In North Dakota Higher Education Seems Untouchable

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Written By:
Rob Port

Aug 11, 2012
10:24am

A couple of weeks ago the North Dakota State Auditor released a report detailing lax account for and misuse of student fees at the state’s two largest universities. One would expect such a report to inspire calls from the media, supposedly the watchdogs of government, for the universities to do better. Instead the state auditor’s office was attacked for even bringing the matter up.

The narrative wasn’t about the universities overcharging students on fees, and then misusing those fees. The narrative was that the auditor was wrong to bring the issue up in the first place. “As certain as thunderstorms will rake the prairie in July, North Dakota legislators will glom on to any minor sideshow to beat up higher education,” Fargo Forum opinion editor Jack Zaleski wrote of the audit on behalf of the newspaper.

But not even all of the state’s legislators could, or would, see that the audit detailed serious matters. Many also questioned the auditor’s intent and qualifications to perform the audit, displaying front and center just how entrenched higher education apologists are in North Dakota.

Now comes this article from the Associated Press which explains to us that Dickinson State University isn’t recovering from disastrous mismanagement by higher education officials, up to and including the State Board of Higher Education (from which there has been an exodus since the DSU scandal broke) but from an “audit’s findings.”

DICKINSON, N.D. (AP) – Dickinson State University has hired a new chief academic officer.

The university has been recovering from an audit’s findings that Dickinson State granted degrees and certificates to about 600 Chinese students who didn’t qualify for them.

Cynthia Pemberton starts Sept. 1 as Dickinson’s new provost and vice president for academic affairs.

One almost gets the idea that many see the problems in higher education not stemming from poor leadership, but rather stemming from people (auditors, internet bloggers, etc.) who keep pointing them out.

Meanwhile, as Dickinson State University parades in new management, not a single person is being investigated or charged with any crime at the state level despite hundreds of instances of fraudulent degrees, fake students and missing/misused funds.

Higher education, in North Dakota, is untouchable.