ND board debates plan to improve graduation rates

FARGO, N.D. (AP) - Some North Dakota Board of Higher Education members bristled Friday about complaints from college administrators over a plan to improve graduation rates and feared the disruption might kill an idea that is working in other states.

The Pathways to Student Success plan is scheduled to be fully implemented in 2015. It includes a proposed admissions index based upon a combination of high school grade point average, core courses and ACT college entrance exam scores.

Some board members said similar plans are working well in other states. Other board members are worried the current version might keep out students who will be successful and say some university officials are already blaming the standards for decreased enrollments.

Larry Skogen, the interim university system chancellor and former Bismarck State College president, told board members during Friday’s conference call meeting they shouldn’t be in the business of setting ACT or GPA standards. The board should set policy and not an operational plan “that is not going to work,” Skogen said.

“What you need to do please, is tell me as your interim chancellor what your goal is and I will work with the presidents,” he said. “And if we don’t meet your goal, hold us accountable.”

Board members Duaine Espegard and Grant Shaft, both of Grand Forks, said they might be willing to send the plan around to the campuses for some tweaking, but don’t want to see it bogged down in the meantime.

“In my years on the board, if there is one thing I have learned, although the board might not have intention of killing Pathways, Pathways might get killed in the bureaucratic process,” Shaft said. “I don’t want to start this whole thing over because it’s kind of a circus if we do that.”

Said Espegard, “We’re going to go ahead with task force plan. This is not about how it can be killed, not how it can be started over, but how it can be made better.”

Shaft, who was president of the group when Pathways was proposed two years ago, said the concept was born out of criticism from lawmakers who primarily wanted the state’s two research institutions rated higher in national publications. About the same time the board hired a new chancellor, Hamid Shirvani, to implement “policy that would address these goals,” Shaft said.

But the presidents clashed with Shirvani over his leadership style and the board eventually bought out his contract after some student and faculty groups issued votes of no-confidence. He was replaced by Skogen, who told board members Friday they were mistakenly led to believe that presidents bought into the Pathways proposal.

Board president Kirsten Diederich, of Fargo, opened the meeting by telling the group the plan should not be scrapped, but adjusted.

“I want to acknowledge that we all have differences of opinion, and I think that’s a really good thing. That’s why we have boards,” she said. “I would also ask each of us to clear our minds of preconceived notions that this is a win or a lose situation, because it isn’t.”

Shaft disputed Diederich’s notion that the “environment” around the rollout of Pathways wasn’t conducive to making presidents and provosts feel like they had a voice. Shaft spent several minutes reeling off a list of meetings and memos to the colleges that came in advance of the proposal.

“Why are they so unhappy with this plan if they were so instrumental in the development of it?” Diederich asked.

Shaft said if the plan does get passed back to the colleges, it should also be reviewed by independent sources. He said he has attended several national higher education meetings where Pathways has been lauded as revolutionary for the state and for the university system.

“I would like to know with this discussion, as this has evolved, why are we unique here and why won’t it work here?” he asked.