North Dakota university leaders fear ‘catastrophic implications’ of new Minnesota free tuition plan

Roughly 1,400 Minnesota students attending North Dakota colleges and universities might be eligible for the new program. Advertisement“This has catastrophic implications,” said David Cook, North Dakota State University’s president, at a recent State Board of Higher Education meeting. They accounted for nearly 40% of the first-year students at the University of North Dakota in Grand Forks and North Dakota State College of Science in Wahpeton in fall 2021. According to the Campaign for Free College Tuition, a national nonprofit, more than half the states now offer some kind of free college tuition, often with the word “Promise” in their program names. University of Wisconsin officials are expanding a free tuition program that started at its flagship Madison campus to 12 more schools this fall.