A student-led campaign to keep Minnesota State University, Mankato's only printmaking instructor employed has produced a petition with more than 350 signatures, several screen-printing parties, and roughly 250 hand-printed T-shirts, as students push back against a wave of budget-driven staffing cuts hitting the university this fall.
The effort centers on Edson Rosas, an assistant professor and fixed-term printmaking instructor who began teaching at Mankato in fall 2024, according to the Star Tribune. Rosas's position will not be renewed at the end of the year, per university spokesperson Dan Benson, and the university plans no job search to fill the role once his current one-year appointment lapses. The same reporting notes Rosas is teaching three classes enrolling 207 students this semester, coordinates the graduate program, and advises Works on Paper, the campus printmaking club.
University officials have pushed back on the idea that the printmaking program itself is being dismantled. In comments to KEYC, the university said it would hold or suspend four fiscal year 2028 positions, including Rosas's job, rather than cut additional permanent positions, and said there has been no decision to end any art programs or printmaking courses. Rosas's appointment is a one-year contract that is rehired annually, the station reported, and university leadership said it would work with programs and deans to support curriculum delivery as the process continues.
A Campaign Built Around a Printing Press
The scale of student mobilization has been hard to miss on campus. More than 100 supporters and printmaking club members attended a recent student government meeting to back Rosas, students have signed a petition with more than 350 names, and dozens of attendees turned out for several screen-printing parties in his support, the Star Tribune reported. Minnesota State Mankato's printmaking club, with 22 members, has printed around 250 T-shirts as part of the campaign, according to the station's report.
Rosas has framed the stakes in practical terms as well as philosophical ones. He has said studio supervision matters because printmaking uses acids, sharp tools and heavy machinery, and he has said printmaking should be accessible to everyone, per the newspaper's account. Geoff Herbach, Mankato's creative arts department chair, said losing Rosas's position would leave a substantial hole in the curriculum.
Students Describe a Thinning Campus
Students interviewed described a broader sense of strain beyond the printmaking program. Mankato student Cole Koets said classrooms are understaffed, programs are fewer, professors are demoralized, specialties are less diverse and education costs more. Autumn Kloss said she finds the university's treatment of the program disheartening and feels she must defend the value of her arts studies, while Eric Goulson said artificial intelligence raises concerns that the arts may be considered obsolete, arguing that hands-on printmaking creates tangible work and community, according to the same report.
University officials, for their part, have said they regret the alarm felt by students and employees. Benson has also said Rosas's position or other staffing could still change if the budget outlook improves or if other professors retire or take different jobs, per the Star Tribune's reporting. The university has filled three other department positions in painting and creative writing with adjunct instructors, the paper noted.
Cuts Ripple Across a Shrinking Budget
Rosas's situation sits inside a much larger financial crunch. Minnesota State Mankato, Minnesota's second-largest university, faces a $22 million budget deficit, and university leaders announced in August 2026 plans to cut about 60 faculty and staff positions over two years. The university said 43 of those positions will be eliminated through vacant-job cuts and early-retirement packages, while 17 filled positions will be eliminated, resulting in job losses, the Star Tribune reported.
The university's own budget materials, published at mnsu.edu, describe a projected $22 million shortfall for the 2026-2027 biennium and attribute it to expenses rising faster than the school's two primary revenue sources, tuition and state funding. A separate university planning document describes fiscal year 2027 steps that include vacant-position holds and eliminations, early-separation retirement packages, and a reduction in force of about 1.2% of the total workforce, adding that some staffing decisions may have implications for the future of certain academic programs.
Tuition at Mankato rose 6.37% this school year, the Star Tribune reported, and the cuts follow earlier reductions: the university eliminated almost 100 degrees and certificates in May 2025, including French, art history and international business, and announced a plan that year to lay off seven tenured professors. David Hood said in 2025 that the university needs to be run more like a business, according to the same reporting. MPR News has reported that the university's proposal included 17 layoffs, with the remaining job cuts coming through early retirements and unfilled vacancies, plus the removal of 21 graduate assistant positions and reduced discretionary spending. MPR News attributed the deficit in part to rising operating costs, stagnant state funding, and a nearly four percent drop in international student enrollment.
A System Under Wider Strain
Mankato's budget fight is unfolding against a system-wide reckoning. The Minnesota State system faces a $30 million structural deficit that officials said must be resolved by year's end, and the system is considering closing some campuses, the Star Tribune reported separately. Chancellor Scott Olson has said a quarter of the system's 33 schools and 54 campuses could soon be in a poor financial position, with eight institutions expected to trigger financial alarm bells by November due to low cash reserves.
Olson has said the system will likely see some campuses close, though not institutions, suggesting alignment or mergers could occur instead. The system board approved an average undergraduate tuition increase of 6.25% across its schools earlier in the year, even as enrollment jumped 4.2% in fall 2025, marking the system's third consecutive year of enrollment increases, per the same report.
Minnesota State Mankato currently offers bachelor's degrees in art education and studio art, a BFA in studio art with a printmaking concentration, and a master's-level studio art program. Its printmaking curriculum, according to the university's own academic materials, introduces students to four major graphic processes in silkscreen, lithography, relief and intaglio, and advises all print students to connect with Works on Paper, the university's print club, for experience in presenting and exhibiting artwork.
