Associated Press

Three North Dakota college presidents lobbied the Senate to approve $12.2 million in new spending for their campuses, despite opposition from the chancellor of the state university system.

The chancellor, Robert Potts, told members of the Board of Higher Education that he would ask for sanctions against the three if the conduct is repeated.

The board's president, Bruce Christianson of Minot, referred to the trio in an e-Mail message as "renegade folks," although he said later the reference was intended to be lighthearted.

The affected presidents were Joseph Chapman, president of North Dakota State University; Sharon Etemad, president of Lake Region State College in Devils Lake; and Bismarck State College President Donna Thigpen. They said they had been acting as advocates for their schools.

Potts was troubled by the legislation, which was sponsored by Sen. Richard Brown, R-Fargo, because it did not include money for the system's other eight public colleges.

He asked that $4 million be added for the other campuses, but the idea was rejected.

Brown's bill itself was amended to remove the $12.2 million for the three colleges, then defeated in the Senate on Feb. 8. The original legislation requested $7.6 million for NDSU, $3.27 million for Bismarck State and $1.38 million for Lake Region.

Potts said he had spoken to the presidents since the incident, which happened early last month, and there would be no sanctions. Potts has been chancellor since last July, when he succeeded longtime Chancellor Larry Isaak, and is working in his first legislative session.

"We'll mark this up to learning to work together, and we'll move on down the road," Potts told The Forum newspaper, which reported on e-mail exchanges about the incident.

Chapman, Etemad and Thigpen say their colleges are underfunded when compared to the support provided to comparable institutions in other states.

The bill is SB2206.