Minnesota State reopens search for new chancellor

by MinnPost staff 09/22/201709/22/2017

Looking for a job? The Pioneer Press’ Josh Verges report: “Minnesota State has reopened its search for the next chancellor of the country’s fourth-largest system of colleges and universities. … Trustees in February interviewed three finalists from a pool of 43 applicants but decided none was the right fit. … Devinder Malhotra, 70, who retired after serving as Metropolitan State University’s interim president, stepped in as interim chancellor Aug. 1, when Steven Rosenstone retired. … Trustees hope to have a new chancellor in place by August 2018. Applications for priority consideration are due Nov. 9.”

Pretty low. The Minnesota Daily’s Kelly Busche writes: “More students are succumbing to housing scams as the University of Minnesota’s rental market tightens. … Scammers posted fake subleasing advertisements on Craigslist and in unofficial University housing groups on Facebook, targeting students who use the sites to find housing. … University Student Legal Services attorney Bill Dane said housing scams are growing more common. … The Marshall apartments in Dinkytown are most frequently used by scammers.”

The rumors were true. The Des Moines Register’s Patt Johnson reports: “Hy-Vee Inc. is planning to build a large distribution center on 150 acres in southern Minnesota. It’s the first center outside of Iowa for the West Des Moines-based grocery company. … The facility would be at least 1 million square feet and located along Interstate Highway 90 on the western edge of Austin, a city of about 25,000 people and home to Hormel Foods.”

Hold the train. The Southwest Journal’s Dylan Thomas reports: “Minneapolis officials are requesting an environmental impact study on a crash wall that was added to Southwest Light Rail Transit plans in August after closed-door negotiations with two railroad companies. … The wall was added to the $1.9-billion SWLRT project less than a week before the Met Council voted in August to approve a series of agreements with two freight rail operators that will share their rail corridors with the light-rail trains. One agreement called for a 10-foot-high, 1.4-mile long wall separating freight and light-rail traffic in the Wayzata Subdivision, which is owned by BNSF and extends from roughly Interstate 394 to the North Loop. … In a Sept. 21 letter to Met Council Chair Alene Tchourumoff, Mayor Betsy Hodges described the wall as a ‘significant and substantial change’ to the project’s design as it stood in 2014 … .”