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To get the lowdown on the new, outside report on the University of Minnesota's Academic Health Center, I spoke with Dr. Russell Luepker.

He's a Mayo Professor of Public Health in the School of Public Health and has also held leadership positions on university senate and faculty committees. His insight into the importance of the report and its place in a larger conversation about the state of the medical school was so strong that I will include much of it here.

While President Eric Kaler characterized the report as "a calibration," Luepker contends that "this is a big deal."

Luepker summed up problem:

I think this university in the health sciences has the ability and resources to be a first-rate place. And while there are certainly first-rate units and individuals, the whole has a way to go. I think without a medical school that is moving ahead, none of us will make it. To move forward, we need leadership and a vision. I think the president gets that.

Luepker came to the U's medical school in 1976, "when we were in the top 20." But since then, "we have gradually fallen in the rankings. And everyone in the country knows it, unfortunately. Something has to be done."

An earlier, internal report "didn't answer many of the questions that bedeviled us," Luepker said. Kaler recognized that and announced that he would bring in an outside group.

The panel noted that the medical school's relationship with Fairview Health Services is the source of "a great deal of concern." Luepker shares that concern.

The agreement they forged "is a bad deal," he said, not just because it doesn't give the university a fair share of revenue. "People talk about money, and of course money is important... But it's also about the concepts of teaching and research. Their thinking has never been, despite many attempts, 'We have a teaching hospital here that does important research.' "

Luepker praised the panel for noting the friction with Fairview, as well as the importance of involving faculty in strategic planning and the need for greater transparency when it comes to finances and costs.

"The president is looking hard, I think, at our administrative overhead," he said. "We have duplicated functions, and we can pare back."

Kaler urged the faculty to accept the current leadership structure in the Academic Health Center and move on. But Luepker notes that much of the discussion about structure -- whether the dean of the medical school should also be vice president of health sciences -- is really a Minnesotan way to approach a bigger conversation about leadership.

"Do we have the right people? The right leadership and visionary leadership?"

The University of Minnesota might soon delve into the world of MOOCs. Read my story about the massive open online courses here.

U Prof. Christopher Cramer, in his half-time administrative role, put out a call for MOOC proposals last month, which is posted below. His frequently-asked questions and responses touch on many of the tricky questions around MOOCs. It's worth reading.

On Twitter, Cramer describes himself as a "MOOC-skeptic" -- "and by that I mean that I do not think that the walls of our institutions should be torn down and the loose bricks sold to buy server farms now that MOOCs have arrived to lift us from the dark ages of higher education."

But done right, he continues, the courses could “enhance the research, teaching, and public engagement missions of the University.

“We should be at the forefront of figuring out those design principles because we care about advancing those missions.”

Read more below:

U asks: Want to Make a MOOC?

As I scurried alongside chemist Christy Haynes from her classroom to her research lab to a meeting in the University of Minnesota's medical buildings, a quote came to mind, from U President Eric Kaler:

"You don't become a successful researcher without being entrepreneurial. You've got to write grant requests and hire people. It has much more to do with running a small business than most people think."

I asked Haynes whether she agreed. "Absolutely," she said.

Haynes oversees a research group of about 15 graduate and undergraduate students, who are working on a variety of projects, for which they nab more than $800,000 annually in federal and private funds.

When I shadowed her one day, she checked in on each project, gave a tour of the lab to a grad student who was considering joining her group and spoke to one worker about hiring him full-time.

That's in addition to lecturing in a graduate level course, meeting with a medical doctor and mechanical engineer about treating cancer and finding a few minutes to pump breast milk.

Whew.

Haynes said that she and her husband, who has an MBA, have talked about the parallels between managing a university research lab and steering a business.

"It's a lot like running your own small business, but you have a lot of support -- salaries to pay TA's, your own salary. Nine months of my salary is paid for by the university," she said. "It's definitely similar, but with more support, which I appreciate."

