September 28-29, 2014
Sep 28 00:58 Ernst expands lead over Braley Sep 28 14:35 The lawless Dayton administration Sep 28 20:40 Teddy Bridgewater: new face of Vikings Sep 28 23:48 DCCC's anti-Millls smears continue Sep 29 00:39 SCSU's dubious milestone Sep 29 00:33 The DCCC's script stays the same Sep 29 11:55 Bureaucrats hate accountability Sep 29 20:40 Faculty Association demands action Sep 29 21:16 Zach Dorholt: MAPE's representative
Prior Months: Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug
Prior Years: 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013
SCSU's dubious milestone
Reaching a Milestone?
by Silence Dogood
Over the years, there have been numerous calls for reducing the number of institutions of higher education in Minnesota. With the creation of the MnSCU bureaucracy, mergers significantly reduced the number of independent entities without real reductions in capacity. However, as the number of high school seniors has declined over the past few years, there have been additional calls for real reductions.
No community, especially those in 'outstate' Minnesota want to see their college or university close because of the significant negative economic impact on the community. Southwest Minnesota State University, as the smallest MnSCU University, has always felt like they have been in the crosshair regarding possible elimination - simply by being the 'low-hanging fruit.'
While it is true that enrollments in MnSCU institutions have declined over the past few years, not all have declined by the same amount. The following figure shows the FYE enrollment at Southwest Minnesota State University from FY08 through FY14 (Data from the MnSCU website).
The enrollment for FY14 was down 2.4% from the previous year, but is only down 0.2% from FY08. The enrollment for FY14 is down only 3.8% from its high in FY10. One might easily argue that Southwest's enrollment has been essentially constant given small natural variations.
The enrollment for SCSU from FY08 through FY14 is shown in the following figure (Data from the MnSCU website).
Clearly SCSU's trend is very different than Southwest's. After increasing from FY08 to FY10, from FY10 to FY14, SCSU's FYE enrollment dropped 18.0%! Clearly, there is a difference between an enrollment decline of 3.8% and 18.0%. The enrollment data for summer for FY15 is in and SCSU's FYE enrollment was down 9.4%. Although the administration in March originally planned for a 3.2% enrollment drop, the administration has recently projected a drop of between 4-5%. However, one source has said that the administration expects the number to be closer to 5.5%.
Assuming that the enrollment drop is the mid-point of the projections at 5.0%, SCSU's FYE enrollment for FY15 will be 11,761. This would represent a drop from FY10 of 3,335 FYE, which translates into a decline of 22.1%. The total enrollment at Southwest in FY14 was 3,678 FYE, which means that if SCSU loses an additional 343 FYE, SCSU will have lost more enrollment that the total enrollment at Southwest State University!
Consider the economic loss to Marshall and the surrounding community if Southwest were to close. Essentially, SCSU has lost almost that same amount of economic impact on greater St. Cloud.
According to SCSU's current projections, SCSU will lose 619 FYE from FY14 to FY15 so if SCSU loses 2.9% enrollment in FY16, SCSU will have dropped more than the total enrollment at MnSCU's smallest university. Last March, the Data Analytics Group at SCSU projected a drop in enrollment for FY15 of 3.2%, which has now been revised significantly upward. They also projected a 2.3% drop for FY16. Since the projection for FY15 was a gross underestimate of the enrollment decline, confidence in the projection of 2.3% drop in FY16 is certainly suspect. As a result, it is beginning to look like the milestone of the enrollment loss at SCSU being equivalent to closing MnSCU's smallest university will be reached during the next fiscal year. This is probably not a milestone President Potter will list on his resume.
Now there are, of course, those who say that it's just demographics so there is not much that can be done. However, enrollment at Southwest has not experienced the kind of enrollment drop as SCSU. Additionally, Minnesota State University - Mankato, which is SCSU's historical rival has also not seen the same declines.
The following figure shows Mankato's enrollment from FY08 through FY14.
It's pretty easy to see that the trend at Mankato is very different than that at SCSU. For FY14, MSU - Mankato's enrollment was actually up! For this academic year, the Mankato administration is projecting a growth of 0.4%. Certainly not huge but certainly better than a decline of 5%! So perhaps the calls for the closing of a MnSCU university will cease because in 'right sizing' SCSU President Potter has singlehandedly taken care of the problem. However that still leaves empty and underutilized buildings and duplication of the cost of administration and other non-instructional costs to operate a university. Perhaps Potter's 'right sizing' has just created another problem for MnSCU and the state?
