Dickinson State University

**Dickinson State University** (**DSU**) is a public university in Dickinson, North Dakota, United States. It is part of the North Dakota University System.  It was founded in 1918 as **Dickinson State Normal School**. The school got full university status in 1987.

## History

Dickinson State was start as a normal school.  It started to help get more teachers in rural western North Dakota. In that area, fewer than one-quarter of the people working as teachers in the early 1900s were certified as teachers. The university considers June 24, 1918, to be its start date. This was the first day of classes for the Dickinson Normal School. The school was free. They held classes at Dickinson High School. The first campus building, May Hall, was built in 1924.

During World War II, Dickinson State Teachers College was one of 131 colleges and universities nationally that took part in the V-12 Navy College Training Program.This program gave students a path to a Navy commission.

### Enrollment and graduation problems

In 2011 and 2012, Dickinson State had negative news for some of its academic and business procedures. In 2011, the university was discovered to have said it had more students than it actually had.  It was counting counting people as students who had only went to conferences on the campus.  This situation resulted in the firing of the university president, Richard J. McCallum.

A North Dakota University System report released in February 2012 found that the school made it really easy for foreign students to become students there. Over a period of several years, they school gave degrees to 584 foreign students who had not completed the required coursework. Most of the university's foreign students came from China.  The university hired recruiting agents to work in China to get more students. The agents sometimes lied about the school. News media accounts described the report as showing Dickinson State as a degree mill. The report had been asked for by the university's president, Douglas Coston, who took office as Interim President in August 2011. Coston asked for it because some university international agreements were found not to meet requirements of the North Dakota State Board of Higher Education and the Higher Learning Commission. On the day of the report release, the Dean of Education committed suicide. Six months later, in July, Dickinson's regional accreditor, the Higher Learning Commission (HLC), placed the university "on notice." The university had to give detailed responses to concerns found in the accreditor's site visit. That status was removed three years later when HLC renewed DSU's accreditation for ten years.

### Money problems

In 2023, the university ended seven degree programs.  This was because of money problems at the school. They fired tenured teachers in those programs. The university's decisions and actions were met with protests from faculty and others. University leaders also reorganized parts of the university and ended other positions. The next year, the university changed its academic policies to increase class sizes and require faculty to teach more students. All seven teachers in the university's nursing program resigned.  They were protesting that the new policies are unworkable in their program. The university was already under scrutiny by the program's accreditor, the Accreditation Commission for Education in Nursing. The state's board of nursing did not approve president Eaton's plan for hiring new faculty. He subsequently announced his plans to resign.  Dickinson's nursing program partnered with Mayville State University to continue Dickinson's nursing program.

## Academics

Dickinson State offers bachelor's degree<nowiki/>s in more than 75 fields of study in 10 academic departments. The university also offers certificates and associate degrees. Most students at DSU are business management majors. A lot of students also study education (both elementary and secondary), nursing, natural science, and agriculture. There is also opportunity for pre-professional study and vocational training in selected areas.

### Accreditation

Dickinson State University is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission.  The university was placed "on notice" in July 2012. It was removed from that status in October 2013 and is fully accredited.

## Sports

The Dickinson State sports teams are called the Blue Hawks. The university is a member of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA). They mostly play in the North Star Athletic Association (NSAA) for most of its sports since the 2014–15 year. Its men's and women’s wrestling team competes in the Heart of America Athletic Conference (HAAC). The Blue Hawks previously competed in the Frontier Conference from 2012–13 to 2013–14 and became a member again in 2025; an NAIA Independent within the Association of Independent Institutions (AII) during the 2011–12 school year; and in these defunct conferences: the Dakota Athletic Conference (DAC) from 2000–01 to 2010–11; and the North Dakota College Athletic Conference (NDCAC) from 1931–32 to 1999–2000. The team was known as the Savages until 1972 when they changed their name to the Blue Hawks.

Dickinson State has 16 sports: Men's sports include baseball, basketball, cross country, football, golf, track & field and wrestling; while women's sports include basketball, cross country, golf, softball, track & field, wrestling, and volleyball; and co-ed sports include cheerleading, eSports and rodeo.

## Notable former students

- Derrick Atkins – Track and field – 2006 World Champ Silver Medalist over 100 m
- Trevor Barry – Track and field – 2006 World Bronze Medalist in High jump in 2011
- Aaron Cleare – Track and field – 2004 Olympics 4×400 Finalist
- Edward Lone Fight – Tribal leader and educator – 1964
- Adrian Griffith – Track and field – 2006 2010 Commonwealth Games 100 m Finalist
- Jill McLain – Miss Montana USA – 2006
- Jamalcolm Liggins – Professional football player
- Ramon Miller – 2012 Olympics, Gold Medalist, 4×400 Men's Sprinting;  2008 Olympics, Silver Medalist, 4×400 Men's Sprinting
- La'Sean Pickstock – Track and field – World Indoor 4×400 Finalist
- Solo Sikoa – WWE Professional Wrestler. Played football as Joseph "Sefa" Fatu – 2016
- Chris Walby – CFL's Winnipeg Blue Bombers – 1981

## Other websites

- Official website
- Official athletics website

## Infobox (university)

- **name**: Dickinson State University
- **image**: Logo-Vertical-FULL-COLOR.png
- **image size**: 100
- **motto**: Small Community. Big Opportunity.
- **type**: Public university
- **academic affiliations**: National Space Grant College and Fellowship Program, Space-grant
- **endowment**: $8.9 million
- **president**: Scott Molander
- **students**: 1,392
- **city**: Dickinson, North Dakota
- **country**: U.S.
- **campus**: Urban,
- **former names**: Dickinson State Normal School (1918–1931)
Dickinson State Teachers College (1931–1963)
North Dakota State College (1963–1964)
Dickinson State College (1964–1965)
State University of North Dakota at Dickinson (1965–1987)
- **sports nickname**: Blue Hawks
- **mascot**: Buster Blue Hawk
- **sporting affiliations**: National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics, NAIA – Frontier Conference, Frontier
- **website**: [http://www.dickinsonstate.edu/ www.dickinsonstate.edu]
- **administrative staff**: 212
- **faculty**: 63
- **parent**: North Dakota University System