DATE: April 15, 1999
TIME: 12:00 Noon
FACILITATOR: Wade Swenson
NOTETAKER: Judy Strong

STRATEGIC GOAL: CAREERS

1. How would you assess MSU performance in meeting the goal of developing career sensitive education?

• MSU graduates do well and work their way up through the organization.
• I like using computer technology to let someone who is working still continue career and benefit from economic impact.
• MSU is doing a good job has historically but we do need to move ahead to see what we can do better.
• There quite a few teachers went elsewhere to do masters degrees when Mary University came in. We were a little behind ? need to think about what we can do for people in the community and offer courses so they don?t have to quit their jobs. Graduate education hasn?t always kept up and been as available as it could be.
• Career orientation is an important goal ? career sensitive means providing skills for professional success whether technical, professional or writing. Virtually all student s will be looking for jobs as they leave college. From broader perspective, there are a lot of things students need for success -could do better in teaching writing, technical writing, oral communications skills. It is a harder job making the case for arts and humanities but more information is out now about the kinds of skills developed by areas like art, literature etc. that develop mental skills indirectly.
• Many our areas are career oriented, but not business oriented. In planning for future, people we will be serving will be more non traditional- how are we best going to meet those needs. I think those students will have to work and go to school at same time-help with psych stresses of changing careers. Not only graduate programs, but for non-traditional students. I see many people who need to pick up another are really being challenged to find a way to do that at MSU. They are looking to other satellite programs.
• To be career sensitive in the marketplace, we need to deal with students who want to go on to school etc. but we need ongoing investment in equipment in order to prepare them for the workplace. This is a real challenge for a school this size. We?ve made progress but it is a long term challenge for supplies and equipment to be career sensitive.
• In groups of business people, the lack of communications skills remains a concern. For new hires, we can?t send them out to do a presentation. We don?t? know today what kinds of careers there will be in a few years. Still think the arts and science background prepares them for the many careers changes There is the immediate job after college, but it is a challenge to look into the future and decide how to prepare students for future needs.
• Coming to MSU as a student, the most important goal is a career ? the rest is just icing- it is good to have TCU so you can go elsewhere if need to. There are a few things to embellish ? largely, MSU is doing a good job with undergraduates in career preparation.
• If I were king of universe I would have all take word process, spreadsheet, database, power point and make sure all are competent in speaking and writing when they graduate. Industry is good at training for the rest.
• Continuing education is not serving to help people stay up with careers ? sometimes new wrinkles such as learning quality management are missed. They don?t have a very good radar at sensing these things and pulling them in. A number of people have gone to University of Mary to get these things.
  Also not doing as good a job on internship development for our students ? we don?t have the resources in that area that we should have.
  Anyone that comes to a college education should have basic reading, writing and speaking skills. We expect that. Employers expect that. I have seen some juniors and seniors that still really struggle. Should we as a university have very strict exit requirements for correct writing ? lots of time they think it doesn?t matter any more? Georgia had a writing proficiency exam in order to graduate from college ? it would be perfectly acceptable. This one goal could take up all the money we have for years; we need to decide how to focus it more to help the university push in needed direction.

2. The other four questions (READ ALL AT ONCE-you?ve really covered a lot of these already!):

• Providing graduate programs etc. but lack of faculty and time to do it is one of the barriers. Faculty are already strapped to the max to provide for current needs. Unless we have more faculty, can?t solve the problem.
• Why not look at solving these problems with non-traditional funding sources ? look at needs of industry for training ? maybe we could do this. Encourage action-communication with business industry would encourage non-traditional funding.
• I spend a lot of money on psychological tapes etc.?do we use it to help focus students ? motivational tapes, speakers ?is there a lot of money being spent on motivational tapes, etc. Nature of FM is don?t have the large training operations ? could provide that ? marketing has not been proactively done on the street?no one comes and bangs on our door and says can we do this for you. What can we sell you?

3. THE OTHER FIVE GOALS:

• Don?t think quality is a goal, but is a product of what we do. They are all vague, but that one is especially poor.
• In retention, we ask students to indicate best and worst learning experience. 95% of them have to do with teachers. Any thing we can do to enhance classroom pedagogy is valuable. It has to be the professors that are the key to MSU success (student comment).
• Technology ?We need to direct it more thoroughly towards what we want to do. The fair ranged from how to make an overhead to how to make a video. Need to focus on how to be used and how to enhance our mission. If adding technology doesn?t enhance what I do, then I don?t see how it helps. We need to focus on where, why and how used.
• Don?t know how important campus community is for the older student ? the community is important, but some people probably could care less about that one. They are here for a specific reason. It is a real important one but very difficult. Yesterday?s Student Academic Conference was one of the most important things we've done and one of the best. It stressed what we do and provided a forum to interact with students, faculty and staff.
• I think we don?t give our students a real good picture of what they will look like when they finish. We are so fortunate to live in this area-TCU-off campus with people with lots of knowledge in integrated sense ? we don?t always use these. Separate colleges don?t always use each other. Don?t do enough community stuff with our own community ? often too antagonistic ? don?t make it sufficiently mutually beneficial. Need to do more for the right community and the community will do right by you. Don?t understand how that is not there after having been here for 100 years. There have been improvements recently. The strategic partnerships haven?t been leveraged very well. Keep looking for money ?Student perspective ? agree that goal one should be standard not a goal. Transitions ? provides very good advisor programs and helps students. Technology is necessary. Community ? people will build a community on their own ? do need to build internships. I don?t know if have a job shadowing I?m making a change after two years and don?t quite know where to go. Maybe there?s something on degree and career combined ? I know a number of small artists whose careers are going anywhere because they don?t know how to market it. Maybe every degree should have career avenues.
• I may have missed it, but see nothing about alumni. When on Foundation, worked to get them involved so they would give money or provide internships etc. ? look at CC and what they get. Maybe it is in the community piece, but not finding it.
• I got my degrees from MSU and I don?t feel that loyalty (like CC)? how do you foster that? I was disappointed when I asked for a reference from a former faculty member from here who turned me down at the last minute because of being too busy. UND has a lot more loyalty than NDSU or MSU. They worked at it. Concordia rings are very important to them. They all come back for homecoming ? it is a family kind of thing ? don?t see it here. Lately we see more such as more mailings and outreach ? didn?t see much in the last ten years. I was a Cobber and switched because there was so much more for my degree here, but there they had this orientation thing ? group of 20 had pals right away. Build sense of belonging ? You had to be at the game ? throw the beanie in the air. Go visit the President?s house. None of them had parents who were cobbers?when C 400 people were coming had to dress good and be ready. Consistent job of communicating all through the program ? constant reinforcement of the value of the CC education ? then heightens awareness of successes. Went to Iowa State ?I get a phone call several times a year, asking for money but also asking how are you doing, reinforce value of education. I?m finishing second year here, may not be fair judge, but thought about liberal arts and fine arts as what MSU stood for. One alum would come here to get degree and get done ? don?t want all that frilly stuff. Went to CC, as majors we all went to professor?s house once a year- it was impressive. Among my friends, there, about half of them are quite loyal to the school. A lot of MSU have taken "not Concordia" as our identity ? to be independent, not buying in to the fraternity ? more freethinkers, but that doesn?t build a lot of cohesiveness. How do we make our divergence more unified.

A member of the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities System
an equal opportunity educator and employer | Accessibility Questions? | Contact academic@mnstate.edu | Updated 09/16/08
MSU Moorhead | 1104 7th Ave South | Moorhead, MN 56563 | 1.800.593.7246
 home | msum | academic support | apac | department and faculty data | links | contact us | strategic planning