NDSU President David Cook
FARGO (KFGO/PRAIRIE PUBLIC) – Faced with a $7.6 million budget shortfall, NDSU President David Cook set out a plan to help recover some lost ground while protecting services offered to students.
Cook said the plan includes the merger of the school’s colleges from seven down to five.
“We are continuing through some of the tough strategic reductions around a couple of academic programs that we’re going to be continuing to move forward on,” Cook said. “We ultimately also said, ‘we can’t cut our way out of these challenges. We have to think about where we’re going and we have to think about where we can invest.’”
Cook said part of that investment is designed to help retain and recruit students. The idea is to align the university with the bigger mission of meeting the workforce needs of North Dakota.
“These reductions are hard and it’s not anything a president wants to do, but we’ve got to do the tough things to position ourselves to be successful moving forward,” Cook said. “That’s what today was about.”
Cook said the plan will “tee-up” the university for the upcoming biennium and beyond.
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