University Of North Dakota Officials Make A Liar Out Of NDSU’s Dean Bresciani

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Written By:
Rob Port

Sep 18, 2012
9:35am

The latest spin coming from North Dakota State University about a scandal involving 10 current members of the university’s championship football team creating tens of thousands of fraudulent signature for two ballot measures is that the punishment for these players cannot be released to the public because of federal privacy laws.

“It’s a very common perception of university disciplinary processes because if the public doesn’t see what’s happening, they understandably presume that nothing’s happening, when in fact we’re actually both ethically but also legally mandated to protect the privacy of the student,” NDSU President Dean Bresciani told the Fargo Forum, noting that the public won’t be notified of any discipline involving these players.

But something interesting just happened. At the University of North Dakota four members of the Fighting Sioux UND hockey squad – four captains, no less – for a game due to a team party. These players are suspended from their season opener, they’re being required to perform community service, they have to undergo alcohol counseling and they’re on probation meaning any future infractions could result in their being dropped from the team.

Meanwhile, at NDSU, ten players who created nearly 25,000 fraudulent signatures derailing to well-funded initiated measure campaigns and costing their supporters hundreds of thousands of dollars in spending are facing no suspensions, and NDSU is claiming that any discipline which might eventually be handed out for the players won’t be made public at all.

How is it that UND can make discipline for its players public, but NDSU cannot?

Bresciani will probably tell us it’s due to some complexity in the administration of higher education institutions that we’re all too stupid to understand, but let’s face the truth. NDSU doesn’t want to punish these players because they’re too important to the football program, and they’re trying to muddy the waters around that indefensible decision by invoking arcane privacy regulations.

And they can get away with it, because North Dakota’s out-of-control university system isn’t accountable to anyone. Not the taxpayers. Not our elected leaders. Nobody.