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Q-7: Quality on the Line:
A Vision for University Education in the New Century
The Report of the Blue Ribbon Commission to the the People of Minnesota
At its 1989 summer retreat, the Minnesota State University Board of Directors decided to undertake a comprehensive planning process that would help the board balance its historic commitment to access with the demands of a high competitive global marketplace for ever increasing quality. The Blue Ribbon Commission on Access and Quality in the Minnesota State University System was created in 1990 by the Minnesota State University Board. Following ten months of debate, the seventeen member Commission issued its report entitled: Q-7: Quality on the Line: A Vision for University Education in the New Century. This report outlined what the commission believed graduates of Minnesota State Universities should be able to know and do, if both these graduates and Minnesota itself were to be successful in the future.
The commissioners recommended that:
--The Board should provide greater clarity to the System's mission, further delineating it from other public higher education systems
--The legislature should match resources to this new mission, assuring that the system can do what it's charged with doing
--Both the Board and the Legislature should assure that Resources are directed toward achieving new and higher standards of quality
--Every level of the System--The Board, the chancellor, the president, the faculty, the staff, and the student--be committed to achieving quality.
As part of advancing their quality agenda, the Blue Ribbon Commission identified seven standards or indicators of high quality education for State Universities:
Preparation For College:
Each student will have taken a college preparatory course pattern in high school, including courses in writing, advanced science and math, foreign language, the arts, history, and geography.
Higher Order Thinking:
Each student will have completed a senior thesis or project.
Global Understanding:
Each student will be able to articulate the interrelationships of world economics, environment, geography, history, politics, religion, and the arts.
Multi-Cultural Perspective:
Each student will participate in culturally diverse learning communities.
Scientific and Quantitative Literacy:
Each student will understand the transforming role of technology in world society.
Readiness for Work & Career:
Each student will complete a supervised field experience.
Responsible Citizenship:
Each student will complete a service project and have a statement of ethical standards.
The Minnesota State University Board accepted the Blue Ribbon Commission's recommendations in October, 1990. A task force on the first indicator, Preparation Standards, will report to the State University Board in May, 1991. A Q-7 Facilitation Team, composed of members from each of the seven universities and chaired by a Winona State University faculty member, will serve as a coordinating mechanism among the different universities.
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