(upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) - Hello and welcome to Prairie Pulse.

Coming up a little bit later in the show, we'll meet Greenbush, Minnesota painter and teacher Debbie Aune.

But joining me now, our guest is Dr. David Cook, the newest president of North Dakota State University.

Dr. Cook, thanks for joining us today.

- My pleasure.

Thanks for the invitation.

- Well, as we get started, tell the folks a little bit about yourself maybe, and your background.

- Yeah, so I grew up in Iowa, Ames, Iowa, college town, and one of the things that's important for me to bring up is that I'm a first generation college student, so my mom and dad did not go to college.

And that's one of my big priorities as a college president now, is to really help students with that kind of a background, but grew up in Ames, Iowa, moved across town, went to Iowa State, graduated from there and moved to Kansas City.

Eventually went back to graduate school where I got my masters and PhD at University of Kansas, and then ended up working at the University of Kansas for the last 20 to 25 years or so.

- Okay.

And I understand you have married and have three kids.

- I do, yeah.

So my wife Kate, is also from Ames, so we went to the same high school and we have three children.

Our oldest son, Gage, is in Nashville, and then we have two college age students.

One is at the University of Kansas.

That's my daughter, Ella.

And then our other son, Peyton, is at Kansas State University.

- Oh, okay.

Well talk about the transition.

Understand, of course, you got here last May.

Your wife got here in August, so how's the transition been so far?

- Yeah, so I can even go back a little further than that.

So I got the job in February and soon thereafter, I feel like I started working.

I technically or officially started on May 17th, but I started talking with the crew at NDSU quite often on weekends and evenings.

And I made a number of trips back and forth.

This is where President Bresciani was incredibly helpful, just kind of opening up the door, welcoming us.

So when day one came around, I felt like I could hit the ground running.

And so that was incredibly helpful and I'm incredibly thankful and grateful to him for helping me be successful early on.

Beyond that, so then I moved here in May.

My wife didn't get here till August.

That was probably good.

I had a lot of work to do and she had to sell a house and get kids off to college again and all the rest.

But spent a couple of weeks traveling the state.

I thought that was incredibly important as the 1862 Land grant, we gotta know what North Dakota means to our institution, what our institution means to North Dakota.

So that was a great way to get acclimated and have a better understanding of what my role needed to be.

And then kind of hit the ground running here in August and when school started.

And so, so far so good.

Having a great time.

People have been wonderful to both my wife and I and got hard work to do, but got hard work to do everywhere.

- So how did your background, you said you had spent the last 20 or 25 years in Kansas.

How did that prepare you for this job?

- Yeah, so I've been fortunate.

Part of that background, I was at the University of Kansas Medical Center for 14 years and I was part of the executive team there for the last seven.

And so that just helped me understand a little bit about leadership and how to set priorities, how to set a vision and so on.

And then I had a number of different jobs over the time, but the last couple years I was sort of the right hand person at the University of Kansas.

It's called a chancellor, not a president.

And so I was his right-hand person, and so I was in the room right next to him.

Great leader.

Learning from that kind of leadership was critical and it really helped me make the transition into the role that I'm currently in.

- You talked about President Bresciani and he helped you out.

What kind of advice did you get from him?

- Oh, wow.

Well, a lot of great advice.

You know, a lot of detailed things, talking about the team, where we need to go, where our challenges are, where the grand opportunities are gonna be.

Some advice about leadership as well, and some advice about just getting better connected with North Dakota.

Part of my trip across the state was kind of based on some of those conversations that it's really important to know the state and know the people and listen.

And so that's what I've been trying to do.

- Okay.

Well let's turn to, I guess, a big issue.

I understand you sent a campus-wide email stating about $10 million in budget cuts are needed in the next biennium, and that the primary cause of this has been declining enrollment.

Can you talk us through what kind of cuts might be coming?

- Yeah, and let me start by just kind of talking a little bit more about that, if that's okay.

So, enrollment's tough across the nation, especially in the Midwest.

And so what we're facing is what a lot of institutions are facing.

