Funding: UND vs. NDSU

[bincitysioux]

All of Bisonville cries foul every other year when the legislature meets regarding funding for NDSU.

I found this to be an interesting article.

ASK YOUR GOVERNMENT: No easy answer to college funding question

“Lack of available data is a major reason for the difficulty of having an apples-to-apples comparison between UND and NDSU. The two schools are structured very differently. NDSU is a land-grant university, which includes agriculture research, extension and experiment stations.

“UND is a comprehensive research university with a medical school. The internal composition of each is different. For example, while the medical school has a separate budget, many of the functions of the school are supported within the general appropriation of UND.

“At NDSU, there are numerous examples of the same kind of interplay between its agriculture function and traditional university function.

“Can you find data to prove that NDSU receives less funding than UND? Absolutely. Reverse the question, and the answer is the same.

“One of the most often used statistical models involves taking NDSU’s income — excluding the tens of millions of dollars received because of its status as a land-grant institution ($90 million general fund dollars in the current biennium) — and comparing it to the income of UND —including the tens of millions of dollars coming to UND through the medical school — divided by the number of students.

“The result, often used to prove that NDSU receives much less than UND in funding, is not a lie, but it is also misleading.

“In addition, is it legitimate to look at decisions made on the campuses, which impact the amount of money available for the operation of the school? Legislators find it curious that NDSU says it is starving for cash, yet provides more than $15 million in tuition waivers per year, almost twice that of UND.

“In fact, since 2001-03, the North Dakota University System has received almost $37 million in funding for equity, with over $15 million or 42 percent of the total distributed to NDSU.