Mayville State seeks completion funding for Old Main, requests campus security upgrade and highlights CFI recovery

Mayville State University President Brian Vanhorn and Vice President for Business Affairs Amber Hill told the House Appropriations — Education and Environment Division that the university has recovered from earlier financial strains, posted enrollment gains and needs the Legislature’s help to finish a longstanding Old Main renovation and to fund a campus security upgrade.

Vanhorn described Mayville State as an institution focused on workforce development and small‑campus, high‑service education. He told the committee the university has improved enrollment in recent years — reporting an 8.2% overall headcount increase from fall 2023 to fall 2024 and an all‑time record FTE this spring — and said the institution had raised private funds and used prior appropriations to start the Old Main renovation.

Vice President Amber Hill provided project status and financial details for Old Main: the institution has completed substantial design and abatement work and received favorable construction bids. She said the construction manager at risk has presented a guaranteed maximum price that is within budget and that demolition and foundation work will accelerate as weather and ground conditions permit. Hill said a legislative inflationary adjustment included in last session’s appropriations helped keep the project on budget.

Mayville requested continued capital funding to complete Old Main (the presentation described a roughly $35 million remaining budget need to finish the project after prior work). The renovation is intended to consolidate student services in a single corridor, improve classroom and life‑safety systems, and address large deferred‑maintenance items: Old Main accounted for about 60% of the campus’s deferred maintenance total prior to the project.

Separately, Mayville asked for $1.3 million to install campus card‑access controls, interior and exterior IP cameras, server capacity and upgraded pedestrian lighting. Hill told the committee the campus currently lacks a seated campus police force and that the access and surveillance work would address repeated life‑safety and security concerns for students and staff. The university said that the Senate engrossment did not include that security appropriation.

Vanhorn also described Mayville’s role helping Dickinson State University during a recent nursing‑program disruption: when Dickinson’s nursing faculty resigned, Mayville agreed to serve as nursing administrator and to supply faculty and administrative capacity to keep students in their programs while Dickinson recruited replacements. Vanhorn said Mayville deployed nursing administrators and faculty "to help your neighbor, help the students, and keep the train moving." He said the arrangement imposed additional workload on Mayville faculty and required temporary reallocation of institutional staffing.

Hill and Vanhorn reviewed Mayville’s financial recovery: after a low Composite Financial Index (CFI) during the allotment period, Mayville’s CFI improved to healthy levels, undesignated reserves were restored to roughly $1.1 million and total designated and undesignated reserves rose to about $6.5 million. The university asked the committee to finish the Old Main funding and consider the security project to support student and campus safety.

Ending: Vanhorn thanked the Legislature and said Mayville will continue to pursue enrollment and workforce programs that place graduates into North Dakota jobs.