March 19-22, 2015
Mar 19 04:25 Simply unacceptable Mar 19 07:47 MnSCU hearts consultants Mar 19 13:07 Amy Klobuchar, human trafficking & the Hyde Amendment Mar 19 15:40 Hillary's paranoia is Russia's gain? Mar 20 01:29 Gov. Dayton vs. public safety Mar 20 02:29 MnSCU's leaders, MnSCU's problems Mar 22 12:24 Taking issue with Mike Erlandson Mar 22 13:18 Unspinning Potter's spin Mar 22 23:05 Accountability-killing journalists
Prior Years: 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014
Simply unacceptable
Summer School Enrollment Projections
by Silence Dogood
In an email on February 16th entitled "FYE enrollment projections information," Vice President/Associate Provost of Strategy, Planning and Effectiveness Lisa Helmin Foss, listed summer enrollment projections for Sum'15 through Sum'20. The following figure shows the summer enrollments at SCSU from Sum'06 through Sum'14 with the enrollment projections for Sum'15 through Sum'20:
The 30.7% enrollment drop at SCSU from Sum'10 through Sum'14 has been well documented. The administration's projections for Sum'15 through Sum'20 call for an additional 18.1% decline. Overall, the decline from 1,325 in Sum'10 to the projected 752 in Sum'20 represents a loss of 573 FYE, which corresponds to a decline of 43.3%. A 43.3% decline in summer enrollment may be unprecedented in MnSCU.
But of course the response that is often heard is that "everybody's declining." The following figure shows FYE enrollments at all of the MnSCU universities from Sum'06 through Sum'14:
Clearly, the figure shows SCSU has fallen from the largest summer enrollment by a wide margin to third!
From the figure, it is clear that the three MnSCU universities with the largest summer enrollments (SCSU, Metro, and Mankato) all experienced declines in enrollment for Sum'14. The four universities with the smallest summer enrollments (Winona, Moorhead, Bemidji, and Southwest) all experienced increases in enrollment for Sum'14. Even without a detailed analysis, the data clearly shows that since Sum'10 SCSU's summer enrollment decline makes it an outlier from the other MnSCU universities.
Because of SCSU's continued financial decline, it has been required to provide a "Financial Recovery Plan" to respond to its financial difficulties. In an effort at being 'open and transparent', as previously mentioned, the administration has released its projections for summer school for Sum'15 through Sum'20. SCSU's summer enrollment projections have been added to the figure:
From the SCSU enrollment projections, if the trends of the other MnSCU universities are extended, it is clear that SCSU will soon fall into fourth place behind Winona.
For the past two years, SCSU's enrollment projections have significantly underestimated the enrollment declines so the declines might actually be larger than those presented. However, these enrollment projections by the Administration seem to simply extend the current trend and accept SCSU's fate of declining enrollment.
Just a few years ago, SCSU's summer program yielded more that $2,000,000 in excess revenue (i.e., profit). As a result, it is hard to understand why the administration seems to simply plan on declining rather than choosing not to decline. Real leadership would say that this kind of decline is simply unacceptable and time and resources would be committed to significantly reversing the trend rather than simply throwing up their hands like they have no control over the outcome. It wasn't that long ago that former Provost Malhotra wanted to expand summer to become a 'third semester.' From the data shown in the figure, that clearly isn't happening any time soon!
What would make anyone have confidence in an administration that seems to accept defeat rather than one that's going to go down fighting? Looking at these projections, it doesn't look like there is a lot of fight left in this administration. Perhaps it's time for a change. More of the same, at least according to these projections, is simply unacceptable.
Posted Thursday, March 19, 2015 4:25 AM
Comment 1 by Yeager at 19-Mar-15 07:12 AM
You've left out the key part of that communication, which is that these are the projected declines assuming that nothing will change. As you know, Summer Sessions were recently moved to University College, and the enrollment management plan has just begun, with the goal of increasing headcount by 178 for the upcoming summer.
Comment 2 by Mystique at 19-Mar-15 09:53 AM
When was the enrollment management plan shared with the campus community? How does moving Summer Sessions to University College contribute to reversing declining enrollments?
