I know there has been discussion about increase collaboration with Wahpeton. Pharmacy tech is exactly that, a tech field, not independent practice thus does not lend itself well to a University, but perfect for tech schools. I do not know what this would be, but I'd not support going into tech training full throttle as it does not fit with the University mission.
As for you first question, there is not any fundamental changes that have occurred, other than some extremely poor treatment of practice faculty due to budget cuts. I don't want to get into that on this forum. Any good practice based faculty member, should be doing some practice based research. That goes hand in hand and always has.