This strategic plan sets goals to guide Minnesota State Colleges and Universities over the remaining few years of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st. By attaining these goals, MnSCU will contribute significantly to an enhanced quality of life and increased economic competitiveness for the people of Minnesota in the century ahead.
The plan reflects an extended conversation, consuming eight months and covering all corners of the state, between the people MnSCU serves and the people who make MnSCU work. It completes, at least for the time being, one of the four core responsibilities the MnSCU Board of Trustees has established for the system office: setting strategic direction for the state's largest provider of higher education.
The strategic planning process began in earnest in the spring of 1996, little more than six months after MnSCU's first permanent chancellor, Dr. Judith Eaton, assumed her duties. MnSCU started by gathering perspectives from focus groups across the state, collecting demographic and economic data, and commissioning market research surveys of students, alumni and employers. After analyzing this information and sharing it with the MnSCU board, a strategic plan steering committee, with consultants from the National Center for Higher Education Management Systems, worked with Chancellor Eaton to develop a tentative vision statement and five tentative strategic themes.
In September and October 1996, Chancellor Eaton and the MnSCU board conducted 12 town meetings across the state to discuss the themes with nearly 1,600 people. The MnSCU college and university presidents also held town meetings with their faculty, staff and students. In addition, the entire system office staff met to discuss the themes, and discussions were held with the statewide faculty, staff and student leadership. All of these conversations helped to refine the vision statement and transform the five tentative strategic themes into goals -- as well as adding a new sixth goal -- that better reflect the ideas of the people MnSCU serves and the people who make MnSCU work.
