{"id":2617,"date":"2014-08-11T12:20:55","date_gmt":"2014-08-11T17:20:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/monte\/?p=2617"},"modified":"2014-08-13T10:08:46","modified_gmt":"2014-08-13T15:08:46","slug":"classism-run-amok-in-public-higher-ed-time-to-fire-minnesotas-chancellor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/monte\/2014\/08\/11\/classism-run-amok-in-public-higher-ed-time-to-fire-minnesotas-chancellor\/","title":{"rendered":"Classism Run Amok in Public Higher Ed: Time to Remove Minnesota’s Chancellor"},"content":{"rendered":"
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MINNPOST<\/a><\/h1>\n

August 11, 2014<\/p>\n

With narrow work force focus, MnSCU has lost its way<\/h1>\n<\/div>\n
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By\u00a0Monte Bute<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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A top priority of the leadership at the\u00a0Minnesota State College and Universities<\/a>\u00a0(MnSCU) is simple, appealing, \u2014 and terribly misguided. They see themselves in the business of providing vocational training to meet the needs of Minnesota employers. Have the chancellor and board of trustees forgotten that they run a public higher education system, not an employment agency for the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce?<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\"Monte<\/p>\n
Monte Bute<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Last year MnSCU, in partnership with the Chamber of Commerce, held 50 \u201clistening sessions\u201d with over 500 employers statewide. \u201cBy listening to Minnesota employers,\u201d Chancellor Steven Rosenstone said, \u201cwe can obtain a greater understanding of the state\u2019s work force need.\u201d<\/p>\n

There were no such highly publicized listening sessions for students, faculty, staff, or local communities.<\/p>\n

Because of this shortsightedness, \u201cwork force development\u201d now trumps most other criteria for teaching and learning. While the chancellor and trustees would deny it, they seem to view\u00a0MnSCU students as little more than merchandise, mass-produced to fill orders for its business customers.\u00a0MnSCU now even has production quotas.<\/i><\/p>\n

Produce leaders \u2014 or followers?<\/h4>\n

MnSCU students (and their families) understandably want to succeed and find good-paying jobs. But why must MnSCU measure success in the narrow terms of students\u2019 fit with work force trends? Critical thinking, creative problem solving, and communication skills remain essential tools for leadership in a world desperately seeking transformative leaders \u2014 and yet MnSCU appears more interested in producing followers.<\/p>\n

The University of Minnesota and private colleges like Carleton and Macalester\u00a0realize that high standards produce leaders, managers and innovators, while mediocre standards create a workforce whose fate it is to follow the orders of others.<\/p>\n

While there is no shame in working for others, shouldn\u2019t we give\u00a0all\u00a0<\/i>students a skill set to establish their\u00a0own\u00a0<\/i>ceilings in life? Then let the market sort out the supply and demand for labor. Planned economies are notoriously inefficient.<\/p>\n

The leadership qualities fostered by a traditional liberal arts education are, at best, an afterthought for MnSCU’s leadership. Some state university teachers actively seek to subvert this academic class system by providing elite\u00a0education to the masses, despite a centralized juggernaut that has\u00a0strictly utilitarian goals for most of its students.<\/p>\n

Subtle inequality<\/h4>\n

As Louis Menand points out in a recent New Yorker essay, \u201cThis\u00a0is why liberal education is the elite type of college education: it\u2019s the gateway to the high-status professions.\u201d\u00a0Most parents would say that\u2019s what I want for my children.<\/p>\n

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Like the barnyard critters in George Orwell\u2019s “Animal Farm,” all Minnesota colleges and universities are equal, but some are more equal than others. Masking this subtle inequality with claims that merit determines outcome is disingenuous \u2014 learning opportunities in our state are inequitably distributed.<\/p>\n

Most MnSCU students are as quick-witted as their counterparts at more elite\u00a0institutions are. Regrettably, this intellectual potential and the opportunity to develop that gift are often a mismatch at MnSCU\u2019s colleges and universities. As a result, the system diminishes these students\u2019 life chances.<\/p>\n

How have we gotten into this quandary, and why is it getting progressively worse?<\/p>\n

MnSCU is, in fact, among the most centralized systems\u00a0of public higher education in the nation. With best of intentions, former Senate Majority Leader Roger Moe and the Minnesota Legislature passed a bill in 1991 merging three independent systems \u2014 state universities, community colleges, and technical colleges \u2014 into what has since become an \u00fcber-bureaucracy.<\/p>\n

Unintended consequences<\/h4>\n

Legislators were oblivious to the unintended consequences that might follow. What they had intended was a rational and efficient federation of relatively autonomous public colleges and universities. Instead, what history has bequeathed us is a Byzantine empire, with top-down management ruling local campuses like colonial outposts.<\/p>\n

Established in 1995,\u00a0MnSCU has become the elephant in the room for local campuses. Its staff has proliferated into nearly 400 administrative employees, imposing\u00a0board policies and dictating procedures to its 31 college and universities \u2014 and their faculties.<\/p>\n

The central office staff of MnSCU \u2014 many of whom have never taught a university class, graded a paper, advised a student, or written a scholarly article \u2014 spend far too many of their working hours as busybodies. They browbeat local campuses and their faculties with what Emerson called \u201cA foolish consistency [which] is the hobgoblin of little minds,\u201d while neglecting important matters like academic excellence and leadership development.<\/p>\n

What can we do?<\/p>\n

Students and their professors are the heart and soul of higher education. All other partners exist to support the teaching and learning process. MnSCU is no longer part of the solution; it has become part of the problem. Is MnSCU past its expiration date? At minimum, Minnesota needs a new chancellor and some fresh trustees.<\/p>\n

Monte Bute teaches sociology at\u00a0Metropolitan State University<\/a>, a MnSCU institution in St. Paul and Minneapolis.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MINNPOST August 11, 2014 With narrow work force focus, MnSCU has lost its way By\u00a0Monte Bute\u00a0 A top priority of the leadership at the\u00a0Minnesota State College and Universities\u00a0(MnSCU) is simple, appealing, \u2014 and terribly misguided. They see themselves in the business of providing vocational training to meet the needs of Minnesota employers. Have the chancellor […]<\/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-2617","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\/2617","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=2617"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/monte\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2617\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2621,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/monte\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2617\/revisions\/2621"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/monte\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2617"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/monte\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2617"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/monte\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2617"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}