Position profile
The Board of Trustees for the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system invites nominations and applications for the position of chancellor. The Minnesota State Colleges and Universities is the fifth largest system of two- and four-year colleges and universities in the nation and aspires to be "best in class" among similar systems. The board seeks an outstanding individual to lead the entire college and university community toward this goal.
Background and Overview
Founded in 1995 through the merger of three public higher education systems (community colleges, technical colleges and state universities), the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system serves more than 423,000 students annually in credit and non-credit courses through seven state universities and 26 community and technical colleges on 54 campus locations. It has stewardship responsibilities for more than 26 million square feet of academic, residential and auxiliary space, an annual operating budget of $1.9 billion, a capital budget ranging from $100 million to $300 million every two years, and more than 15,000 employees.
Governance
The Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system is governed by a 15-member Board of Trustees. Trustees are appointed by the governor and confirmed by the Minnesota Senate. Twelve trustees serve six-year terms, eight representing each of Minnesota's congressional districts and four serving at-large. Three student trustees ? one from a state university, one from a community college and one from a technical college ? serve two-year terms. The board appoints the chancellor who acts as a chief operating officer for the system.
The chancellor recommends to the board the appointment of college and university presidents who then report to the chancellor. The presidents are responsible for leading the college or university faculty, staff and students in developing and implementing the college or university mission. Although a public higher education system, Minnesota State Colleges and Universities has a high degree of autonomy from state government while still subject to state statutes and a number of state policies, regulations and processes.
Vision and Mission
The Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system will enable the people of Minnesota to succeed by providing the most accessible, highest value education in the nation.
The Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system of distinct and collaborative institutions offers higher education that meets the personal and career goals of a wide range of individual learners, enhances the quality of life for all Minnesotans and sustains vibrant economies throughout the state.
Programs and Services
The system's colleges and universities offer more than 3,800 programs resulting in a certificate, diploma or degree. More than 440 programs and 10,000 course sections are offered completely or predominantly on line, and more than 78,500 students take online courses. The community and technical colleges offer career programs that can be completed in two years or less and programs that provide the first two years of a baccalaureate degree. The state universities offer bachelor degree programs and graduate programs leading to master's degrees, some applied doctorate degrees and specialized certificates.
Students
The system serves more than 423,000 students each year and credit and noncredit courses, and produces 34,700 graduates each year. The colleges and universities educate 49 percent of the state's new teaching graduates, 85 percent of the state's new law enforcement graduates and 83 percent of the state's new nursing graduates. The colleges and universities serve more students of color than any other higher education provider in the state, more than 47,000 students of color in 2010. In addition, the system provides career education to 6,000 employers and 179,500 employees each year. The average age of students in credit courses is 25.8.
Faculty and Staff
The system employs more than 15,000 people, many of whom are represented by one of 12 bargaining units and personnel plans. The bargaining units include the Inter Faculty Organization, which represents about 3,100 state university faculty; the Minnesota State College Faculty, which represents about 3,500 faculty at the community and technical colleges; the Minnesota State University of Administrative and Service Faculty, which represents about 640 administrative and service faculty at the state universities; the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees; the Minnesota Association of Professional Employees; the Minnesota Government Engineers Council; the Middle Management Association and the Minnesota Nurses Association.
Budget and Finance
The system's annual operating budget is about $1.9 billion, of which $605.5 million comes from a state appropriation and $777.4 million from tuition. The system manages 858 buildings totaling 26.8 million square feet and has a capital budget that ranges from $100 million to $300 million every two years.
Education in Minnesota
The Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system comprises all public higher education institutions in the state except for the University of Minnesota, which is a separate system. The system works closely with the University of Minnesota and with the K-12 system on a number of initiatives. Leaders of the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system, the University of Minnesota, the Private College Council, the Minnesota Career College Association, the Department of Education and the Minnesota Office of Higher Education meet regularly to discuss issues of importance to higher education.
Distinctive Dimensions
The system serves 63 percent of the state's undergraduates. Nearly 86 percent of graduates get jobs related to their field of study, and more than 80 percent of graduates stay in Minnesota to work or continue their education.
Strategic Planning
Over the past decade, the system has utilized strategic planning effectively to provide a future-oriented framework for sustaining a "distinctive and collaborative" network of colleges and universities. The Board of Trustees adopted the most recent plan in June 2010, Designing the Future: Minnesota State Colleges & Universities Strategic Plan 2010-2014. The plan includes five strategic directions:
- Increase access, opportunity and success.
- Achieve high-quality learning through a commitment to academic excellence and accountability.
- Provide learning opportunities, programs and services to enhance the global economic competitiveness of the state, its regions and its people.
- Innovate to meet current and future educational needs.
- Sustain financial viability during changing economic and market conditions.
For further information on the strategic directions and action plan, consult the website.
Challenges and Opportunities
The Minnesota State Colleges and Universities is a system of dynamic institutions poised to move to new levels of excellence and service. A relatively new system, it has made major strides over the past decade in building programs and services to benefit its students, institutions, and state. The system will need to continue to address both opportunities and challenges over the near-term future as it seeks to further strengthen its critical role serving the educational needs of students, communities and the state of Minnesota. The following particularly relate to the leadership role of the new chancellor.
- Envisioning the future and establishing direction. Now a more fully-developed and mature system, the question of where to take the system, its future direction, is perhaps even more timely. The system will benefit from innovative, clear and strategic thinking about its mission, programs, outreach, and services. The new chancellor will play an essential role in defining and achieving an ambitious and compelling vision.
