From talking to low level administrators and faculty leaders, here’s what I came up with,  We should be aware that at the moment this is hearsay, but informed hearsay that fits the facts and the situation.

The Minard hall project that lead to the Minard Hall collapse was one of those projects that was expensive enough that it would require board approval.  Hence, apparently under pressure from Chapman, Franz divided the project into four separate ones and let bids on all four.  Unfortunately, to perform all four separately was unsafe, a fact known to Franz.  But, like the former vice president for business and finance, caved in to pressure.
and accepted the bids.   And sure enough, Minard Hall collapsed, an event now connected to Chapman(former NDSU President and Forum’s Man of the Year).

I recall Franz saying at the time of thee collapse that it was fortunate there was no-one in the building at the time of the collapse.  I guess.  Try to imagine the legal implications if there had been.

When this comes out, and I imagine that it will and I think there’s more, the state board of higher education will come up with more ides that will be reported in the media as means to prevent/control NDSU’s actions in some areas.  But if one understands NDSU to mean the faculty and students as well as academically qualified administrators, NDSU hasn’t done anything wrong.  Only state board appointees, and, in the case of Chapman, selected with the guidance of a search committee appointed by the state board and containing few NDSU faculty or students.

Many think this search committee. chaired by the current Fargo mayor, suggest Chapman since he would bring Division I athletics to NDSU, a move never very popular with the faculty.  If so, I hope some think it was worth it.

Wow.  Looks like misinformed media hype to me.  First, why shouldn’t people trust NDSU. NDSU, however one defines it, hasn’t done anything wrong: only two individuals, one, the Fargo Forum’s man of the year. With questionable motives and past, and another a political appointee as vice president for business an finance.  The faculty, staff and students of NDSU had nothing to say about these appointments and should not be held accountable for their transgressions.  Rather the state board should shoulder the responsibility,, but they have not.

Now about this appointment.  I certainly wish Dr. Bresciani well, but thinks he has an almost insurmountable task and there’s nothing in his credentials that indicate he will be able to.

I would like to ask anyone reading this if they have ever heard of Les Pavek.  How about George Wallman.  My guess is that most will not while most that have will not be sure of who they are.  I’ll tell you.  They are the past two vice presidents for student affairs at NDSU.  They decide when to close the university due to snow, oversee academic conduct and misconduct and the like.,  They were not responsible for funding, administering budgets, except for small office management ones, nor did they supervise any faculty.

Dean Bresciani was Vice President for Student Affairs at Texas A & M.  Good luck, Dean.

So how did we get here?  Most residents of North Dakota are not going to like my answer to that.  I think it boils down to a fundamental lack of understanding throughout the state of what higher education is,  what the benefits of a high profile research university are, and what it takes to fund higher education.  One only needs to look south to the Twin Cities with it’s top of the line research university and the many corporations that partner with that university to create a wealthy society not even imaginable here.

Our higher education system is managed by the State Board of HIgher Education, political appointees of the Governor, and the Chancellor, Dr. Goetz.  The last presidential search committee was chaired by that well known scholar Bruce Fureness.  A junior faculty member, from Maryland and no longer here, remarked to me a out the remarkable coincidence of Fargo’s mayor and the chair of the search committee had the same name.  That’s how bizarre it appeared to someone from a respected university..

This committee and the state board apparently thought it important to have a president that would bring division 1 athletics to NDSU. Never mind that their choice had a history of bankrupting universities.

Reported in the media recently was the position of the state board about the violations by NDSU of state board policies and their desire to oversee expenditures.
First, lets look at the NDSU part of this idea.  The governing body of NDSU is tjhe University Senate.  It can by overridden by the President, but he does so at his peril, as he might find himself facing a vote of no confidence.  Former President Chapman was able to bring division one athletics to NDSU be end running the University Senate, claiming that it was none of their business as no appropriated funds would be involved: everything would be funded by private donations. Unfortunately there is no oversight of how the President manages the NDSU  budget, and this has been upsetting the faculty for as long as I can remember.  Of course, there is the vice president for business and finance, but he is not subject to faculty review either before or after he is appointed.  So any mistakes made by “NDSU” were in fact made by two men that were appointed by people that really have nothing much to do with NDSU, and not approved of by the real NDSU.  When the former vice president for business and finance, er, resigned, he claimed that he couldn’t do his job due to pressure from the president and that he learned how to get around state board policies from his counterpart at UND.  Chancelolor Goetz said at the time that he had assumed that state board policies were being followed.  In other words, the man is a fool.

Parenthetically,  Goetz and the state board have taken this oversight a bit further by taking it upon themselves to decide what constitutes proper pre-requisites for some elementary courses, infuriating some administrators at both NDSU and UND.

Is their a solution to all this?  Without a grassroots change of attitude,, probably not.  But it would help to replace the state board and chancellor with more qualified people.