— St. Cloud Times

Distributed by MCT Information Services

When the state’s top public official — the governor — names you one of 15 public trustees to oversee the state’s $1.9 billion public Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system, it should be understood you must operate with the public’s interests top of mind.

Sadly, as recent news reports have noted, the MnSCU board of trustees failed to come anywhere close to that when it allowed just one trustee — Chair Clarence Hightower — to set up a new three-year contract with Chancellor Steven Rosenstone eight months ago!

Additionally, reports from the Star Tribune and Pioneer Press indicate the pair didn’t even tell all the trustees until last week. And that only happened after a MnSCU professor sent the new deal to journalists.

Since then, Hightower and the MnSCU administration have defended their actions as following past practice. The Star Tribune reported otherwise, noting MnSCU board of trustee minutes involving previous presidents include boardwide discussion and approval of chancellor contracts.

To be clear, such secretive actions from any public trustee are not acceptable.

They are especially destructive given how Rosenstone’s systemwide reform efforts have torpedoed morale among MnSCU staff, whose Inter Faculty Organization members have worked without a contract for almost two years.

Indeed, rank-and-file Minnesotans are justified in asking how MnSCU’s board of trustees can be so pleased with Rosenstone’s work that they praise him excessively and set up a new contract months before the old one expires. Meanwhile, those who find themselves on the front lines of his changes speak in almost exact opposite tones — and continue to work with little hope of reaching a new deal.

Notably, this secret contract deal — struck months before the 2014 session convened — even spurred some key legislators charged with reviewing and approving MnSCU’s budget requests to question the credibility of MnSCU leadership.

Amid such troubling dynamics, here’s what needs to happen: Gov. Mark Dayton and legislators should follow the dismay and disgust they expressed about the new contract with a new protocol for such contracts.

Their measures must require not just involvement of the entire board of trustees, but public disclosure of the contract in its formative stages; not after it’s a done-by-one-trustee deal.