MnSCU hearts consultants
This article highlights the contract that the MnSCU Board of Trustees approved with the Minneapolis PR firm PadillaCRT. Here's what taxpayers got from this contract:
MnSCU commissioned Minneapolis PR firm PadillaCRT to help it 'communicate the collective value' of the 31 colleges and universities it oversees throughout the state, according to a report the company delivered Tuesday.
The report makes clear that neither 'MnSCU' nor its much lengthier full name are getting the job done, describing the names as a 'mouthful,' 'awkward,' difficult to say and 'complicated to look at.'
Most troubling, the report suggests, is that the current branding is merely a 'generic description' that 'communicates very little' and doesn't do anything to clarify exactly what the system is and which colleges it includes.
Here's some of the findings from the report:
Connections are to individual schools. Students and alumni think of their alma mater. Business and community leaders have local or regional perspective. School leaders need autonomy to serve their communities.
Here's another set of findings published in the report:
Rarely does anyone think of MnSCU in the aggregate. Even among those most familiar with MnSCU, people do not think of it as the sum of its parts.
Spending money on things this obvious is positively shameful. It's just recklessly spending the taxpayers' money. Here are the people we can 'thank' for their part in this "study session":
Board of Trustees - Study Session
Margaret Anderson Kelliher, Vice Chair
Scheduled Presenter(s):
Kim Olson, Chief Marketing and Communications Officer
President Earl Potter, St. Cloud State University
Lynn Casey, CEO, Padilla CRT
Kelly O'Keefe, Chief Creative Strategy Officer, Padilla CRT
I wish I could say that I'm surprised but I can't. Margaret Anderson-Kelliher attempted to shove a major spending increase down Minnesotans' throats when she was Speaker of the Minnesota House of Representatives in 2007-2010. Earl Potter in running St. Cloud State into the ground financially as we speak. Of course, they'd team to spend the taxpayers' money foolishly on a report like this. It's part of who they are. They can't help themselves.
Posted Thursday, March 19, 2015 7:47 AM
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Amy Klobuchar, human trafficking & the Hyde Amendment
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell says he won't bring up any other business until the Senate passes the Justice for Victims of Trafficking Act:
When Democrats prevented debate on the Justice for Victims of Trafficking Act, they objected to the inclusion of the Hyde Amendment in the bill. Here's a little history on the Hyde Amendment :
In U.S. politics, the Hyde Amendment is a legislative provision barring the use of certain federal funds to pay for abortions except if a pregnancy arises from incest or rape.[1] It is not a permanent law, rather it is a "rider" that, in various forms, has been routinely attached to annual appropriations bills since 1976. The Hyde Amendment applies only to funds allocated by the annual appropriations bill for the Department of Health and Human Services and primarily affects Medicaid.
The original Hyde Amendment was passed on September 30, 1976 by the House of Representatives, by a 207-167 vote. It was named for its chief sponsor, Republican Congressman Henry Hyde of Illinois. The measure was the first major legislative success by the United States pro-life movement after the striking down of anti-abortion laws following the 1973 Supreme Court case Roe v. Wade. Congress subsequently altered the Hyde Amendment several times. The version in force from 1981 until 1993 prohibited the use of federal funds for abortions 'except where the life of the mother would be endangered if the fetus were carried to term.
Fast forward to the day when the Senate was supposed to pass the bill. Suddenly, Democrats blocked the bill, saying that they were blindsided by the Hyde Amendment being in this 68-page bill. The Hyde Amendment had been part of the bill from Day One.
What's especially interesting is that the bill passed the Senate Judiciary Committee unanimously. Here are the members of the Committee . But I digress. Here's a fair account of what happened:
WASHINGTON - A staffer in Sen. Amy Klobuchar's office was aware of a controversial abortion-related provision in a sex trafficking bill that has ground the Senate to a halt and stalled the nomination of the next U.S. Attorney General. Klobuchar is the primary Democratic cosponsor on the bipartisan bill that would establish a restitution fund for victims of human trafficking with money seized from convicted sex traffickers.