- Providing statewide leadership. With 54 diverse campus locations, the system's leader plays an essential advocacy and communication role throughout Minnesota with state, regional, and local communities. Additionally, in a time of limited resources, the new chancellor will need to explore new forms of partnerships within and outside Minnesota's educational community to achieve its goals.
- Building and managing resources. Like most public systems and institutions, the State Colleges and Universities have experienced significant declines in the tax-supported shares of their operating budgets, and this trend is not likely to reverse in the near future. The new chancellor must be a financial advocate for the institutions, finding ways to maintain and improve the quality of programs through strong legislative advocacy and other forms of resource development, including fundraising. Internally, the Chancellor will need to champion developing greater internal efficiencies and resources and creatively marshalling system finances.
- Focusing on both access and success. The Minnesota State Colleges and Universities perhaps represent Minnesota's best hope to further develop the state's human potential through expanded and strengthened services, enrollments, and rates of degree or program completion. Despite constraints on resources, the system will need to reach underserved populations, including the growing immigrant communities in Minnesota. Already a leader in online education, the future holds new opportunities to extend its reach through new technologies. This potential for greater impact represents both a major opportunity and challenge for the new chancellor and all members of system's statewide community.
- Cultivating diversity. The Minnesota State Colleges and Universities already play key roles in strengthening diversity statewide but are equally aware of the challenges they face to more successfully serve diverse students, both domestic and international, as well as to attract and recruit more diverse faculty and staff. Despite resource constraints, the chancellor and colleagues will need to find new ways to enhance diversity, so essential to fully realizing the system's and campuses' aspirations as learning communities.
Position and Qualifications
The Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system is a dynamic group of institutions which continues to improve its service to and reputation in the community.
As the leader of the system, the chancellor must inspire the system's internal and external constituencies. The chancellor must provide educational leadership that will enhance the vitality of the state.
The leadership of the chancellor calls for the incumbent to demonstrate wide latitude in judgment and action. Among other responsibilities, the chancellor:
- Serves as the chief executive officer of the system, directly responsible to the Board of Trustees for operation of the system;
- Develops policy in conjunction with the Board of Trustees;
- Implements Board policy;
- Facilitates cooperation and synergy among the universities with respect to academic and student life;
- Acts as the Board's chief agent for development of system operating and capital budgets (including the review of university budgets), master planning activity, and labor relations;
- Oversees system-level service operations, such as telecommunications, systemic information technology;
- Represents the board and the system before external agencies of state government, the national government and the public;
- Exercises accessible and engaged leadership with individuals and groups by means of visibility and involvement;
- Supports and provides leadership for affirmative action and for the achievement of full diversity;
- Works constructively and cooperatively with leaders of system wide bargaining units;
- Develops the agenda for board meetings, and maintains board records;
- Communicates board policy to university presidents and evaluates their success in university management within board policy;
- Oversees the activities of the system office and evaluates system office personnel; and
- Works to further the stated goals and objectives of the Board of Trustees and the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities.
The Board of Trustees expects a new chancellor to build upon the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities foundation of achievement while articulating a clear and compelling vision for its future. The Board seeks candidates with the following characteristics:
- Leadership
- Experienced, creative and strategic thinker prepared to tackle the challenges of higher education
- Demonstrated focus on serving students and leading an enterprise focused on student success
- Ability to articulate a vision for the system and a plan for implementation of the vision
- Demonstrated honesty and integrity
- Excellent communication and listening skills
- Ability to envision and drive change in a multi-stakeholder environment
- Ability to develop and cultivate relationships with broad stakeholders through a collaborative and facilitative demeanor
- Courage to make decisions, innovate and take appropriate risks
- Ability to adapt to differing cultures
- Recognition of the value that diversity brings to the system
- Management
- A strong emphasis on accountability for results
- Success in working with a governing board
- Ability to attract and lead a strong team of senior staff
- Demonstrated skill in managing human and financial resources in an environment with many competing interests
- Experience in a multi-location, geographically dispersed operating environment
- Background and experience
- Commitment to public service and public education
- Experience in a large and complex organization similar to the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system
- Demonstrated success in workforce and economic development
- Proven success in dealing with legislative stakeholders
Information for Applicants
The sole statutory authority to appoint the chancellor rests with the Board of Trustees. Review of candidates will begin in early fall and will continue until the position is filled. For best review, materials should be submitted no later than November 19, 2010. Interested candidates should submit a letter of application, a current resume, and the names and telephone numbers of five references. Applicants and nominators are strongly encouraged to submit their materials by email and Word attachments.
Chuck Bunting, Steve Leo and Traci Dove, with Storbeck/Pimentel & Associates, are providing support for this search. Please send all inquiries, requests for the search profile, nominations and applications, to:
Minnesota State Colleges and Universities Chancellor Search
Storbeck/Pimentel & Associates, LLC
1400 North Providence Road, Suite 6000
Media, PA 19063
Phone: (386) 586-3359
Fax: (786) 515-9320 fax
Email: t.dove@storbeckpimentel.com
Questions may be directed to:
Chuck Bunting
Email: cbunting@storbeckpimentel.com
Phone: (802) 985-4987
Steve Leo
Email: s.leo@storbeckpimentel.com
Phone: (703) 635-7373
Traci Dove
Email: t.dove@storbeckpimentel.com
Phone: (386) 283-4125
The Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system is an Equal Opportunity educator and employer.
