OCTOBER 20, 2022:
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The vice chairman of the University of Minnesota Board of Regents has apologized for questioning whether declining enrollment at one college is due to its diversity. Steve Sviggum said in a statement issued late Tuesday (Oct. 18, 2022) that he’s willing to learn and must do better, referring to his comment about falling student numbers at the University of Minnesota, Morris. Sviggum said during a board meeting last week that he has received a couple letters from friends who decided not to attend Morris because it is “too diverse.” He said the prospective students “just didn’t feel comfortable there.” Sviggum wrote that he was “truly sorry” too those he offended. He added that his question was meant to encourage discussion about enrollment, which is down 50% from its peak.
OCTOBER 18, 2022:
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The vice chairman of the University of Minnesota Board of Regents is publicly questioning whether enrollment declines at one campus are because it’s “too diverse,” a question that has drawn criticism and calls for his resignation. At a meeting of the board that oversees the university system last week, Vice Chairman Steve Sviggum, a former Minnesota House speaker, asked the current Morris chancellor whether it was “possible at all from a marketing standpoint” that the campus had become “too diverse.” Sviggum says he has received a couple of letters from parents whose children aren’t going to go to Morris because it’s too diverse and wouldn’t “feel comfortable there.”
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