North Dakota university leaders fear 'catastrophic implications' of new Minnesota free tuition plan - eviltoast

North Dakota higher education officials are deeply worried about losing students and revenue in 2024 when neighboring Minnesota makes public college and university tuition free for thousands of residents.

  • Orvanis@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    "Probably half of our football team comes from Minnesota, so that’s kind of a big deal to us,” College of Science President Rod Flanigan said.

    Ahhh yes, the reason for the College of Science to exist… Sports. Honestly proud of my state for the changes they have been making, I hope the momentum keeps going.

    • jecxjo@midwest.social
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      1 year ago

      One of the things I liked about going to Iowa State was just how much of the university funds were generated by educational led programs. Some colleges had programs with the US government to pay for research, some had tech patents that were licensed to tech and ag sector leaders. While we do get a lot of money for football, if that dropped off it would mean losing other degrees but not a horrible loss.

      Until Nebraska joined the Big 10 all of the schools in that division had a similar situation. Its sad that there is such a focus on sports when the point is education.

    • GunnarStahlGloveSide@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      I was all ready to respond about how even at an FCS school like NDSU, that football is a net profit sport. But based on the most recent info I could find their football team runs a slim net negative even though they’re a relative powerhouse in their division.