February 2009

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Articles

Tentative labor agreement reached with state university faculty

The Inter Faculty Organization, which represents more than 3,000 faculty members at Minnesota's seven state universities, and the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system today reached a tentative labor agreement that calls for no across-the-board salary increases or annual step increases for the next two years.

The agreement would leave current terms and conditions in place.

The IFO Board of Directors will review the tentative agreement Friday and make a recommendation to the faculty at large, who must approve the agreement if it is to take effect. It will then be forwarded to the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities Board of Trustees for approval.

The tentative agreement came early in the contract negotiations. The current contract with the IFO is set to expire June 30, 2009.

"The IFO team believes that this is a proposal that is appropriate for these extraordinary times," said Rod Henry, IFO president. "With millions of people being laid off and taking pay cuts, and with an unprecedented state budget shortfall, the IFO team believed that the usual contract bargaining process would get in the way of providing stability for our universities, the students and public they serve. We also want to focus on saving faculty jobs."

He added, "We know that an inability to accurately project finances over the next few years could require more layoffs, open positions, or greater losses for our universities. We know that the long-term commitment we make to our students and their families for the timely completion of a quality, reasonably-priced education is put in jeopardy by last-minute layoffs or hires."

Chancellor James McCormick praised the efforts of the IFO to reach an early tentative agreement.

"This will allow the presidents of the state universities to have some certainty as they plan for budget cuts for the next two years," he said. "We are hopeful that maintaining salaries at current levels will result in fewer layoffs and fewer severe program cuts than they otherwise would have planned."

Governor proposes $146 million cut for system

Gov. Tim Pawlenty released his state budget proposal, which would reduce the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system’s appropriation by $146 million, or nearly 11 percent in the next biennium. If approved, the cuts would come on top of a $20 million cut to the appropriation for the current biennium. The state faces a $4.8 billion deficit over the next two years.

Diversity and Multiculturalism and Public Affairs divisions launch new initiative

“Make college a part of your future” ads are currently being placed on Metro Transit buses.

About 70 staff members in the Office of the Chancellor attended a Jan. 9 open house sponsored by the Diversity and Multiculturalism and Public Affairs divisions to highlight the system’s latest diversity initiative. As part of the initiative, the two divisions, with help from Academic and Student Affairs, teamed up to produce a new brochure, Make college a part of your future, a related wall poster and a Web site, yesyoucan.mnscu.edu. Advertisements also are being placed on buses, bus shelters and light rail transit cars and in minority news outlets.

The ads for minority media outlets include this one in the Hmong language.

The materials and Web site are available in English and eight other languages - Dakota, French, Hmong, Ojibwe, Russian, Somali, Spanish and Vietnamese. The initiative is intended primarily to help students in 8th through 10th grades in underrepresented groups, along with their parents and mentors, learn more about the benefits of attending college and encourage them to prepare for college. Underrepresented groups include students of color, students from low-income families, first-generation college-goers and students for whom English is not a first language. For more details, see the Jan. 12 news release.

Super Weekend expands to 25 groups

Chancellor James McCormick and Pastor Rozenia Hood Fuller at Redeemer Lutheran Church in Minneapolis.

High-ranking officials of the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system spoke at places of worship and community-based organizations Jan. 23 through Jan. 25 to encourage students from underrepresented communities to prepare and attend college. Twenty-five worship and community-based groups participated in Super Weekend. The goal is to provide information and support for parents as they help their children prepare to succeed in college. The event, “Minnesota State Colleges and Universities Super Weekend,” is part of a system initiative to increase access to higher education for groups that often have encountered societal and cultural barriers to post-secondary education.

Chancellor James H. McCormick spoke during the 10:30 a.m. Sunday service at Redeemer Lutheran Church in Minneapolis, a predominantly African American church. Many of the congregation members thanked the chancellor and some Office of the Chancellor staff members for coming to their church to answer questions and distribution brochures about how to prepare for college.

Recent news releases

February 12, 2009 - Tentative labor agreement reached with state university faculty, Minnesota State Colleges and Universities

February 5, 2009 - Two Minnesota state colleges receive nearly $4 million from the U.S. Department of Labor to train workers for advanced manufacturing jobs

February 2, 2009 - 2008 awards for excellence in management announced by Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system

January 23, 2009 - Minnesota State Colleges and Universities officials to encourage young people at places of worship to prepare for college

January 21, 2009 - Saint Paul College establishes Center of Excellence with Sun Microsystems technology

Employee Code of Conduct training begins

Are you allowed to take advantage of a special discount offered by a local business to government employees? This question and others are answered in two new online training courses for Office of the Chancellor employees. The courses introduce the Employee Code of Conduct, System Procedure 1C.0.1, which establishes expectations for all employees of Minnesota State Colleges and Universities, whether full- or part-time, temporary or unlimited. The Code of Conduct draws together commonly used employment-related policies and procedures, including those on ethics, nondiscrimination, fraud, other dishonest conduct and more. The 20-minute courses are available at https://mnsite.ims.mnscu.edu. All Office of the Chancellor employees are expected to complete the courses by March 31.

Chief finance and facilities officers conference

Finance and Facilities employees from the colleges and universities and the Office of the Chancellor attended the 12th annual winter meeting of chief finance and facilities officers on Jan. 28 and 29 at the Ramada Inn, Mall of America. Laura King, vice chancellor and chief financial officer, welcomed Trustees Tom Renier and Clarence Hightower and Presidents Ann Wynia of North Hennepin Community College and Cheryl Frank of Inver Hills Community College and college and university staff to an awards luncheon on Wednesday. Colleges and universities employees were honored with awards for outstanding service and excellence in financial and facilities management. President Frank made a presentation highlighting her college. Minnesota State Economist Tom Stinson and Minnesota State Demographer Tom Gillaspy spoke about Minnesota and the global economy.

ISEEK Solutions celebrates 10 years of service

A newly redesigned ISEEK Web site will be released in early March 2009. New features include regional and industry information channels, along with other interactive and multimedia enhancements. To kick off the redesign and celebrate ISEEK’s 10th anniversary, the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system office hosted an open house for more than 200 attendees. Guests could view the enhancements, which include social networking tools, videos, blogs, quizzes and polls. One interactive tool is Reality Check, which enables users to specify a desired lifestyle using local cost-of-living data and then identifies the education and career needed to support that lifestyle.

Realizing Student Potential . ITeach 2009: A lean and green conference

Due to the economic challenges facing Minnesota, the annual Realizing Student Potential. ITeach Conference is scaling back on costs while maintaining quality. The conference is set for Feb. 27 and 28 at Minneapolis Community and Technical College. More than 1,000 metropolitan area faculty members are expected to participate. Sponsored by the Center for Teaching and Learning, the conference could be called the “The Green Minnesota Teaching and Learning Get-Together” as faculty and center staff planners are proposing several initiatives to make this conference leave less of a carbon footprint.

ISEEK supports parent engagement as part of Minnesota ParentsKnow

The Minnesota ParentsKnow Web site recently added substantial content for parents of school-age children. Eleven topics have been posted for grades 6 to 12 on careers, higher education and jobs. These articles were supplied by ISEEK staff under a Perkins grant to the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities. These articles can be found in the “Parenting Topics A-Z” section. Minnesota ParentsKnow is a source for convenient and trusted child development, learning, health and parenting information. The Web site is hosted by Minnesota Department of Education.

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