Dakota County colleges say merger remains on track for July 1, 2027

President Michael Burt, president of Dakota County Technical College and Inver Hills Community College, told trustees that work to merge the two institutions into one accredited college with two locations is on schedule and focused on “transformational” change rather than simple integration. "We currently have 25 chartered project teams working across every division supported by our merger oversight work group," Burt said during opening remarks at a board study session at Dakota County Technical College.

Burt said the board approved the intent to merge in January and that the colleges plan to complete the process by July 1, 2027. He provided specifics on academic and operational reconciliation: 83 courses have been identified for reconciliation through a joint Academic & Student Services Council (AASC); 31 common course outlines have been approved and 39 are in process. The colleges are restructuring more than 100 programs of study into guided learning pathways intended to give students clearer routes to careers.

The president described a set of administrative changes to align student services and operations. He said policies in areas such as grading and placement are being harmonized, advising and counseling teams are being integrated with clearer advisor assignments, and two shared student-affairs divisions—Enrollment Management & Outreach and Student Success & Retention—have been created to coordinate outreach, business engagement and retention work. "We're integrating our advising and counseling teams using the opportunity to align advising with our guided learning pathways," Burt said.

Burt described steps to strengthen project management and internal communications: each chartered merger project now has a work plan with milestones and quarterly status updates; a merger Q&A form allows employees to submit questions centrally; a regular "merger minute" update is published; and division updates are being shifted from single long sessions to weekly or biweekly one-hour briefings. He said a merger coordinator was hired internally, and a strengths-identification process has produced 27 employee submissions for potential leadership or project roles.

Burt identified the next formal accreditation milestone as submission of a change-of-control application to the Higher Learning Commission in June 2026, followed by an expected HLC team visit in November as part of the approval process. He also noted operational pressures including a Workday implementation and budget reductions but praised faculty and staff for maintaining services to students. Burt added that the campus hosts a co-located Independent School District 917 and that the colleges have arranged a campus tour and a student lunch the following day for trustees.

Trustees did not take formal action during the update; Burt said more opportunities for questions and follow-up would be scheduled over the next two days.