FORDVILLE, N.D. — A town in northwest North Dakota welcomes visitors to a fall festival, unveiling a piece of art crafted by a regional artist.

Destination Fordville, a nonprofit with the goal of improving the city with family friendly activities, announced in a press release the Fordville Fall Festival will be held Saturday, Nov. 15.

“The Fordville Fall Festival is all about celebrating creativity, community and the small town spirit that makes our region shine,” the release said. “We’re proud to showcase our local talent and bring people together for a fun, family friendly evening.”

The festival starts with the unveiling of a mural created by Hilary Nowatzki as part of the Rendezvous Region Mural Series, supported by the Rendezvous Region Tourism Council, North Dakota Department of Commerce’s Vibrancy Grant, the North Dakota Council on the Arts’ Community Arts Access Grant and Destination Fordville, the release said. The mural is located on the lot next to City Hall. The unveiling will be held at 4 p.m.

Other activities and events include the Hotdish Hoedown and the Apple/Pumpkin Throwdown at the Wells Drinking Well from 4 to 6:45 p.m. There will also be apple bobbing, a tattoo station and games for both kids and adults. Hayrides will be offered outside the Community Center. There will also be firepits guests can use to make s’mores, the release said.

All events are free and open to the public.

The full schedule for the festival and updates regarding the events are available at Destination Fordville’s Facebook page.

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North Dakota Fightin’ Hawks (1-3) at UC Riverside Highlanders (2-1)

Riverside, California; Saturday, 5 p.m. EST

BOTTOM LINE: UC Riverside plays North Dakota after Andrew Henderson scored 27 points in UC Riverside’s 82-68 loss to the New Mexico Lobos.

UC Riverside finished 21-13 overall with a 14-1 record at home during the 2024-25 season. The Highlanders allowed opponents to score 75.0 points per game and shoot 44.9% from the field last season.

North Dakota finished 12-21 overall a season ago while going 2-12 on the road. The Fightin’ Hawks averaged 12.3 points off of turnovers, 13.4 second-chance points and 4.4 bench points last season.

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The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar.

BISMARCK — Representatives of North Dakota colleges on Wednesday, Nov. 12, espoused the value of offering online classes, even to students who may never set foot in the state.

State lawmakers have been trying to assess the value of providing state funding to online programs serving students outside North Dakota and neighboring states.

“We are still highly subsidizing,” Sen. Ron Sorvaag, R-Fargo, chair of the Higher Education Funding Review Committee, said of online classes. “We still need to understand, are we getting a bang for the buck?”

A

University System presentation

said the state is spending about $22 million on online courses for out-of-state students for the most recent two-year budget cycle. That doesn’t include online students from Minnesota, Montana or South Dakota.

Sorvaag said legislators aren’t opposed to online education, but want to make sure the dollars that go to online courses through the state’s higher education funding formula are being used wisely.

The committee will consider possible changes to the funding formula that could be made in the 2027 legislative session.

Much of the discussion centered on out-of-state, online students. In 2021-23, the University System had nearly 9,000 out-of-state, online students who were not residents of neighboring states, according to figures presented to the committee. Total enrollment for those two years was more than 77,000 students.

Karla Mongeon-Stewart, vice president of finance for the University of North Dakota, addressed value by saying that UND students in that category contribute $2.09 in tuition and fees for every $1 of state funding.

She said online students pay the same fees as on-campus students that help maintain buildings, pay down debt and keep fees for things such as recreation facilities low for on-campus students.

She said revenue from online students has helped keep UND financially stable at times when on-campus enrollment has waned.

Mongeon-Stewart also highlighted how UND has built a reputation as a credible online institution that reflects positively on the whole state. She gave examples of Sara Sabry, an Egyptian astronaut, and Paige Jones, an Olympic-level skier from Utah, who chose to take classes from UND.

She said UND also serves the military community and the two Air Force bases in the state. People living at a base may start their education in North Dakota but end up being deployed or transferred to another state.

UND and Bismarck State College lead the North Dakota University System in online credit hours.

UND’s most popular courses are nursing and engineering. Mongeon-Stewart said the additional enrollment from online students helps diversify the engineering course offerings the university can offer.

Bismarck State’s most popular classes are related to the energy industry.

Dan Leingang, interim president of Bismarck State College, said some of those students may not be seeking a degree but needing training to succeed with their current employer.

His

written testimony

included letters of support from Ron Ness, president of the North Dakota Petroleum Council, and Jonathan Fortner, president and CEO of the Lignite Energy Council.

In other higher education meetings this fall, lawmakers have shown frustration with a lack of data on where out-of-state online students are living.

Mongeon-Stewart said there has not been consistency in how North Dakota’s 11 public colleges and universities track out-of-state online students, but the institutions are working on a uniform model.

She said she hopes it will include information such as a North Dakota affiliation, like being a graduate from a high school or college in the state.

“We are going to work really hard to do a better job in the future of giving you what you need,” she told lawmakers.

Sorvaag said he was grateful for the presentations on out-of-state online students, but added that the Legislature must still decide if subsidizing those courses is the best use of state money. Lawmakers could decide state dollars are better spent in other areas, such as supporting scholarships for in-state students, he said.

The question is part of a larger potential overhaul of the state’s funding formula for higher education.

“The more we dig into this, the more we understand how complicated this is,” Sorvaag said.