And I really believe with some strategic decisions and some tough decisions, we're gonna be in a great place once we get through this.

Where a lot of this started is the state started to fund institutions, colleges, in 2013 based on their school credit hour production, which was a great leap forward, which we celebrated, which I still think is an incredibly positive way to do it.

The challenge for us, however, is that we've been dropping in enrollment kind of ever since that time.

And so you kind of get hit in two ways.

You get hit by the funding formula that comes a couple years later, but then you also get hit with just tuition revenue annually when you're down in enrollment.

And so we've been trying to do a lot of things over the last 10, 14 years.

And then when I walked in, the funding formula kind of sets the bar in terms of what your budget challenges are gonna be.

And so that's what teed up that email, and that's what's teed up a lot of the strategic planning that we're currently doing and working on.

And so the truth of the matter is later this month, we'll roll out what that plan is.

Right now we've been talking, I've met with every unit on campus, pretty much, all the colleges, working with our deans to help figure out where we need to go.

And I think we have a pretty good plan moving forward, which will probably roll out here in the next couple of weeks.

- Yeah, of course, people hear budget cuts and often think layoffs.

Are layoffs gonna happen at some point or is it still too early to tell right now?

- It's a little too early to tell, but unfortunately, we'll have some tough decisions and that might be part of it.

What's important for us to do is really take a look at our core values and our core mission and make sure that we are an institution where the future of higher education needs to go, and where workforce in particular is critical to the state.

And so that's all kind of part of the calculus that we're working on right now.

- What, if anything, you talked in your email, talked about declining enrollment.

Is there anything that can be done about that?

You mentioned it's a nationwide problem.

Yeah, it's not a NDSU issue.

I mean it is, but it's it's an industry or university system-wide thing.

- Yeah, so part of what we're trying to do now is it's not just about cuts, it's about investments and it's about right sizing the institution.

And so it's not just about growing for growths sake, it's thinking about who we are, where we need to go, and what makes sense for our institution and for the state.

And so it's a little bit about right sizing, but when it comes to enrollment specifically, what we need to do and what we're already working on is, okay, what are the new degrees that the state needs, that workforce needs?

And so one of the ways to turn that around is gonna be about standing up new types of degrees that meet workforce and industry and the way in which we deliver those.

And so that will definitely be part of it to help turn the ship around a little bit.

But another big part of this is retention.

And so we do a remarkable job of getting students to NDSU outta high school.

We just need to do a little bit better job in terms of helping 'em be successful when they're there.

And this is on everybody's radar screen.

And I actually think the work that we're gonna do moving forward will be about transforming the first year experience, giving students real world experiential workforce opportunities, more internships, that's thinking about careers that will help them really have a hands-on approach to what that job or what that career might be early in their career, early in their time at NDSU.

Pretty excited about rolling out some of those plans.

- Did COVID impact enrollments at all?

And is the college kind of still recovering from that time period?

- Yeah.

COVID, and even in my previous job, COVID was tough.

Living through it was really hard.

And I think probably everywhere we're trying to get out of it and get beyond it, but there's no question that COVID is one of the things that kind of gave us a gut punch in all this and that we're getting over it and we gotta look forward, not backward, but there's no doubt that that was rough, but we gotta be thinking about where we're going now.

And so whatever happened with COVID is behind us and we gotta start moving forward.

- You know, going back to budget cuts real quick.

I understand you've said everything's on the table.

I mean, can you talk more about that?

Does that mean you're looking at everything?

- Yeah, I mean, we're looking at, you know, things like programs that maybe are high cost, low enrollment, but we're looking at opportunities for mergers.

One of the opportunities that we've put out there already is looking at our college structure.

And we currently have seven different academic colleges.

Is that the right number of colleges when we're trying to right size the institution?

And so our deans are working on that.

But then also just looking at academic programs that could merge potentially.

I think there's a lot of opportunities for us to work a little bit closer with some of our auxiliaries, with athletics and the foundation and how can we all come together a little bit to, I think, create efficiencies, but really work together better to create new opportunities that we currently haven't been pursuing.

So that's what I mean by everything's on the table.

