MnSCU chancellor updates trustees on overhaul

It's only been two months since the new chancellor of the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system declared the institution needed a shakeup, but that didn't stop him from giving a progress report Wednesday.

Chancellor Steven Rosenstone added some details and deadlines to the framework he presented in September to the trustees of the 54-campus system.

For example, he wants to finish his redesign of how classes are taught in time to put the new strategies into practice next fall. That includes writing lesson plans with more learning through doing projects and solving problems, and training instructors to teach that way, he said.

The chancellor also wants to systematically increase collaboration among faculty and spread their best ideas among the campuses by fall 2012. That could include a common core of liberal arts classes and a way to share the best-designed courses across the system's colleges and universities.

Some of his other goals are farther out, he said. Rosenstone wants to more closely align the education provided by the system's colleges and universities to the workforce needs of the state's employers, but that can't happen until an ongoing region-by-region workforce assessment by several state agencies is finished.

Rosenstone stressed that the details of many of his other goals would emerge through his ongoing discussions with the college and university presidents, faculty, staff and students.

"I don't know the answer to all of these questions," he said.

"I don't have in my bottom drawer the magic plan."

But he said it couldn't wait. One of his top priorities, he said, was strengthening the system's finances so it can provide an "extraordinary" education while remaining affordable at a time of declining state support for higher education.

"It's not just about saving money," Rosenstone said. "It's about the effectiveness with which we do our work."

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