Others’ Opinion: MnSCU evolving

Published 9:05 am Monday, October 27, 2014

­—St. Paul Pioneer Press

St. Paul was the first Twin Cities stop on Tuesday for an ambitious series of events showcasing progress on the plan to modernize the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system.

“Gallery Walks” like the one at St. Paul College provide the public’s first look at concepts developed by four of the teams implementing MnSCU’s “Charting the Future” initiative. It strives to prepare the system — one of the nation’s largest — to serve students in a permanent environment of scarcer public resources, continuous change and increasing expectations.

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The Gallery Walks tour is a big one, with 39 events around the state through Nov. 21, and the point is to engage people, Chancellor Steven Rosenstone told us. Gallery-goers — students, faculty, staff and community members — will have an opportunity to see displays outlining the groups’ work and to react and offer suggestions to representatives.

The conversations that take place are important, he said. “We want the very best ideas,” and it makes sense to get input now, while the work on solutions remains underway. Information online at mnscu.edu/chartingthefuture includes the Gallery Walk schedule, as well as a link to provide feedback digitally.

The Student Success team, for example, is reviewing policies that can create barriers to student success in such areas as scheduling, registration and financial aid procedures, and asks Gallery Walk participants about policy changes that would help more students succeed.

It also notes “mixed adoption and availability of technology” across the MnSCU system and asks for input about better technology tools.

Teams presenting their work this fall also cover diversity, comprehensive workplace solutions — delivering the best possible continuing education, training and other services to partner businesses and communities — and system incentives and rewards — encouraging organizational changes that will be needed to foster collaboration, efficiency and coordination across institutions. The teams — with campus leaders, and representation from student associations, as well as faculty and staff unions — include four more groups that will present their work in a spring series of Gallery Walks.

Rosenstone makes it clear that “business as usual” won’t prepare the system to face the financial, demographic and workforce changes of the future.

He also makes the case for urgency — and faces pushback — in what amounts to a sprawling bureaucracy, one with 31 colleges and universities on 54 campuses in 47 communities across the state.

Included are assertions that the effort — now in the works for nearly two years — is moving too fast. It’s not. Rosenstone rightly notes the difference between the slow pace of “academic time” and real time.

At MnSCU, which serves more than 430,000 students, the difficult conversation about needed changes and how to implement them is of critical importance.

Change is hard, the chancellor acknowledges. The Gallery Walks are an opportunity to help make it better.