April 2008

Recent news releases

March 31, 2008 - Sue K. Hammersmith recommended for presidency of Metropolitan State University

March 26, 2008 - John O'Brien appointed acting president of Century College

March 26, 2008 - Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system meets every performance goal set by state officials

March 19, 2008 - Sue Collins appointed president of Northeast Higher Education District

March 19, 2008 - Richard Shrubb appointed president of Minnesota West Community and Technical College

March 19, 2008 - Board of Trustees appoints interim presidents for Hennepin Technical College and Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College

March 13, 2008 - Twenty-one applicants selected to interview for Minnesota State Colleges and Universities Board of Trustees

News and notes

New display installed of faculty, staff and student art

Artist Zhimin Guan, Faculty, Minnesota State University Moorhead, in front of his painting Abstract Landscape.

The third annual display of loaned artworks created by faculty and students from throughout the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system has been installed in public areas of the Office of the Chancellor in Wells Fargo Place. Photos of the artworks and the artists' statements are posted on the Web. The artists from the past year's display were recognized at a reception in March attended by artists, guests and staff from the Office of the Chancellor.

View the third annual art display

Friends Action Network expanding

The Friends Action Network is a grassroots network of faculty, students, staff, alumni and community members committed to building public support for the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system's annual legislative requests. This year, the FAN is being mobilized to educate legislators on the importance of funding the state's higher education institutions and to support the system's bonding requests.

This session, FAN has gone local. Pilot campuses now are posting links to their Web sites. They are Ridgewater College, St. Cloud Technical College, Minnesota State University Moorhead and Alexandria Technical College.

The Friends Action Network is expanding, but your help is needed.

Reaching out to parents

The Office of the Chancellor's Diversity and Multicultural division is working with the Minneapolis Connecting Parents to Educational Opportunities program to reach out to parents of students in groups traditionally underrepresented in higher education. The program offers a six-week curriculum designed especially for parents, bringing them together with the schools and the community as equal partners in the education of their children. Throughout the week of May 12, the Diversity and Multicultural division will present the curriculum in Hmong, Somali and Spanish to parents. The division also will host an on-campus luncheon for the parents in the fall that will include a tour of the host college.

El Pueblo Avanza conference discusses issues affecting Latinos

The Diversity and Multiculturalism division participated in the 2008 Latino Conference, El Pueblo Avanza, hosted by the Minnesota State University, Mankato Office of Institutional Diversity in conjunction with the Latino Affairs Program in March. Conference discussions included access to general community resources to help empower Latino-Chicano communities, Latino contributions to society, student recruitment and retention, education, health, community organizations, employment and immigration.

Rául Ramos, community outreach and training specialist, and Victor Ramirez, student intern, presented on student recruitment and retention. The conference goal was to build student leadership and provide an opportunity for students, professionals and community members to discuss issues that affect Latinos in the United States.

Student Leadership Workshop recap

Student leaders from system institutions were invited to a March workshop to help students become more culturally competent student leaders. The workshop at Minneapolis Community and Technical College was sponsored by the Diversity and Multiculturalism division. The workshop challenged students' assumptions about cultural diversity and helped to cultivate cultural awareness and understanding. Participants met student leaders from other Minnesota State Colleges and Universities.

More than 120 students from seven different colleges and universities attended this year's workshop. Whitney Harris, Ka Vang, Victor Ramirez and Raúl Ramos participated as panelists throughout the day. Due to the large amount of interest and the large number participants, the planning committee looks forward to a larger and more interactive two-day leadership workshop for fall 2009.

System magazine, legislative campaign win top honors

The Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system won two top awards at the Public Relations Society of America Classics award ceremony sponsored by the Minnesota PRSA chapter. The awards were for the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities magazine and for "Educating Minnesota," the system's 2008 campaign for the biennial legislative budget request, which included the Friends Action Network strategy. The system also was a finalist for the College Encouragement campaign with the Minnesota Office of Higher Education and other higher education organizations.

Purchasing opportunities and strategies sought

A new purchasing team began meeting in January to identify new purchasing opportunities and strategies that will enable the system to leverage its purchasing power and create a best practice on behalf of the colleges and universities.

The team identified commodities and services purchased individually throughout the system and selected several as pilot projects. The purpose of the pilots is to begin achieving immediate savings to the participating institutions and to craft a best practice to purchase the system's commonly used commodities and services. The current practice of individual purchases potentially limits the system's purchasing power and adds to administrative costs.

To date, the team has established subcommittees to pilot or study the purchase of mattresses for residential institutions and those with programmatic needs, vehicles, carpet and floor covering, travel services for international and domestic academic and institutional programs, campus electrical hazard analyses, express services, document destruction services, garbage removal services and more. The pilots are expected to be completed within the next few months.

Team members are from Anoka-Ramsey Community College, Bemidji State University, Mesabi Range Community and Technical College, Minneapolis Community and Technical College, Minnesota State Community and Technical College, Minnesota State University Moorhead, Minnesota West Community and Technical College, St. Cloud State University, Southwest Minnesota State University, Winona State University, and Jim Dillemuth, Steve Gednalske, Kevin Marsh and Jim Morgan from the Office of the Chancellor.

