Campus Decisions Need Oversight

DSU's decision to offer unilateral free first-year and "nation in-state" tuition while cutting staff/programs and crying for more legislative funding are incongruent and require legislative oversight.

Recently, Dickinson State University announced it would offer in-state tuition for all students nationwide. This followed the previous announcement that funds would be set-aside to provide free tuition for incoming freshmen.

Ever since Minnesota announced that they would provide “free tuition” to incoming freshmen and North Dakota colleges and universities started into an arms race with each other.

With the context of providing free and reduced tuition for non-residents, it is now useful to look at some of the recent decisions by Dickinson State University that seem to be contradictory and are begging for more oversight from the Board of Higher Education and the legislature.

Downsizing Programs To Eliminate Dissent

Last fall, Dickinson State University announced it would downsize the size and scope of its academic programs.

Dickinson State University's President, Steve Easton, has announced the elimination of seven majors and the release of some tenured faculty members, as part of …