- let's go to another subject that's been in the news a lot.

President Biden announced waiving $10,000 for student in federal student loan debt, but that's now tied up in the court.

Can you talk about maybe your view on the policy and decision, and is that high cost of college impacting enrollments?

- Yeah, I will tell you the cost of college and the cost of education is a really important issue across the United States and certainly with us.

And so as I talk to leaders, alumni, legislators, where I like to focus really is on, we gotta do everything we can to make college attainable and access to students who maybe traditionally haven't been able to access college, attainable and let's not have cost be part of the challenge there.

And so we know, for example, Minnesota students have continued to come to North Dakota, which I think is good.

We net import future talent, future workforce.

But we also know in Minnesota, they're starting to talk a little bit about making college more attainable within the state and trying to keep more of their graduates.

And so it's really incumbent on us to do everything we can to keep costs low.

And so cost is not gonna be an issue for future potential Bison students.

- You talked a little bit about this, but with all the issues you're dealing with and everything, can you talk about your impressions of NDSU so far?

- Oh yeah.

Well the impressions have been fantastic and I say this a little jokingly, but when I interviewed back in January, my wife came with me, I just want you to know it was minus 21 degrees.

So we got that first impression and we didn't care.

But since that time, getting the job really in February then, people have reached out to me, really helped make my wife feel welcome, which is fantastic.

And I remember the last interview question, well a number of questions, but the answer I kept saying was, the people, like the people we've met, we really love everybody and just the people, to the point where they're probably sick of me.

But I still would tell tell you that today.

The people we've met from the community here in Fargo, Morehead, in the NDSU community and then even across the state, people have been great to us and we have something very special here.

And I think that's what kind of drew us in to a great extent.

And I'll tell you my opinion on that hasn't changed.

- Well, good.

Now we're gonna turn a little bit to legislators or the legislative session.

Because of North Dakota University system and how it works, you're dealing with already and will be dealing with legislators in the upcoming session that's just started in terms of funding and budgets.

How do you feel going into the session and what are the big asks for NDSU?

- You bet.

Well, you'd asked previously how my previous experience set me up for this.

So just on various different times I've had state and federal relations report up to me when I was at my previous job.

So it's a space I'm comfortable in.

It's hard work.

I kind of enjoy it candidly.

And really since day one I've tried hard to get out and meet people, build relationships, whether that's just across the state or with legislators.

So I've been very fortunate to interact with a lot of those folks, interact with a lot of the Cass County delegation, but had already met with a number of the legislators who are in leadership positions.

And I think that's hugely important for anybody in this kind of role, but especially when it comes to the legislature, get to know people, build a relationship, we're gonna disagree, there's no question about that at some point.

But I hope people know that my heart might be in the right place even if I mess something up later.

And so been doing a lot of that kind of outreach.

Now the session just started this week, so I've already been to Bismarck and talking with folks, I watched the governor's state of the state address, he did a fantastic job.

And so a big part of this has been just getting out there, getting to know people, helping them give me feedback, and also helping them understand the vision.

And so you asked about priorities, the financial situation that we already talked about is one that's critical and I've been talking with them about if you could give us a little bit of leniency or grace, if you will, on those budget cuts that are kind of following us around, that will allow me to turn the ship around a little bit quicker.

The governor in his budget address back in, last year now, back in December, reduced something called the floor or this hold harmless clause to 4%.

Meaning that even though we have cuts higher than 4%, they're gonna only make us go to 4%.

Which is fantastic and I'm incredibly appreciative of that.

Now we're talking about, "Well, can you give us a little bit more?"

Which we have earned, but I think we need to do everything we can to help get our base budget where it needs to be.

That will help us turn the ship around in two or three years, not six or seven years.

So that's big priority number one.

Inflation is a huge issue for Allstate entity.

So that's another one.

And then we have an engineering facility that will really be interdisciplinary working with precision ag, engineering, innovation, life sciences, entrepreneurship, startup companies will be a big part of this new facility.

And we have that as our top capital project for NDSU.