The bill was set to sail through the Senate after a brief debate last week until it suddenly stalled when Democrats announced that it contained what's known as 'Hyde Amendment' language they had been unaware of. The language prevents the use of the seized money to pay for abortions.
Up until now Democrats,
, claimed they were blindsided by the language that was included by Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas.
including Klobuchar
It's time for Democrats to give a little. In previous negotiations, they've insisted on Republicans caving. I'm happy that Mitch McConnell has locked up the Senate. If the Democrats won't give on this, why should he give Ms. Lynch an up or down vote?
After getting elected in 2008, President Obama told Eric Cantor that elections have consequences right before President Obama jammed his stimulus bill down our throats. Now that President Obama got his ass handed to him in the 2014 election, President Obama has insisted that elections don't have consequences. He's about to find out that they do have consequences.
Originally posted Thursday, March 19, 2015, revised 21-Mar 1:53 PM
Comment 1 by walter hanson at 20-Mar-15 02:23 PM
What will be even better once Mitch gets the Democrats to cave and pass the bill that 51 Republican Senators will actually vote no on confirmation though it sounds like we have four traitors.
Walter Hanson
Minneapolis, MN
Comment 2 by walter hanson at 20-Mar-15 05:19 PM
Mitch:
I think you assumed that your readers knew that Senator Franken is also on the judicary committee which means he also voted yes on the bill which he is opposing now.
Walter Hanson
Minneapolis, MN
Hillary's paranoia is Russia's gain?
If Josh Rogin's article is right, Hillary's paranoia has led to a national cyber-security breach of great magnitude. Rupert Murdoch started the ball rolling with this tweet :
Senior intelligence people say certain that Hillary's messages totally hacked by several foreign governments.
- Rupert Murdoch (@rupertmurdoch)
March 19, 2015
Here's what Mssrs. Rogin and Lake wrote:
Hillary Clinton didn't take a basic precaution with her personal e-mail system to prevent hackers from impersonating or "spoofing" her identity in messages to close associates, according to former U.S. officials familiar with her e-mail system and other cyber-security experts.
This vulnerability put anyone who was in communication with her clintonemail.com account while she was secretary of state at risk of being hacked. Clinton said at the United Nations last week that there were no security breaches of her personal e-mail server, which she used to send and receive more than 60,000 professional and personal e-mails. But former cyber-security officials and experts told us that there were gaps in the system.
That's just the start of things. Here's more:
Experts told us that oversight was just one flaw of a security system that would have been relatively easy for foreign intelligence services and others to exploit. "I have no doubt in my mind that this thing was penetrated by multiple foreign powers, to assume otherwise is to put blinders on,' said Bob Gourley, the chief technology officer at the Defense Intelligence Agency from 2005 to 2008 and the founder of Cognitio, a cybersecurity consultancy.
"If a Sender Policy Framework was not in use, they could send an e-mail that looks like it comes from her to, say, the ambassador of France that says, 'leave the back door open to the residence a package is coming,'" added Gourley. "Or a malicious person could send an e-mail to a foreign dignitary meant to cause an international incident or confuse U.S. foreign policy."
Guy Benson wrote this scathing opinion of Hillary:
This is unforgivable. Myopia, paranoia, arrogance and reckless incompetence , all rolled into one set of astounding revelations. By the way, just a few days ago, the State Department shut down large parts of its email system due to malware placed by Russian hackers who somehow burrowed into the network.
It's one thing to have our national security email system hacked by experts working for hostile foreign governments. It's another when our national security email system was hacked because Hillary Clinton didn't take minimal security precautions to protect her private email account, which she used for conducting diplomacy.
Hillary's recklessness, coupled with her intent to avoid oversight scrutiny, has compromised US national security. I'll state without hesitation that Hillary isn't qualified to be the US commander-in-chief. Exposing sensitive and/or classified communications to foreign governments was avoidable. For that reason, Hillary flunks the commander-in-chief test. Period.