Posted Monday, September 29, 2014 12:39 AM
Comment 1 by Crimson Trace at 29-Sep-14 10:08 AM
SCSU's enrollment loss now rivals the number of students at Southwest in Marshall, MN? Gasp!!
Comment 2 by Rex Newman at 29-Sep-14 04:30 PM
I wish I knew where all these calls for right-sizing higher ed are coming from. The Legislature is still smarting over closing a campus years ago, vowing never again. I doubt even the GOP would attempt closing another, no matter how little it would be missed, no matter that not one student would be denied admission.
Ernst expands lead over Braley
The latest Des Moines Register (DMR) poll isn't the type of news Bruce Braley and Harry Reid were looking for:
The ground under Bruce Braley has shifted. The Democratic U.S. Senate candidate is 6 points behind his GOP rival, Joni Ernst, according to The Des Moines Register's new Iowa Poll of likely voters. Ernst leads 44 percent to 38 percent in a race that has for months been considered deadlocked. She leads nearly 4-1 with rural voters, and is up double digits with independents.
"Very interesting, and good news not just for Ernst but also for the GOP's chances of taking the U.S. Senate," said national political prognosticator Larry Sabato of "Sabato's Crystal Ball."
That's the type of news that'll give Joni Ernst an extra lift in her step. The horserace number isn't the only part of the poll that should worry Braley's campaign. Here's another poll result that should frighten Braley:
And he's suffering badly with rural voters. Only 15 percent support him compared with 58 percent for Ernst.
Losing farmers in Iowa by a 4:1 margin is the fastest path to defeat. That isn't Braley's only obstacle to overcome:
"I think he has an attitude about the voters and life in general which was indicated by what he said about Chuck Grassley," said Democrat Dianna Fuhrmeister, a poll respondent who grows garden vegetables for a living in rural Iowa City. "He thinks he knows better than us."
That's why Ernst wins rural voters by a 4:1 margin. If there's anything that'll get a rural voter's dander up, it's being talked down to by a city slicker.
Fuhrmeister, who is registered as a Democrat but considers herself an independent, said her mind is made up to vote for Ernst, a state senator and lieutenant colonel in the Iowa National Guard. "She's the veteran. She seems to have common sense," she said.
Ernst's lead isn't insurmountable...if Braley finishes strong. I'm not holding my breath on that happening. Politico isn't waiting for that to happen, either:
Braley's remark, made at a private fundraiser in Texas last winter, seemingly disparaged Iowa's popular 33-year senator for being a farmer, not a lawyer. Braley apologized to Grassley after the caught-on-tape remark was released in March. But that gaffe and others prompted the national political news outlet Politico last week to slot Braley's campaign as No. 1 on its list of "the worst campaigns of 2014."
Ernst has run a smart campaign that's getting notice by the brightest lights in the conservative movement:
The Machine Shed restaurant , where the waitresses wear bib overalls and suggest a cinnamon roll the size of a loaf of bread as a breakfast appetizer, sells a root beer called Dang!, bandages made to look like bacon strips, and signs that proclaim, 'I love you more than bacon.' For Joni Ernst, however, the apposite sign reads, 'No one ever injured their eyesight by looking on the bright side.'
She, nourished by a cinnamon roll, is preparing for a bus tour taking her Senate candidacy to all of Iowa's 99 counties, and she seems to love campaigning even more than bacon, not that any proper Iowa farm girl, her description of herself, would publicly rank bacon second to anything.
As more Iowans tune into the Ernst-Braley race, the more they'll gravitate towards Ernst, partially because of her farm girl image, partially because she's a military vet and mostly because she isn't Bruce Braley.
The DMR poll is the most respected poll in Iowa. If Joni Ernst finishes strong, she'll replace Tom Harkin in the U.S. Senate.
Posted Sunday, September 28, 2014 12:59 AM
Comment 1 by J. Ewing at 28-Sep-14 10:38 AM
Just sent her a contribution. You should see some of the trash being aired against her. Almost as bad as what ABM is doing here in MN.
