Rochester officially has a University of Minnesota campus, with an as-yet unnamed chancellor, a separate budget and equal standing with campuses in Crookston, Morris and Duluth.

That news, delivered Thursday by U President Robert Bruininks in talks to two groups in Rochester, is mostly symbolic until the U finds a site for programs that are supposed to open next July. Much of the faculty is yet to be hired.

But in a community that has been hungry for advanced university programs to feed such employers as the Mayo Clinic and IBM, the news was buoying.

"This is really starting to take shape as an independent, free-standing campus," said U spokesman Dan Wolter. "It's kind of been a dream for a lot of people for a long time, and things are starting to solidify."

For years the U has operated joint education programs with state colleges and universities in Rochester, renting space at Rochester Community and Technical College. U officials and city leaders had hoped the new U of M programs could be located in the heart of downtown, but it's been difficult to find a building with adequate space and parking, Wolter said. Officials hope to find that 50,000 square feet of space by the time as many as 20 faculty members join the new campus next fall.

At least four of those faculty members already hold appointments at the U's Hormel Institute in Austin.

The rest, a combination of full-time and part-time positions, are expected to be mostly new hires, Wolter said.

Rochester's chancellor will oversee a 2007-08 budget of about $5 million and programs that stress graduate education in medical and technical fields. The U's Center for Allied Health Programs, which is now located mostly on the Twin Cities campus, will be split between that campus and Rochester. An Academic and Corporate Relations Center has opened in Rochester, and a Center for Bioinformatics will be set up there, too.

Bruininks needs approval from the U's governing Board of Regents to add the chancellor position. He is expected to do that next month.

Mary Jane Smetanka • 612-673-7380 • smetan@startribune.com