MSU, DCB awarded Challenge Grants
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Minot State University was awarded $398,430 in North Dakota Challenge Grant funds at a meeting of the State Board of Higher Education grant committee on Wednesday, Nov. 4.
Much of the funding will support the new innovation engineering program that launched this fall.
Dakota College at Bottineau was approved for $68,722, including funds for a dental lab radiology expansion project.
The lab project will add six full radiology setups for the dental assisting and dental hygiene programs in Minot, expanding hands-on training with industry-standard equipment, according to the college. The $34,847 from the Challenge Grant will add to $69,696 raised in private/nonprofit support to provide $104,543 toward the project.
The Minot City Council on a 4-3 vote in July gave MSU a forgivable loan of $500,000 from the MAGIC Fund as a local match for a Challenge Grant to support technology, equipment, educational infrastructure and student scholarships associated with the innovation engineering program. While there was interest in seeing the new program go forward, some council members questioned putting local economic development dollars from sales tax into a state-owned institution.
In its development agreement with MSU, the city council made the MAGIC Fund money contingent upon getting a $250,000 Challenge Grant.
The Challenge Grant Committee awarded $175,000 to support the innovation engineering program and $75,000 for student scholarships in the program to match the MAGIC Fund pledge. Separately, the committee approved another $12,500, based on $25,000 in other donations, for a total of $262,500 in Challenge Grants for the innovation engineering program.
The committee also approved $104,930 to match $209,860 in donated funds for MSU special education scholarships; $15,000 to match $30,000 in pledged funds for MSU nursing scholarships; and $16,000 to match $32,000 in donations and pledges for MSU general scholarships.
The approved grants exhaust the dollars appropriated to MSU this biennium from the $24.76 million in total Challenge Grant funds allocated by the 2025 Legislature. All but three of the 11 eligible institutions have raised enough private and nonprofit donations to capture their full appropriations. Those with money still on the table have until Dec. 31 to submit applications.