STRATEGIC PLANNING COMMITTEE
FOCUS GROUP SUMMARY

DATE: April 13, 1999
TIME:  3:00 pm
PLACE: CMU 208
FACILITATOR: Dick Bynum
NOTE-TAKER: Melanie Nordick 

STRATEGIC GOAL: COMMUNITY

1. Based upon any information you have, how would you assess Moorhead State’s

performance regarding the community goal?

            - the goal tilts toward the community of "campus"

            - doing a miserable job

            - not building the parking ramp was a BIG mistake

2. How could MSU’s community be improved?

WE need to advertise many of the events which are held on campus; i.e. Student Academic Conference, Math competition, History Day etc. for the external community to have a sense of what we do in addition to teaching classes and collecting inflated (in the minds of tax-payers) pay checks. We need more good/new public exposure.
 

3. What barriers exist regarding the development of community at MSU?

The internal community has fallen away in the past 8 years. There is clearly a segregation between faculty & staff even though there seems to be good representation at these focus group meetings. We still don’t have an identity, CC is the Lutheran Liberal Arts college and NDSU is the ag college & has high-profile athletics while MSU is nondescript.

Our culture, as it has evolved, doesn’t value community as it once did. Rather there is a need to acquire things. There is also too much cynicism, being critical of others, becoming self-centered….don’t sit on front steps & see neighbors any more, stay in back yards with acquired "stuff".

On the other hand, there is too much "MN nice" to allow open discussion and compromise. People take things too personally and see a question being raised as criticism.

Faculty at MSU resist critiquing of classes. Most don’t view it as helpful & contributing to quality. However, barriers to quality include teaching load and lack of release program for revision/development.

We need STRONG leadership - faculty & staff are professionals at what they do.

MNSCU is a definite barrier and one we can’t get away from so we need to think smart and figure out a way around it. Granted part of the problem has been that is it new, and a product of turmoil/transition, not to mention having 2 different chancellors.

"We don’t do things that way" and "But, we’ve always done it that way" attitudes. Good ideas disappear into the great beyond! There is insecurity in proposing & changing. TQM doesn’t work - goals are no longer alive.
 

4. How could MSU excel to a greater extent in terms of collaboration with

Moorhead-Fargo and regional communities?

Here discussion becomes about PR & image. The last 5 years have been rocky, but we seem to be moving out of it now. In the late 70’s Continuing Education throughout the region was an integral part of our programs, but it disappeared in the 80’s & 90’s. Renewing that through technology of ITV might be possible.

What are Doug Hamilton’s duties - this group expected better PR, but don’t fault him, perhaps that is not what he was hired to do. IF he isn’t to do P.R., then we need someone who does.

What about something like the C-400 Club?

When Concordia recruits, they follow up on their letters - copy their success. Do what they have found already works.

Could a department such as Physics work on science education with the public schools and have media/camera coverage.

Don’t depend on the Forum, use community papers from Hendrum, D.L., Barnesville, Hitterdahl, etc.

We need to pique the interest of young people in the elementary & high schools in the areas - get faculty to go into them and take along MSU students and talk about or demonstrate what goes on at campus or in a specific discipline. NDSU brings high schools students in buses to campus for tours. Maybe MSU should look at something like that.

UND did an Annual Spring Symposium for Public School Speech Therapists on a Thursday, Friday & Saturday for 1 credit. In addition to the conference fee, if one desired credit, there was a $15 recording fee (but no tuition charge). What good PR that was. Why not do something like that here at MSU.

5. How could MSU excel to a greater extent in terms of promoting diversity?

6. How could MSU excel to a greater extent in terms of building a comprehensive university community?

The Convocation could be used for this purpose if it were held the first day of classes and if classes were canceled and profs to bring their students to it. This could be a time to impress why students are here and the importance of education We need an inspiring outside speaker who would leave the faculty & students with a clear notion of why we’re here and what we’re here to do/learn.

Notifications of events like Bridging the Disciplines should be put out to the campus much earlier. Calendars were already filled when the information was received this year.

Graduation gives sense of community….promote it. If we can’t get good press with press releases, buy it. CC has an ad with the week’s events. Perhaps if we were a customer of the Forum, we would be able to get some free press also…

One person who had taken classes at both NDSU & MSU say our classes are smaller and taught by faculty rather than grad students which is a plus. We are known for education & speech-theater, but one person had no idea we had such a good computer science program so she went to NDSU.

When hiring faculty, look for faculty who will be interested in the students in a real world sense and their field and who have a commitment to teaching, rather than just the "PhD" behind the name as promoted by the current administration. We need faculty who will teach to students instead of just repeating what they know of the subject. We overlook too many good people in pursuit of that "PhD". MSU has hired pedigreed people in the past only to find they are like fish out of water and need to be in a research facility.

Students also present a barrier in that there are 2 kinds of problems. Some don’t know why they are here and some want to do the work, but are struggling. The student is changing also, now the typical student doesn’t tend to stick at one school, but transfer as the need dictates so that makes identity with a specific school difficult to obtain.

There are the students whose parents are paying the way - some of those study hard, but some of them are partiers who don’t give 100%. Students who work hard feel a part of MSU, partiers don’t. 

7. If you were to identify a new strategic goal for MSU, what would it be and why?

First of all, we could do away with goal #2 - transitions is a weak goal. #4, technology is useful, but we better admit we will not out-tech the big boys; however, when compared with other institutions similar to us, we are 80% above them in technology. MSU will be basic. We should focus attention on small classes, profs who teach, balanced by another goal. Transition is a subset of community. Concentrate on service learning, internships.

Omit #2, 3, 4, 5 and in #1, get rid of assessment. We need to be the BEST!.

We need strong leadership, a person who will say "This is where we are going and I’m going to take it there, follow me". We could have flag ship departments where there would be unlimited resources. Perhaps each state university should have its own specialties instead of competing with each other as well as other universities. 

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