Response 1.1 by Gary Gross at 28-Sep-14 12:53 PM
Good job, Jerry. As for the trash being almost as bad as ABM's, I'm not surprised. All Democrat attack ads follow the same script. It doesn't matter if it's from ABM or Pelosi's House Majority PAC or Reid's PAC or the DCCC. It's the same script, different day.
The lawless Dayton administration
Jeff Johnson is taking the fight to Gov. Dayton , this time in Virginia, MN:
Johnson has been a persistent critic of MNsure created under Gov. Dayton. But his opposition reached a new and higher level when PreferredOne, which had 60 percent of the MNsure market pulled out for business reasons.
Johnson even alluded to a possibility that Dayton's Department of Commerce may have allowed PreferredOne to participate in MNsure even though it couldn't sustain the low rates. 'The Commerce Department's role is to make sure that the rates are actuarially sound. It doesn't appear that they were,' Johnson said more than a week ago when PreferredOne left the exchange.
PreferredOne's decision to not participate in MNsure is a big deal because it'll mean higher insurance premiums. PreferredOne left MNsure because it was a bureaucratic nightmare , which meant PreferredOne couldn't make a profit. Commissioner Johnson's statement must've hit a nerve with the Dayton campaign, which released this statement:
Dayton has admitted mistakes with MNsure and has shown his displeasure with its rollout. But the governor's campaign fired back over Johnson's allegation of possible political tinkering with the state Commerce Department.
'Commissioner Johnson's accusations that the governor engaged in illegal activity are unfounded and untrue. We will not dignify Commissioner Johnson's smear attempt with any response,' a statement from the campaign said.
That's right. The Dayton administration has never broken. Except when they illegally put people on Medicaid :
We first reported Tuesday the Minnesota Legislative Auditor was investigating complaints that MNsure was placing people incorrectly on Medicaid. Now, we have emails between Minnesota House Research staff and the Minnesota Department of Human Services (DHS) that show state officials and MNsure have known about this problem since January of this year.
Mike Franklin is one of those people. Franklin and his wife combined make more than the $65,000 limit for dependent children to qualify for Medicaid, yet Franklin says he received notice from MNsure that his children had been placed on Medicaid without his consent. Franklin says he even received notices that Medicaid had paid some medical bills for his two children, even after he asked MNsure to discontinue the coverage because he did not qualify. Franklin says it took six months and action by an Administrative Judge to discontinue the Medicaid policy.
That's right. Gov. Dayton's Department of Human Services knew that Gov. Dayton's MNsure was illegally putting children on Medicaid even though their parents made too much for the children to qualify for Medicaid.
That's the definition of breaking the law. It isn't just that the Dayton administration broke the law. It's that the administration knew that they'd broken the law and sat silent, at least publicly.
That means that the Dayton campaign's statement that Gov. Dayton didn't engage in illegal activity is 100% spin. Jeff Johnson accused Gov. Dayton's administration of breaking the law. Jeff Johnson didn't accuse Gov. Dayton of personally breaking the law.
The important point is that MNsure is a failure that's hurting lots of Minnesota families. Insurance premiums will increase this fall. The only thing undetermined is by how much they'll jump. It's a fact that MNsure will be a disaster for people trying to renew their policies . It's a fact that people who are trying to add babies to their coverage are being asked by MNsure if their newborn baby is married .
In other words, it isn't just that the Dayton administration is utterly incompetent. It's also verified truth that the Dayton administration has broken the law.
Posted Sunday, September 28, 2014 2:35 PM
No comments.
Teddy Bridgewater: new face of Vikings
This afternoon, the Minnesota saw the difference that a great quarterback makes. This afternoon, Teddy Bridgewater became the face of the Vikings, running for a touchdown while completing 19 of 30 passes for 317 yards. This was the first time a Vikings quarterback threw for 300 yards since the year Brett Favre took the Vikings to the NFC Championship Game.
Bridgewater's play, though, wasn't the only noteworthy accomplishment for the Vikings' offense. This was the first game the Vikings quarterback threw for 300 yards, a Vikings runner ran for 100 yards and a Vikings receiver got more than 100 yards receiving in the same game since Brett Favre, Adrian Peterson and Sidney Rice turned the trick against Detroit on 11/15/09. This time, Touchdown Teddy threw for 317 yards, Jerrick McKinnon ran the ball 18 times for 135 yards and Jarius Wright caught 8 passes for 132 yards.
