This week, the Minnesota State Board of Trustees met for their October Board meeting in St. Paul. During the meeting the board discussed several topics including:
ISRS Next Gen Update
ISRS is the current system’s enterprise information technology system. Everyone within the system, including campuses, rely on this system for everything from registration, course schedule, housing, financial aid, transcripts, and more. According to their presentation, ISRS is 20 years old and cannot meet the needs of 21st century students, colleges, and universities. The system has included a $20 million request in the upcoming legislative proposal to fund the first phase of this process. The total to complete this project is estimated to be $150 million.
Allocation Framework Redesign
The Allocation Framework Redesign has been ongoing for the past year. This is a way for the system to redesign the way legislative appropriated funds are distributed to each campus. This was an item that stemmed from a Charting the Future workgroup. The goal was to redesign the current financial model to incent and reward collaboration, support strategic framework commitments, and incorporate Charting the Future recommendations.
The goal of the Redesign is to:
- Promote and support student success
- Make the model more responsive to changing conditions
- Better align the cost of programs and services with resources
- Increase transparency, simplicity, and accountability
- Encourage collaboration and partnerships
- Fully align capital debt service cost with benefiting college or university
There is some concerned that changes proposed in this redesign may put underperforming campuses in an even more difficult financial situation. This was a first reading of the proposed redesign so this will be on the agenda of upcoming board meetings.
FY2018-FY2019 Legislative Operating Budget Proposal
The trustees also had a first reading of the upcoming legislative budget request. The proposal requests $178 million in “new” funding over the biennium ($60.1 million in FY2018 and $117.9 million in FY2019):
- $143 million to keep our tuition affordable by funding inflationary costs at three percent each year of the biennium
- $25 million to support ISRS Next Gen, a mission-critical, multi-year technology infrastructure project to replace our out-of-date enterprise technology system
- $10 million in targeted financial support to reduce outcome disparities and improve student success.