Posted Thursday, March 19, 2015 3:40 PM
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Gov. Dayton vs. public safety
Gov. Dayton is trying to shift the spotlight away from building oil pipelines by preaching the gospel of railroad safety :
ST. PAUL, Minn. - State officials estimate that 326,170 Minnesotans live within a half mile of railroad tracks that carry crude oil, a distance often known as the danger zone. People within a half mile of tracks usually will be evacuated if an oil train could explode or catch fire after a derailment.
The estimate, released this morning after state officials could not answer a Forum News Service question about the issue last week, is the first time Minnesotans had an idea about the number of people that state transportation and public safety officials say could be in danger of oil train explosions like those seen elsewhere in the United States and Canada.
'This data provides a greater emphasis on the need for a strong rail safety program,' Transportation Commissioner Charlie Zelle said. 'If trains derail and an emergency occurs, many lives could be in danger.'
This is a phony issue created by belligerent environmental activists serving on the Public Utilities Commission, aka the PUC. If the PUC hadn't delayed by at least 2 years the building of the Sandpiper Pipeline, the amount of oil shipped via railroad would drop significantly.
Environmental activists are fighting the building of the Sandpiper Pipeline and other proposed pipelines because these activists hate the use of fossil fuels. As long as people don't criticize Gov. Dayton and these environmental activists, the activists will continue needlessly putting Minnesotans in harm's way. Even if this money would get spent, the danger would still exist because millions of barrels of oil would still be shipped via trains.
The truth is that pipelines are dramatically safer than shipping oil via railcar. If Gov. Dayton doesn't change that policy, the problem will still exist. It's that simple.
Posted Friday, March 20, 2015 1:29 AM
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MnSCU's leaders, MnSCU's problems
It's old news that 11 MnSCU universities, tech and community colleges are in financial trouble. It isn't old news that these 11 MnSCU schools were instructed to submit recovery plans :
Declining enrollment at Minnesota's state-run colleges and universities has campus leaders drafting new plans to deal with decreased funding. Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system administrators say 11 campuses have drafted financial recovery plans to deal with funding deficits. The system lost nearly $44 million last year, or about 2 percent of its budget.
As usual, SCSU President Potter's statements on the matter are total BS:
Potter told trustees the university didn't see its underlying weaknesses several years ago, because it was enjoying the benefits of a surging enrollment. Higher enrollment "was masking our lack of improvements" in managing the university's business, and "dulled the urgency" of some reforms, he said. In 2011 the university suffered its first big drop in students.
"It's like the water going out in a harbor," Potter said. "You see all the shopping carts. And that's what happened to us. We immediately [saw] some of the practices that were damaging to the university and immediately began to correct them." He said when the problem began, the campus didn't have the "analytical tools" to help campus officials make decisions to solve the problem. "There clearly would have been cost-reduction strategies that we would have started to put in place sooner," he said. "We would have made different choices in the speed at which we reduced costs."
First, President Potter didn't accept reality. The truth is that he eliminated a program that, if it were open today, would be growing. If the Aviation program had expanded to include a drone program, that program would've grown dramatically.
Next, President Potter signed some contracts that a first year business major would've rejected. Specifically, he signed the contract with the Wedum Foundation, which has cost SCSU $7,700,000 in 5 years. President Potter also spent $400,000+ on a failed rebranding plan. Then he spent another $750,000 over 3 years for police officers that don't patrol the SCSU campus. That's before talking about spending $50,000 for the right to put the Great Place to Work Institute logo on SCSU stationery.
President Potter said that "surging enrollments" caused him to not implement cost-saving measures. There's just one problem with President Potter's statement. It isn't true :
Back in the fall of 2009, SCSU began a process of Program Assessment. In 2010 when it looked like the state appropriation might be cut substantially, Program Assessment morphed into 'Reorganization' and $14,000,000 was quickly cut from the budget.
President Potter hasn't spent the time recruiting in his back yard. North Dakota is recruiting in SCSU's back yard. What's adding to SCSU's recruiting difficulties is the fact that President Potter's shoddy decision making is chasing students away.
President Potter is in over his head. He just won't admit it.
Posted Friday, March 20, 2015 2:29 AM
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Taking issue with Mike Erlandson
This morning on @Issue with Tom Hauser, Mike Erlandson offered some Clinton-class spin when he said that increased funding for higher education was "like tax relief" for families because it results in the continuation of a tuition freeze.