It's gotta be intimidating for the Packers, the Vikings opponent this Thursday, to think that the Vikings offense cooled off in the second half because they still gained 207 yards in the second half. The Vikings gained 351 yards in the first half.
For the second straight game, the Vikings' opponent threw tons of exotic blitzes at Bridgewater. For the second straight game, Bridgewater handled it like a veteran. It'd be wrong to highlight the fact that Bridgewater had tons of time thanks to his offensive line playing their best game since 2012. Then again, Atlanta's defense will never be mistaken for the original Steel Curtain defense led by Jack Lambert, Mean Joe Greene, LC Greenwood and Mel Blount.
The offensive line of Kalil, Johnson, Sullivan, Ducasse and Loadholt dominated Atlanta's defensive line. McKinnon gained an average of 7.5 yards per carry. Matt Asiata scored 3 rushing touchdowns, with McKinnon and Bridgewater each scoring a rushing touchdown, too. The Vikings gained 241 yards rushing on 44 carries. That's a 5.5 yard per carry average.
I'd be surprised if this wasn't a hellish week for Atlanta's D-Line. They were dominated. They got manhandled. They forced 2 punts the entire day. Atlanta's defense gave up 558 yards of total offense while letting Jarius Wright had a career day receiving and Vikings receivers seemed to be open all day.
Finally, I'd be remiss if I didn't talk briefly about the Vikings defense. Statistically, it wasn't a great day. They gave up 411 yards of total offense. They gave up 2 explosive touchdowns in the third quarter. Still, they turned up the heat when they needed to. Rookie first round pick Anthony Barr called the defensive signals today while finishing with 5 tackles and the Vikings' only sack. After spending lots of time in Coach Zimmer's doghouse in the preseason, third year corner Josh Robinson essentially finished the game with a great interception down the sideline. Harrison Smith finished with 5 tackles, too, and a 4th quarter interception of Matt Ryan.
Atlanta has too many weapons to be stopped. Still, the Vikings came up with the key stops when they needed them.
It's too early to make predictions about how many games the Vikings will win this year now that the Bridgewater Era has started. It isn't too early to say, though, that Rick Spielman, Mike Zimmer and Norv Turner are putting this team together the right way. Turner's offense looked positively explosive today. Zimmer's defense played hard-nosed football. They were opportunistic, too.
Finally, the Vikings have a new face of the franchise in Teddy Bridgewater. What's fun to watch is that the game seems to play out in slow motion for him. It's also fun to watch his arm talent, too. Teddy's the real deal.
Posted Sunday, September 28, 2014 8:40 PM
Comment 1 by walter hanson at 28-Sep-14 09:29 PM
Gary:
While I want to be optimistic lets remember Teddy left the game with an ankle sprain. Hopefully he will be ready for Thursday when we play Green Bay.
Though not said lets remember in the forced debut last week he came into game for the Saints in their Superdome where crowd noise affects the offense calling plays and helped rally the Vikings so they had a chance to try to come back.
Walter Hanson
Minneapolis, MN
Comment 2 by Gary Gross at 28-Sep-14 11:12 PM
After the game, Zimmer said that Teddy's fine. Teddy said that he could've played in an emergency. That means he'll start Thursday night against GB.
DCCC's anti-Millls smears continue
According to MPR's article , the DCCC's latest ad attacking Stewart Mills doesn't get much right:
The closest the DCCC ad comes to correct is in its claims about Mills personal wealth.
After that, the DCCC gets its facts wrong. Mills said he opposed the Cash for Clunkers program, but that has nothing to do with opposing middle class tax cuts. And while Mills has talked around the issue of tax reform, giving few details on what he would do, the DCCC makes some assumptions about how Mills would vote on tax cuts for the wealthy if he were elected to Congress.
For leaving out critical details, this ad is misleading at best.
