ND Higher Ed Does Need More $$$
Post was edited on 7/8/08. Please view comments for the full effect 
Ok, a supposed expert (probably a crackpot) at Fargo Phantom has used the story on Valley City State University teachers supposedly not teaching math all that well to bash Division I athletics at NDSU and UND.
Excuse me?
Pretty sure extrapolating a story, which VCSU is disputing the facts on, onto the other 10 colleges/universities of the ND University System is absurd. Then saying that the root cause of the supposed deficiency is athletics, especially Division I athletics at UND/NDSU, is just plain wrong.
I will agree with the premise in the essay ‘article’ (calling that an article would be like calling this post an article, it isn’t) that higher education in ND is not perfect. Blaming Anyone who may blame that imperfection on athletics does an injustice to the true issues facing higher education in ND and other states. Yes athletic programs can be quite expensive, but most funding comes from non-legislative funding – such as sponsorships, student fees, donations, and ticket sales. Colleges may utilize funds from a general fund of unused tuition monies from previous years to fund a small percentage (1-5%) of athletics – that rarely occurs and when it does happen has a lot of restrictions on its usage. Again – tuition and legislative funds don’t go directly towards athletics. Now that is established…
Back in the day most higher education institutions in ND were funded at 60%+ from the state with the remainder coming from student tuition. At both large universities it is much closer to 50/50, with the other schools doing slightly better. Overall the state could fund all the schools at a higher percentage. The NDUS put forth a bold budget for the next legislative session, and most legislators have expressed dismay because it is “too expensive”. Bull crap. Higher ed and secondary/elementary ed need more funding during the next session because they have been getting short-changed for so many years.
Teacher and professor salaries in ND are abysmal – more money is needed. We have a (estimated) $400 million general fund surplus, $400 million oil tax fund surplus, and $200 million ‘rainy day’ fund. We have up to $1 billion to boost our state upwards when most states will have to make cuts and go backwards. ND has a grand opportunity to make education a priority – but unfortunately (like the Fargo Phantom piece says) ND doesn’t fully appreciate education. Maybe that’s because our best and brightest leave to shine elsewhere. That could be changing with more ND’s staying here, but positive gains can be lost – if we don’t start fully appreciating education in this state.
Later.
I find the response by Inner JoeJoe to my ESSAY on North Dakota Higher Education amusing and inaccurate. Evidently he didn’t do more than glance at the essay and decide to pop off about athletics.
First, I find it interesting and amusing that he called me a Fargo Phantom crack pot. I do not work for the Phantom; I’m just and infrequent contributor. As far as being a “crack pot,” I have 45 years experience in higher education, all at research Universities, most as a faculty member, some as an administrator, some as a member of the NDSU University Senate, some at some of the worlds most prestigious institutions. Wonder what I?d have to do not to be considered a crack pot by JoeJoe.
Now, about the content of his remarks. Nowhere in my essay did I say or imply that funds that should go to education are going to athletics. What I did say is that that the exorbitantly funded athletic programs gives the APPEARANCE that NDSU and UND are adequately funded. Since that is the perception, why would the electorate want to change the system? Apparently JoeJoe did not read the part where I said that Steve Halstrom was in error in thinking that education money goes to athletics. JoeJoe’s right in that athletics funds athletics, but I think I implied that too. In fact, the move to division one by NDSU couldn’t have been otherwise: since the expense was borne by donations and therefore not appropriated funds, President Chapman told the University Senate that it was none of their business. Most members of the Senate were, I believe, against the move.
inner JoeJoe is also confused about how Universities such as NDSU are funded. He would have us believe that the funding is generated by state appropriations and tuition. He neglects entirely the considerable funds generated by research grants and contracts as well as private donations.
I wonder if Inner JoeJoe even read the rest of my essay. It described the the evidently excess number of institutions of Higher Learning in North Dakota, implying that this a waste of the funds we do have. And we have some very recent evidence that these other institutions are not really as good as we have been told they are. That VCSU would try to refute the documentation is hardly a surprise.
