ND University Facing $3 Million Short Fall
Minot State University President David Fuller has announced yesterday that his institution is facing a $3 million shortfall.
Fuller notes that the university did cut budgets by 6% a few years ago, but a 3% cost of living raise for university employees offset those cuts.
That raise could indeed have a big impact on MSU’s bottom line. According to figures I wrote about yesterday from the state’s Legislative Council, MSU has seen a 41% increase in employees at the school, but just a 2.7% increase in teaching employees. Among non-teaching employees, the school’s staff has increased nearly 80%.
That level of administrative bloat is most definitely one of MSU’s problems. Add in a misguided geothermal project on the campus which, as of last year, was $10 million over budget. Also, last year MSU was demanding $6 million from the City of Minot’s sales taxes to pay for upgrades to the university’s sports facilities (that request was withdrawn after public outcry from a community still recovering from disastrous flooding).
What you see is an institution that is being seriously mismanaged.
But that’s about par for the course in North Dakota’s university system.
Tags: david fuller, higher education, minot state university, North Dakota News, north dakota university system