That's MPR's verdict. Here's their unabridged version:
In the DCCC's latest ad, a Mills stand-in hops on his yacht, and motors off into the sunset:
'Stewart Mills III caught a big inheritance and a job at the family business that pay half-a-million year. But in Congress, Mills will leave you on the hook for higher taxes because Mills opposed tax cuts for the middle class - even as he wants to give another huge tax break to millionaires like himself.'
This ad enters rough waters.
The Evidence
Mills is the Vice President of Mills Fleet Farm, his family's business where Mills has spent his career. According to financial disclosure documents, Mills was paid more than $500,000 to do that job in 2013, and has company assets into the tens-of-millions.
To back up its claim that Mills opposes tax cuts for the middle class, the DCCC points to a January 2014 Start Tribune profile of the 8th district race. Mills told the Star Tribune that the Cash for Clunkers program, which paid people to turn in their old gas guzzlers, was 'another failed example of Washington, D.C., trying to legislate the free market.'
What does Cash for Clunkers have to do with middle class tax cuts? Nothing.
Whether it's the DCCC, the Alliance for a Better Minnesota or Nancy Pelosi's House Majority PAC, the script doesn't change. Candidate fill-in-the-blank wants to give millionaires tax breaks while voting against tax cuts for the middle class. The other thing that doesn't change is whether it's a lie. Poligraph is right. The DCCC ad gets it right that Stewart Mills has personal wealth. After that, they're pretty much lying through their teeth. So is Rick Nolan, who lifted a big part of the DCCC's script and put it into his ad attacking Stewart Mills.
Posted Sunday, September 28, 2014 11:48 PM
No comments.
The DCCC's script stays the same
I just published this post to highlight the DCCC's campaign ad smearing Stewart Mills. Here's the centerpiece of the DCCC's smear campaign against Mills:
'Stewart Mills III caught a big inheritance and a job at the family business that pay half-a-million year. But in Congress, Mills will leave you on the hook for higher taxes because Mills opposed tax cuts for the middle class - even as he wants to give another huge tax break to millionaires like himself.'
Next, let's compare that DCCC lie against Stewart Mills with the lie the DCCC is telling about Torrey Westrom :
'Westrom led the charge to shutdown Minnesota's government. Why? Because he wouldn't let go of tax breaks for millionaires .
Here's Poligraph's verdict against the DCCC's lie against Torrey Westrom:
The 2011 government shutdown happened because Gov. Mark Dayton and the Republican controlled Legislature could not agree on a budget to close the state's $5 billion deficit. Dayton wanted to raise taxes on Minnesota's top earners (which he did in the last legislative session), but Republicans objected.
That's true but incomplete. Poligraph's verdict left out the fact that Republicans were prepared to pass a lights-on bill that would've avoided a shutdown while Republicans negotiated a budget solution with Gov. Dayton. Poligraph's verdict also left out the fact that the budget Gov. Dayton signed after the longest shutdown in state history was the budget he could've signed at the end of the regular legislative session.
Further, the budget that the GOP legislature passed never, at any point, included tax cuts for any income group. PERIOD.
The DCCC's ad is a lie. They've done the research on the 2011 budget that Gov. Dayton signed. Their researchers kept track of the bills and amendments that Republicans offered. I triple-dog dare the DCCC to cite the HF/SF number or the amendment offered by Torrey Westrom or anyone in the House or Senate that would've cut millionaire's taxes.
They won't accept that offer because they know a 'millionaire's tax cut' bill doesn't exist, especially in Minnesota.
Whether it's the DCCC, ABM or another of the DFL 'alphabets', the script remains the same. The script isn't the script if it doesn't lie in accusing Republicans of wanting to cut millionaires' taxes. I can't say that that accusation is fictional because the definition of fiction is "something feigned, invented, or imagined; a made-up story." The DCCC doesn't engage in fiction. It just lies through its teeth. Here's the definition of lies :
a false statement made with deliberate intent to deceive; an intentional untruth; a falsehood.
That's what the DCCC and ABM do with frightening regularity.
Posted Monday, September 29, 2014 12:34 AM
Comment 1 by Chad Q at 29-Sep-14 05:03 PM
I love how DFLer's will rail against the rich yet they have voted a millionaire who has never worked for his money into the governors mansion and voted another millionaire to a US senator. You'd think they'd embrace Mills and his money but then again he works for his money.
