Editing Dickinson State University (section)

===Enrollment and graduation controversies===
In 2011 and 2012, Dickinson State attracted negative attention for some of its academic and business practices. In 2011, the university was discovered to have overstated its enrollments by practices such as counting people as students who had merely attended a conference on the campus.<ref>{{citation |url=http://chronicle.com/article/Battle-Shapes-Up-as-Dickinson/128551/ |title=Battle Shapes Up as Dickinson State U. President Refuses to Resign | work=Chronicle of Higher Education | date=August 7, 2011 | access-date= February 10, 2012 | author=Berrett, Dan}}</ref>  This situation resulted in the dismissal of the university president, Richard J. McCallum.<ref name="CHEAug">{{cite web | url=http://chronicle.com/article/Dickinson-State-U-President/128557/ | title=Dickinson State U. President Is Fired in Wake of Enrollment Errors | work=Chronicle of Higher Education | date=August 8, 2011 | access-date=December 11, 2011 | author=Berrett, Dan}}</ref><ref name="CHEDec">{{cite web | url=http://chronicle.com/blogs/ticker/judge-upholds-firing-of-university-president-accused-of-inflating-enrollment/39068| title=Judge Upholds Firing of University President Accused of Inflating Enrollment | work=Chronicle of Higher Education | date=December 9, 2011 | access-date=December 11, 2011 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.ndus.edu/uploads/reports/91/testimony.pdf |title=State of North Dakota Board Board of Higher Education v Richard McCallum |access-date=2011-12-11 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120426042917/http://www.ndus.edu/uploads/reports/91/testimony.pdf |archive-date=2012-04-26 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

A [[North Dakota University System]] audit report released in February 2012 found that the school had relaxed standards and waived some requirements to increase enrollment of foreign students and had, over a period of several years, awarded degrees to 584 foreign students who had not completed the required coursework. The report was a followup of an earlier meeting between Dickinson officials and the Higher Learning Commission at which the DSU officials "realized they may have an issue with one or more of the HLC's requirements surrounding academic agreements".<ref name="North Dakota University System">{{citation |url=http://www.ndus.edu/uploads/reports/94/dsu-internal-review-ddj-final-draft1-020912.pdf |title=Internal Review Report: International Transfer Agreement review, Dickinson State University |publisher=North Dakota University System |number=NDUS-IA-01-12 |date=February 10, 2012 |page=7 }}{{dead link|date=September 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> Most of the university's foreign students came from China, where the university employed recruiting agents who falsely claimed to be university employees and sometimes misrepresented the university's programs. News media accounts described the audit report as depicting Dickinson State as a [[diploma mill|degree mill]].<ref>[https://www.npr.org/2012/02/10/146694852/n-dakota-university-was-degree-mill-audit-finds Audit Depicts N. Dakota University As Degree Mill] - NPR, February 10, 2012</ref><ref>{{citation |url=http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-02-11/chinese-at-north-dakota-school-got-unearned-degrees-state-says.html |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120722213004/http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-02-11/chinese-at-north-dakota-school-got-unearned-degrees-state-says.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=July 22, 2012 |title=Chinese at North Dakota School Got Unearned Degrees, State Says |newspaper=Bloomberg Business Week |date=February 11, 2012 }}</ref><ref>[http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/02/10/MNJO1N6893.DTL Dickinson State - alleged diploma mill for Chinese] - Associated Press/San Francisco Chronicle, Feb 10, 2012</ref><ref>[http://thechoice.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/02/10/degrees-without-the-work-for-foreign-students-at-a-north-dakota-university/ Degrees (Without the Work) for Foreign Students at a North Dakota University] - New York Times, 10 Feb 2012</ref> The audit had been requested by the university's president, Douglas Coston, who took office as Interim President in August 2011, after some university international agreements were found not to conform with requirements of the [[North Dakota State Board of Higher Education]] and the [[Higher Learning Commission]].<ref name="North Dakota University System"/> On the day of the audit release, the Dean of Education committed suicide.<ref>[http://bismarcktribune.com/news/state-and-regional/dickinson-state-university-dean-found-dead/article_7b400e5a-5427-11e1-b1a6-0019bb2963f4.html Dickinson State University dean found dead] ''Bismarck Tribune'', February 10, 2012</ref> Six months later, in July, Dickinson's regional accreditor, the [[Higher Learning Commission]] (HLC), placed the university "on notice," requiring the university provide detailed responses to concerns found in the accreditor's recent site visit.<ref name=accreditation_on_notice /> That status was removed three years later when HLC renewed DSU's accreditation for ten years.<ref>{{Cite web|title = Letter from Higher Learning Commission|url = http://www.dickinsonstate.edu/Assets/Division-Academic-Affairs/Academic-Affairs-Administration/Accreditation-Planning-and-Reports/2015-Updates/Dickinson%2520State%2520University%2520PEAQ%2520Reaffirmation%25207-27-15.pdf|website = www.dickinsonstate.edu|access-date = 2016-01-22|url-status = dead|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160129234849/http://www.dickinsonstate.edu/Assets/Division-Academic-Affairs/Academic-Affairs-Administration/Accreditation-Planning-and-Reports/2015-Updates/Dickinson%20State%20University%20PEAQ%20Reaffirmation%207-27-15.pdf|archive-date = 2016-01-29}}</ref>