That was an interesting article and some very interesting facts. I do think that for funding purposes, the campus with more students that set foot on campus should get more funding. Did you know that for funding NDSU only gets $4919 per student while UND gets $6249, Williston gets $7564, and Valley City gets $9313 per student? You can see the breakdown here:
http://issuu.com/spectrumslides/docs/september_23__2011.
What I’m trying to drill into some skulls is that the reality of the situation is quite a bit different than many of you believe(including many legislators apparently). NDSU’s growth was based off of recruiting traditional, on-campus students that benefit North Dakota. They live in Fargo. They work in Fargo. They pay ND income taxes. They pay ND/Fargo sales taxes. Through their rent, they pay property taxes. They buy things from ND businesses. They contribute. UND’s growth(and that of many of the other NDUS campuses) is built on off-campus growth. UND in particular has been targeting online students from outside ND and even outside the US. Everything that the traditional students contribute to ND, these students don’t. If you want to attack a campus for “subsidizing the education of out of state residents”, you should be looking much closer to home.
That's an interesting point, and maybe this person does have a point about that too. Afterall, if you are educating the future generations, you would think that you would want those people to stay in the state and contribute to the economy, taxes, etc., so it makes more sense to give more funding to the schools that encourage people to stay in state.
Sal, in response to your question, if numbers are what matter, UND has the "better" enrollment, but if counting the number of students on campus, then NDSU has the "better" enrollment.