Bureaucrats hate accountability
It isn't likely that you'll hear Denise Specht criticize Jeff Johnson's plan to audit every government agency, though you might hear Specht rail against teacher testing. Scott Leitz isn't publicly complaining about Jim Noble's audit of MNsure but that's mostly because whining about it won't sit well with the public.
MNsure is a mismanagement disaster. The website doesn't work. The vast majority of health insurance renewals through MNsure will be processed manually. Most importantly, MNsure is costing Minnesota's taxpayers untold millions of dollars by putting children on Medicaid whose parents make too much to qualify for Medicaid . There's even proof that the Minnesota Department of Human Services knew about this but didn't fix the problem.
The Department of Human Services also isn't doing oversight on the nonprofits it's giving grants to. That's why Community Action Partnership of Minneapolis shut its doors. It didn't help that politicians like Jeff Hayden and Keith Ellison didn't pay attention to how Community Action was misspending tens of thousands of dollars on cruises, spa treatments and weekend getaways.
The last thing a bureaucrat wants is accountability from his or her supervisor. They just prefer getting their agency's budget increased each year without being audited. That's why they fought hard against creating King Banaian's Sunset Advisory Commission.
Jeff Johnson is a bureaucrat's worst nightmare. He's actually highlighted governments when they foolishly spend the taxpayers' money. Football fans know that offensive linemen don't get noticed until they commit a penalty or until the man they're supposed to block hits the quarterback. The principle is the same for bureaucrats. They aren't noticed until they're caught in a scandal.
Jeff Johnson isn't opposed to government. He's part of it. He's just opposed to government that opposes accountability. He's opposed to that type of government thinking because it bothers him when the taxpayers' money isn't spent wisely.
Like most DFL politicians, Gov. Dayton doesn't pay attention to how money is spent. When Jeff Johnson first said that government agencies should be audited, Gov. Dayton criticized Commissioner Johnson for essentially stereotyping people who receive government assistance. When KSTP discovered that Community Action Partnership of Minneapolis was spending money on cruises, spa treatments and weekend getaways, Gov. Dayton's tune changed instantly and dramatically.
I don't want a governor who specializes in cleaning up messes after the fact. I'd prefer a governor that puts policies in place that prevent messes from being created in the first place.
Posted Monday, September 29, 2014 11:55 AM
Comment 1 by walter hanson at 29-Sep-14 04:45 PM
Gary:
As a burecrat I resent that! I expect to be held accountable by my supervisors!!
The public expects my supervisors to hold me account!!
I'm an union steward who has to work when management tries to hold employees accountable.
Oh that's right, "The supervisors of MNSure and the other agencies" don't want to be held accountable for what they did wrong.
Walter Hanson
Minneapolis, MN
Faculty Association demands action
According to the minutes for the St. Cloud State Faculty Association (SCSUFA) Budget Committee meeting of Sept. 11, 2014, the committee took up the topic of the Coborn's Plaza lease:
Coborn's Plaza Apartments
Jack distributed the document presented by the administration at the Budget Advisory Committee last spring showing that Coborn's Plaza Apartments lost $6.4 million in the first four years of operation. In light of anticipated losses over $1 million per year, two mothballed dorms with a capacity of 779 students, and an $8-10 million dollar shortfall for FY15, the need to make a decision about continuing in the contract with the Wedum Foundation, the decision to leave Coborn's Plaza needs to be made before the end of the year or the university will not be able to leave until the end of the 2025-26 academic year.
MSP (Susantha, Tony) Recommend giving notification of termination to the Wedum Foundation. (unanimous). Hopefully, the lease could be renegotiated to account for the amount of money coming in to the university. A reduction of $1 million per year in the lease payment would save a significant portion of the $8-10 million dollar shortfall without negatively affecting academic programs.
I can't picture President Potter following the Committee's recommendation. In his mind, admitting that he'd made a multi-million dollar mistake is admitting failure. That isn't my opinion. That's what President Potter said at a Meet & Confer Meeting.
To those that have watched him, they know that President Potter won't admit that he's failed to spend the University's money wisely. President Potter will still insist that the Wedum apartments lease is a great decision by his administration. That defies logic. It's one of the worst financial decisions in SCSU history. That isn't hyperbole. I defy anyone at SCSU to name a worse financial decision. If it isn't the worst financial decision, then it's certainly in the top 3.
