Rural Community Research at University of Minnesota Morris
Today's posting is a contribution from Ben Winchester, of the Center for Small Towns at the University of Minnesota-Morris, a small liberal arts campus in the western part of the state.
The Center for Small Towns (CST), based at the University of Minnesota – Morris, has been quite successful over the years by regularly involving talented students in our small towns across western Minnesota. The involvement of faculty, however, has been episodic. To address this challenge, we received a grant from the Otto Bremer Foundation to establish a “Small Town Faculty and Student Fellows” program that connects regional development problems and/or issues with the research interests of UMM faculty. Three regional development projects are now underway this summer!
Project 1: Collaborative School Bus Routing
UMM faculty: Dr. Peh Ng, Professor of Mathematics.
The goal of this project is to develop models of school bus routes both within a school district and between five school districts in west-central Minnesota.
The project entails determining optimum models for vehicle routing across our area in a cost- and time-effective way. By determining the location and number of students in the dispersed areas, together with time, models can be built to determine routes, and flows, of student pickups. Mathematically, these are referred to as combinatorial problems. The solutions would allow our school districts to save transportation funds (at the approximate rate of $1.60 per mile) while at the same time providing an efficient solution to overlapping geographic areas brought about by open enrollment. The schools involved in this project are Chokio-Alberta, Clinton-Graceville-Beardsley, Cyrus, Hancock, and Morris.
Project 2: Skills, Careers, Employees and Employers
UMM faculty: Dr. Engin Sungur, Professor of Statistics.
The goal of this project is to identify gaps between employers in the region who have entry-level positions that will lead to higher-wage positions and those individuals seeking employment. Employers report they are unable to find workers who have the necessary skills to enter employment. Prospective employees report they are not able to find entry-level positions in the region. In order to build skills that qualify family members to hold better jobs within the region, it is imperative that we understand what skills are required for positions that allow individuals to move into high-demand, higher-wage positions, directly or through career ladders. This will be completed through interviews and/or a survey of employers, employees, and employee training programs.
The Jobs, Careers and Employability workgroup requested this project. This workgroup is a subcommittee of the Family Economic Success program provided by the West Central Initiative with funding from the Annie E. Casey Foundation. The workgroup will identify a series of questions for employers, adult job seekers and K-12 organizations that provides data to better understand the current gap between the skills that current perspective employees present to the labor market with the skills currently required by employers. In this way, programs or other strategies can be developed to address the gap rather than making assumptions about the needed skills.
Project 3: The Value of Culture and Education
UMM faculty: Carol Marxen, Associate Professor of Education.
The goal of this project is to work with the Long Prairie-Grey Eagle High School to demonstrate the value of culture and education to the Hispanic community. It has been found that Hispanic students that finish high school generally do not pursue post-secondary educational opportunities. The research components of this project will develop curricular, co-curricular, and community-based integrative strategies. The objectives are to provide professional development opportunities for teachers, connect the community to the school to provide role models and mentors, as well as develop and implement a team teaching environment.
This application of knowledge is a perfect example of our land-grant responsibility in action. As our small towns and rural places have changed, we too must change the way we serve our neighbors – and do this in a way that contribute to the sustainable future of our region. For more information about these projects, or if you have any questions, please contact Ben Winchester at (320) 589-6451 or visit http://www.centerforsmalltowns.org.