So those are the things I'm talking to legislators about when I'm in Bismarck.

- Well, changing subjects a little bit maybe here, depending on who you talk to, football is either very important in NDSU or not as important as it made out to be.

What's your view on that and how does it affect the university?

- I think football is very important at NDSU and I think athletics is very important.

And again, in my previous position I met with the athletic director probably twice a week at KU at the University of Kansas.

And so intimately involved with this, with my background, it's important for a lot of reasons.

We have a lot of pride with what we do with Bison Athletics across the board, just not football.

We punch above our weight.

It's incredible how strong of an institution and of a brand that we have.

And again, coming from Iowa and Kansas, I can tell you people in those states know Bison and they know Bison football and I'll just leave it at that.

But, so it's great for the brand.

The student athletes are first class, they are the best of the best as the coaches tell, say over and over again.

They recruit character kids.

I can tell you it shows.

I've watched them during tough moments and in great moments and they always handle themselves with first class.

So I think it's incredibly important that way.

It's also incredibly important for diversity, which is one of my priority areas.

We get a lot of diversity through students from all across the United States and even internationally coming to NDSU to perform on the court or the field for us.

And I think that's also just another one of the reasons why it's incredibly important.

- Can you talk about scholarships?

How important are they in attracting students and student athletes for that matter?

- Yeah, we're really blessed.

We have alumni who support us and give a lot of scholarships across a lot of different disciplines.

Scholarships in this day and age often are the differentiating factor between where a student may choose to go to college 'cause cost is so important.

And so you're gonna hear me talk about scholarship, scholarship, scholarships a lot.

That's in the athletic realm, but really across all the different academic disciplines.

So that's always gonna be a top focus for us in fundraising because it allows us to help make the cost more affordable, helps us recruit top tier students and all those things are incredibly important to us.

- What do you see as your most important role or job as president of NDSU?

- I think the job of a leader is to really set a vision and get people excited about that vision and then get people rallying behind it.

And so that's a little bit of what we're working on with, it's tough right now.

We have some hard work that's not gonna be fun, it's gonna be really challenging.

But if we can kind of get through this and really follow through with this vision, I think that's where people are gonna start to get excited about where we can be in the next, you know, three, four, five, 10 years.

So I think that's critical.

And then I'll tell you the next thing for me is gonna be about getting a really strong team around me and I'm already building that.

One of my bad jokes is walk in the room, and I got my leaders around me, the IQ drops 'cause they're all smarter than me and that's really the way I try to lead is to get really smart, talented people who will challenge you, disagree, but engage.

And so those are a couple of the things anyway that I think are critical to my success and to NDSU's success moving forward.

- Outside of the impending budget cuts, how is morale in this situation at NDSU now?

- Yeah, I set five priorities out there.

Enrollment and retention, we've talked about that in student success.

We haven't talked so much about research, but being an R-1 institution, one of only a few in the upper Midwest is a very significant big deal.

And so we really need to continue to pursue excellence there.

And then wellbeing is one of the areas that I made a priority after interacting with students, faculty and staff across the institution.

I think we have some real challenges there.

Times are tough and so morale is one of the things that by focusing on wellbeing, I'm hoping to kind of make that a little bit better as we move forward.

- Real quick, what's the best part of your job?

- Students.

Over and over and over again, love interacting with them.

They kind of keep you young, they challenge you, they have a certain enthusiasm and we have an amazing student body president, student leadership that I'm really enjoying getting to know and working with and I'll be working with them in Bismarck, so that'll be a lot of fun too.

- If people want more information, where's the best place they can go?

- I would say just head to my website, the office of the president at NDSU and I have a share your ideas link on there.

People give me a lot of advice in this job and so fill out one of those forms or just send me an email.

I'd love to connect.

- Dr. Cook, thanks for joining us.

- You bet, thank you so much.

- Stay tuned for more.

(upbeat music) Debbie Aune is an impressionist painter and art educator in the Greenbush Middle River, Minnesota school district.

She loves to paint outside and focuses her work not only on the natural beauty of the area, but also on the buildings that might seem bland until she paints them and brings them to life.

