Officials at MNSCU -- the Minnesota State College and University system -- are bracing for cuts of up to $70 million when Gov. Tim Pawlenty announces his unallotment plan in the next week or so.

And when it happens, said Chancellor James McCormick: "I've told our people we can whine about it for a day or two, then get on with making it work."

Speaking to a lunch group of mostly liberal opinion leaders in West St. Paul today, McCormick said the system's $1.3 billion biennial budget was already hit with a $23 million unallotment in January and is looking at $60 million to $70 million more in the coming days. That amount would be spread over the coming two years.

Dealing with it will mean job cuts, he said. Estimating that each $1 million in cuts means between 12 and 15 employees -- with salary and benefits -- that could translate to 800 or more layoffs, out of the 19,000 system employees. And union contracts require a one-year notice of layoffs, so the chopping will have to start sooner rather than later.

McCormick said there have been signs that legislators care about higher education, with funding for building projects in recent years. But he said he's worried about the trend of lower state support for higher ed. Ten years ago, the state paid 67 percent of the cost of educating a student, and the student paid 33 percent. Now it's almost 50-50. And in another two years, he predicted, it will be 40-60.

"We have to think of high education costs not as an expenditure, but as an investment," said McCormick, who became chancellor in 2001 and will retire when his current contract is up in 2011.

He said he still hears from legislators who don't like the merger in 1995 of the technical colleges, community colleges and state universities. But the new system, which he inherited with all its growing pains, has been successful, with more than 88 percent of the 33,000 graduates finding a job in their area of study.

He said, at MNSCU's request, the Legislature authorized a review of the system by the legislative auditor. That report, due next year, will look at how efficient the news system is.

"My hope is that it will conclude that we've got a darn smooth and efficicient operation," he said.

Other factoids:

MNSCU produces:
• 52 percent of the state's new teaching graduates.
• 82 percent of new nursing graduates.
• 86 percent of new law enforcement graduates.
• 87 percent of new graduates in the construction trades.
• 92 percent of new mechanics graduates.
• 42 percent of new business graduates.
• 9,000 firefighters and emergency first responders each year.