Prof: Why MnSCU needs to back off its central planning

Didn’t work too well the first time. (pdxjmorris via Flickr)

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.

You can read his full commentary here.

About the blogger

Alex Friedrich

afriedrich@mpr.org

Alex Friedrich reports on higher education issues for MPR News. Among the stories he has covered: the fall of the Berlin Wall, aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, collapse of the I-35W bridge in Minneapolis, 2003 Moscow suicide bombing and 2004 presidential elections in the Republic of Georgia. He holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Georgia and a master’s in European political economy from the London School of Economics.