That's great spin but it isn't the truth. It isn't even close to the truth.
First, the money used to freeze tuition didn't just magically appear. It came from somewhere. Actually, it came from someone, lots of someones. Where is their tax relief, Mr. Erlandson? Isn't it the truth that the state took lots of money from these people, then gave a portion of that money back to them? Taking lots, then giving back a little isn't tax relief. It's another government rip-off spun to sound like tax relief.
Second, increasing spending on higher ed without demanding greater accountability doesn't encourage greater accountability. That's what's happening right now. The price of a college education is staying stable. That's what the public sees. The cost of a college education keeps rising because administrators aren't demanding accountability. That's why 4 of MnSCU's 7 universities had to submit recovery plans.
In addition to these universities spending money foolishly, MnSCU itself is spending money foolishly.
When Rev. Hightower negotiated Dr. Rosenstone's contract extension, Hightower gave Dr. Rosenstone a lavish pay increase :
Chancellor Steven Rosenstone will make $387,250 in base salary for the coming school year, a 1.8 percent increase. He also will receive a $43,160 boost to allowances for transportation and other expenses, MnSCU said.
That's just the tip of the iceberg. That's before factoring in the $2,000,000 consulting contract MnSCU signed with McKinsey and Company. That's before talking about the money MnSCU spent on this study . MnSCU spent money on a study to rebrand itself. Here's one of the findings of that study:
Rarely does anyone think of MnSCU in the aggregate. Understanding of MnSCU is low among those not affiliated with the system. Even among those most familiar with MnSCU, people do not think of it as the sum of its parts. Connections are to individual schools. Students and alumni think of their alma mater. Business and community leaders have local or regional perspectives. School leaders need autonomy to serve their communities.
We shouldn't spend tens of thousands of dollars to find out that most alumni don't think in terms of MnSCU. Alumni know that they think in terms of their alma mater.
Erlandson's spin is insulting. Spending money without demanding that the money be spent efficiently isn't tax relief. It's taxpayer theft. FYI- Stop past tomorrow to learn more about how MnSCU is ripping off its students and Minnesota taxpayers. Fiscal conservatives who read this series will be furious.
Posted Sunday, March 22, 2015 12:24 PM
Comment 1 by Chad Q at 23-Mar-15 08:58 AM
When is the State or Federal governments going to bring in Big Education for a grilling like they have done to big pharma, big oil, big tobacco, etc. to find out why their prices have exceeded the cost of living and inflation?
When are we as a state going to stop dumping money down the rat hole of education without first asking where the positive results are for all the money spent?
Response 1.1 by Gary Gross at 23-Mar-15 10:14 AM
Q: When is the State or Federal governments going to bring in Big Education for a grilling like they have done to big pharma, big oil, big tobacco, etc. to find out why their prices have exceeded the cost of living and inflation?
A: When we complain loud enough. Complaining on blogs is one thing but it isn't enough. Attending the legislators' townhall meetings & grilling them publicly will send the message that we're "mad as hell" & we aren't "going to take it anymore."
Unspinning Potter's spin
SCSU President Earl H. Potter III's latest op-ed contains some spin that can't go unchallenged:
Minnesota State Colleges and Universities (MnSCU) experienced rapid enrollment growth between 2005 and 2010. The record-setting growth was driven in large part by the economic recession and high levels of unemployment, which drove many young people and adult learners to our colleges and universities to upgrade their skills or learn a new profession.
There's no questioning whether enrollment was increasing in 2005-2010. It definitely was. What's unquestionable, too, is that the recession didn't start in 2005. It started in October, 2008. That means students had essentially locked into attending college a year before the Great Recession hit. It wasn't until October, 2008, that huge job losses started.
While it's undeniable that enrollments continued rising through 2010, it's questionable whether the semi-recovery caused students to choose to find jobs rather than choosing to get their degree. For many families, the recession still hasn't ended.
