Beginning of academic year:
A time of vision and challenges
Remarks to the Board of Trustees
James H. McCormick
September 2007
Those of you who may have known me for some time also know that late August through September is my favorite time of the season. For me, the beginning of a new academic year still brings a sense of excitement and anticipation. I feel it every fall, and I like to think every student starts the year excited about what they have chosen to study and happy with their choice of college or university. Our job throughout the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system is to support them in realizing their goals.
This is an ideal time to talk about our vision for the year and some of the challenges we likely will see. I really look forward to working with the system's constituencies to reach the goals we have set for the year. First, we must achieve those goals the governor and Legislature set for us as a condition of receiving one percent of our appropriation, or about $13.5 million:
- Increasing the number of students who take college-level courses in science, technology, engineering and math;
- Increasing enrollment in our Centers of Excellence programs;
- Increasing the number of students trained on the use of electronic medical record technology;
- Increasing the number of students taking online courses; and
- Expanding initiatives that reward institutions' faculty and staff for innovations designed to advance excellence and efficiency.
While the law challenges us to meet three out of those five, I am hopeful that we can come back at the end of the year and tell the governor and Legislature that we completed all five.
The Board of Trustees' Action Plan has goals that we intend to meet. These are in the areas of improving student access and opportunity, promoting high-quality learning programs and services, providing programs and services vital to the economic needs of the state, and innovating to meet educational needs efficiently. They include increasing student retention rates, improving success of students of color and increasing financial support from private sources.
Our Board also has committed us to a new era of accountability. The scorecard and dashboard, which will be completed in the next two months, will put this higher education system significantly ahead of many in measuring results and making them transparent and readily available to anyone who wants to see them.
In the coming year, we all have a number of major projects and initiatives on our plate:
- Our information technology investment, which was funded by the 2007 Legislature, will result in major improvements in our technology infrastructure that will serve our students and faculty well into the future.
- We are engaged in collective bargaining with our faculty unions, and I want them to know that we will work to reach agreement on a contract that is fair to everyone.
- We continue to meet the changing needs of our students. This year, we will be serving hundreds of veterans who are entering higher education for the first time or returning to a campus. We are so pleased that we have the opportunity to serve these men and women as they reintegrate into their civilian lives.
- Minnesota's population continues to diversify, and we are continually looking for new ways to understand and reach more students from underrepresented groups. Many of them have come from different parts of the world - including some war-torn countries - and our colleges and universities are working hard to understand cultural differences and serve these students.
- Our focus at the Legislature will be on our capital budget request. We have asked for $271 million in state bonding funds for 37 projects across the state, including $110 million for much needed repair and replacement projects on all 53 of our campuses.
- Although the biennial budget session won't begin until 2008, we will need to spend much of this year having important discussions with the board, college and university presidents, faculty representatives and students to build consensus about our operating budget request.
- Finally, this year will be an exciting time of leadership changes. We have two new presidents - Earl Potter at St. Cloud State University and Joe Opatz at Normandale. You may know that two sitting presidents have announced their plans to retire at the end of the academic year - Ron Wood at Minnesota West and Joe Sertich at the Northeast Higher Education District; Metropolitan State University President Wilson Bradshaw will resign in November to assume a new position as president of Florida Gulf Coast University. We look forward to conducting searches for new leadership at those institutions. The process provides fresh, even exciting opportunities for all of us.
Finally, overall, I believe this year's legislative outcome was a vote of confidence for our college and university system. I am delighted that early reports from the presidents reveal that they have had a good beginning to the year, and we are cautiously optimistic that our enrollment will be up statewide.
I am proud to be an advocate for you, for all of our 32 colleges and universities in this system. We have made some wonderful progress this past year, and I feel energized about the year ahead.
