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MnSCU completes three-year plan
By Paul A. Riemerman
Staff Writer
Text version of this story

The Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system has come up with a new three-year strategic plan after months of work and gathering comments and concerns from community and business people, legislators, students, faculty, staff, administrators and citizens.

Citizen input came from a 33-member Citizens Advisory Committee co-chaired by state business leaders Vance Opperman and Glen Taylor.

Ridgewater College is part of MnSCU.

The 21 goals in the plan mesh with four major strategic directions:

• Increase access and opportunity, including participation of under-served students, support for higher education, affordability and partnerships with k-12 education.

• Expand high-quality learning programs and services, including lifelong learning and opportunities for career education and workforce training, electronic learning options and graduate education.

• Strengthen community development and economic vitality, including support for state and regional initiatives and collaboration with other higher education providers.

• Fully integrate and coordinate the system's 34 institutions, including improving the transfer process for students; recruiting and retaining excellent faculty, staff and administrators; aligning technology and strengthening financial systems.

MnSCU Chancellor James McCormick said the release of a new plan, called "Designing the Future," will help build public awareness of the goals to increased access, expand learning options, strengthen community development and economic vitality, and fully coordinate the 34 institutions.

"We want Minnesota residents to know how their state colleges and universities will strategically focus efforts to expand access and quality while maintaining efficiency. Broad public input helped develop our plan, which holds us accountable for using taxpayer funds wisely as we implement improvements in programs, facilities and services to benefit students, communities and the state."

McCormick said goals given special attention the first year of the plan include removing barriers to higher education for students of color, first-generation college students, low-income students and students for whom English is a second language.

MnSCU is made up of 34 state universities, community colleges, technical colleges and combined community and technical colleges on 53 campuses around the state. It serves about 225,000 students yearly in credit-based courses and another 95,000 in non-credit courses.

The most recent public hearing before MnSCU's board of trustees adopted the plan took place on the campus of Southwest State University in Marshall Sept. 27.
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Phone: (507) 537-6226
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Last updated: February 1, 2006