July 7, 1997 - Governor names two to MnSCU board Association executive and Southwest State student appointed

Gov. Arne Carlson has appointed James Wafler and Michael Nesdahl to the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities (MnSCU) Board of Trustees.

Wafler replaces Morris J. Anderson, who resigned from the Board of Trustees to be considered for the position of MnSCU chancellor, which he assumed July 1, 1997. Wafler will serve as an at-large member for a term expiring June 2000. Nesdahl takes the seat formerly held by Randall Knudson as the student member representing the seven state universities. He will serve a two-year term expiring June 1999.

Wafler, executive director of the Highway Construction Industry Council since 1996, was executive director of the Minnesota House of Representatives majority caucus from 1992 to 1996 and executive director of the office of the speaker of the Minnesota House of Representatives from 1987 to 1992.

Wafler, Little Canada, was an adjunct professor during the summer session at Winona State University in 1992 and 1994, and was a guest lecturer in 1996 at Ernst Moritz Arndt University in Greifswald, Germany. He was a full-time political science instructor for three years at Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Va., and St. Lawrence University in Canton, N.Y. He earned an M.A. and a Ph.D. in political science from the University of Minnesota.

Nesdahl is the president of the Southwest State University Student Association and a member of the board of directors of the Minnesota State University Student Association. He also serves in the Minnesota Army National Guard and is a volunteer emergency medical technician for the Ellendale (Minn.) Ambulance Service.

MnSCU serves approximately 145,000 students at its state universities, community colleges, technical colleges and comprehensive community and technical colleges. The system includes 36 colleges on 53 campuses around the state, plus the Akita campus in Japan. The MnSCU Board of Trustees has 15 members, including one member from each congressional district, four at-large members and three student members.