As many of you must know, this has been a historic year for the University of Minnesota. In our 159-year history as a public land-grant University, this was the first year when the University budget relied more heavily on tuition than state funding. Though we havenâÄôt given up on the ideal of publicly funded higher education, University President Bob Bruininks assures us that this is âÄúthe new normal.âÄù Friends of the University should know that if state funding continues its steady decline, your generosity will be the only thing standing between students and double-digit tuition increases. The vital, cutting-edge research and education that takes place here depends now more than ever on the benevolence of private individuals and institutions. Thanks to BruininksâÄô tireless efforts and impressive community generosity, many of you have donated to the University in recent years. But we here at The Minnesota Daily have a request to make of people and organizations who want to help: Please consider giving to academics or to the University general fund. It may seem more lasting or glamorous to contribute to, say, a new baseball stadium, but we need to pay our faculty and staff fair salaries and protect their jobs. We need to heat our classrooms and residence halls, update and retrofit old buildings so theyâÄôre less costly and more efficient. New projects are great, but frankly, there are classes that need teaching, and someone has to take out the trash. You may not get a plaque or a cornerstone with your name on it, but tens of thousands of students, staff and faculty will thank you for helping to keep quality education accessible and to keep the core mission and heart of MinnesotaâÄôs public research university beating as strongly as possible.