Amid deep budget cuts for higher education being implemented by the Legislature a group of faculty members at North Dakota State University accused university system leadership of not adequately backing the state’s public institutions. “We’re seeing, I think, an orchestrated attack on higher education,” Mark Meister, chair of the communication department, said during a meeting…
Roscoe Streyle: University System Politics Threatens Information Security
The State of North Dakota Information Technology Department (ITD) has successfully protected the states many agencies from hackers for years by using state-of-the-art Intrusion Prevention and Intrusion Detection Systems (IPS/IDS). These types of systems monitor all traffic coming in and out of the state’s network and alert staff if certain security events occur in real-time.…
Attorney General Finds University System Foundation Violated Open Records Laws
Way back in January I requested information pertaining to the revenues and expenditures of the North Dakota University System Foundation. The NDUS denied my request, saying that the foundation is a private entity. I filed an open records complaint with Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem, and today he issued an opinion finding that because the foundation…
Angry University President Gets His Diaper Changed By Higher Ed Board
KXNet – Bismarck/Minot/Williston/Dickinson Yesterday Minot State University President David Fuller, who was “so furious his voice was shaking” according to the Minot Daily News, demanded that outgoing Chancellor Hamid Shirvani’s evaluation of him be expunged from his record. He also expressed outrage that his evaluation would appear on a blog before he had a chance…
Chancellor Shirvani Blasts Minot State, UND And NDSU President In Evaluations
Chancellor Hamid Shirvani may be on his way out the door, but per his contract buy out agreement he’s still in-office until the middle of July, and he had some choice words for some of the university system’s presidents on the way out the door. Specifically, he’s requested full evaluations for the leadership of Minot…
Shirvani The Scapegoat Is Gone, North Dakota University System's Hostility To Transparency Remains
“So Shirvani is gone now, and lo and behold in Friday’s edition of The Press ran the headline, ‘Another illegal meeting for state higher ed board?’” writes Klark Byrd for the Dickinson Press, noting that the former chancellor who had quickly become a scapegoat for all the ills in North Dakota’s university system isn’t around…
Lunatics Running The Asylum: SBHE Buys Out Shirvani
Chancellor Hamid Shirvani will be leaving North Dakota’s university system after offering an ultimatum to the SBHE today: Either give him the backing he needs to govern the university system or buy out his contract. The board, which was probably headed toward canning Shirvani anyway, chose to buy him out. Shirvani is the second university…
Anti-Shirvani "Whistle Blower" Was Involved In Serious Exposure Of University System Data
The North Dakota University System data exposure report below details an incident in which the private information of students and university system employees was exposed, but apparently not reported to them as it wasn’t specifically required by law. NDUS “whistle blower” Linda Baeza Porter was responsible for the breach according to the report. Porter was…
State Board Of Higher Education Wants Another Look At Tuition Increases
Last week the North Dakota State Board of Higher Education approved more tuition hikes for the state’s students, but now Board President Duaine Espegard wants a second look While I agree that the tuition hikes do need a second look – the state legislature increased total higher ed spending by 32% for the coming biennium…
Board Of Higher Ed Approves Average 4.1% Tuition Hike
With a representative for the North Dakota Student Association arguing for the increases, as well as Sidney Hull the student member of the State Board of Higher Education, North Dakota’s students got hit with another heavy tuition increase. The average across all the universities is about 4.1%. Chancellor Shirvani opposed the increases which were proposed…