ND Higher Education just got interesting

[Hammersmith]

The challenge grant program got approved for renewal in the house. They changed the language to take out athletic scholarships. No big deal. Remember that athletic scholarship requests only made up 1.5% of NDSU's total; 98.5% went to other projects. I don't even mind the rationale at least one legislator is using: the challenge grant program's purpose is to create new donations that otherwise would not have happened; money for athletic scholarships is likely to be donated regardless. That argument is consistent with discussions in the minutes of the challenge grant meetings over the last year.

The more important negative is that NDSU's and UND's shares were cut in half; from $10M each to $5M each. That brings the cost of the total program down from $29M to $19M. The legislators say that the decrease is countered by a $9.5M increase to scholarships in another bill. The senate has yet to discuss and vote on their version of the bill, and Wrigley(Lt Gov) plans to fight to at least get the money back, if not the athletic scholarships(he supports them, but the tide may be too far against them).

The most surprising thing in the Forum article had nothing to do with the legislature:

The university can give out 63 equivalency scholarships in football and gave out 58 this year, according to data obtained by The Forum using an open records request. Those went to 82 students and cost $1.2 million.

We left 5 FB scholarships on the table? That doesn't make sense.

http://www.inforum.com/news/3690134-...c-scholarships

[56BISON73]

Heard on the radio someone in the legislature is floating the idea of allowing the use of bonds to build on college campuses. Stay tuned, but don't get excited. I'm sure this is a lead balloon.

Creative financing? Who would of thought somebody in ND has heard of such a thing?

[El_Chapo]

The challenge grant program got approved for renewal in the house. They changed the language to take out athletic scholarships. No big deal. Remember that athletic scholarship requests only made up 1.5% of NDSU's total; 98.5% went to other projects. I don't even mind the rationale at least one legislator is using: the challenge grant program's purpose is to create new donations that otherwise would not have happened; money for athletic scholarships is likely to be donated regardless. That argument is consistent with discussions in the minutes of the challenge grant meetings over the last year.

The more important negative is that NDSU's and UND's shares were cut in half; from $10M each to $5M each. That brings the cost of the total program down from $29M to $19M. The legislators say that the decrease is countered by a $9.5M increase to scholarships in another bill. The senate has yet to discuss and vote on their version of the bill, and Wrigley(Lt Gov) plans to fight to at least get the money back, if not the athletic scholarships(he supports them, but the tide may be too far against them).

The most surprising thing in the Forum article had nothing to do with the legislature:


We left 5 FB scholarships on the table? That doesn't make sense.

http://www.inforum.com/news/3690134-...c-scholarships

We'll all 63 players got some money I'm guessing, they just didn't give out 63 full rides, it's misleading by the forum.
Plus dragging the scholarship donors into the end of article was cheap

[Bisonguy]

We'll all 63 players got some money I'm guessing, they just didn't give out 63 full rides, it's misleading by the forum.
Plus dragging the scholarship donors into the end of article was cheap

They spelled it out quite well: 58 scholarships split amongst 82 student athletes.


Seeing as how they only can award scholarships to 85, they couldn't even hit the max of 63 if they gave out another 3 full rides.

[StL Bison Fan]

Heard on the radio someone in the legislature is floating the idea of allowing the use of bonds to build on college campuses. Stay tuned, but don't get excited. I'm sure this is a lead balloon.

It's a good idea. Doesn't stand a chance.

[taper]

We left 5 FB scholarships on the table? That doesn't make sense.

Weren't the last 2 classes abnormally large? Maybe we're holding some back to rebalance. I think there's a rule about how many you can offer in a single year too, but I could be wrong on this.

[td577]

Weren't the last 2 classes abnormally large? Maybe we're holding some back to rebalance. I think there's a rule about how many you can offer in a single year too, but I could be wrong on this.

I think the limit for freshman is at the FBS level, but I am too lazy to look it up.

[Bisonguy]

I think the limit for freshman is at the FBS level, but I am too lazy to look it up.

It applies to FCS as well. Believe the limit is 25.

[Hammersmith]

It applies to FCS as well. Believe the limit is 25.

Think it's 25 for FBS and 30 for FCS. Looking it up now.

edit: confirmed

[Hammersmith]

Huh. Shocker.

ND attorney general's office says state can't order performance audits of university foundations

The assistant state attorney general has found that North Dakota has no authority to order performance audits of three university foundations, deflating a law recently approved by the state Legislature and criticized by North Dakota State University officials.

...

Assistant Attorney General Nate Martindale took a similar position. In a memo to Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem dated Feb. 25, he concluded that “a university developmental foundation is not a ‘state agency’ subject to a performance audit by the state auditor.”