Dickinson State seeks $48.5M education center, requests money for Roosevelt Center storage and campus infrastructure

Dickinson State University interim President Ty Orton and finance officers outlined a multi-part request to the Appropriations — Education and Environment Division that includes operational support for student mental-health services, funding and storage enhancements tied to the Theodore Roosevelt Center, and capital and deferred‑maintenance projects.

Orton opened by describing Dickinson State’s enrollment growth and handing detail to Les Wheatstock, vice president for finance and administration, who walked the committee through the main asks. For the Theodore Roosevelt Center, Orton sought $1,000,000 one-time to help build museum-quality storage, digitization capacity and infrastructure to manage presidential collections and large archival donations. “This is an important item for us and honestly the state of North Dakota,” he said.

On buildings and infrastructure, Dickinson asked for $1,875,000 one-time to address an immediate set of boiler, deaerator and associated mechanical repairs and life‑safety items. Wheatstock described recent operational strain from aging boilers and a failed hot-water/steam unit and said the funds would cover critical repairs to preserve housing and campus operations. “We are dealing with fifties and sixties boilers,” Wheatstock said.

Separately, Orton described an “education innovation academic excellence center” concept and a figure of roughly $48,500,000 quoted in the transcript for the preferred plan to renovate and consolidate two existing Dickinson buildings rather than add new footprint. He said donor work and prior state investments have shaped the proposal and that the plan would reduce deferred maintenance across the campus.

Dickinson also asked for bonding authority and discussed a request for bridge financing connected to an indoor rodeo arena project; Wheatstock said bonding of roughly $12,500,000 had been discussed to cover timing gaps between invoices and donor receipts. The university also outlined mental-health needs and asked for funding to make counseling and crisis response regular, full‑time services rather than a primarily student-fee funded function.

Orton said Dickinson had used one-time mental-health funds to contract counseling capacity and that the campus needed stable operating support for expanded services. He also described a $27% increase in incoming freshmen this year and said the campus is focused on recruitment and retention.

Ending: Dickinson State left the committee with written cost sheets and asked appropriators to consider the mix of one-time and capital funding to address immediate mechanical failures, mental-health staffing and a larger academic consolidation project that would reduce long-term deferred maintenance and modernize facilities.