{"id":2043,"date":"2013-11-27T21:43:08","date_gmt":"2013-11-28T02:43:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/monte\/?p=2043"},"modified":"2013-11-27T21:44:10","modified_gmt":"2013-11-28T02:44:10","slug":"2043","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/monte\/2013\/11\/27\/2043\/","title":{"rendered":"State’s Largest Newspaper Threatens State University Faculty"},"content":{"rendered":"

Charting a new, job-friendly course for MnSCU<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

System\u2019s faculty must buy in to train Minnesota\u2019s workforce.<\/strong><\/p>\n

EDITORIAL BOARD, Star Tribune: November 23, 2013<\/p>\n

Battleship MnSCU began to turn last week. As with any superliner, the initial change was almost imperceptible. But if the new direction set Wednesday by its governing board holds for the next several years, the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system stands to do a better job delivering the most vital ingredient to the state\u2019s future prosperity \u2014 more and better educated workers.<\/p>\n

The new strategic plan, called \u201cCharting the Future<\/a>,\u201d has the range and ambition befitting a big system with a big challenge. The latest projection by Georgetown University<\/a> says that by the end of this decade, 74 percent of Minnesota\u2019s jobs will require more than a high school diploma. That\u2019s up from 69 percent today. That next 5-percentage-point boost won\u2019t come easily. The state Office of Higher Education<\/a> foresees little growth in high school graduates through the rest of this decade. The only growth in the ranks of 18- to 24-year-olds will be in segments of the population that have not been graduating from high school at levels close to Minnesota\u2019s average.<\/p>\n

Minnesotans look to their colleges and universities, and especially to MnSCU, to satisfy the economy\u2019s workforce demands. MnSCU leaders could have responded to that challenge by defending the status quo, blaming the K-12 system, or asking taxpayers or tuition payers for more money. It did none of those things. Instead, Chancellor Steven Rosenstone and the board of trustees assigned a series of work groups to collect ideas and input from hundreds of stakeholders in the last year around the question: What can we do differently to ensure access, shore up quality and stay affordable to all Minnesotans?<\/p>\n

Their recommendations, which now have the force of MnSCU policy, are geared to produce a more efficient and effective educational engine. The vision:<\/p>\n

\u2022\u2009Curricula will be better coordinated throughout the system, giving more students the benefit of best practices, wider access to courses, and a guarantee that they can move seamlessly from one MnSCU institution to another. Nasty surprises about course credits that cannot transfer within the system should become a bad memory.<\/p>\n

\u2022\u2009Students will graduate not only with traditional degrees but also with certification of the skills and competencies they acquired. Competency certification will not be dependent on time spent in class, allowing students the opportunity to gain validation of their life experiences and to hasten degree completion.<\/p>\n

\u2022\u2009More online instruction will be available, and all 430,000 students will have more exposure to technology-enhanced pedagogy.<\/p>\n

\u2022\u2009Educational support will be better tailored to the circumstances of students from underserved populations and part-time adult learners.<\/p>\n

\u2022\u2009The system\u2019s 54 campuses will combine back-office functions to achieve cost-saving efficiencies.<\/p>\n

\u2022\u2009Academic programs will work as partners with Minnesota businesses to build employee skills and solve real-world business problems.<\/p>\n

\u2022\u2009A new funding model will emerge that tamps down competition for students within the system and instead rewards colleges and universities for student success.<\/p>\n

Some steps have already been taken in these directions. MnSCU board members touted the cost-saving potential of the system\u2019s new Campus Service Cooperative for shared business practices and procurement; Rosenstone praised a 15-college collaboration that is offering high-quality online classes for early childhood teachers.<\/p>\n

But much effort lies ahead for students, administrators and particularly faculty if \u201cCharting the Future\u201d is to live up to its transformative potential. A few months ago, faculty resistance to what was perceived as excessive centralization in an earlier draft of the plan threatened to derail it. Changes ensued to emphasize voluntary collaboration over central control. Those changes were sufficient for the state universities faculty union president Nancy Black to bless the new plan with tentative praise. \u201cThe core of \u2018Charting the Future\u2019 is solid,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Maintaining faculty trust and involvement is critical to the success of any plan for change in higher education. As this plan enters its implementation phase, MnSCU\u2019s administration should commit to a high degree of transparency and faculty participation.<\/p>\n

But MnSCU\u2019s faculty should understand that they share a mission to serve Minnesota, in institutions that are accountable to the public. If they prove unwilling to take steps of MnSCU\u2019s choosing to better meet the state\u2019s workforce challenge, the Legislature has the power to dictate change of its own devising. Enlightened self-interest \u2014 and Minnesota\u2019s interest \u2014 lies in the direction of constructive voluntary collaboration among academicians to meet \u201cCharting the Future\u2019s\u201d goals.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Charting a new, job-friendly course for MnSCU System\u2019s faculty must buy in to train Minnesota\u2019s workforce. EDITORIAL BOARD, Star Tribune: November 23, 2013 Battleship MnSCU began to turn last week. As with any superliner, the initial change was almost imperceptible. But if the new direction set Wednesday by its governing board holds for the next […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2043","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/monte\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2043","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/monte\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/monte\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/monte\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/27"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/monte\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2043"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/monte\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2043\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2046,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/monte\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2043\/revisions\/2046"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/monte\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2043"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/monte\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2043"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/monte\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2043"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}