By Jeff Beach (North Dakota Monitor)

DICKINSON, N.D. (North Dakota Monitor) – Dickinson State University, which last week dismissed all of its nursing faculty, announced Friday that it will hire program administrators from Mayville State University’s nursing program to keep the program running.

The faculty layoffs were followed Monday by the resignation of Dickinson State President Stephen Easton, casting further uncertainty over the future of the program.

Carey Haugen and Collette Christoffers, administrators of Mayville State’s nursing program, said in the announcement that they wanted to reassure Dickinson State students.

“We want to help the current program maintain its accreditation status and help students get the education they are looking for. We are here for the students,” the announcement on Dickinson State’s website reads.

Teresa Bren, a former nursing professor at Dickinson State University, said she was disappointed that the board of trustees and North Dakota University System Chancellor Mark Hagerott didn’t work harder to bring back the resigned faculty members.

She said she had listened to a forum with nursing students led by the North Dakota Nurses Association, where students expressed their desire to see faculty who had resigned return.

“They’ve built respect and trust in our expertise, in the way we teach, and that was their main goal: to come back to DSU with the nursing faculty that was there when they left last school year,” Bren said in an interview.

Bren, who has played at Dickinson State for 11 years, says she has accepted a different position.

Mayville State offers two online nursing degree programs: one is designed for registered nurses seeking a bachelor of science in nursing, and the other is designed for nurses seeking a master of science in nursing.

Dickinson State offers two license-based programs: an associate degree in applied science for practical nursing – licensed practical nurse, or LPN – and a bachelor’s degree in nursing.

“The unique nature of these programs makes this collaboration non-competitive and mutually beneficial,” Dickinson State’s announcement said.

Bren said she is concerned about the wide differences in the accreditation standards the new administrators must meet.

The collaboration starts on Monday and is expected to end on May 20, 2025.

The announcement indicated that both institutions would like to see the agreement continued in the future.

During a visit to Dickinson State’s campus on Thursday, Hagerott said he expects the university to have an acting president to replace Easton within weeks, after which a search will begin for an interim president.