North Dakota State University budget request priorities aligned with our campus strategic priorities.

NDSU’s priorities in the 2023 North Dakota Legislature are grounded in the five key areas of focus based on NDSU’s strategic plan and its core values.  Our requests center around operational funding and an engineering project.  Please see more details on ourbudget priorities and engineering project.
 

Budget Hold Harmless
NDSU continues to strongly support the higher education funding formula but because of enrollment declines, NDSU is budgeted to receive a significant reduction in funding in the next biennium.  NDSU requests that the floor for funding reductions be reinstated (it was removed during in the last biennium) with a new hold harmless rate at 0%.  Reducing NDSU’s budget loss allows more time for strategic planning and efficient reduction of operating costs. Reinstatement of the funding formula floor is also a priority of the NDUS, and the governor’s budget proposal reinstated it at 4%.
 

Engineering Project
NDSU seeks to meet North Dakota’s workforce needs by recruiting and educating future generations of leaders in engineering, innovation and entrepreneurship.  Existing facilities are inadequate to meet the current and future workforce demands of the state. A new facility would combine engineering, precision agriculture, energy stewardship, computer science/cybersecurity/AI and entrepreneurship with state-of-the-art teaching and research tools.  This has been a capital project priority for NDSU since 2014. The total project estimated cost is $111,600,000 with $27,900,000 (25%) privately funded.
 

Waldron Hall Project
This is a $97 million dollar project with $87 million of state funding and up to $10 of private fundraising.  This will be an Agricultural Experiment Station building and will include space for plant breeding, agronomy, weed science, horticulture, plant pathology, and soil science. The research will result in plant varieties that are better adapted to North Dakota growing conditions, improved soil fertility and fertilizer recommendations, improved solutions for weed control, and better solutions to plant disease threats for North Dakota farmers and ranchers.    
 

Research 
Legacy Fund earnings – Economic Development and Research Request: As one of the nation’s premiere research institutions, NDSU's role as North Dakota’s sole R1 research university is to provide leadership in programs that will create tomorrow’s workforce through advanced research and innovation across four key priority areas.

• Food, Energy and Water Security
• Cybersecurity, Computer Science and Software Engineering
• Life Sciences
• Entrepreneurship and Innovation
   

2023-2025 Biennial Budget 
NDSU has prepared a needs-based budget, as approved and directed by the ND State Board of Higher Education along with other priorities for consideration.