520: 'I've never spoken to the chancellor'

Plain Talk

Many Republicans are trying to argue that President Joe Biden opting to end his re-election campaign, and the subsequent consolidation of Democrats behind the candidacy of Vice President Kamala Harris, was a "coup."

Was it? My co-host Chad Oban and I discussed it on this episode of Plain Talk, where we were also joined by Trista Keith, a now-former member of the Dickinson State University nursing faculty.

That faculty has resigned, and the administration at DSU has moved on, opting to use personnel from Mayville State University to provide instruction to its nursing students.

Craig, who came on the program to rebut claims made in our previous interview with North Dakota University System Chancellor Mark Hagerott, said she and her fellow nurses resigned because the credit hour requirements in their contracts were untenable. Hagerott, echoing claims made by DSU President Stephen Easton (who has also resigned though remains in his position as higher ed leaders work on finding a replacement), also claimed that the program was costing a half-million dollars a year to graduate just 16 students.

Keith acknowledged that the program's graduation numbers were down, but attributed that to a blip from the COVID-19 pandemic. "It's completely unfair not to take COVID into consideration," she said. She said the pandemic scared a lot of prospective students away. "Nobody wanted to become a nurse," but she said things have been recovering, noting that the DSU program had 60 incoming students.

She also said she was "disappointed" in Hagerott's comments, saying she expected that "someone int hat leadership position" would "get the other side of the story."

"I've never spoken to the chancellor," she said.

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