Winona State University professor Darrell Downs writes in MinnPost that June’s “Charting the Future” strategy report by Minnesota State Colleges and Universities (MnSCU) system is a “ham-handed” attempt at consolidation that will short-change students.
Among the report’s proposals are campus mergers and the relocation and elimination of academic programs.
Downs writes:
Contrary to the MnSCU plan, there is no basis for centralizing the state’s academic programs. Innovative research and teaching do not thrive under the yoke of statewide directives and top-down controls. If that were true, any number of dictatorial regimes would be ruling the world today. … Centralization at this level didn’t work in the former Soviet Union and it won’t work in Minnesota.