Lawmakers in Minnesota have created a new tuition program, called North Star Promise, which will give an estimated 15,000 to 20,000 students from households with income levels at $80,000 or less free tuition at the state's institutions of higher education.

North Dakota State University President David Cook said that situation has "catastrophic" potential for our state's campuses. He joined this episode of Plain Talk to discuss why, and what can be done about it.

"The Legislature was very good to us," he said, adding that the universities are "working hard, doing our do diligence" to put a proposal they feel will keep North Dakota competitive with Minnesota.

Cook answered questions about whether North Dakota should consolidate some of its 11 campuses or take other steps to find efficiencies that might, in turn, allow the state to be more generous with admissions.

Also on this episode Christopher Dodson, who for 28 years has been the voice of the Catholic Church in North Dakota's halls of government, talks about his decision to step down amid health challenges.

He has stage-4 prostate cancer, and he opened up about it on the show. He also spoke about some of his successes in policy areas, some of the issues where the Cahtholic Church doesn't get enough credit, how politics in our state has changed over the nearly three decades he's worked here, and what it was like to help guide his church through the challenges of sex scandals.

"The clergy abuse crisis hit us hard," he said. "It's been very hard to be the face of the church after this evil," he added.

He said politics in North Dakota, like the rest of the nation, has become less civil in recent years, though he argued that our state is much more optimistic than it was in the 1990s when he began.

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