For more information, contact Kevin Marsh at 651-296-7506 or kevin.marsh@so.mnscu.edu.

Issue archive

in this issue

Teaching conference focuses on the first-year student

The 2008 ITeach Conference, "The First-Year Student in the 21st Century - Realizing Student Potential" was Feb. 28 - March 1 on the campus of Minneapolis Community and Technical College. More than 1,100 faculty, administrators and students participated in 150 peer-reviewed sessions presented by nearly 200 of their colleagues.

The conference included best practices in teaching and learning and best practices in teaching with technology. Opening keynote speaker Mark Taylor presented an interactive session, "Generation NeXt Comes to College-Hardwired," on how students use technology and how faculty can use technologies for more effective and engaging student learning.

Betsy Barefoot, co-director and senior scholar for the Policy Center on the First Year of College, presented on the latest strategies to engage new students and on first-year teaching across the disciplines.

Upcoming events

April Diversity Brown Bag

Respect and Creating a Welcoming Work Environment through the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities 1.B.1 Nondiscrimination Policy.

Date: Thurs., April 17
Time: 11:30 a.m. - 12:45 p.m.
Location: Conference Rooms 3304 and 3306

Board Policy 1.B.1 prohibits harassment and discrimination based on 12 protected classes. This interactive presentation will also include a discussion on the latest addition to the policy on consensual relationships, adopted in November 2006.

Participants will learn and be able to explain the following ideas related to the 1.B.1 Nondiscrimination Policy:

harassment
discrimination
retaliation
reporting complaints

Whitney G. Harris, executive director for the Diversity and Multiculturalism Division, and Renée Hogoboom, Equal Opportunity manager and investigator, will be present at the workshop.

For more information or to join the workshop via ITV, contact Ka Vang, director, diversity programs, Diversity and Multiculturalism at ka.vang@so.mnscu.edu or 651-201-1599.

Employees and supervisors are encouraged to attend these events and are not required to use vacation leave or compensatory time.

Minnesota State Colleges and Universities/AFSCME development conference May 20-21

The 2008 Minnesota State Colleges and Universities/AFSCME Professional Development Conference will take place May 20 and 21 at Alexandria Technical College. Save the date; more information will be coming soon.

Achievements

Whitney Harris, executive director of equal opportunity and diversity, has been elected to another term on the Board of Directors of the American Men's Studies Association. The American Men's Studies Association advances the critical study of men and masculinities by encouraging the development of teaching, research and clinical practice in the field of men's studies. AMSA is an independent organization that provides a forum for teachers, researchers, students and practitioners to exchange information and to gain support for its work. Harris will present a paper at the organization's April conference, A Slice of Life: Males' Perception of Diversity in Higher Education Leadership.

Gary Janikowski, system director for personnel, received the 2008 Midwest Region Outstanding Service Award at the Midwest regional conference of the College and University Professional Association for Human Resources, held in March in Chicago. He was selected for his outstanding service and leadership to the Midwest region through his involvement on the organization's board as treasurer and director of programs.

Candi Walz, director of legislative communication in Government Relations, presented at the New York University International Education Conference, Exploring Quality and Equity in Education: Innovation & Challenges in International and Comparative Contexts, March 13-14. Walz's presentation focused on how to make rural school districts more competitive through the use of technology to offer rigorous courses through college in the schools, Advanced Placement and Post-Secondary Enrollment Options.

New Employees

Heather Aune
Heather Aune comes to the Office of the Chancellor from Inver Hills Community College. She was at Inver Hills for five years in the business office working in accounts payable and third party billing. Aune has a bachelor 's degree in business administration from Metropolitan State University and is working on a master's degree in educational administration at St. Mary's University. She is married and has a 4-year-old son and 11-month-old daughter.

Charles Kroger
Charles Kroger is the newest member of the D2L System Site Administrator team in St. Cloud. He joins Chuck Morris, Ben Pratt and Karen Wenz in supporting the systemwide instructional management system, Desire2Learn. Kroger has several years of experience at system institutions. While at Minneapolis Community and Technical College, he was a Web developer and the campus site administrator and trainer for Desire2Learn. Most recently, he was a webmaster at Century College, where he led an award-winning Web site redesign. Kroger hold bachelor's degrees in economics and philosophy.

Submit an item to The Chronicle

Contact the internal newsletter reporter for your division:

Board of Trustees: Patty McCann
Academic and Student Affairs: Tim Price
Chancellor's Office: Janice Kwallek
Finance and Facilities: Nancy Lamden
Government Relations: Melissa Fahning, Candi Walz
Human Resources: Vicki Schoenbeck
Information Technology: Valerie Zahorski Schmidt
Internal Auditing: Darla Senn
Legal Affairs: Dorothy Zenner
Foundation: Catherine McGlinch
Multiculturalism and
Diversity: Renée Hogoboom
Public Affairs: Nancy Conner