President’s Weekly Update – November 10, 2009

Last week was certainly an exciting one.

On Monday, I was in Moorhead for two meetings that preceded the monthly Leadership Council on Tuesday.  First, we met with James McCormick, Chancellor of Minnesota State College and Universities, and Bill Goetz, Chancellor of the North Dakota System of Higher Education.  Included in this meeting were the system vice chancellors of academic and student affairs, and the presidents and chief academic officers of NCTC, UND, NDSU, MSUM, MSCTC, Lake Region College, and NDSCS.  We agreed that we all serve a region that, in many respects, has economic and cultural ties that are stronger than state affiliations.  We discussed existing examples of collaboration across the state line and identified barriers to collaboration.  A much smaller task group will be appointed by the vice chancellors to hone the ideas into an action plan that the chancellors can discuss with legislators, if appropriate, and that colleges can use as a platform for future work.  Clearly, the North Dakota legislature is providing supports to their colleges and universities that our legislature cannot at this time of fiscal crisis in Minnesota.  Collaboration will give us the opportunity to secure the importance of our role in higher education in the Red River Valley corridor.

That afternoon and evening, Bob Gooden and I participated in a meeting that focused on the 2009 flood fight in the Fargo-Moorhead area.  Panels from MSUM, which hosted the meeting, and MSCTC related how their institutions retooled to become key elements in saving the Fargo-Moorhead area from flooding.  This event was sponsored by MnSCU to focus the attention of college leadership on the need to be prepared for unanticipated emergencies.  I was able to ask Jerry Migler, the MSCTC provost, and Edna Szymanski, MSUM president, how the college and university handled the academic ramifications of class cancellations for two weeks.  At MSCTC, each faculty member worked with their own students to complete the semester.  At MSUM, the university negotiated an altered calendar with some days added to the end of the year to compensate for lost days.  This conversation was particularly important, as many colleges and universities fear similar closures due to the H1N1 flu.

Bob and I discussed the meeting with the Cabinet last week and have determined that the college will engage in more frequent emergency planning.  Becky Lindseth and Julie Fenning will organize this planning.

The Leadership Council was abbreviated on Wednesday to give those who traveled the opportunity to return home in time to vote.  The discussion related to state allocations did not reveal any information in addition to what was presented a couple of weeks ago.  NCTC’s Finance Committee is meeting today and will review all information related to possible budget reduction scenarios for FY2011.  We will keep you all informed.

Chancellor McCormick and new Vice Chancellor for Human Resources Lori Lamb are making a tour of the state so that VC Lamb can become familiar with the campuses of MnSCU.  They visited the East Grand Forks campus for a quick tour of the remodeled facility on Wednesday.  In addition to that, we were able to host them on a tour of the Grand Forks Air Force Base.  Wing Commander Col. John Michel personally gave us a briefing on the history and future of the base.  Mike Corcoran, Director of Operations for Customs and Border Protection, gave us a detailed briefing and tour of the Customs and Border Patrol mission and facility located at the Air Force Base.

During the Wednesday afternoon Cabinet meeting, Dan Klug reported on progress made toward implementing a “content management” system for our college web site.  Currently, all content must flow through Chad Sperling or Paulo Perez.  This either bottle-necks information or consumes the time that they might use more productively for web design.  Dan worked with a small group to determine that, for the short-term, “Contribute” software will be used for editing on the website; 10-12 employees who have regular updates will be trained and the software will be installed on their computers.  They will be able to make their own updates on the web.  For the long-term, the web team will work on a “continuity of look” for the website.  They will focus on the needs first, then the wants (adding bells and whistles) when time permits.

On Thursday, Dorinda Sorvig and I made a quick run up to Roseau.  She was working on some details with the nursing student group there and I had the opportunity to visit with these students and with coordinator Nicole Hagen.  We have a cohort of about 28 students who are working on their LPN certificates.  What a diverse and eager group – starting class at 5 pm and going into the evening with Betty Carlson as their instructor!  I also had an opportunity to visit with Dave Grafstrom, FBM instructor.  He related new developments with a gasification process that can convert plant waste into energy.  Something new every day!