Debbie's commitment to her art and her students has made her an artistic gem in the Greenbush area.

(upbeat music) (upbeat music) - I love plein air, painting outside on the spot in the open air and it's a movement right now.

It's a movement to me 'cause I wasn't paying attention to it up until maybe 10 years ago.

And it's gotten awful popular.

It's good for you, it's good for the mind and soul.

I wouldn't choose to paint outside like today, but you know, sometimes I've paid for workshops where you will go out and paint, but I can flip my hatch up and paint most of the time and I've done that in the winter, in the rain, but in the wind is actually the worst thing.

If you can't get out of the wind.

The heat and the sun, you can get an umbrella or find the shade, but it's something that you have to just deal with.

It's impressionism I suppose.

I didn't always used to be that loose, but painting outside, that really, really loosens you up and helps you get rid of the fussiness and it's just so much more fun.

I think it's fun to teach that style and it goes really fast and get a painting done pretty quickly.

(upbeat music) And now I'm gonna try to find this very important triangle on this bit of construction here.

It's fantastic to see them get lost in their work like no phones, no electricity, like I said, no bells.

It's fun to just watch them, actually, almost, it is a hundred percent focus.

(upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) It's getting a little drier.

A little drier.

That happens, that's why we have newspaper.

I teach K-12.

all the K-6 kids I get to see in the high school.

It's typically an elective.

And I just follow the state standards but I get to design the courses, and of course painting's my favorite.

I like drawing as well, but we do everything from clay to mixed media, to drawing to fiber art, string art.

It's just fun to see them.

I know it sounds simple when I say make stuff, but just to make stuff.

(upbeat music) I started out painting the elevators in the country.

I would go on photo shoots and take pictures of the elevators, gray, you know, how we like black and white photos.

It was a lot of grays and I thought that was fun to paint with just grays with a little bit of color and a little bit color there.

And I had a show with just elevators of the local towns about 10 years ago.

Then I got into just landscapes and my last show was Beltrami Forest, blueberry picking and with a few people thrown in.

And that's what I enjoy doing is local, local stuff.

It just happens when I am sleeping I think.

And I wake up and I have this idea.

That's really the truth.

I maybe follow the seasons too though.

When I did my elevator series, it was winter scenes and sometimes I'd fake a truck or two in there.

During the summer it was the blueberries.

You're kind of just lost in what the paint is doing 'cause watercolor will float to the left and it'll float to the right and then gravity takes over and there's granules in some of the paint that separate and they do their own thing.

Sometimes there's a big old accident and that turns into something really cool like what happened to us out in the car today.

So you gotta have fun with the paint and let it do some of the work.

Sometimes you can control it and sometimes you can't.

Sometimes it's a disaster.

Sometimes it's really awesome.

Tonight when we're sleeping, it'll do its own thing.

We're gonna fill the paper today with gray.

We probably used ochre the other day.

I never dreamed of going very far.

I visited the cities and Duluth and whatnot, but I always tended to come back home.

And then I met my husband and here we are living happily ever after and I love it here.

You can get in your car and travel and that's what I do.

I just am very happy with the K-12 system and teaching kids.

I think it's just so relaxing.

I guess it's happy, but it's calming too.

And when you're painting, you're thinking about the kids at home and you're thinking about, I still have my parents.

You're thinking of things as you're painting.

Sometimes you're not even thinking about your painting.

You're just painting and you're thinking about supper or you're thinking about Sunday.

Do I have a job at church tonight?

And you're just painting and it's like, whoa, how did that happen?

(upbeat music) I'd love you to come to my shows.

I'd love you to walk into my shows.

I think you'll find a place that will remind you of a place that you've been, it'll trigger a memory or a story and then you'll start talking about your story.

These paintings that I do, I'm hoping to bring back stories for people to discuss.

- Well, that's all we have this week on Prairie Pulse.

And as always, thanks for watching.

(upbeat music) (upbeat music) - [Announcer] Funded by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund with money from the vote of the people of Minnesota on November 4th, 2008.

And by the members of Prairie Public.