To hear some apologists for the North Dakota University System tell it, the problem we have in this state isn’t out-of-control higher education bureaucrats absorbing a windfall of taxpayer and tuition dollars and returning little increase in value for it while simultaneously greeting requests for transparency and accountability with disdain and dissembling. The problem, we…
Outgoing NDUS Chancellor Spending His Last Days In Spin Mode
One of the reforms for higher education in North Dakota coming out of the 2015 legislative session was a shift of the North Dakota University System’s auditors and lawyers away from the university system’s budget and into the State Auditor’s and Attorney General’s budgets, respectively. The need for this was obvious. The university system has…
NDSU President Decides He Needs A Chief Of Staff In Addition To His Chauffeur
North Dakota State University President Dean Bresciani has said of his job in the past that he spends just about one third of his time on “the mechanical running of the university.” He spends the rest of his time “talking about and representing the school – up to and including fundraising,” according to a 2013 profile…
North Dakota University System Still Fighting Due Process Rights For Students
The next time you hear a North Dakota University System official talking about how students are their priority, think about how hard the university system worked to oppose legal protections for students in campus proceedings. SB2150 is a bill giving North Dakota university students facing serious accusations some due process rights. It was inspired by…
University System Proposes Watering Down Giving Students Access To Lawyers
Last week I reported comments from Senator Ray Holmberg, a sponsor of SB2150 which seeks to guarantee students the right to an attorney in campus proceedings against them, about university system officials misleading the committee considering the bill. “Their site states that the BOHE had taken an official position opposed to SB 2150, yet the…
ND University System Wants Due Process Rights They Won't Give Students
Even as officials in the North Dakota University System are trying to fight off a bipartisan bill giving students access to a lawyer in campus proceedings against them, they’re complaining about an open records law which they say doesn’t afford them due process rights. You can’t make this stuff up. Yesterday the House Judiciary Committee…
Wow: University System Initially Opposes Due Process Rights For Students
It’s a rare moment when the miasma of smug, self-serving rhetoric which surrounds our university system parts for a moment to let the truth shine through. We had a moment like that this evening. SB2150 is legislation introduced by Senators Ray Holmberg (a Republican) and Lois Delmore (a Democrat) both of Grand Forks. It aims to…
ND University System's Top Auditor Says He Was Put On Leave For Promoting Accountability
Perhaps feeling emboldened by the failure of Measure 3 on the statewide ballot (word around the state capitol is that there has been much gloating in the university system office this last week) the North Dakota University System has taken action against some of their top accountability personnel. In a pre-holiday maneuver, Chief Auditor Timothy…