This week, my schedule is:

Monday, Nov. 9               East Grand Forks – Community Advisory Committee Meeting

Tuesday, Nov. 10             Thief River Falls – Community Advisory Committee Meeting

Wednesday, Nov. 11      Veterans Day

Thursday, Nov. 12            East Grand Forks – AFSCME Advisory Council and Shared Governance Council

Friday, Nov. 13                 Thief River Falls – no scheduled meetings – office clean-up day

President’s Weekly Update – November 2, 2009

Just a short note this week – my typing skills are not at their best.

I’m heading out to Moorhead this morning.  For a change, our MnSCU Leadership Council is meeting outside of St. Paul.  The reason for this is that the Chancellor wanted us all to focus on the emergency response that MSU-Moorhead and MSCTC-Moorhead engaged in during the last spring flood.  This evening, we have a meeting that will focus on emergency preparedness and response.  This may be very timely in light of the potential for campus closures brought on by the H1N1 flu.

Before that, I have a meeting with the chancellors of the MnSCU and the North Dakota Higher Education System, their vice-chancellors of academics and student affairs, the presidents of colleges and universities along the border of the two states, and the CAOs of those institutions.   The purpose of this meeting is to begin to identify and address barriers to student opportunities that may arise from the state line.  If we can work on considering a regional approach rather than a state-limited approach, we may be able to ease access and opportunity for students in this area.

The Leadership Council meeting should bring more information about the budget forecast for next year.  I am sure that all of my colleagues are as concerned as I am.

This week, my schedule is:

Monday, Nov. 2                                MSU-Moorhead – meetings

Tuesday, Nov. 3                                MSU-Moorhead – meetings

Wednesday, Nov. 4        EGF – Meeting with Chancellor McCormick and Vice Chancellor Lamb, Cabinet

Thursday, Nov. 5              TRF

Friday, Nov. 6                    TRF – Possible Vacation Day

President’s Weekly Update – October 26, 2009

I missed last week – there were so many things going on and no topics had risen to the top of the pile.

This week, I again must share with you some distressing news related to the state budget.  The Minnesota State budget for FY 2011 is not looking promising.  In fact, MnSCU is now anticipating deeper cuts than those announced last May.  In a draft memo from the Finance Division at MnSCU, we got the following points:

• The appropriation amount in final Higher Education bill is $666.0 million
• Governor has recommended $50 million unallotment to MnSCU (7.5 percent reduction)
• ARRA funds would be lost if higher education (MnSCU and U of M) were reduced greater than an additional $50 million above the governor’s recommended unallotment
• The unallotment amount to MnSCU could go as high as $75 miillion (11.3 percent reduction) – assumption is that the additional unallotment would be split equally between MnSCU and the UofM
• College/universities build appropriation scenarios around the bookends – 7.5 percent to 11.3 percent reductions

What this means for NCTC is that, instead of an approximate $350,000 allocation reduction, we may face a deficit that is substantially deeper.  Precise estimates are not yet available.

As most of you know, the administration has already started the process of reducing the budget for FY2011 by looking at student/faculty ratios, enrollment in programs, and student success statistics.  This has been in accord with the program sustainability process that was adopted three years ago by the Shared Governance Council.

I can’t change the climate that we, as a public higher education institution, are living in.  I can’t make the gloomy economic projections turn sunny.  What I must do is guide this college in acknowledging the facts.  I must work with you to determine how we can maintain healthy campuses that provide a variety of opportunities for our students and communities.  In abundant times, the college expanded beyond our current ability to sustain all of its activities and programs.  At the same time we are identifying reductions, we must work to seize new opportunities that are emerging through non-traditional funding sources.

As I have in the past, I will keep you informed.  I will attempt to share access to any of the data that inform our decisions.  I will expect thorough analysis and strong rationale for the decisions that are made.  Will the terrible decisions I have to make be popular?  Absolutely not.  Will they be flawless?  Certainly not.  But, I pledge that I care deeply about this college and the contributions it makes to our region.  The worst decision I could make would be to delay or fail to make decisions that will retain the core strength of the college.

This week, my schedule is:

Monday, Oct. 26               TRF – Foundation Board Dinner, quarterly meeting

Tuesday, Oct. 27               TRF – Shared Governance Council Special Meeting

Wednesday, Oct. 28       Legislative Bonding Committee – TRF, afternoon in EGF – All Employee Meetings

Thursday, Oct. 29             Carpal Tunnel Surgery – Out of Office

Friday, Oct. 30                   TRF – All Employee Meetings

Weekly Update – October 13, 2009

I will address two issues today – The Swenson House and college marketing efforts.