Given how much of her job is spent managing people and money, Haynes tries to instill those abilities in her graduate students. She guides them as they write grants, present at conferences and mentor undergraduates.

Ph.D. candidate Secil Koseoglu praised that holistic approach. "It's more than just the research," she said. "She makes sure you have all the skills."

David Schultz, a Hamline law professor and political analyst, believes colleges and universities might prove to be a higher priority for the Democrats who now control the state government.

Schultz's prognosis came this week, as the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system approved its request for $97 million more in state funding over the biennium. The University of Minnesota approved its budget request in October.

Here, a few snippets of Schultz's comments, edited for length and clarity:

"There's a potential for more money going into higher education. I think both about Gov. Dayton wanting to commit more money in education across the board, in K-12 and higher ed, and about the DFL, who seem to be more supportive, generally, of higher ed."

Even with a budget shortfall? 

"One could see that higher education might be viewed more promisingly perhaps than other priorities in the state. I would think that, for example, if you put MnSCU next to local government aid, I could see higher education making out betting than local cities." 

What should the two higher ed systems' strategy be?

Right now, Schultz said, the two appear to be competing for dollars. "It would make sense for them to develop a cooperative set of strategies... I think about Rudy Perpich, when he was governor, pushing the idea of the 'brainpower state.' Maybe the pitch from higher education should be: By funding higher ed... you're creating the next generation of workers. It's a great economic development tool."

Is that a different strategy than the one you might use with a Republican-led government?

"With the DFL in control, maybe the strategy should be a combination of talking about economic development and about tuition. Clearly, every parent, every student I know is concerned about the cost of college. A populist, middle class argument might be that more support for higher education means less money out of the middle class."

 Hasn't higher ed been making the economic development argument for years?

"For the last 10 to 15 years, higher education has been looked at as an expense... They need to say, 'We're not a burden. This is an investment in the state.' The University of Minnesota has those great billboards, those 'Discover' billboards. But I think they could bring it closer to home. This is about the business that relocates in your neighborhood. About the company that's starting up... Now is an opportunity to have an audience that is receptive, but to give them the arguments and the language they can use to justify their budget choices."

Why does college cost so much? Here's one college president's answer.

In St. Cloud Times column, St. John's University President Michael Hemesath starts by dismissing a common complaint -- "the arms race in amenities: fancier dorms, gourmet dining options, fabulous athletic facilities." Focusing on those costs "misunderstands the economics of higher education," he says.

Instead, Hemesath turns to "technology, student services and labor costs."

Here's his argument about that last cost, labor:

The final and most important cost driver for colleges is their highly trained and expensive labor force. Known as the cost disease of the service sector, this challenge was identified by economist William Baumol back in the 1960s. He noted that in some labor-intensive industries with low increases in productivity (output per worker), such as education or health care, labor costs may still rise sharply over time if wages of other highly skilled workers are rising. Baumol offered the example of a string quartet. To play a Beethoven string quartet in the 19th century took four talented and highly trained musicians. To play that same piece in 2012 with the same quality experience for listeners, it still takes four talented and highly trained musicians. If we want individuals to play music, we have to pay them a salary commensurate to their next best career option. Likewise, if we want quality teachers at colleges, we need to pay them a competitive wage. A chemistry lab or lecture on Jane Austen still takes the same one faculty member for 25 students at a small liberal arts school such as CSB and SJU that it did in 1980.

Tuition and fees at St. John's reached $35,486 this fall. When you add on room and board, the total comes to $44,124. As the university's website points out, scholarships and grants "can significantly reduce your family's out-of-pocket costs."

What do you make of Hemesath's explanation? 

Brian Herman, the next vice president for research at the University of Minnesota, will make a base salary of $305,000, plus $15,000 a year in "supplemental retirement."

That's according to his contract, which I got from the U today.

Herman will start Jan. 1, pending the Board of Regents' approval. Read more about him here.