Sanford ready to step in as president of BSC
Patrice Bumstead
Farmer Editor
Recently KTGO “The Flag Radio” (AM 1090 / FM 92.7) What’s on Your Mind? Radio Host, Scott Hennen sat down with Watford City native and former Lt. Governor, Brent Sanford, to discuss his new position as Interim President of Bismarck State College (BSC).
“Do we need to call you President Sanford now?” Hennen jokingly asked as he welcomed Sanford.
“Oh, people have been. They have been saying, ‘oh, Mr. President again’ in a congratulatory text,” laughed Sanford. “It’s back to the days of being president of the Senate and having people all day long during the session saying, ‘Mr. President, I am testifying on Bill HB 25 35, and I’m staunchly against.’ So it’s kind of back to that term, but you can just call me Brent.”
Over the past year Sanford has been working with the BSC Office of Workforce and Economic Development on workforce-related initiatives to create a robust workforce pipeline from higher education, to industry in high-demand and high-priority occupations. He officially began his role as Interim President on Jan. 9, 2025
“I’m excited to jump into Bismarck State. It’s a really great institution of higher learning and frankly, at the tip of the spear for workforce solutions right now,” stated Sanford.
Sanford says the business model Bismarck State has allows the institution to anticipate future industry occupations. “We’re providing certificates, two-year degrees, and associate degrees, that are technician degrees...Plus the polytechnic aspect of it is, we can do four-year degrees. We already have over a dozen of those moving into NAIA sports.”
As Sanford has been involved at BSC for some time, Hennen asked him to describe the role he has played that led to being appointed Interim President.
“A little over a year ago I was asked by board member, Kevin Black, to jump in with them on a visioning team for the Envision 2035 Project the Chancellor put forth for the system for 10 years. Kevin wanted me to jump on the energy breakout group.”
While describing the message the energy breakout group received since 2024, Sanford said “What we heard loud and clear was, we don’t need you to tell us what we’re going to do in the future. We need people. We have an existential crisis of hiring -or- hiring people in North Dakota that are trained for what we need.”
As a result of that visioning work, Sanford worked closely with BSC to help them set up the Office of Workforce and Economic Development which focuses on the energy industry.
According to Sanford, BSC will be opening a new advanced technology center is soon. “There will be room for more programming, more private sector involvement, and higher tech involvement. It’s really exciting. I’ve been involved with the Vice President Level and the Dean Level, at Bismarck State since the early part of 2024. So yeah, I’ve got some experience in there. When the time came to ask for internal candidates, they pulled my name into the mix and here I am. I’m excited to help Bismarck State move forward.”
Workforce Initiatives
Hennen asked for Sanford’s take on Workforce Initiatives. “When we talk about workforce initiatives, both in legislature and higher education - in my mind, North Dakota higher education has been transformed to say ‘look our job is to meet the workforce needs of the taxpayers who fund this state and this university.’ But, it’s easy just to say, okay we need that, we have a workforce initiative...can you explain what that means?”
While Sanford attributes his long-standing career in government as a major factor in being selected to interim president, his background has also provided him with knowledge of workforce development.
“We need workforce initiatives. Okay, what does that mean? If you’re giving incentives for companies to do something with training, or giving incentives for someone to move here - those can be a positive for workforce development,” explained Sanford.
However, Sanford believes that employers actually mean they want more trained workers. “That is why I say BSC is the tip of the spear, we are delivering trained - hireable employees within industries.”
He added that the higher education system in North Dakota is working toward its students to be able to move through the system and have a “higher degree of attainment of education to leads them to their best life.”
Sanford says workforce initiatives should be about making it simple.
Wrapping up their discussion, Hennen asked Sanford if he would accept a permanent presidential position at BSC.
“I am taking the job now with it as full president, there’s no asterisk on it being interim. You’ve got all the duties and powers of presidency and I am excited about it. It’s something we’ve been working on for the last 11 months.”
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