R.I.P.: Ross Earl Wood

WINONA, Minn., May 22, 2001-- A Winona State College grad, Ross Wood, who taught art in Winona schools for 32 years, died of cancer at age 71. Wood enrolled at Winona State in 1948, left for Marine duty in the Korean war, and returned for his bachelor's in 1953. He earned his master's from Winona State in 1961. He retired from teaching in 1987.

Inside story: What led to legislative meltdown

ST. PAUL, Minn., May 21, 2001 -- It was legislative meltdown. Democrats and republicans found themsleves too far apart to reachbudget compromises with each other or with Gov. Jesse Ventura when the clock ended the 2001 legislative session. Ventura is expected to call a special session before June 30 but only if prior agreements are reached on allmatters. Budget negotiations between the governor and legislative leaders were going badly prior to the legislative breakdown. These were the dynamics involved:

House: House Speaker Steve Sviggum, a Republican, was insisting on large tax rebates and permanent tax cuts, but his Republican Caucus held only a slight majority. House Democrats refused to support any of major Republican spending bills, so Sviggum had to deal with the right wing of the his Caucus to pass legislation. That gave a handful of conservative Republicans tremendous power in the final weeks of the session, leaving Sviggum little room to negotiate with the Senate.

Governor: The governor, meanwhile, had started off the session with a stingy budget for higher ed. He reasserted his positions in the final days of the session, hinting that he would veto anything that was more than a little bit above his original targets. His original target for the state universities was only $47 million of new money. The House had increased this to about $94 million and the Senate to $130 million.

Senate: Senate leader Roger Moe and the Democrats, who had made education and higher-ed a priority, were outnumbered by the House and governor. They floated major cutbacks in their higher-ed proposals, reportedly coming down to $63 million in new money for the state colleges, but it was not enough to reach a deal.

WSU caps personnel layoffs at four

WINONA, Minn., May 21, 2001 -- Layoffs at Winona State University won't affect students as much as previously thought. According to a university vice president, Joe Whetstone, the layoffs have been limited layoffs to four people. University President Darrell Krueger "has been keeping departments fairly clean by not having unnecessary staff or faculty on payroll, so that's why we haven't had to do as much downsizing with employees as previously planned," Whetstone said. Three of the layoffs have been Whetstone's technical support operation. "Positions where people are retiring, have been on sabbatical or unfilled positions will not be filled," Whetstone said. Other positions have been combined, according to Whetstone. "We've taken jobs that are done both at Rochester Technical College and here at WSU and combined them so that one person can control them here instead of two or three people," Whetstone said. Whetstone also said some jobs like data entry were outdated long ago on campus and since then the data entry employees have just been doing odd jobs, so they have been eliminated.