Dickinson State University

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DSU Seal.jpg
Established 1918[1][2]
Type Public
Endowment $8.9 million[3]
President D. C. Coston[4]
Academic staff 30
Admin. staff 212
Students 2,572[5]
Location Dickinson, ND, USA
Campus Urban (110 acres)
Mascot Bluehawks
Website www.dickinsonstate.edu

Dickinson State University (DSU) is a four-year public university in Dickinson, North Dakota, United States, and is a part of the North Dakota University System. It was founded in 1918 as Dickinson State College,[6] and granted full university status in 1987.

Contents

[edit] History

Dickinson was established as a normal school to fill a need for qualified teachers in rural western North Dakota, where fewer than one-quarter of the people working as teachers in the early 1900s were certified as teachers. The university considers June 24, 1918, to be its founding date. was the first day of classes for the Dickinson Normal School. When first established, the school was tuition-free and operated in the facilities of Dickinson High School. The first campus building, May Hall, was built in 1924. [7]

During World War II, Dickinson State Teachers College was one of 131 colleges and universities nationally that took part in the V-12 Navy College Training Program which offered students a path to a Navy commission.[8]

[edit] Academics

Dickinson State offers four-year degrees in more than 75 fields of study through 10 academic departments. The school also offers pre-professional and two-year coursework.[9]. However it specializes in teacher education. Most students attending DSU are either education (both elementary and secondary), natural science, or agriculture majors. Dickinson has recently started a Graduate Course programs in the field of Teacher education. This gives participants a head start in graduate school courses but is not an actual graduate program. The University long ago outgrew its original teachers’ college status and has since adopted a broader mission. The present programs include not only teacher education and the liberal arts, but also specialized programs in business, nursing, agriculture, and computer science. There is also opportunity for pre-professional study and vocational training in selected areas.

Student programs are based on a core of General Education courses, including fine arts, humanities, natural sciences, mathematics, and the social and behavioral sciences. Dickinson State University students are encouraged to complete their general education requirements by the end of the sophomore year. Students are then free as juniors and seniors to explore a major field of study.

[edit] Athletics

DSU's sport teams are called the Blue Hawks and play in the Frontier Conference. Hank Biesiot is the current football coach and is one of the few active coaches at the college level with 200 or more wins and 30 or more seasons.

[edit] Student communications

The student newsblog is called The Hawk. Dickinson State also has local Public-access television channel call Dickinson State University channel 20 on the Consolidated Telecommunications cable system.

[edit] Accreditation

Dickinson State University is accredited by a regional accreditation agency The Higher Learning Commission [10]

[edit] Criticism and controversy

In 2011 and 2012, Dickinson State attracted negative attention for some of its academic and business practices. In 2011, the university was discovered to have overstated its enrollments by practices such as counting as "students" people who had merely attended a conference on the campus.[11] This situation resulted in the dismissal of the university president, Richard J. McCallum.[12][13][14]

A North Dakota University System audit report released in February 2012 found that the school had relaxed standards and waived some requirements to increase enrollment of foreign students and had, over a period of several years, awarded degrees to 584 foreign students who had not completed the required coursework. The report was a followup of an earlier meeting between Dickinson officials ant the Higher Learning Commission at which the DUS officials "realized they may have an issue with one or more of the HLC’s requirements surrounding academic agreements".[15] Most of the university's foreign students came from China, where the university employed recruiting agents who falsely claimed to be university employees and sometimes misrepresented the university's programs. News media accounts described the audit report as depicting Dickinson State as a degree mill.[16][17][18][19] The audit had been requested by the university's president, Douglas Coston, who took office in January 2012, after some university international agreements were found not to conform with requirements of the North Dakota State Board of Higher Education and the Higher Learning Commission.[20]

[edit] Notable alumni

[edit] References

  1. ^ http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/dickinson-state-university-2989
  2. ^ http://www.dsu.nodak.edu/AboutDSU.aspx
  3. ^ As of June 30, 2009. "U.S. and Canadian Institutions Listed by Fiscal Year 2009 Endowment Market Value and Percentage Change in Endowment Market Value from FY 2008 to FY 2009" (PDF). 2009 NACUBO-Commonfund Study of Endowments. National Association of College and University Business Officers. http://www.nacubo.org/Documents/research/2009_NCSE_Public_Tables_Endowment_Market_Values.pdf. Retrieved February 2, 2010. 
  4. ^ Dr. D.C. Coston named president of Dickinson State University (press release), Dickinson State University, January 19, 2012, http://www.dickinsonstate.edu/news/jan1920121.aspx 
  5. ^ http://www.stateuniversity.com/universities/ND/Dickinson_State_University.html
  6. ^ "History Of Dickinson State University". Dickinson State University. http://www.dickinsonstate.edu/discover_dsu/about_dsu/history.aspx. Retrieved December 6, 2011. 
  7. ^ History Of Dickinson State University, Dickinson State University, http://www.dickinsonstate.edu/discover_dsu/about_dsu/history.aspx, retrieved February 11, 2012 
  8. ^ "Navy yearbook, Dickinson State Teachers College". Dickinson, North Dakota: Dickinson State Teachers College. 1943. http://digitalhorizonsonline.org/cdm4/document.php?CISOROOT=/ndshs-dm&CISOPTR=1598&REC=2. Retrieved September 29, 2011. 
  9. ^ http://www.dickinsonstate.edu/degrees
  10. ^ http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/02/11/MNJO1N6893.DTL
  11. ^ Berrett, Dan (August 7, 2011), "Battle Shapes Up as Dickinson State U. President Refuses to Resign", Chronicle of Higher Education, http://chronicle.com/article/Battle-Shapes-Up-as-Dickinson/128551/, retrieved February 10, 2012 
  12. ^ Berrett, Dan (August 8, 2011). "Dickinson State U. President Is Fired in Wake of Enrollment Errors". Chronicle of Higher Education. http://chronicle.com/article/Dickinson-State-U-President/128557/. Retrieved December 11, 2011. 
  13. ^ "Judge Upholds Firing of University President Accused of Inflating Enrollment". Chronicle of Higher Education. December 9, 2011. http://chronicle.com/blogs/ticker/judge-upholds-firing-of-university-president-accused-of-inflating-enrollment/39068. Retrieved December 11, 2011. 
  14. ^ State of North Dakota Board Board of Higher Education v Richard McCallum
  15. ^ Internal Review Report: International Transfer Agreement review, Dickinson State University, North Dakota University System, February 10, 2012, p. 7, http://www.ndus.edu/uploads/reports/94/dsu-internal-review-ddj-final-draft1-020912.pdf 
  16. ^ Audit Depicts N. Dakota University As Degree Mill - NPR, February 10, 2012
  17. ^ "Chinese at North Dakota School Got Unearned Degrees, State Says", Bloomberg Business Week, February 11, 2012, http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-02-11/chinese-at-north-dakota-school-got-unearned-degrees-state-says.html 
  18. ^ Dickinson State - alleged diploma mill for Chinese - Associated Press/San Francisco Chronicle, Feb 10, 2012
  19. ^ Degrees (Without the Work) for Foreign Students at a North Dakota University - New York Times, 10 Feb 2012
  20. ^ Internal Review Report: International Transfer Agreement review, Dickinson State University, North Dakota University System, February 10, 2012, p. 7, http://www.ndus.edu/uploads/reports/94/dsu-internal-review-ddj-final-draft1-020912.pdf 

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