
David Cook
FARGO (KFGO) – North Dakota State University President David Cook said it was a hard day as he announced the university’s transformation from seven academic colleges down to five.
The five colleges that will remain after July 1 are Agriculture, Arts and Sciences, Business, Engineering, and Health Professions and Human Sciences. The College of Science and Math and College of Human Science and Education will move into one of the other five.
The decisions came with help from deans of all the colleges to finalize the plan.
“The deans thought beyond themselves,” Cook said. “They thought about the institution and the future of the institution.”
Cook said there will also be some tough strategic reductions coming, including cuts to specific programs.
The cuts will include programs that are high-cost and low-enrollment. He said they’ve made proposals for those cuts and are still seeking feedback and will make those announcements later this summer.
Provost David Bertolini said some programs that are proposed to be cut are Geo-sciences, German minor, Ag Biosystems, and Hospitality and Tourism. He also pointed out that these are only proposed program cuts and, if those cuts are made, they would transition out in three to four years in order to allow students already in those programs to finish.
Cook said around 35 full-time employees could be cut based on the current proposal.
The cuts come as NDSU finds itself needing to cut around $10 million over the next two years.
Cook said they will also need to make strategic investments in key areas to address the current financial issues and position NDSU to better serve the students, faculty, staff and state.
“This means investing in new high-demand academic areas, improving our student experience, growing our research output, investing in the well-being of our people, and continuing to build a culture that embraces diversity and our historical mission as North Dakota’s 1862 Land Grant institution,” Cook said.
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