Statewide Meet and Confer Unofficial Notes

September 5, 2003

IFO Present:  Richard Gendreau, Chris Brown, Becky Omdahl, George Seldat, Theresia Fisher, Cindy Phillips, Steve Bohnenblust, Mary Kesler, Jim Pehler, Russ Stanton, Patrice Arseneault, Cindy Webber

MnSCU Present:  Chancellor James McCormick, Chris Dale, Judy Borgen, John O’Brien, Jim Jorstad, Gary Janikowski, Ken Neimi, John Ostrem, Leslie Mercer, Steve Frantz, Mike Lopez, Janice Fitzgerald, Gary Langer, John Shabatura

Called to order at 1:10pm.

Intercollegiate Athletics Policy 2.6

IFO:  Thank you for providing this information to us.  Are there any things you want to share with us?

MnSCU:  The policy needs fixing.  It was created prior to our merger.  We are looking for feedback.  To date the only feedback we’ve received is positive.

IFO:  What are the most substantive changes?

MnSCU:  The Board of Trustees required a change to the reporting of different conferences.

IFO:  If it existed prior to merger, I don’t think we ever questioned it effectiveness.  I get concerned that we develop policies that centralize control.  I understand your concerns but athletics have to support themselves on an institutional level.  Why does the Board of Trustees have to get involved when the campuses can make their own decision?  This is eroding the local decision making process.

MnSCU:  We are still in the input phase.  We are seeking that input, please put it into writing.

IFO:  Why is the gender equity law being deleted?

MnSCU:  It is the law.  We don’t need to repeat the law.

IFO:  But you have done that with recent policies you’ve passed.

MnSCU:  This language was offered by the Board of Trustees.  There’s concern over the expenses to moving to a division one.

IFO:  But you have to provide that – why is there a necessity, the NCAA knows this business well.  The message is quite clear.  We’re in strong support of the University and the meet and confer process – that is where they substantiate their decisions.  The gender issue must be dealt with.

MnSCU:  Please put all of your comments into a letter and send it to me.

PSEO/NRNR

MnSCU:  I brought this issue to you at the last meet and confer.  We are looking at revising the resident tuition policy but so that institutions can individually decide.  There is no other information to report since our last meet and confer.  We’ll let you know when more information becomes available.  Our Board will be doing a review every three to four years of every policy.

IFO:  We’d like to be a part of that and have a council.  We want to be actively giving you input because right now we feel we don’t have enough opportunities. 

MnSCU:  The PSEO program had an audit that showed problems and we are almost required to fix them.

IFO:  We have seen those materials on our campus and they seem to be more of a management issue.  I am not sure if MnSCU ever formally brought the PSEO audit to us.

Acceptable Use Policy 5.22.1

IFO:  We have read your proposed policy and have made recommendations.  The local campuses have their own policies.  We hope you’ll look at our recommendations and allow us to review how you responded to our recommendations.

MnSCU:  We’re continuing to review this policy and for some areas we may just have to disagree with each other.  The bottom line is we have met with students and will have another draft in two weeks.  At the end, every one isn’t going to be happy.  We have to make sure we consider everything. 

IFO:  For example, Columbia University and others out east have indicated a parallel to a telephone company – they aren’t claiming they can stop illegal communications in advance but if a violation occurs they are in charge of investigating.  We can’t control what people say but if we say we can then we become more liable.  If there is a complaint then we should investigate.  The University of Minnesota has a similar approach.

MnSCU:  The University of Minnesota is our service provider.  We’ll keep you in the loop and do the best we can to accommodate your recommendations.  You’ll have an opportunity to review the next draft.

IFO:  I read the MnSCU network security report and think that is where this policy is coming from.  I heard the issue with security.  We have 35 institutions with 42,000 workstations.  With a network like this there isn’t one that was designed on purpose.  We want to minimize security issues; firewalls are good but the weakest link needs the attention.  Your policy will work well in the Office of the Chancellor but I don’t know about the TC/CC/Us.  We need more flexibility. 

IT Reorganization

IFO:  It was my pleasure working with the IT Roundtable but all that they were working towards is turning into a cloud.  We felt pushed out and away.  We want to be involved at a grassroots level.  How can you come to consensus on issues between two year and four year institutions?  There is no way a group of seven university presidents are going to be able to hold their own ground against 28 TC/CC presidents.  Some times we just need to get to work on stuff instead of wasting time to find out what our work is.

MnSCU:  Originally the IT Roundtable group was more of a detailed bunch, now they are strategic.  I share many of your concerns.  Maybe a university president needs to chair this group.

