Made possible by the Office of the Chancellor Initiative Request Fund, the purpose of the staff development grant is to seed campus-based staff and leadership development efforts throughout the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities.

Recipients of the 2007 Staff Development Grants are listed below. Click on the link to read the final reports.

Alexandria Technical College
Project: Variety of staff development programs
Description: Enhance a variety of staff development programs, including new additions to their
campus leadership development program.
Project leader: Shari Maloney, Director, Human Resources
Award: $4,364

Anoka-Ramsey Community College
Project: “Attitude is Everything” brown bag series
Description: This program is a series of service-related programs for all employees that will be
videotaped to maximize exposure.
Project leaders: Darla McCann and Jan Pomroy, Academic Support
Award: $5,000

Bemidji State University / Northwest Technical College
Project: Employee engagement supervisory leadership retreat
Description: Employee engagement has been noted as an area for improvement, and this retreat
will give leaders the tools to improve engagement in their respective departments.
Project leader: Linda Gilsrud, Director, Human Resources
Award: $7,250

Century College
Project: Online D2L Orientation
Description: Create a campus-specific online orientation for Century College that will
supplement the orientation materials created for the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities
system
Project leader: Betty Mayer, Director, Human Resources
Award: $5,000

Dakota County Technical College
Project: Campus performance evaluation system
Description: This project will analyze the evaluation system and how it can be more effective in
identifying and improving performance issues.
Project leader: Mike Opp, Dean, Transportation and Technical Careers
Award: $5,000
5/30/2008

Hennepin Technical College
Project: Technology and diversity training
Description: This training will be provided to a group (College lab assistants) who are facing
technological and diversity challenges, but don’t often receive professional development
training.
Project leaders: Maggie Vyskocil and Jana Carr–Weerts, Learning Resource Center
Award: $1,200

Hibbing Community College
Project: Indian culture training
Description: This project will proactively meet a unique training need in the campus and general
community. A new plant is being built in town, and several families from India will be moving
to Hibbing. This grant will provide for Indian culture training to the college community.
Project leader: Steve Potts, History and Political Science Instructor
Award: $5,000

Hibbing Community College
Project: Staff and leadership development needs assessment
Description: Project leaders will poll employees and analyze professional development needs.
The result of this assessment will be a campus staff development plan.
Project leader: Ray Jensen, Director, Continuing Education and Customized Training
Award: $4,500

Inver Hills Community College
Project: Campus-wide training on Appreciative Inquiry
Description: Appreciate Inquiry is a tool that asks the question “What are we doing well as an
organization?” The goal will be to use this tool in the AQIP process and all parts of the
organization.
Project leader: Liz Newberry, Director, Human Resources
Award: $5,000

Minneapolis Community and Technical College
Project: Staff development day expansion
Description: The content for the day is based on the campus staff development plan and the
overall campus strategic plan.
Project leader: Dee Bernard, Director, Finance
Award: $5,000

Minnesota West Community and Technical College
Project: Attend League of Innovation for Community Colleges conference
Description: As part of a continuing succession planning effort, participants will attend different
learning streams and then be responsible for presenting summary information at a Minnesota
West organizational workshop.
Project leader: Karen Miller, Director, Human Resources
Award: $1,800

Minnesota State University Moorhead
Project: DiSC training for front-line staff.
Description: DiSC is a behavioral assessment used to teach the benefits of diverse work styles.
This will be an extensive program involving a detailed report and scheduled follow-up.
Project leader: Ed Choate, Director, Human Resources
Award: $5,000

Joint Project
Project: Web-based performance management system pilot testing
Description: Minneapolis Community and Technical College, the Office of the Chancellor,
Century College, Riverland Community College, and Lake Superior College will be piloting a
web-based performance management system called TrakStar. The goal is to simulate a
performance management cycle to determine whether a tool like this can be useful for all
campuses.
Project leader: Don Mercado, Director, Human Resources
Award: $9,200

Normandale Community College
Project: Three-tiered computer training program for support staff.
Description: Instead of having everyone complete the same training, they will be analyzing user
needs and developing the tiered program based on those needs. Power users will be used to help
provide support to those with less computer experience.
Project leader: Gloma Hamernick, Assistant Director, Human Resources
Award: $5,000

North Hennepin Community College
Project: Job-specific orientation process
Description: This program will help supervisors orient new employees to their position and will
supplement what the school is already doing to generally orient new employees to the campus.
Project leader: Sue Appelquist, Director, Human Resources
Award: $5,000

Northland Community and Technical College
Project: Enhance strength-based leadership training sessions.
Description: Using the Gallup StrengthsFinder tool, this curriculum focuses on allowing
employees to learn their natural strengths and how to apply them for maximum effect.
Project leader: Becky Lindseth, Director, Human Resources
Award: $5,000

Riverland Community College
Project: “Culture Capsule” action learning project.
Description: This project is an action learning project born from the Riverland leadership
academy. After researching diverse cultures, participants will be providing resources for the
larger campus community.
Project leader: Celeste Ruble, Director, Human Resources
Award: $2,500

Rochester Community and Technical College
Project: Train–the–trainer program for employee engagement.
Description: This initial program will then develop into a continuous employee-led development
program. The goal is to use this program to strengthen the school’s bid for a Baldrige Excellence
Award.
Project leader: Beth Arntson, Director, Human Resources
Award: $5,000

St. Cloud State University
Project: Campus staff development day enhancement
Description: This money will afford more programming and provide additional staff
development opportunities for others throughout the year.
Project leader: Donna Croatt, Human Resources
Award: $2,500

Southwest Minnesota State University
Project: Staff development day enhancement
Description: This project will bring in additional presenters for their campus staff development
day, thus providing more development opportunities throughout the year.
Project leader: Deb Almer, Director, Human Resources
Award: $2,500

Southwest Minnesota State University
Project: Supervisory training and discussion series
Description: Each session will feature a different topic and will be designed both to educate and
provide supervisors with a support network of colleagues at the university.
Project leader: Deb Almer, Director, Human Resources
Award: $4,000