Updated North Dakota 2017 - National Council of Teachers of English

Reports

Updated North Dakota 2017


State: North Dakota
Level: Higher Education
Analyst: Marman, Ronda

Policy Analysis: North Dakota 2017

Last year, amid controversy over sexual misconduct at one of our institutions and a budget reduction of 10%, the North Dakota University System (NDUS) prepared to buckle down and move forward.

Doug Burgum, North Dakota’s new governor, in an effort to balance North Dakota’s finances, cut the NDUS system’s budget by 20%, adding an additional 10% reduction to the previous governor’s budget. Along with this new budget, legislation was introduced that looks at the issue of tenure.

“Policy 605.3, which deals with non-renewal, termination or dismissal of faculty, generated extensive public comment from faculty who had connected to the meeting via InteractiveVideo Network. The policy change was proposed in order to offer campuses moreflexibility over personnel decisions in advance of further potential budget cuts. Currently,tenured faculty are given one-year notice in the case of termination. The policy changewould modify that to a minimum of 90-days.”

– See more at: http://blog.ndus.edu/3036/board-hears-tenure-feedback/#sthash.c3hyRJIG.dpuf

In response, the NDUS faculty board countered with the following:

“Eric Murphy, president of the Council of College Faculty, said a compromise going forward could be a 180-day notice. He said most faculty realized that if financialexigency occurred, that would be a dire situation.”

– See more at:

http://blog.ndus.edu/3036/board-hears-tenure-feedback/#sthash.c3hyRJIG.dpuf

Also, the “North Dakota Workforce Education Advisory Council (WEAC) has released a new reportassessing workforce development needs and gaps across the state. … It identifiescurrent workforce education needs and gaps for industries identified as economic drivers of North Dakota’s economy in the future, including energy, health care, manufacturing and technology.”

– See more at: http://blog.ndus.edu/3038/workforce-advisory-council-releases-needs-and-gaps-report/#sthash.wqq56fca.dpuf.

The legislature is continuing to look at Common Core as well, but not recommendations have been given at this time.