MnSCU boss target of faculty union complaints

ST. PAUL - Minnesota’s state university faculty union sent a list of complaints about Chancellor Steven Rosenstone’s performance to the MnSCU governing board as it gears up to evaluate him.
The union and Rosenstone have had a tense relationship: They clashed over a new strategic planning process for the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system and have been caught in contentious contract negotiations for more than a year.
In a memorandum to MnSCU’s Board of Trustees on Friday, the union voiced a litany of concerns, suggesting the system administration is not attuned to faculty and student input.
“I have been hearing from faculty increasingly for the past year,” said Nancy Black, the outgoing president of the union, the Inter Faculty Organization. “One of their disenchantments is that it doesn’t appear students are better off now than they were three years ago.”
The board’s chairman, Clarence Hightower, released a statement saying the board “unanimously and without reservation” supports Rosenstone, whose three-year contract expires in July.
Rosenstone has had a more amicable relationship with other employee groups and organizations representing students. Those groups voiced measured support for the chancellor’s Charting the Future initiative, which calls for more coordination among the system’s campuses, wider use of education technology and other changes.
Black speculated that the university faculty union’s open dissent on Charting the Future and other issues has at least in part snarled contract negotiations. This spring, the two sides enlisted a state mediator to help resolve differences.
“We are the only part of the system that has vigorously dissented with him, and he doesn’t tolerate dissent,” Black said of the chancellor.
Citing the mediator’s request that the two sides not discuss the closed-door talks publicly, Black declined to discuss the union’s ask.
In his statement, Hightower said the board is “enthusiastic” about the direction in which Rosenstone had led the system.
“He is a visionary leader who cares passionately for our students and works tirelessly on their behalf,” Hightower said.
The Board of Trustees will begin its annual process of evaluating Rosenstone later this month.
In its memo to the board, the union criticized Rosenstone for what it deemed an “uninspiring” budget pitch to the state Legislature and spending cuts on two MnSCU campuses. The union faulted the system’s office with the handling of two recent high-profile cases: payroll problems at Metropolitan State University and the firing and rehiring of a Minnesota State University-Mankato football coach cleared of child pornography charges.
The memo also charges the chancellor ignored faculty input into his budget proposal and did not sufficiently involve faculty in work on Charting the Future. Newly formed 18-member implementation teams for the plan feature one university faculty each, Black said.
Black said faculty morale at state universities is at an all-time low, and members on several campuses discussed votes of no confidence in the chancellor this spring.
In late May, Rosenstone wrote to the union to say he shares its frustration with the pace of contract talks. He wrote that $17 million in additional state dollars for employee salaries MnSCU secured would allow the system to settle the contract with base pay increases rather than one-time bonuses.
He voiced hope that the change of union leadership later this month would allow a “reset” in the relationship. James Grabowska, a faculty member on the MSU-Mankato campus, takes over for Black.
MnSCU is the state’s largest higher education system and one of the nation’s largest. Seven universities and 24 community and technical colleges serve more than 400,000 students annually, including almost
60 percent of the state’s undergraduates.
Rosenstone’s base salary is about $360,000 a year. He also is eligible for up to $50,000 in annual performance pay.

The Pioneer Press is a media partner with Forum News Service.