When President Potter signed the contract, he said that a survey showed a market for upscale apartments. At the time, the apartments were going to be exclusively occupied by upper classmen. The last year that they have occupancy data for, the apartments were about 70% full with asterisks.
The apartments aren't just for upper classmen. Any SCSU student that's able to pay the rent is eligible to rent the apartment. In fact, the apartments aren't just for SCSU students. Students from St. Cloud Technical and Community College (SCTCC) live in the Wedum Apartments. That's before factoring in the fact that 2 dorms on the SCSU campus have been mothballed and another dorm was remodeled.
Whoever did the survey that purportedly showed SCSU students wanted upscale apartments shouldn't have any credibility. Building high-priced upscale apartments for college students during the Great Recession doesn't make any sense. That's like saying the Titanic needed a second iceberg.
Thanks to President Potter's financial mismanagement, SCSU is facing one of the biggest budget shortfalls in MnSCU history. In light of that, the mention of the Titanic seems fitting, especially considering the fact that President Potter once served in the Coast Guard . Throw in SCSU's sinking FYE enrollment and the Coast Guard/Titanic metaphor fits perfectly.
Originally posted Monday, September 29, 2014, revised 30-Sep 10:16 AM
No comments.
Zach Dorholt: MAPE's representative
After reading this LTE in the St. Cloud Times, it's frighteningly apparent that some members of the Minnesota Association of Professional Employees union can't comprehend grade school English. Here's why that's frighteningly apparent:
As the PAC chair of the Minnesota Association of Professional Employees, I am concerned former House Rep. Jim Knoblach used our name in campaign fliers, such as the ones labeled "Past Support", which insinuate he has our support today.
I don't know how MAPE union members think but I know how normal people think. When normal people hear the term past support, we don't think that means a candidate currently has MAPE's support. If a candidate is endorsed by a union or a business trade organization, they highlight the fact that they've been endorsed by that organization this year.
Typically, they include a statement from the spokesperson from the union or trade organization saying why their organization is endorsing that candidate. This statement is enlightening:
Our union represents more than 13,000 state employees. We hold elected officials to high standards, and we don't take our endorsement process lightly. Actions speak louder than words and House Rep. Zach Dorholt has acted in the best interest of our members. Dorholt has a 100 percent voting record on MAPE issues.
It's interesting to read what Team MAPE is interested in :
Team MAPE supports MAPE friendly candidates and legislation. Our issue priorities include: achieving fair compensation for state employees, fixing our broken health care system, preventing outsourcing and privatization of state services and protecting our pension and retirement benefits. Team MAPE is supported by the MAPE Government Relations Committee and MAPE Political Action Committee. The MAPE GRC and MAPE PAC work hand-in-hand to advance MAPE's political and legislative strategic priorities. We achieve these goals by assisting the election of MAPE allied candidates and influencing the legislative process through lobbying and grass-roots action.
In other words, MAPE works hard to elect politicians committed to taking money from the private sector to grow government. Whenever MAPE elects a pro-government politician, MAPE gains another politician beholden to their causes.
Based on MAPE's definition, they just said that Zach Dorholt will represent MAPE's interests, not his constituents' interests, 100% of the time. That isn't surprising considering the fact that Dorholt hasn't raised any money from inside his district. He's bought and paid for by the special interests that knock doors for him and help get out the vote for him.
Zach Dorholt's nickname should be MAPE's representative. He definitely didn't represent this district in the legislature.
Posted Monday, September 29, 2014 9:17 PM
Comment 1 by walter hanson at 30-Sep-14 08:44 PM
Gary:
There is something I find a little confusing about the MAPE endorsement. They claim they want, "Fixing our broken healthcare system"
Well MN Sure which Dorholt and MAPE support has broken our healthcare system. To fix the healthcare system we have to get rid of MN Sure which Dorholt and MAPE want.
Apparently these people can't be professionals since they can't see that MN Sure is breaking the healthcare system and lie about wanting to fix it.
Walter Hanson
Minneapolis, MN
Comment 2 by Chad Q at 01-Oct-14 02:44 PM
I thought our healthcare system was fixed with the implementation of Obamacare and now MAPE is telling me it is still broken?
