When they created UND six years before statehood, the founders had in mind the classic model of a liberal arts-based university. And yet they also recognized that providing for even the basic educational needs of the sparsely populated Dakota Territory would be a challenge. Thus a “normal school” for the training of teachers was added.

When the faculty gathered in 1884 to greet their first students, not one was qualified for college-level work. Regular courses had to be put off for a year in favor of teaching preparatory courses to bring their young charges up to speed.

It’s a vastly different picture today, notes Dan Rice, dean of the College of Education and Human Development. North Dakota ranks near the top in the percentage of its high school graduates who go on to college. Moreover, their high achievement levels result in them being recruited by universities from across the nation.

And yet, the state faces a challenge not dissimilar from its pioneer days. Population declines have brought vast portions of North Dakota back to what demographers refer to as “frontier” status. Funding is always a difficult issue. How then to continue providing top-quality instruction?

So it is that North Dakota's largest provider of teachers and educational professionals is devoting more attention to assisting the state in facing these new realities of public education. “UND has the talent and the breadth of expertise to be of great help,” Rice said, “and we intend to lead by example.”

Not a year goes by that the college does not have some kind of indirect contact with every school district in the state, he says, including substantial involvement with perhaps half of them. His faculty members have become adept at grant writing, and many of the resulting service and research projects involve collaboration with schools.

So active are they, in fact, that education ranks fourth at UND in attracting outside grant dollars, right behind energy, medicine and aerospace.

But Rice concedes the issues are both huge and complicated.

“UND can't do this alone,” he said, “because the truth is we don't have all the answers. And in a state with very limited resources, we all need to work together.”

And there are partners in the North Dakota University System. All of the four-year institutions are involved in the preparation of teachers. “We all need to identify our strengths and bring those to the table,” Rice said.

Specializations offered in early childhood, elementary, reading, middle, secondary, special, and higher education, leading to undergraduate degrees and the M.Ed., M.S., Specialist Diploma., Ed.D., and Ph.D. degrees.

Total enrollment last fall was 1,490 students, of whom 478 were graduate students. Elementary education is UND’s largest major. with more than 460 students. The college awards nearly half of UND’s graduate degrees.

More full-time educational personnel in North Dakota’s primary and secondary schools - 1,530 of a total 8,606 teachers, administrators and professionals - hold their highest degree from UND than from any other institution.

Here's how State Superintendent of Public Instruction Wayne Sanstead, himself a UND graduate, expains the issue of shifting demographics:

"North Dakota has been experiencing a declining population, primarily because of the lack of economic opportunity and the 'boom and bust' nature of the state's primary revenue sources. The declining population is tied very closely to a shrinking tax base, which reduces resources available to provide education services. However, the reduction in population and resources has not reduced the demand for continued education opportunities across the entire state.

"Because of low salaries, more and more licensed educators are being attracted to other states or choose other fields of employment. North Dakota is experiencing teacher shortages in areas such as special education, mathematics, physical science, bilingual education, music, biological science and foreign languages."

For more information, visit the Department of Public Instruction's Web site at http://www.dpi.state.nd.us/.

It already has involved 20 classrooms and 400 students from the elementary through the high school level in five districts. Collaborating with UND are the Grand Forks Public Schools, Thompson Public School, Manvel Community School, Warwick Public School and Four Winds Community School at Fort Totten.

Funded by the U.S. Department of Education at $200,000 per year over three years, the initiative supports both faculty at UND in better integrating technology into their courses and prospective “student teachers” in the field who are learning how to teach with technology.

At each partner site, the student teachers are placed in classrooms with “mentor” teachers to plan and implement a “Technology-supported Authentic Learning Task” that is matched to the district’s curriculum standards.

Projects have included use of digital cameras, interactive Web pages, slide shows and other multimedia applications to support their learning. As the project develops, says UND Professor Mark Guy, more prospective teachers will be linked with mentor teachers, in turn reaching more students in the cooperating districts.