Minnesota State Colleges and Universities Installs Glass Walls on the Ivory Tower

Patrick Lee, StarTribune

The public can now take an inside look at the ivory tower -- at least in Minnesota.

The Minnesota State Colleges and Universities (MnSCU) system has introduced an online "accountability dashboard" that allows the public to access data highlighting the school system's strengths -- and weaknesses.

The initiative coincides with a broader nationwide push for increased transparency in higher education, and some officials say that the Web-based tool places MnSCU at the forefront of accountability among colleges and universities across the country.

"There's a great call across the country for accountability and transparency, and I don't think it's going to go away," said MnSCU Chancellor Jim McCormick. "It's just a new way of doing business."

The online tool, which is up and running but still not complete, spans 10 categories of measurement, such as the percent change in enrollment and conditions of facilities. MnSCU is still figuring out how to measure four of the 10 categories, such as student engagement and innovation, and is still collecting data.

Anyone can use the tool, which cost more than $150,000 to create, to track the entire system or an individual institution based on the most recent information. Color-coded dials rate each category on a spectrum ranging from "needs attention" to "meets expectations" or "exceeds expectations."

The six categories for which MnSCU has assembled data fall in the range of "meets expectations," except for net tuition and fees, which is tagged as "needs attention" and indicates that MnSCU schools are less affordable than similar schools elsewhere in the United States.

Creating a user-friendly interface and limiting the measurements to 10 was a focus in the dashboard's development, which began about two years ago.

Margarita Benitez, director of higher education for the Education Trust, a national nonprofit that supports postsecondary school reform, said MnSCU's efforts to make the data public in an accessible and meaningful context is unprecedented. Other institutions will look at the dashboard as a guide, she said.

"Policymakers are going to find this a very useful tool, and they are going to be able to ask more pointed questions ... . [The tool] is really in the vanguard," she said.

The ad hoc committee in charge of MnSCU's transparency initiative hired Bloomington-based iBusiness Solutions in late 2005 to develop the dashboard's database.

Though the online tool is a work in progress, McCormick said he preferred to release it early because he felt the need to jump-start a "culture of accountability" in the system.

"We started with the premise that these colleges and universities belong to the citizens of Minnesota,'' he said.

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Patrick Lee • 612-673-7452

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