 "Photo:")
If the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system's Board of Trustees wants to get serious about budgets cuts, it can begin by looking in the mirror.
That was the message Anna Fellegy, professor at Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College, expressed to the board members, including Chancellor James McCormick, who attended a listening session in Ostrander Auditorium Monday. The four trustees came to hear area business leaders, professors and students offer solutions to the challenges, primarily financial, that MnSCU faces. Around 100 people attended the hour-long session, with the trustees on stage remaining silent and taking notes on participants' comments and criticisms.
"I think that, as we move toward the dividing of monies, we focus those monies as best we can on students and challenge institutions to, perhaps, become leaner in administration," said Fellegy.
The "dividing of monies" refers, no doubt, to the system's impending lack of them; as the state government tries to avoid billions of dollars in red ink, MnSCU schools will see their state funding decrease sharply - in Minnesota State's case, by around $6-10 million. The cuts are less drastic than they would have been 10 years ago. Since 2000, the state's share of expenditure on a student's education has decreased from two-thirds to half, while tuition has doubled.
Mankato businessmen, including President and CEO of Greater Mankato Growth Jonathan Zierdt, suggested the system look to for-profit Web sites that offer online courses as models of economically sound operation. By expanding online offerings, MnSCU schools could generate more revenue and cater to would-be students with jobs who don't have the time or don't live close enough to attend a "bricks-and-mortar" university.
"What would it take to have a bonding approach that had a $30-million technology infrastructure, for example?" Zierdt asked the smattering of Mankato-area state legislators in the audience.
MSU professors and Minnesota State Student Association members cautioned the trustees that many students still need the face-to-face interaction of the classroom in order to be successful.
"While [the goal of being 25 percent online] can provide access to students who otherwise couldn't take classes, some students do not learn well in an online environment," said MSSA Vice President Bob Dooley.
Spanish professor and Faculty Association Vice President Jim Grabowska wholeheartedly endorsed the "bricks-and-mortar" approach as the true way to teach "the whole child in a K-16 environment."
Russian exchange student Zemfira Khusnutdinova had another theory of how to teach the whole child: turn off Internet access to classrooms when it isn't necessary. "Because we all have Internet access," Khusnutdinova said, "the students don't have attention because they are sitting, checking their e-mail and their Facebook … Is that a good education?"
John Fritz is a Reporter staff writer
Be the first to comment on this article!