ST. PAUL — Faculty members and students within the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system are criticizing the chancellor’s plans to overhaul the system.

In a plan titled “Charting the Future,” the administration calls for a revamp to increase efficiency and effectiveness. Chancellor Steven Rosenstone envisions a network of innovative campuses with affordable degrees that help students secure good jobs. He wants schools to stop competing against each other for students and instead work together to lower the cost of education and simplify the transferring process.

“Charting the Future is all about creating a better education for our students,” Rosenstone said.

But some fear the system will become a factory-like institution that offers stripped-down diplomas and simply cranks out workers for Minnesota industry. Opponents are concerned about the homogenization of education through larger class sizes and fewer course offerings, Minnesota Public Radio News reported.

“It’s called the McDonaldization of higher education,” said Vicky Brockman, faculty association president at Southwest Minnesota State University.

Although many professors agree that higher student performance, lower cost of education and better technology are goals that anyone could get behind, they worry about how those goals can be attained. System administrators have yet to release complete details of the overhaul, but opponents are becoming suspicious based on the wording of some suggested strategies.

Some faculty members wonder if the goal for campuses to “collaborate, coordinate and align” means that all campuses will have to follow a central-office formula controlled by leaders of the system. Opponents also worry that programs and other resources could be reallocated to other campuses to serve a larger amount of students, such as those in the Twin Cities, where the demand for degrees is expected to grow. There’s also fear those changes could result in faculty job cuts and a reduction in choices for students in other parts of the state.

“I’m from Duluth,” said Damon Kapke, a Lake Superior College English instructor and faculty union leader. “I’m in one of those corners. I’m concerned about that.”

Rosenstone maintains that those concerns aren’t valid and he doesn’t know what they’re stemming from.

“If those were things that Charting the Future was really about, I’d be concerned, too,” he said. “But none of those are things that are in the document … This is about protecting our ability to serve students across the state of Minnesota. This is about protecting the quality of our academic programs.”

Opponents say they are suspicious of the chancellor because of several moves he recently made without formal board approval, including a two-year contract extension for himself.

The system serves about 410,000 students as the largest provider of higher education in the state.