The Minnesota State Colleges and Universities Board of Trustees today appointed Darrel Huish vice chancellor and chief information officer for the system. Huish, 53, has been vice chancellor and chief information officer for Maricopa Community Colleges in Tempe, Ariz., since 2004. From 1996 to 2004, he was assistant vice provost for information technology at Arizona State University. Click headline to read more.
At our December Town Hall meetings, I announced the “Educational Lean” concept as an important new initiative for MSUM. Lean will help us succeed in the “new normal” environment at MSUM that resulted from the recent budget cuts. It will help us understand our current environment (“how do we operate today”) and create improved future processes (“how can a process better serve our customers”). At the January 20th Town Hall meetings, I will explain how Lean is one tool within the broader context of organizational change for MSUM. After that discussion, members of our Lean team and the Winona Lean directors will provide more detail on Lean and how we will roll it out at MSUM. Supervisory staff will have attended a half-day session the day before and will have received more detailed information to be shared with their teams. Communication sessions, facilitator selection, training and project selection will follow in the coming weeks. A dedicated Educational Lean website will be set up so that new information can be easily and quickly shared. Click headline to read more of President Edna’s comments about LEAN. The Facilitator Application is at the bottom of the full article on Dragon Digest.
Would you like to learn more about using Microsoft software programs such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint or Access or learn more about web design, digital photography or Photoshop? MSUM employees and students have full access to over 700 online training courses at lynda.com to help develop software skills, learn digital tools and techniques and apply these new skills to help advance academic or career goals. Click on headline to learn how to access lynda.com.
Psychology Professor Gary Nickell will deliver a Dean’s Lecture on Can the Social Sciences Contribute Solutions to the Challenge of Food Safety? on Thursday, Jan. 21 at 3 p.m. in Science Lab 104. This presentation will discuss recent research conducted with food processing workers, food service employees, and home food preparers on the psychology of food safety. Some of the psychological factors to be discussed will include: attitudes and beliefs, motivation, habits, personality, optimistic bias, and normative messages.
The Write Site will reopen in its new location at Lommen 95 at 9:30 a.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 20. Hours are 9:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 9:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. on Friday. The Write Site will also be open three nights a week in Lommen 95. Hours are 8-10 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday. Click headline for more information.