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      Mankato, Minn. (AP) - Aviation students tend to describe a
single, life-changing flight like it's a drug.

      "I got hooked overnight," said Andrew Mittelstadt, who
graduated from Minnesota State University last spring.

      Jason Ceminsky, a part-time flight instructor, said "you have
one flight and it's just 'What I wanna do."'


      More than most college students, the pilots in training
structure their lives around flying. They spend $50,000 or $100,000
on flight time alone - above and beyond tuition.


      And if students have to choose between Mankato and flight
school, then there's little doubt what'll happen.

      "If they can't get it at MSU, they're going somewhere else,"
Ceminsky said.

      The university's share of the state's budget shortfall is
somewhere in the $6 million to $10 million range. Last month, MSU
identified programs slated for cuts or elimination, including the
aviation department. Eliminating the program would save an
estimated $400,000.

      There are more than 15 programs that could be eliminated, but
aviation has more complex relationships with local business and
government, not to mention its students.

      The students and faculty - as well as the company that does
flight training, North Star Aviation, and even the city of Mankato
- are making a two-pronged argument to save the program.


      First, they say ending the program would create a
disproportionate impact on the community, especially on the
airport, company and students.


      Second, while the program had some bad times in the 2000s, it's
been on the mend since 2007. At its lowest point, there were about
2,000 flight hours per year. Now, there are about 6,000.


      University administrators say they're listening to those
arguments. But they call aviation a high-cost, low-enrollment
program and say painful cuts need to be made somewhere.

      The university is making final decisions about which programs to
cut by March 1. The cuts will begin to take effect in the fall of
2011.

      Nihad Daidzic was hired as the department chair for aviation in
the fall of 2006 with a mandate to rebuild the program.

      Former chair John Roberts had been let go for collecting fees
from the administration of flight tests to students, causing the
program's reputation and enrollment to suffer.


      But by 2007 the program got a bigger marketing budget, new
professors and new planes - technically owned by North Star
Aviation but used for flight training.


      Daidzic said he and other faculty are successfully rebuilding
the program. "We delivered," he said.

      He said the university is using data from as old as 2003 to make
the decision about what cuts to make, back when the aviation
program was still in the doldrums.

      Students, at least the pair who showed up when a reporter toured
the airport recently, are positive about the program.

      Katrina Avery, an aviation senior, said she had planned to
attend the largest flight school in the region, the University of
North Dakota. But she changed her mind after making a campus visit
to Grand Forks.

      "It was like cattle herding," she said.

      Minnesota State University is hardly small, but the aviation
students act like a close-knit group, Avery said, hanging out with
each other outside of class. Most of the flight instructors are
students themselves.


      Seniors who are licensed to teach but still need to rack up
costly flight hours for advanced certification often elect to help
their younger brethren get licensed.

      At 127 majors, MSU's flight program is the largest in the state.
Daidzic said St. Cloud State University's program is transitioning
toward training air traffic controllers.

      The university is using metrics - data-based strategies to
determine the value of programs - and more qualitative judgments
like whether a program is central to the mission of its department
and the wider university.

      As far as metrics, aviation is a "high-cost, low-enrollment"
program, Dean of Education Michael Miller said. While students bear
the cost of flight training, the university continues to pay for a
renovation of the airport, for flight simulators, ongoing
maintenance as well as the costs associated with resurrecting the
program.


      "During that time, the program has lost a lot of money for the
institution," Miller said.

      Daidzic said the department is run efficiently.

      Using a measure called credit hours per full-time faculty
equivalent, he said the aviation program is the most efficient in
the college of education if adjunct instructors are included.

      Miller has also been looking for "other configurations or
partnerships" to help MSU continue the program but more cheaply.

      One idea raised by university administrators is to have the
flight school portion of the program transferred to a technical
college, perhaps South Central College in North Mankato, but have
MSU retain the classroom instruction.


      "If you want to get hired by a major airline, you have to have
a major degree," said Tom Peterson, an assistant professor of
aviation.

      The standard for commercial airline jobs is increasingly
becoming a degree from an accredited, four-year college, Daidzic
said.

      He said new training standards were added in the wake of the
crash of Colgan Air Flight 3407 in New York, which killed 50 people
on Feb. 12, 2009.

      Daidzic said the standards were waived for graduates of
accredited colleges.

      SCC President Keith Stover said through a representative that he
had no comment on the suggestion that SCC would take over part of
the program.


      University students account for perhaps two-thirds of the
takeoffs and landings at the city-owned airport. That figure may
exaggerate their use of the airport considering they take off and
land frequently to practice, but if the program left there's little
doubt the airport will suffer.

      Without the student traffic, Airport Manager Kevin Baker said it
would be difficult to justify airport upgrades to the Federal
Aviation Administration, which typically pays most of airport
improvements. Recent examples of work include $12 million to extend
a runway from 5,400 feet to 6,600 feet and $1.4 million to re-pave
the smaller runway.

      North Star Aviation would likely have to lay off most of its 15
or so flight instructors. It employs 40 people total, but it's
unclear how many would remain employed because of the company's
contract with the city.


      The university's monthly payments to the city for renovations at
the airport may also stop, though the city has said it would expect
the university to keep paying because the work was undertaken to
benefit MSU.

      Miller said he understands these impacts but "programs do have
to be cut at the university in order to make budget when we're
downsizing our faculty by a sixth."
      
      ---

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Students and faculty are trying to save the aviation program at MSU Makato, a program that faces elimination due to the state's projected $1.2 billion budget shortfall.

Future of Mankato State flight school in doubt

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