Jun. 25—GRAND FORKS — State Board of Higher Education members signed off on a request for a $2.84 billion operating budget for higher education in North Dakota for the 2025-27 biennium.

That’s a 0.8% increase compared to the 2023-25 biennium, which has an operating budget of $2.82 billion. Board members signed off on that request as well as for a $123 million request for capital projects.

The operating budget notably bucks Gov. Doug Burgum’s call for large state agencies like the North Dakota University System to reduce their operating budget requests by 3% in the coming biennium.

David Krebsbach, NDUS chief financial officer and vice chancellor for administrative affairs, told the Grand Forks Herald the state board approved a budget based on the higher-ed system’s projected needs for the coming year.

“The NDUS institutions and the system have a requirement to put forth a needs-based budget, which is what we do,” Krebsbach said. “So if we deem that 3% doesn’t meet that, which we deemed in this budget request, we’re saying we will not be putting that 3% into our budget plan.”

The governor’s budget guidelines, which the state board’s budget and finance committee also declined to recommend, could lead to reductions in staff full-time equivalency and limit state campuses’ ability to meet workforce needs or expand programs, Krebsbach’s presentation noted.

The higher education system’s request now goes to the state Office of Management and Budget along with other state agencies and will become part of the governor’s budget request that goes before the Legislature in 2025.

Chancellor Mark Hagerott said the requested $22 million increase to the NDUS operating budget could be a “big issue” when it gets to the governor, given the spending reduction request.

“The Budget and Finance Committee put our money in our mouth,” he said, though he added they had “put a marker down” and called it “very important.”

State general fund dollars would contribute $811 million to cover 28.6% of the system’s requested operating budget for 2025-27, a 2.3% increase from the current biennium. The remainder is covered via tuition revenue and other funds.

Most of the requested funding — $2.66 billion — would go to NDUS institutions, who Krebsbach said would submit their own budget requests to OMB.

Some $98.7 million in requested capital projects funding would come from the state general fund, including $98.7 million toward projects backed by the previous Legislature, like a new science, technology, engineering and math building on the University of North Dakota’s campus.

In other news, board members are expected to reconvene in early July to hear a proposal to add dental hygiene and dental assistant programs at Bismarck State College. Outgoing board member John Warford, an orthodontist, made an impassioned case for the programs to combat a shortfall of dental professionals in the state.