Higher Ed Auditor Resigns Calling North Dakota University System A "Dead End"

According to this Associated Press report Director of Internal Audit and Risk Assessment Bill Eggert – the guy whose audit report uncovered hundreds of phony diplomas at Dickinson State and who more recently rejected accusations of cooked data aimed at Chancellor Hamid Shirvani – is resigning because he sees his job as being a “dead end.”

Eggert also reportedly says he wants to move somewhere with a better climate.

His resignation letter is below.

According to the AP report, Eggert says his most recent audit finding doesn’t have anything to do with his decision, but it’s not hard to read between the lines to see the the work environment in the university system probably has a lot to do with it. Between the on-going civil war between Chancellor Shirvani and certain university presidents, the fraud at Dickinson state and the extravagant state spending on poor to mediocre academic outcomes it’s not hard to understand why someone would see the North Dakota University System as a “dead end.”

The NDUS is heading for trouble. The spending growth, and tuition growth, is unsustainable. Nationally this country has a student loan bubble. We’re heading for a crash, and North Dakota is so overextended on higher ed spending that we’re not likely to weather it well.

Eggert no doubt sees the writing on the wall, and he hasn’t been alone in that regard. Last year members of the State Board of Higher Education were resigning their positions faster than Governor Dalrymple could appoint replacements.

Unfortunately, not nearly enough people in state government see the writing on the wall.