January 22, 2025

NDSU community,

The leadership assembly met yesterday afternoon to discuss several important topics that we should all be aware of. Please read the summary below of the initiatives presented:

Introduction of Jace Beehler, Chief of Staff

Presenters: Beehler and myself

I introduced our new Chief of Staff, Jace Beehler, who started his role on Dec. 30. Jace previously served as chief of staff to North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, a role he held since 2020. In that role Jace built a strong foundation of public policy expertise at both state and federal levels.

Jace graduated from NDSU in 2013. During his time as a student at NDSU he served as student body vice president and was president of the Blue Key Honor Society. 

During the assembly Jace expressed his excitement to be back at NDSU.

Enrollment Update

Presenter: Seinquis Leinen, Senior Director of Strategic Enrollment Management

Seinquis shared a preliminary spring 2025 enrollment update based on first-day data. Official spring enrollment will be reported at the conclusion of spring census which is Feb. 10. Based on first-day data, headcount is up by 45 since spring, but scheduled credit hours are down by 675.

A progress update on NDSU’s strategic enrollment management (SEM) planning timeline was also shared. The steering committee is drafting the final plan, with teams and subcommittees providing recommendations to achieve growth. The SEM plan will be submitted to Provost Bertolini and myself by late March or early April and communicated with campus in late spring or early summer.

Strategic Priorities Work Team Website and Marketing Update
Presenter: Kathryn Kloby, Vice President for Communications and Marketing

The NDSU Transform website has been updated to remove old documents and reflect the progress that’s been made. A new page has been added to detail the strategic priority work teams, who leads them, and available reports.

Kathryn also gave a marketing update on the efforts of the University Relations office to leverage the NDSU brand during the recent FCS championship game in Frisco, Texas. The campaign garnered game day excitement to amplify brand awareness, foster alumni connections and boost prospective student interest through landing pages, news stories, banners on the NDSU homepage, paid media and social media engagement. Media efforts garnered 1.8M impressions, and 8.4K people viewed the Frisco website content.

Tri College Update and Course Exchange Agreement

Presenter: Chris Wilson, Chief Compliance Officer

Tri-College University was dissolved at the end of 2024 and replaced with a slightly modified course exchange agreement known as the Metro College Alliance. The Metro College Alliance is a collaboration which includes NDSU, MSUM, Concordia, NDSCS and M-State. The course exchange agreement permits undergraduate, degree-seeking students to enroll at any of the partner institutions, allowing students access to a wider range of courses. The change improves efficiency and reduces administrative costs.

RCA Initiatives

Presenter: Colleen Fitzgerald, Vice President for Research and Creative Activity

Colleen shared several updates from the RCA, including NDSU’s FY23 performance putting NDSU in the Top 100 public universities. She also announced that the next BisonSpark Talks are scheduled for March 6 and currently has a call for presenters out.

Turning to faculty development, RCA launched the new Atom Grants finder tool, and is organizing events on NSF competitiveness, including a NSF CAREER bootcamp starting Jan. 27 and an Open House that will be held Feb. 5, along with a NIH bootcamp and USDA webinar both scheduled for February.

This week, RCA participated in providing legislative testimony in support of the State Board of Higher Education and North Dakota University System’s request of $25 million for the Economic Diversification Research Fund (EDRF) across the 11 institutions in North Dakota.

Colleen finished by talking about the ongoing work toward the Innovation and Economic Prosperity (IEP) designation from the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities, which will help NDSU maximize economic engagement with industry.

If you have any questions or would like further details on any of these topics, please don’t hesitate to reach out to any of the presenters or me.

Thank you for your continued dedication to making NDSU an exceptional institution.

Best regards,

David Cook