IFO:  The administrative and academic got merged together under the other Chancellor.  Are you separating them?

MnSCU:  No.

IFO:  I see a heavy administrative focus and a weak academic role.  Our job is to teach students.  I am interested to know how you are reorganizing and if academics are driving technology.

MnSCU:  That is what needs to be done.  We are careful to make sure technology is not driving academics.  Most state universities have gone with huge systems.  We have decided we can’t fund a new SAP system.  Our IT person is trying to patch on a patch with three systems.  We are fixing the problem incrementally.

Legislative Session Planning

IFO:  What are we doing and how has the governor’s office reacted?  I want to focus on hints and direct messages.

MnSCU:  I hope you read the Chancellor’s Chambers speech.

IFO:  Yes, we want to thank you.  Those statements need to be made.

MnSCU:  We decided we have nothing to lose.  Regarding economics, we’re hoping there won’t be another unallotment.  We’ve heard things are on course – there may not be more money. 

IFO:  What about the governor?

MnSCU:  We think we are not in the dog house.  I didn’t hear criticism.  He’s looking for bold ideas to make Minnesota better.  The governor said the modeling is working.

Budget for State Universities

IFO:  All the state universities are behind in your allocation framework.  What is MnSCU’s plan?  Do you plan to restore the allocation model?  If not, what will the budget look like?

MnSCU:  Next June we will put together another Biennial Budget Advisory Committee and you will be included.  The November forecast will tell us a lot.  If we can’t get additional base funds then we’ll take the line items.

IFO:  Should we be having an allocation model if we can’t fund it?

Regional Planning Model/Nursing Work Group

IFO:  Where are we at with this?  This originally came out as a local Metro project and it would apply across the state.

MnSCU:  A draft report will be coming out within a day.  The idea was to try to plan with the business and industry and the topic picked was nursing.  The idea was not to create a statewide set of recommendations for nursing and to not to become a nursing model.  The intention was just to model the process of the planning.  We are intending to create a document that will look like a handbook/template on how to gather data within the state.  We never intended to create a “Metro” model to apply to the whole state.

Student Life Review Taskforce/Academic System Software Steering Committee

IFO:  These are two committees where MnSCU has asked us for faculty representatives but then we were told MnSCU would not cover their travel expenses.

Chancellor:  How do we decide who gets reimbursed? 

MnSCU:  It’s been determined on an individual basis.  If MnSCU appoints a faculty member then we should reimburse them.  If MnSCU asks the IFO to appoint a faculty member to a MnSCU committee then the IFO should reimburse them but this is done on an individual basis.  It’s been a mixed practice.

IFO:  Past practice has been that if it’s a MnSCU committee then MnSCU pays.  If it’s a joint committee then we each pay for our own.  Your work plan is driven by results and too many committees are being formed but your departments have diminished resources and now you are asking the IFO to pay for this.

MnSCU:  We can sit down and go over the list of our committees.  I’m not convinced that past practice is consistent.

IFO:  You’re isolating certain campuses who have a longer drive.

MnSCU:  I’ve heard your concerns, but we are cutting expenses.

IFO:  We would hope you would want faculty included not just because we’re insisting, but that you need them for a better product.

MnSCU:  We know we cannot run a system without faculty involvement.  Within two weeks we can set up a meeting.

4-Year and 2-Year On-Line Program Accreditation Processes

IFO:  How are you handling this?

MnSCU:  The Higher Learning Commission asked us to take this on – I am not talking about individual classes but the programs in whole.  A report is being created by the Minnesota Online Council.

MN Online Business Plan Summary

IFO:  I believe that there is a council in place and a business plan is being created.

MnSCU:  We sent it out to you at the end of September.  To date nothing has changed.

Pension Simplification

MnSCU:  We want to develop a plan that faculty want, something attractive and creative.  There is no rush on this.  The DCR Advisory Committee is reviewing several options.

IFO:  Pension has to go through legislation and right now we don’t have a pro-employee legislation.  I don’t know if we want to open this up.

Salary Equity

IFO:  We were happy that MnSCU had language at the last meeting.  We are still far apart.  MnSCU wants a two standard error but the IFO wants one.  We’re optimistic and thank you for the movement.

Graduate Education Advisory Taskforce

MnSCU:  One year ago we decided to create a type of sub-committee to the Graduate Education Council and at the time it got caught up in the budget cuts.  Right now we are thinking that we can utilize this committee to oversee some data on graduate education to then turn over to the Council.  Maybe in early 2004 we’ll convene.

Adjourned at 3:11