FARGO - The state Board of Higher Education will fund a plan to help colleges draw more international students, over objections from some board members that the program could actually hurt recruiting.
The $1.5 million plan will create a staff of half a dozen people to coordinate international recruiting among the 11 public colleges. The state currently has about 1,500 international students, not including about 500 Canadians.
"This is simply an aggressive, innovative and new way to attempt to address the demographic problem," Chancellor Robert Potts said today during the board's monthly meeting. "What we are doing right now isn't working very well."
North Dakota State University administrators objected to the plan because it will allow the schools to use agents, or "headhunters," to find students. President Joseph Chapman said it's unethical, and he is worried his school might be banned from participating in college fairs.
"I do not think, frankly, this has been thought through to my satisfaction," Chapman said.
Let me get this straight: North Dakota taxpayers are now going to shell out $1.5 million to recruit foreign students because we have too many white people at our universities?
I assume that "too many white people" is what Potts means by "the demographic problem."
Is that a problem worth $1.5 million? Is it a problem at all? Why would a student population dominated by white kids be any more of a problem than a student population dominated by other demographics? Why does the race of the students matter at all?
This sounds like a colossal misappropriation of public funds to me.