A popular tourism slogan once called South Dakota “the Land of Infinite Variety.” While South Dakota is predominately rural, the eastern and western borders of the state have larger population centers. The public higher education system reflects this rich diversity.
South Dakota was the first system of public higher education created in the United States. Over time, six public universities were established and jointly governed by a single board of regents, which was organized by the state legislature in 1890. The present form of constitutional governance dates back to 1897.
South Dakota has experienced enrollment challenges similar to other Midwest states. For the past decade or more, high school graduating classes have become smaller. Our population has increasingly become more diverse. Modest state appropriations have forced a shift to students picking up a greater share of the costs for their college education. In South Dakota, most investment in higher education facilities also comes either from students, through a portion of their tuition supporting the Higher Education Facilities Fund, or from private donors.
Because of the relatively small size of our institutions—total headcount enrollment this fall was 36,662—and the need to maximize scarce resources, the board of regents has developed wideranging strategies to reduce duplication and centralize services.
We have carefully established institutional missions, along with a set of general education requirements common to all six institutions. To reduce costly administrative overhead, we have central billing, a common transcript among all institutions, a single emergency notification system, and a common learning management system. In the past year, our entire system upgraded to a common Oracle data engine, and we are now upgrading to a new student management system. Our system shares expertise across the institutions whenever possible; for example, we have a shared export control officer.
Research is another area where our institutions collaborate in cooperation with the Governor’s Office of Economic Development. The state supports applied research centers at the public universities, designed to strengthen South Dakota’s research competitiveness and generate commercial activity derived from research. At least 20 startup companies affiliated with these research centers have raised in excess of $23 million in private equity.
It is also very important that our institutions are transparent and accountable to South Dakota citizens. That is why we make performance data from our universities readily available. Using software technology, the board of regents created a set of interactive dashboards to help make key data points about public higher education more understandable and useful to the public and policymakers. These visualizations are found online at www.sdbor.edu/ dashboards/.
Looking ahead, South Dakota high school graduation trends are expected to reverse recent declines, rebounding to the highest levels since 2002. Many of those students will need financial help as well as additional academic support to be successful at our institutions. We have formally adopted a statewide attainment goal of 65 percent of South Dakota citizens, ages 25 to 34, holding some type of postsecondary credential by 2025. The goal addresses a full range of educational attainment from technical certificates and apprenticeships to associate, bachelor, and graduate degrees.
This fall, we also implemented a proactive admissions process where high school students who meet college entrance requirements are automatically sent a letter of acceptance to our public universities. Initial reaction was positive.
Higher education must constantly evolve and respond to changing demands and demographics. We are reminded of the societal and economic benefits that higher education delivers: serving the public good and building stronger communities. Our challenges are many, but the rewards are even greater.
Share on LinkedIn