Swenson House

This property was a very generous gift to the college in 2002 from Lowell Swenson, a Thief River Falls entrepreneur.  However, since then, the college has not been able to identify a self-sustaining purpose for the house.  It has been the home to the NCTC Foundation, the Center for Outreach and Innovation, college high-stakes testing services, and the Criminal Justice Program and martial arts classroom.  It has been rented for private parties and to various agencies for meetings.  The cost of maintenance and utilities is a responsibility of the college budget and costs somewhere between $50,000 and $70,000 annually.  Large maintenance costs, such as roof replacement, are looming.

In FY 2009, a group of college employees worked together to analyze the potential for the house becoming profitable.  Was there a business plan that could be adopted that would make the house cost neutral?  What was the need and/or competition locally for services that could be provided within the house ?  Were local users willing to pay the real costs of operations in their desires to schedule the house?  Quite frankly, without greater up-front investments for staff, marketing, and/or remodeling, we established that there was a low feasibility of the Swenson House becoming cost-neutral.  And, we were not willing to become direct competitors with local businesses.

So, for FY 2010, the Swenson House will be moth-balled after October.  We will suspend daily cleaning and maintenance and reduce utilities to the extent possible while protecting this asset.  Both the NCTC Foundation and COI staff have relocated to the main TRF campus building.  During this year, the college will consider its options for leasing or selling the property.  All other suggestions for revenue-neutral use will be considered.

Marketing

There is strong college-wide acknowledgement that NCTC has increased its visibility in recent years through the use of new media outlets and program-specific marketing.  Yet, during meetings with the faculty and other employees last spring, it became clear that greater marketing efforts is a top priority with many of us.  During the April faculty in-service, the most frequent suggestion for use of federal stimulus money was to enhance college marketing efforts.  This was echoed in other employee meetings as well.

This past summer, the Cabinet decided to allocate $150,000 of stimulus funding to marketing, nearly doubled the resources available.  The utilization of this additional funding was put in the hands of MET – the Marketing and Enrollment Management team.  MET has articulated a plan and has been working with Mark Johnson, interim marketing director, and the Creative Services Team on implementation.

One of the first priorities was to add another web programmer.  Paulo Perez was hired in September.  Stacey Hron offered some technology funding which was received from a special MnSCU allocation to cover part of Paulo’s salary.  This vacated the stimulus money – an amount sufficient to move ahead with recruitment of a new, permanent marketing director.

If you will remember, Mark Johnson, a faculty member, was reassigned the responsibilities of marketing when the Mass Communications (Radio Broadcasting) program was suspended.  He is now in the third year of this interim appointment and is preparing to launch the New Media academic program in Fall, 2010.  This program will prepare students in content development, media techniques, and distributing information through various media – old and new.

We needed to hire a marketing director, and now we are now able to do so six months earlier than anticipated, using the stimulus funds.  A position description is in the process of being developed and will be sent to MnSCU for review and classification.  This position will be located on the East Grand Forks campus.

At this time, I have reviewed the organizational structure surrounding marketing.  For the past year and a half, college marketing efforts have been supervised by Stacey Hron.  This is an arrangement that was recommended by the former marketing task group as a temporary measure in part because Mark, as a faculty member, could not supervise other employees.  Stacey has done a wonderful job of bringing the group of creative services people (Mark Johnson, Chad Sperling, Julie Olson, Jennifer Sundberg) together and facilitated their work with her technology team.  I want to commend Stacey for her leadership and her generosity in volunteering to take on this additional challenge.

After much consideration and consultation with affected people, I have decided to assign the supervision of the new Marketing Director to Dan Klug, the executive director of the NCTC Foundation.  Mark Johnson, will continue as the interim director until the new director is hired and then will continue to produce marketing content until the end of the FY 2010 academic year.

