“We have a dilemma here,” North Dakota University System Chancellor Mark Hagerott told me during an interview on my radio show on Friday. That dilemma is North Dakota’s eleven institutions of higher education keeping up with the “speed of change,” he continued. He identifies part of the problem as a somewhat stagnant pool educators who…
NDSU Faculty Senate Circulating Resolution Claiming “Crisis of Confidence” in State Board and University System Leadership
The faculty at North Dakota State University have approved for circulation to other institutions a draft resolution expressing a “crisis in confidence” in the North Dakota State Board of Higher Education and the North Dakota University System leadership. A SAB reader forwarded me the email below sent out by Kathryn Gordon, an Associate Professor at…
NDSU Faculty Group Rails Against “Fascism” at Legislature and “Orchestrated Attack” on Higher Education
“It’s easy to perceive being a Republican as being confused with fascism,” Mark Meister, chairman of North Dakota State University’s communication’s department, told a sparsely-attended meeting of NDSU faculty according to a report in the student newspaper, though he went on caution that lawmakers aren’t entirely to blame for what at least some meeting attendees…
Universities Will Consider Rule Change Making It Easier to Fire Tenured Faculty, Protests Expected
North Dakota’s State Board of Higher Education is considering a controversial policy change which may prompt protests. At issue is section 605.3 of the university system’s policies which state, in part, that tenured faculty “shall be given written notice of termination, including the reason(s) for the action, at least twelve months prior to the date…
University System Should Get Open Records Exemption for President Applications
Over the years of writing this blog I developed something of a reputation as a strong supporter of open records and open meetings. So when the North Dakota University System – an organization with an unfortunate history of violating our state’s transparency laws – began making noises about getting an exemption from the state’s open…
In Editorial Fargo Forum Asks for NDSU President Dean Bresciani’s Resignation Calling Him an “Embarrassment”
Yesterday I broke a story about North Dakota State University President Dean Bresciani lying to the public about his support for restrictions placed on media covering Bison athletics events. Today, in an editorial, the Fargo Forum calls for Bresciani to resign. An excerpt: Is this the type of leadership we want for our 14,000 sons and…
NDSU’s Ridiculous Media Policy Is Why President Dean Bresciani Has to Go
North Dakota State University President Dean Bresciani is on the bubble. While every other president in the North Dakota University System under consideration got their contracts renewed the State Board of Higher Education decided to put Bresciani on an improvement plan. He’ll be working with Chancellor Mark Hagerott to address a set of goals set…
SBHE President: NDSU’s Dean Bresciani Is on Notice
Yesterday evening, after we got news that the State Board of Higher Education had renewed the contract of every president under review except NDSU President Dean Bresciani, I spoke with board president Kathy Neset about the decision. She stressed to me that the board, which voted 7-1 in favor of delaying a renewal of Bresciani’s…
Could NDSU President Dean Bresciani Be Fired Next Week?
The State Board of Higher Education has scheduled a special board meeting for June 29, and the buzz is that it’s going to be very…interesting. Per the posted agenda, the board members will discussed a tiered evaluation process for the university presidents, which doesn’t seem very controversial. Basically Chancellor Mark Hagerott wants to stagger the…
New University Of North Dakota President Mark Kennedy Seems To Get It
There are a lot of problems in North Dakota’s system of public universities, but if I had to describe the root problem driving everything else I would say it is a preference for quantity over quality. A desire to build little bureaucratic empires, to justify bigger campuses and bigger budgets and lavish perks, based not…
