Who: CURA's Local Government Planning Internship Program and State Agency Internship Program
What: Programs Suspended in the Face of Recent and Anticipated State Budget Reductions
Contact: Mike Greco, Communications Director, CURA, 612-625-7501, mgreco@umn.edu
MINNEAPOLIS / ST. PAUL (3/15/2003) — Due to recent cuts in its budget for fiscal year 2002–2003 and anticipated cuts in its budget for next fiscal year, CURA’s Local Government Planning Internship Program and State Agency Internship Program have been temporarily suspended.
Tom Scott, director of CURA, called the cuts “unfortunate but unavoidable” given the current state budget situation and the reductions to higher education. “For many years, these two programs have provided an opportunity for collaboration between the University of Minnesota and state and local government,” Scott noted. Both have offered “excellent internship opportunities for students” while providing “critical assistance to state agencies and local planning departments.”
The Local Government Planning Internship Program, which was created in 1990, offered University of Minnesota graduate students enrolled in the Humphrey Institute’s planning program internship opportunities with local government planning offices. Awarded on a competitive basis, the internships gave students hands-on learning experience with planning projects while providing local communities with valuable research and technical assistance.
During its 13-year existence, the local internship program placed more than 35 graduate students with planning departments in 5 counties and 16 cities in the metropolitan area, including Chaska, Cottage Grove, Crystal, Eagan, Falcon Heights, Forest Lake, Fridley, Minneapolis, New Brighton, Robbinsdale, Rosemount, Roseville, Shakopee, South St. Paul, St. Paul, and West St. Paul.
The State Agency Internship Program, founded in 1986, fostered opportunities for graduate students to work on research, program development, program evaluation, or other short-term projects for a state agency in Minnesota. Like the local planning internships, the state internships were awarded on a competitive basis.
During the last 17 years, the state internship program has placed nearly 100 graduate students with more than two dozen state agencies, including:
- Board of Water and Soil Resources
- Council on Black
Minnesotans
- Department of Agriculture
- Department of Economic Security
- Department of Finance
- Department of Health
- Department of Human Rights
- Department of Human Services
- Department of Labor and Industry
- Department of Natural Resources
- Department of Public Service
- Department of Revenue
- Department of Transportation
- Environmental Quality Board
- Intergovernment Systems Advisory Council
- Legislative Auditor
- Legislative Commission on Minnesota Resources
- Metropolitan Council
- Minnesota Supreme Court
- Public Defenders Office
- State Historical Society
- State Planning Agency
- Veterans Home Board
- Vocational Technical Education Board
CURA associate Ed Drury, who directed both programs, reflected on the significance of the cuts. “These programs were good for the students and good for the community. The projects that received funding were selected on the basis of their importance to the state agency and the value of the learning experience for students,” he noted, “and provided great opportunities for both parties.” Drury said that one indicator of these programs’ success was that a number of students, after being graduated from the University, returned to work on a permanent basis with the local community or state agency with which they had interned.
Scott remains hopeful both programs can be restored at a future date. “Most of CURA’s work is with community organizations and nonprofits. These programs were unique because they fostered relationships with government. It is my hope that the suspension of the
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