Minnesota State Colleges and Universities Board of Trustees Express Unwavering Support for Presidents

Posted: January 27, 2016

Contact: Doug Anderson, doug.anderson@MinnState.edu, 651-201-1426

ST. PAUL, Minn., Jan. 27, 2016 – Michael Vekich, chair of the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities Board of Trustees, announced today the Board’s strong support for the system’s presidents. The announcement comes in response to recent challenges to two college presidents from the Minnesota State College Faculty (MSCF) union.

“The Board of Trustees knows that the presidents of our colleges and universities have very challenging jobs,” said Vekich. “They lead continually innovative places of higher learning that are responsive to the needs of students and communities across the state while delivering excellent education at an affordable cost. In fact, we have asked many of our presidents to lead more than one college. The board appreciates their dedicated work. The savings from these shared administrative services help us meet our commitment to students and the state of Minnesota to provide an affordable education.”

Vekich continued, “True leaders, by definition, are called to make hard decisions; decisions that can sometimes be unpopular. Our college and university presidents make these kinds of hard decisions only after thoughtful consultation, and when those decisions cause discord, we expect campus communities to come together in a professional manner to discuss differences of opinion and solve issues at the campus level. On behalf of the Board of Trustees, I want to express our unwavering support for, and confidence in, our presidents at every one of our colleges and universities."

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The Minnesota State Colleges and Universities include 30 community and technical colleges and seven state universities serving more than 400,000 students. It is the fifth-largest higher education system in the United States.