MAY 29, 2012 ROTARY IN REVIEW:
Chancellor Steven Rosenstone
Maria McLemore facilitated the introduction of two visiting Rotarians and five guests. President Doug thanked Tony Scheuerman and Allyson Hartle for serving as greeters. Jim Delamater urged all to sign up for the various Fellowship Day events next week, and everyone joined in a round of Happy Birthday to the May birthday boys and girls.
A very bright young woman named Amelia Corgi was introduced, and she spoke about her upcoming travel as our outbound youth exchange student. Amelia is quite the adventurer, and she will impress during her time in Hyderabad, India.
Mark Henneman then provided a new member introduction for Scott Howard, also with Mairs and Power. Scott spoke about the four things that are important in his life, and how well they align with the four objectives of Rotary, as well as the Four Way Test.
There was time for happy dollars, bringing in needed cash for Club projects in celebration of family, anniversaries, community events and found money.
At 1 pm sharp, Donovan Schwichtenberg proudly introduced Chancellor Steven Rosenstone, our new Chancellor of Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system. Steven shared insights from his first months on the job, travelling to most of the 54 campuses within the sytem, at 31 institutions made up of 7 state colleges, 4 community colleges, 4 technical colleges, and 16 combined colleges.
Serving 420,000 students this year, MnSCU in the 5th largest system in the Nation. The average student age is 26, and we have the largest percentage of student body who are low income and/or of color in the country. 88% are residents of Minnesota, and the system presents 40,000 degrees and certificates annually. There are also 6,000 business partnerships, training 120,000 employees each year on worksites. There are 11,000 veterans or active duty service people in the system right now.
MnSCU has seen 15% annual growth over the past ten years, on average. At the same time, student tuition has been cut by 10% over those ten years. The cost effectiveness of the MnSCU program is remarkably different than other state institutions. The Chancellor spoke at length about the aggressive cost controls and hard decisions that have produced these results.
Steven highlighted the rapidly growing gap between jobs available, and the current makeup of the unemployed workforce. The growing complexity of the workplace, and the evolution of learning during the course of a person’s working life and a faster pace of change in the world are stressing formal education. Within just a few years, 85% of new jobs in Minnesota will require at least some post-secondary education. This is a big leap from our current demographics.
At the same time, there has been a 40% decline in state support of higher ed, versus a national average of 20% growth in other states over the same past ten years. We are now 8% lower than the national average. There has also been a “flip” of the 60/40 split – ten years ago, the state paid 60% of the costs – now it is the student. While MnSCU has been successful at finding new ways to provide access to traditional and non-traditional students over the past decade, giving them the critical education to succeed and drive our economy using innovation and re-engineering of educational systems, it cannot last.
The Chancellor flatly stated that the future depends on Minnesota finding a way to get back in the game in order to solve the problems that lay ahead. He believes that students can’t pay it all, that something must give, and that the state must find the resources to re-take majority funding of the costs.
John Andrews
Scribe