Star Tribune
Minnesota State colleges and universities expected to select new chancellor
The Minnesota State system of colleges and universities is expected to pick a new chancellor on Tuesday.
Trustees will be choosing between Scott Olson, president of one of the system’s 33 colleges and universities, and Tonjanita Johnson, a high-level administrator in the University of Alabama system.
The person selected for the job will take over when current Chancellor Devinder Malhotra retires in August. Trustees are expected to meet at 10:30 a.m. at the system offices in St. Paul.
The chancellor serves as the top executive for a public university system that has a roughly $2 billion budget and works with more than 300,000 students each year. The new chancellor will face pressure from state lawmakers to limit costs and reverse enrollment declines.
Trustees have said they’re looking for a chancellor who has experience building relationships with people on campus, working in government and in the broader community. They have said they also want the next chancellor to show a commitment to public service, a track record of promoting diversity and inclusion, and an understanding of the opportunities and challenges facing higher education.
LeadMN, an organization representing students in the system’s two-year colleges, expressed support for Johnson, saying in a letter to trustees that she “laid out a clear working relationship with students” as chancellor, while it felt that Olson’s vision for the system “relied heavily on leveraging existing relationships rather than presenting a new collaborative relationship.”
Students United, a group representing students at the system’s four-year universities, didn’t publicly endorse a candidate.
“Students are looking for a leader to prioritize making higher education more accessible and affordable for all students, regardless of their background or financial situation,” the group said in a statement. “We were excited to hear both candidates stress the importance of placing students at the center of their decision-making, and we are looking forward to creating a relationship with the new Chancellor, whoever it may be.”
Olson has spent the last 20 years working in the Minnesota State system, starting as a provost and vice president for academic and student affairs at Minnesota State University, Mankato, and becoming president of Winona State University in 2012.
Before coming to Minnesota, Olson worked as a dean at Ball State University and as a Director of Graduate Studies at Central Connecticut State University.
Johnson has been working since 2019 as the senior vice chancellor for academic and student affairs for the University of Alabama system, which has more than 70,000 students, and more than 40,000 employees across three campuses, according to her resume.
Before that, Johnson held two senior positions at the University of Tennessee system, ending her time there as the organization’s executive vice president and chief operating officer. She has also held leadership roles at the State University of New York at Stonybrook, Middle Tennessee State University and Mississippi Valley State University.
Both Johnson and Olson appeared last month at public forums, where representatives from student groups and labor organizations peppered them with questions about their vision for the Minnesota State system.
“I am here because I see the future of higher education in the Minnesota State system,” Johnson told the crowd, promising to work to make education accessible for more students and provide professional development opportunities for workers, among other things.
Olson made similar promises, saying he believes the state could narrow its equity gaps if it makes good on promises to serve students and their needs. “Who, if not us, is going to help Minnesota realize all its hopes and dreams?” he asked.
It’s not yet clear how long the new chancellor’s term will last or how much he or she will be paid.
Malhotra became interim chancellor in 2017, and trustees decided to keep him in the role after twice rejecting candidates recommended by search firms. His base salary is $420,000, and he receives $117,000 per year in allowances for housing, transportation, professional development and other costs, plus benefits that are also available to other system employees.
This story is developing and will be updated.
Twin Amur tigers born at Como Zoo in August now have names — Marisa and Maks.
Two long-time volunteers who have worked with zookeepers to care for and teach the public about the zoo’s big cats came up with the names, the first to be born at the St. Paul zoo in more than 40 years.
Marisa, a name that the volunteers found to mean “spirited and tenacious,” call that a perfect reflection of her personality. The name also carries special significance for the Como Zoo community, as it honors a retired zookeeper of the same name who was instrumental in the care of large cats during her 43 years at the zoo, Como Zoo and Conservatory Director Michelle Furrer said.
The male cub has been named Maks, which is associated with meanings like “the greatest” or “strength and leadership.” The volunteers felt this was an apt description of the male cub’s confident demeanor and growing sense of leadership, Furrer said.
“Marisa and Maks aren’t just names; they’re a fun reminder of the passion and care that keep us committed to protecting wildlife every day,” Furrer said.
The newborns and their first-time mother, 7-year-old Bernadette, remain off view to allow for more bonding time, zoo officials said. The cubs’ father, 11-year-old Tsar, has been a Como resident since February 2019 and remains on view.
Fewer than 500 Amur tigers — also known as Siberian tigers — remain in the wild as they face critical threats from habitat loss, poaching and human-wildlife conflict, the zoo said.
Much of the wood waste in the metro area is sent to a processing site near Pig’s Eye Lake in St. Paul, where it is stored before being burned to produce energy at the St. Paul Cogeneration plant downtown.
Cogeneration provides power to about half of downtown and was originally built to manage elm-tree waste in response to Dutch elm disease. The plant burns approximately 240,000 tons of wood each year, according to Michael Auger, senior vice president of District Energy in St. Paul.
Jim Calkins, a certified landscape horticulturalist who has been involved in discussions about the problem, said he thinks using wood for energy is the most logical solution.
“The issue is, we don’t have enough facilities to be able to handle that, at least in the Twin Cities,” Calkins said. “So there has to be dollars to support transportation to get the wood to those places, or in some cases, to upgrade some of those facilities such that they are able to burn wood.”
Plans are in place to convert Koda Energy in Shakopee to burn ash wood, which could potentially handle around 40,000 tons of wood waste, but that would take around two years to establish, according to Klapperich.
In some areas of the state, cities have resorted to burning excess wood waste because they felt they had no other option. Open burning wood releases a lot of carbon into the air, Klapperich said.
Weary from the rat race nature of practicing commercial law, Danielle Miller had long dreamed of starting a new professional life as a bookstore owner. When the Lincoln, Neb., resident saw a space at St. Paul’s Union Depot, she moved to make her dream a reality. She and her husband now call the Macalester-Groveland neighborhood home.
Eye On St. Paul recently visited with Miller in her sun-drenched store, Story Line Books, to talk about what spurred her to leave the law behind and lose herself in shelves of books. This interview was edited for length.
Q: So, you’ve opened a bookstore, in Lowertown. Are you a little crazy?
A: That’s been the reaction. There’s been a lot of “Really? Lowertown?” There’s been a lot of that. It’s a little unnerving.
Q: Why decide to just up and move to St. Paul?
A: We travel a lot; we travel all over the world. And we go to bookstores. We were here visiting [my husband’s] parents in Woodbury, and we drove down Randolph because we like to eat at Due Focacceria. And we saw this building that had “For Sale” on it. It was a 900-square-foot retail spot on the bottom and an apartment above. And I was like, that is the European bookstore dream, right? I looked it up online, but it got scooped up. A week later, I was looking again and this [Union Depot space] was the first post.
I was immediately in love. The next time we were up here, we made arrangements to come and see it. And I told my husband, “You should probably get a job in St Paul.”
Q: Back up a few steps. Why this compulsion to open a bookstore when you were a working attorney?
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