Dive Summary:
- North Dakota University System Chancellor Hamid Shirvani says an $84 million budget increase over the next two years is needed to keep up with rising costs of inflation, regular maintenance and salary and retirement increases, and to support the system's "big agenda" of improving the overall quality and outcomes of higher education and increasing workforce development at two-year schools.
- Also requested in the proposal is $146 million in capital expenditures for 14 campus construction projects, including the $38.5 million first phase of a new building for UND's School of Medicine and Health Sciences and a $30 million classroom and laboratory building at North Dakota State University.
- Shirvani says the state has made strides in funding higher education in recent years, but that more must be done, and Gov. Jack Dairymple is expected to show which higher education plans he supports when he presents his 2013-2015 executive budget address to legislators Wednesday morning.
From the article:
If approved by legislators during the session that begins Jan. 8, the additional funding would bring general fund spending for the NDUS operational budget to nearly $600 million — a 16.3 percent increase compared with the $516 million of higher education funding for the current biennium that ends June 30. ...