According to President Potter's explanation, enrollment should still be increasing. At minimum, President Potter's explanation is shaky. At worst, it's dishonest spin because the facts doesn't match the trend. This spin is worth challenging, too:
During the past five years, we have experienced another rapid change. Minnesota's strong economy and improved employment outlook, along with declines in the number of high school graduates, have contributed to declining enrollment levels, which mirror national trends.
President Potter, what's your explanation for St. Cloud State experiencing enrollment declines that are twice the rate of the next worst enrollment decline? It's one thing for SCSU FYE enrollment to decline at the same rate as Mankato. It's another to have SCSU's FYE enrollment do this:
St. Cloud State's FYE enrollment lost 272 students that fall compared with Mankato losing 70 students.
President Potter's op-ed is filled with generalities like the Great Recession and universities' enrollment dropping nationwide. President Potter's op-ed is devoid, however, of explaining why SCSU lost more students than other MnSCU institutions.
This is laughable:
There are many other recent successes and projects on the horizon, and I take pride in knowing that we have made great recent strides in preparing for the future. But there is more to be done and I am confident that St. Cloud State, our MnSCU partners and institutional neighbors are ready to put in the work to continue to make college a value to students and the community.
With a $9,542,000 deficit to tame this year and $14,000,000 deficit heading SCSU's way next year, saying that there's "more work to be done" is understatement in the extreme.
Posted Sunday, March 22, 2015 1:18 PM
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Accountability-killing journalists
This Strib editorial is a perfect illustration of wrongheaded editorial thinking:
It's tough for legislators to resist the impulse to fix something they consider amiss in any part of state government. But when the part in question is the 54-campus Minnesota State Colleges and University (MnSCU) system at this juncture in its 20-year history, restraint is in order.
That's what we would advise in the case of a pair of bills sponsored by GOP Sen. Jeremy Miller of Winona. Miller's moves are well-intentioned. But if enacted, they would impose state law in matters customarily left to educators and governing boards and would do so just as MnSCU is restarting a strategic planning process that had been stalled by discord between the faculty and the system's chancellor.
One of Miller's bills would alter the selection of presidents at MnSCU's 31 institutions to involve more control by a locally empaneled search committee and less by MnSCU's chancellor, Steven Rosenstone. MnSCU's existing process, which is not dictated by statute, involves considerable local consultation but gives Rosenstone latitude in shaping search committees. Campus presidents are ultimately appointed by MnSCU's Board of Trustees.
The first structural problem of this editorial is that it thinks that MnSCU in needed. What proof do we have that MnSCU needs to exist? What proof do we have that MnSCU needs to exist in the way it currently exists? To answer those questions, it's important to remember why MnSCU was created, then determine whether it's lived up to its initial goals. Here's the official history of MnSCU :
During the 1980s Minnesota legislators discussed various options for governing the state colleges and universities. In the 1991 session, Senate Majority Leader Roger Moe introduced legislation to merge the seven state universities, 34 technical colleges and 21 community colleges under one board. Senator Moe suggested that the merger of these institutions would increase institutional accountability, improve student transfer, coordinate program delivery and improve facility planning. The general expectation was that the merger would not save money in the short term, but that efficiency and effectiveness would be increased over the long term.
Sen. Moe was terribly wrong in predicting that MnSCU "would increase institutional accountability." By establishing a system where universities answer only to a chancellor stationed up to 200 miles away hasn't worked out. Establishing a system where that chancellor reports to a board of political appointees essentially guarantees those appointees to be a rubberstamp for the chancellor.
That isn't how accountability works. It's how accountability is thwarted.
As for shaping search committees, why should the chancellor have virtually unlimited latitude in picking presidents without having to answer why his/her appointments haven't worked? With 4 of the 7 universities submitting restoration plans, isn't that proof that these presidents have failed? What price has Dr. Rosenstone paid for those decisions? Why haven't the Trustees taken him to task for not monitoring those universities?
I'd argue that that's proof that the trustees and the chancellor aren't doing their job, which is further proof that they aren't needed.
Doing nothing while MnSCU disintegrates is foolish. Doing nothing is a legitimate option if MnSCU was operating efficiently. MnSCU isn't operating efficiently.
Posted Sunday, March 22, 2015 11:05 PM
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