Measure 3

[GeauxSioux]

I haven't been paying attention to what is going on in North Dakota, I guess, but I just heard about Measure 3 which would replace Section 6 Article VIII of the ND Constitution.  I think we can all agree that the Board has been somewhat dysfunctional going back to the Potts/Chapman debacle.  The Board may need fixing, but I don't think this is the answer.  The first thing that jumped our at me in Measure 3 was the word "sites" in the first paragraph...  

 

1. A three-member commission of higher education is created for the purpose of overseeing and administering the provision of public higher education at sites that include Bismarck, Bottineau, Devils Lake, Dickinson, Fargo, Grand Forks, Mayville, Minot, Valley City, Wahpeton, and Williston.

The way the constitution presently reads..

 

A board of higher education, to be officially known as the state board of higher
education, is hereby created for the control and administration of the following state
educational institutions, to wit:
a. The state university and school of mines, at Grand Forks, with their substations.
b. The state agricultural college and experiment station, at Fargo, with their
substations.
c. The school of science, at Wahpeton.
d. The state normal schools and teachers colleges, at Valley City, Mayville, Minot,
and Dickinson.
e. The school of forestry, at Bottineau.
f. And such other state institutions of higher education as may hereafter be
established.

 

The schools are listed, not "sites", in the current constitution.  Why the change?

 

A three member commission to run the University system?  Sounds pretty easy for a politician to control.

 

Speaking of politicians, let's see who supports this change.... Al Carlson and Tony Grindberg are two of the names on the list.  We all know how much Al Carlson "helped" in the Sioux name issue.  Grindberg is the director of NDSU Research and Technology Park.

 

Too much consolidation of power and I don't care for the who or how they are consolidating it.  I know that there are some in North Dakota that would like to reduce the number of higher eduction schools.  I can see this being used as a way of doing that among other things.

 

Also along the lines of the SBoHE, Rob Port of the Sayanthingblog has audio from the last meeting  http://sayanythingblog.com/entry/higher-ed/

The Board and it's consultant had some comments about the Higher Ed presidents and in particular the NDSU President.

 

Change is needed.  Measure 3 isn't it.

[UNDBIZ]

I haven't been paying attention to what is going on in North Dakota, I guess, but I just heard about Measure 3 which would replace Section 6 Article VIII of the ND Constitution.  I think we can all agree that the Board has been somewhat dysfunctional going back to the Potts/Chapman debacle.  The Board may need fixing, but I don't think this is the answer.  The first thing that jumped our at me in Measure 3 was the word "sites" in the first paragraph...  

The way the constitution presently reads..

 

 

The schools are listed, not "sites", in the current constitution.  Why the change?

 

A three member commission to run the University system?  Sounds pretty easy for a politician to control.

 

Speaking of politicians, let's see who supports this change.... Al Carlson and Tony Grindberg are two of the names on the list.  We all know how much Al Carlson "helped" in the Sioux name issue.  Grindberg is the director of NDSU Research and Technology Park.

 

Too much consolidation of power and I don't care for the who or how they are consolidating it.  I know that there are some in North Dakota that would like to reduce the number of higher eduction schools.  I can see this being used as a way of doing that among other things.

 

Also along the lines of the SBoHE, Rob Port of the Sayanthingblog has audio from the last meeting  http://sayanythingblog.com/entry/higher-ed/

The Board and it's consultant had some comments about the Higher Ed presidents and in particular the NDSU President.

 

Change is needed.  Measure 3 isn't it.

 

Unfortunately, the word "sites" was added to prevent a reduction in the number of higher education institutions.  Mayville, Valley City, and Bottineau probably should be closed; Williston should be converted into a workforce training center operating on private funds; and Dickinson should be converted to a 2-year technical college.

 

I agree that the proposed amendment, in general, probably isn't the best for most of the schools too.  The current governor is very pro-Fargo.

[siouxjoy]

The main accreditation body for colleges and universities, the Higher Learning Commission, has analyzed how Measure 3 could impact the accreditation of the North Dakota University Systems.

 

Here is the press release from the NDUS office:  http://www.ndus.edu/news/detail.asp?newsID=237

 

Here is the actual report:  http://ndus.edu/uploads/resources/5095/hlc-observations-on-measure-3.pdf

 

 

 

**personal note:  I can't wait for whatever issues there are involving IE and siouxsports.com to be resolved so I can paste and quote again without having to switch to Firefox.