{"id":2270,"date":"2014-06-17T20:23:35","date_gmt":"2014-06-18T01:23:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/monte\/?p=2270"},"modified":"2014-06-18T10:19:19","modified_gmt":"2014-06-18T15:19:19","slug":"the-trustees-who-cant-shot-straight-shot-themselves-in-the-foot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/monte\/2014\/06\/17\/the-trustees-who-cant-shot-straight-shot-themselves-in-the-foot\/","title":{"rendered":"The Trustees who can&#8217;t shoot straight, manage to shoot themselves in the foot"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"articleHeader\">\n<div class=\"articleHeader\">\n<h2 style=\"font-weight: normal;\"><strong>Three-year contract for MnSCU chancellor reached in October draws fire<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul class=\"HeadingDetails\">\n<li class=\"first\">Article by:\u00a0<a style=\"color: #0b478d;\" title=\"JENNA ROSS\" href=\"http:\/\/www.startribune.com\/bios\/10645826.html\">JENNA ROSS<\/a>\u00a0,<em><strong> Star Tribune<\/strong><\/em><\/li>\n<li class=\"updatedBy\" style=\"color: #666666;\">June 16, 2014<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"headingIntro\"><strong>System\u2019s faculty union and board of trustees clash over a quiet pay raise and renewed contract.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"fullArticleStory\">\n<div class=\"heroImageWraper\" style=\"font-weight: normal;\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/stmedia.startribune.com\/images\/545*425\/1chan0203gallery.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><\/div>\n<div class=\"heroImageWraper\" style=\"font-weight: normal;\">\u00a0Monday\u2019s announcement that the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system gave its top executive a raise and a new, three-year contract \u2014 last October \u2014 drew criticism from a top lawmaker and the union that represents the faculty at seven state universities.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"fullArticleStory\">\n<div class=\"articleStoryContainer\">\n<div class=\"articleStory\">\n<div class=\"resizeFont\">\n<p class=\"Text_Body\">Chancellor Steven Rosenstone will make $387,250 in base salary for the coming school year, a 1.8 percent increase. He also will receive a $43,160 boost to allowances for transportation and other expenses, MnSCU said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Text_Body\">A professor sent the contract to the media Friday. On Monday, MnSCU sent out a news release \u201cdue to interest from the media,\u201d a spokesman said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Text_Body\">Clarence Hightower, chairman of the MnSCU board of trustees, negotiated the agreement. He said that after the board in June unanimously gave him the authority to negotiate with Rosenstone, it did not vote on the final deal \u2014 but there was \u201cnot an expectation that it would.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"Text_Body\">\u201cIt\u2019s the same process we used three years ago when we hired Chancellor Rosenstone,\u201d he said. There was no vote, news release or announcement then, either, he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Text_Body\">Hightower said that some board members \u201clearned as late as yesterday\u201d about the signed contract.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Text_Body\">Rep. Gene Pelowski, chair of the House higher education committee, blasted MnSCU leaders for settling Rosenstone\u2019s contract while testy negotiations with the universities\u2019 faculty union drag on.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Text_Body\">Those leaders promised lawmakers during the last legislative session that if they approved $17 million for the system, the contract for those 4,000 faculty members would be settled \u201cwithin days,\u201d said Pelowski, D-Winona.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Text_Body\">\u201cWell, it\u2019s been a month or more,\u201d he said. \u201cThen the most expensive contract you have, you settled in October? And now we find out about it?\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"Text_Body\">The public deserves a more open process, Pelowski added. \u201cIf you look at openness in government and take a smell test, this stinks.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"Text_Body\">It\u2019s been more than three years since Rosenstone was picked to lead MnSCU \u2014 a network of seven state universities and 24 community or technical colleges with more than 430,000 students. His contract expires July 31. It says the trustees \u201cmay renew or continue the chancellor\u2019s appointment only by a majority vote of the board.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"Text_Body\">The new agreement, which starts Aug. 1, eliminates a performance bonus of up to $50,000 a year, a response to lawmakers banning such bonuses during last year\u2019s session. Rosenstone will get $42,300 a year for housing, $15,000 for transportation and $7,800 for professional development.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Text_Body\">The increases bring his total compensation \u201cin line with that of other leaders of higher education systems nationally,\u201d the MnSCU news release says. Rosenstone\u2019s current pay ranks 23rd among 65 heads of similar systems, according to an annual ranking by the Chronicle of Higher Education.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Text_Body\">MnSCU spokesman Doug Anderson said the contract approval \u201cis consistent with practices in recent years.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"Text_Body\">Hightower, who was appointed to the board in 2002, said that he can\u2019t remember ever voting on a contract for former Chancellor James McCormick. But news articles and meeting minutes mention board votes on McCormick\u2019s compensation. One 2002 report said that the 15-member board reviewed McCormick\u2019s performance and \u201cvoted unanimously in favor of the raise and extension.\u201d Board minutes from December 2005 also note the board approving a raise for McCormick.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Text_ChapterHead\" style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Criticism is \u2018fair\u2019<\/p>\n<p class=\"Text_Body\">The faculty \u201cabsolutely have the right\u201d to call the board out, Hightower said. \u201cThat\u2019s fair. Hindsight always gives us an opportunity \u2026 to look at how we do things.\u201dNews of the contract comes as Rosenstone is about to get a performance review. A committee, led by Hightower, will give its report to the board of trustees July 18.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Text_Body\">\u201cI want to know how they expect the average Minnesota citizen to understand why they would give a contract extension nine months before they performed an evaluation,\u201d said Nancy Black, president of the Inter Faculty Organization, which represents university faculty.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Text_Body\">Her group already delivered Rosenstone a harsh job review, criticizing him for \u201cthe erosion of the missions of the state universities.\u201d In a statement last week, Hightower responded by saying the board supports Rosenstone \u201cunanimously and without reservation.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"Text_Body\">Monte Bute, a sociology professor at Metropolitan State University, sent the letter to media and was surprised by Monday\u2019s news release, which did not mention when the contract was signed. He said he\u2019s concerned about that \u201clack of transparency.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"Text_Body\">\u201cFor what purpose are you doing a performance review?\u201d Bute said. \u201cYou\u2019ve already rewarded him.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"Text_Body\">\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Three-year contract for MnSCU chancellor reached in October draws fire Article by:\u00a0JENNA ROSS\u00a0, Star Tribune June 16, 2014 System\u2019s faculty union and board of trustees clash over a quiet pay raise and renewed contract. \u00a0Monday\u2019s announcement that the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system gave its top executive a raise and a new, three-year contract [&hellip;]<\/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-2270","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\/2270","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=2270"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/monte\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2270\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2282,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/monte\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2270\/revisions\/2282"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/monte\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2270"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/monte\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2270"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/monte\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2270"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}