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On Campus Blog
Alex Friedrich

Prof: Why MnSCU needs to back off its central planning

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soviet stamps
Not the best model (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.