NDSU Transform is not what it seems.

Note: This article is by Evelyn Feyerherm. Website issues are causing the wrong name to display.

NDSU Transform sucks. There, I said it. No one understands what it is and that makes it all the more sinister, but from what I can find it’s a budget-cut program instituted by Dr. Cook and carried out by Huron Research, an outside consulting firm. It’s absurd that a group that has never worked with higher educational institutions was given free rein to redesign the entire university in order to make more money. Transform has brought the end of the Geology department and threatened many other schools before public outcry reached its height. The Emily Reynolds Costume Collection was going to move into the nursing college for a time simply because (I’m assuming based on the consultation firm’s other choices), “Human Sciences” was in the name of the previous college that houses Textile Production, Interior Design and all sorts of fun fabric studies. 

Faculty and staff have been at odds for the entire existence of their separation and we know that we’re all just numbers to the administration but that somehow has not led to joining forces. Instead, it feels as though each group fears the other because of tenure. Tenure, for those out of the loop, is like having a job that doesn’t care what you do because you’ve been there so long. Faculty gets it, staff does not. 

Faculty and staff make up the largest group on campus, second only to students. This sort of size indicates power! But we can only access that power if we join together, putting aside differences of status and work type to don the unity that is so important to the future of this institution. Staff should feel secure in their jobs! Faculty should feel safe that their departments won’t be cut on a whim! It is integral to change that we all join together as one cohesive group that shares the same problems. It doesn’t matter where you are, all that matters is who we are. We are NDSU. Not three separate parties occupying the same space, not three distinct groups that argue and bicker, not three enemies. We are NDSU.

Remember last fall when there were protests about Billing-Green being fired out of the blue? Maybe not if you’re a student, but if you are reading a newspaper, I have a sneaking suspicion you may be staff or faculty. That decision was kept under wraps for a long time and even as someone who was doing a research project on NDSU Transform at the time, I found it hard to find the real reason as to why she was fired.

If you are a student there is one important thing you can still do. Look up NDSU Transform and send in a little note that says, “This sucks, you destroyed colleges for fun to get a new pre-law degree? Who cares about that?” Sugihara Hall was built specifically to house the geology department, and then the whole department was cut from NDSU. 

Beyond that, there are so many departments that are barely scraping by, as well as some that aren’t even offering courses this semester. It is a scary time to be a student who has no way of learning these things except from a random writer at the student newspaper, probably one of the only undergraduate students here who can form a half-coherent statement about it, and I can’t even do better than that after 4 months of studying it, conducting interviews and attending school senate meetings. 

Remember the Geology Department.

Remember everything an outside consulting firm gets to do to your school without your consent. NDSU Transform was advertised as a 5-year plan to completely redevelop NDSU into a thriving economic success, and we haven’t heard a peep from the administration in months 

Remember that NDSU does not care about you unless you give them what they want: money. This is not a place to feel safe. Our school is an R1 Research Institution that hires out research on itself. 

Remember that this is barely scratching the surface of what NDSU Transform has done already. I didn’t even mention all of the staff who were moved randomly across campus into other departments, the entire financial restructure and the other administrative positions that are seemingly hand-picked by Dr. Cook’s administration and Huron months before the current person even finds out they’ve lost their job.