reaching college age, Fortune reported.

Other flagships are already cutting: the University of Oregon announced $30 million in reductions this year, largely because of falling out-of-state enrollment, and the University of Vermont is projecting a $12 million deficit after a 15 percent drop in freshmen.

That squeeze has already closed a string of small Midwest colleges. Milwaukee's Cardinal Stritch University shut down in 2023 after years of falling enrollment.

Northland College in Ashland, Wisconsin, followed in 2025, with its board chair blaming "economic and demographic storms," according to WXPR. Siena Heights University in Michigan closed this spring, University Business reported.

Minnesota has fared better so far, with college enrollment up two years in a row, a separate Star Tribune analysis found in January.

The U has not said which programs or jobs will be cut, or how the reductions will be split among its campuses.