Quote Originally Posted by FargoBison View Post
The athletic move was largely funded by alumni and other donors.

Making a university suddenly become large enough to accommodate 15,000 students is something completely different. It requires a lot of money to pay staff and expand or add academic facilities....some of NDSU's academic facilities were already in a state of disrepair. NDSU is still trying to catch up with the expansion that happened, there is a reason why NDSU has grown at a substantially slower rate ever since Chapman left.
ndsu also needed more students (and the fees they pay) in order to support the annual budget of a D1 athletic department.