Former North Dakota University President Files 48 Page Complaint About State Board Of Higher Education

Ellen Chaffee, a former President of Mayville State University and Democrat Ryan Taylor’s gubernatorial running mate in last year’s election, has filed a 48-page complaint with the Higher Learning Commission. She claims, among other things, that the State Board of Higher Education has cut off communications with university presidents instead choosing to communicate through Chancellor Hamid Shirvani.

You can read the full complaint below. It’s a little odd that this is coming from a former university system president who has never actually worked, in a professional capacity, with either Chancellor Shirvani or the current board.

By my reading, there’s not a lot of there there, and this seems like just another shot fired in a campaign to keep a permanent black cloud over Chancellor Shirvani’s head until he’s pushed out of office.

The complaints seem frivolous, and more couched more in complaints about Shirvani’s personality than any real problems with policy

But then, I suspect the point here isn’t get any real action from the Higher Learning Commission but rather to create yet another negative headline for an embattled chancellor that the university presidents want out.