University President Bob Bruininks asked House members Thursday to be gentle.

"I'm fully cognizant that we'll have to take some hits here," he told members of the House Higher Education and Workforce Development Finance and Policy Division, according to a report by the House Information Office.

Although no specific dollar amounts have been announced, Bruininks said he fully expects some level of funding reductions for the 2009-2010 biennium. He pledged to try to avoid tuition increases and staff layoffs wherever possible, but warned lawmakers to give the university “flexibility” to craft its own budget solutions.

The report continued:

In particular, Bruininks cautioned against a proposal by Gov. Tim Pawlenty to cap tuition rates.

"A freeze on tuition would be absolutely devastating,” he said, adding that tuition caps represented a “non-competitive” approach to a “free-market issue.””

During the last major state budget crisis in 2002 and 2003, the university saw its state funding reduced by nearly $200 million. University of Minnesota-Duluth Chancellor Kathryn Martin said that similar or greater reductions would cause “the most serious damage possible” to her campus, which she said has grown into a regional, rather than just a local, institution.

“If we are to encounter the size budget reductions that have been suggested, it will mean the reduction of programs, it will mean reductions of faculty,” she said.