I have one tangential comment for inner JoeJoe: it is bad journalistic and rhetorical form to argue ad-hominim: you’re not going to accomplish anything that way except turn off some that might agree with you a la Rush Limbaugh( to argue ad-hominim means essentially name-calling). It is also considered bad form to give someone a position they don’t have in order to attack it. Nowhere does ayone say my contribution is an article: I call it an essay.
No one that I’m aware of except Inner JoeJoe has referred to me as an expert. I did say I could speak with some authority on this issue, and indeed I can. But this does not in my view an expert. Note that Inner JoeJoe made disparaging comments about each term, which are completely his and not mine nor Fargo Phantoms.
I will yield when proven to be wrong and/or inaccurate. I believe I took your essay the wrong way and interpreted it as such (heck I couldn’t even discern if it was a post/article/essay). The ‘crackpot’ thing was a lame poke at the Phamtoms description of “a collaboration of local professionals, financial advisors, entrepreneurs, educators, physicians, farmers and what many may refer to as a “crackpot.”” 45 years experience definitely does not make you a ‘crackpot,’ it makes you an individual with great experiences and valid views. I apologize for insinuating anything otherwise, and will try to lamely blame my inaccurate ‘rant’ on insomnia (in jest of course).
. I believe in debate, discussion, and a free flow of ideas.
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My experiences come from being deeply involved while at NDSU in the move to DI as well as working on state funding. I will agree that some view proper funding of athletics and extrapolate that onto the university as a whole, which is unfair and inaccurate. My time at NDSU saw a rise in research funding and donations – but the bulk of what was in consideration was the state portion and tuition portion since they were the lions share (at the time). The dark side of research funding (as viewed by undergrad students) is that fewer classes may be taught by professors, and more taught by Graduate Students. I’m not saying that is what happens, or will happen – but is a concern usually voiced by students. Typically (not always) private donations go towards specific building projects or scholarships and not towards the general running of the university on a operational basis. I guess in my mind I always separated the funding for the operation of the university out from infrastructure requests (mostly because in many states they barely fund operation of schools, much less infrastructure improvements).
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I was in Student Government and on University Senate at the time of the move to DI – the Student Senate and Staff Senate both supported the move to DI. The portion that was not too thrilled was the faculty portion, but I believe it had enough support to pass (since its roughly 1/3 students, 1/3 faculty, and 1/3 staff). So saying that faculty were against would be accurate. Students were fine with it, but then again with the student fee being part of their funding equation we may have had a little more light onto the situation than faculty may have.
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I agree with, and was going to comment in my original ‘rant’, the fact that the state of ND has too many institutions of higher education. We should be more like SD in that regard – they have half the schools and about the same access to them as we do. ND’s first mistake was putting them in the state constitution, the second mistake is that communities are clinging to them as a survival mechanism, the final mistake is that few have utilized our sprawling system. It could (maybe) be a plus and help out these smaller communities more – if they were funded better and partnered with local business to spur development. Alas that last part is probably a pipe dream…
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In conclusion – we probably agree more than we disagree and my ad-hominim attacks were off base. I thank the Phantom contributor for their response and invite them (or others) to comment/respond if I’m still sounding like Rush Limbaugh – for that was not my intent
Your all to profuse appology is accepted. I was aware from your original contributition that we probably agree more than we disagree. We don’t agree on everything, but what would be the fun if we did.
I would like to add a couple of minor comments. First, I hope nobody infers that I compared you to Rush Limbaugh. I was just remarking what can happen when one argues ad-hominim which obviously is somehting you know better than when properly rested.
I think when it comes to students and research there is a dark side and a light side. I’ve heard, both here and elsewhere, of faculty using their grant funds to buy back some of their time from their institution. This, in my opinion
defeats the purpose of being a faculty member. On the other hand, one of the most rewarding parts of being a faculty member to me is to involve my students in my research.
I thnk you are right that donations are usually targeted for some specific purpose. In the case of grants, however, roughly a third of the funds goes to the institution as indirect costs(IDC’s) on which many institutions, including, I believe, NDSU depend on for their operation.
Thanks for your thoughtful response, and I hope you are resting better.