Dan has extensive experience in marketing and will be charged with guiding the new director in planning and developing college communication strategies.  This is consistent with his role with the Foundation, as we believe that reaching out to our communities is the important first step to developing the friendships that will lead to financial support of the college and its programs.  This assignment will, in no way compromise the fund raising goals that have been set for Dan by the NCTC Foundation Board and endorsed by me, as Dan’s supervisor.

The marketing director will supervise several college employees.  All web development activity will be part of marketing.  Chad Sperling and Paulo Perez will report to the new marketing director, as will Julie Olson, our director of public relations.  25% of Jennifer Sundberg’s time will be allocated to creative services in support of marketing activities.  Because the radio station will again be the laboratory for an academic program (new media) and has a growing role in college marketing and communication, we are still working to determine the most appropriate reporting path for the radio station employees.  Until this decision is finalized, the radio station personnel will continue to report to Stacey Hron.

We will continue to utilize Grouplink as the mechanism to request web services.  So, if you have information that needs to be up-loaded to the web site or web pages that need to be developed, continue to use the Grouplink system.

Chad has done a great job of designing our beautiful web site.  Wherever my travels take me, I hear people exclaiming about the excitement and quality of our page.  But, Chad has been overwhelmed by the requests for web development.  Before he and Paulo can really make substantive progress on all of the requests, they will implement a web content management system.  The software for this system was also funded out of stimulus money.  Content management will allow us to train individuals throughout the college to upload information into developed pages.  Then, all such uploads will not require the work of our web programmers.  Consequently, some web development projects may be delayed.

As always, I welcome your questions and comments.

This week I am:

Monday, October 12 – Fargo Red River Valley Research Corridor Annual Conference

Tuesday, October 13 -  TRF

Wednesday, October 14 – EGF

Thursday, October15 – TRF

Friday, October 16 – Vacation – Taking daughter to visit colleges

Weekly Update – October 4, 2009

Tonight I’m writing from Washington D.C.   Tomorrow morning Jim Retka, Dan Klug, Scott Fletcher, and I will begin the process of securing private and public funding for future developments within our aviation maintenance program.

Last week, two teams within the college were completing work on ARRA grant proposals.  Within our health care division, several faculty and staff members developed a proposal for funding a mobile simulation lab.  This will serve not only our NCTC students throughout our region, but will assist our partner health care providers with continuing education opportunities at their clinics and facilities.  The second proposal was for developing the unmanned aerial systems maintenance program.

I am so impressed by the organization, speed, and clarity of purpose these two groups displayed.  If we are fortunate enough to be awarded one or both of these $5 million grants, it will be truly transformative for our college and communities.

One question that came up last week at the all college meetings regarded the various sources from which the college receives funding.  One employee noted that the estimated $700,000 budget reduction that we face for FY11 is more than matched by the money we expect to receive through the FY11 bonding bill.  Right now, NCTC is high in the MnSCU bonding proposal.  At priority #1 is $110 million for HEAPR (Higher Ed Asset Preservation and Repair).  If fully funded, NCTC will receive about $4 million for roofs, HVAC, and electrical work.  At priority #3 are system-wide “classroom projects.”  NCTC is slated to receive $725,000 for demolition of obsolete space at the aviation campus and relocation of programs to the TRF campus.  We are beginning the process of planning the utilization of these funds.

The bonding bill is always crafted by the MN legislature separate from the state’s general fund budget.  Funding for construction projects is generated from the sale of general obligation bonds.  Particularly in these times where the state has received federal stimulus money for “shovel-ready” projects, money will come through the bonding bill to public facilities and projects to create construction jobs in communities.  Once received by a public institution, the money must be used for capital projects and cannot be used to balance the general fund budget.

Similarly, the federal stimulus funding received by MnSCU institutions must be accounted for separately from the general fund.  We are using stimulus money for projects and personnel that will advance the priorities and strategic plan of the college.  For more information on the college’s stimulus plan, please recall the memo from Cindy Cedergren sent on July 16.  It includes a narrative description of the decision making process and many attachments with information.

This week my schedule is as follows:

Monday, Oct. 5                 Washington, D.C.

Tuesday, Oct. 6                 St. Paul – MnSCU Leadership Council

Wednesday, Oct. 7          EGF

Thursday, Oct. 8               TRF

Friday, Oct. 9                      EGF        – Dedication/Ribbon-Cutting -New/Remodeled Space

Have a great week!