News Release
February 9, 2010
For more information contact:
Rod Henry, IFO President
651-227-8442, ext. #19
or 218-251-2828

Faculty President Lauds Audit of MnSCU

The president of the Inter Faculty Organization (IFO), which is the union for faculty at MnSCU’s seven state universities, applauded a report released today by the Office of the Legislative Auditor on MnSCU central office. http://www.auditor.leg.state.mn.us/ped/2010/mnscu.htm

Rod Henry, President of the IFO, said the Legislative Auditor’s report confirms many of the concerns faculty have voiced in recent years regarding the MnSCU central office.  

“The central office is large and growing rapidly, said Henry. In 2009 the central office spent $1 out of every $8 appropriated by the state.  There has been a 49.5% increase in central office expenditures between 2005 and 2009.  While much of this growth is due to increased services, many of these services are not central to the core mission of MnSCU, and we could do without them.  In lean times we must concentrate our limited resources on the core mission of MnSCU, which is teaching and learning at the campus level.”

Henry noted that most of the growth in the MnSCU office has been due to the expansion of central office technology initiatives—a 79% increase in expenditures between 2005 and 2009.  “While many of the expenditures for hardware, software, and security upgrades have been welcomed by the faculty, many of the technology initiatives have been poorly planned and implemented and have limited value” said Henry.  “We agree with the report recommendation that MnSCU should improve its selection and implementation of IT projects, and survey campus users on their needs and the performance of the systems.  MnSCU should spend less on new technology initiatives and do a better job of prioritizing projects.”

Henry said that with the higher education systems facing another round of budget cutting, the central administration needs to do its share of belt tightening.  He pointed to the system-wide MnSCU Foundation as an example of inefficiency.  Said Henry, “The Auditor’s report shows the Foundation’s administrative costs exceed the benefits, and 84% of the college and university presidents rank the program as least essential service based upon “value added”.   There are some MnSCU services that we can do without.”

While Henry said he feels that the Academic Affairs Division is the most important part of the MnSCU central office, he said he agrees with the Auditor’s report that many of the functions could be decentralized to the campus level.  Henry noted that 68% of the college and university presidents gave the MnSCU central office poor marks on the criteria “Works with campuses to develop new curriculum opportunities”.   Said Henry, “MnSCU needs to do a better job delegating and working with local campuses—that’s where teaching and learning takes place, and teaching is MnSCU’s core mission.”

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