Newsletter April 3

April 3, 2006

To the DSU Community:

I would like to start this newsletter with a brief review of the SD Board of Regents’ actions at their recent meeting in Sioux Falls. For the first time the BOR met at USD’s Sanford Medical School facility. This is the time of year that the board grapples with any changes in tuition and fees. The board approved an approximate increase in tuition and fees of 5.9%. This recommendation did include an increase in our tablet computer fee to $320.00 per semester. This increase of 13.9% will allow us to cover the cost of licensing for the Office Suite through Microsoft Academic Alliance program and to cover some replacement costs of batteries etc.

The board also approved DSU’s request to pursue the planning and design for construction of a Multipurpose Indoor Athletic Practice facility. Funding for the project will come from donations. Very preliminary plans indicate that it would be built just to the southeast of the present Trojan Field stands and would house a 200 meter indoor track. Our existing field house was constructed in 1958 at a time when we had a total student enrollment of 407 with 70 student athletes participating in sports. In fall 2005, DSU’s total enrollment stood at 2,329 with a total of 295 student athletes participating in 12 sports. This facility will provide indoor track competition facilities, practice facilities for baseball, softball, football on occasion, track and a weight training area with locker and office space. While no specific design and costs have been developed, the best cost estimate we have at this time is $4 million. We will now begin design development and the fundraising needed to build this facility.

During the board meeting Cecelia Wittmayer and Carrie Ahern provided a review and information session on the AQIP process that DSU will use for our accreditation activity for the Higher Learning Commission. DSU is the only university in the state to move to this more continuous improvement process and the board committee in charge of accreditation was very interested to hear about our pioneering efforts. Yeah we are always out in front of everyone!

As the last thing on the agenda for the board meeting, a search committee for the new president at SDSU was named. I will serve as the campus president on the committee. Our collaborative efforts with SDSU and other BOR institutions are very important to our future success so I will enjoy discussing these kinds of activities with the candidates.

This past week was full of activities associated with our 125th Anniversary. After returning from the board meeting on Friday, March 24th I had the pleasure of officially opening the DSU timeline which stretches around the entire expanse of the Mundt Library second floor. It is truly an amazing project led by Bonnie Olson and Karen Duffy with the Mundt foundation. I would encourage everyone associated with this campus to take some time to walk around the second floor to understand the history of the institution. It will be a permanent feature in the library.

Saturday night, March 25th was our big 125th Anniversary Gala at the Dakota Prairie Playhouse. The event was a sell out with over 200 people attending. After a “spine tingling” murder mystery, a terrific meal in a very elegantly decorated ballroom, and a trumpet fanfare for the desert we took a moment to introduce special guests and think about the “historical” significance of this anniversary. One of the highlights of the evening was a standing ovation for Donna Fawbush, the primary organizer of this gala and chair of our 125th Anniversary committee.

DSU also got an “Anniversary/Birthday” present that night. I have set a personal goal of raising $1 million dollars during this year to endow 20-25 Presidential Champion Scholarships through the President’s Corporate Scholarship Campaign. On this “gala night” we announced two lead gifts to this fund. Avera-McKennan has pledged $150,000 and First Premier Bank has pledged $125,000. I have recently visited with five additional corporations – all are in the process of considering our request.

Here are some additional highlights from approximately the past two weeks.

· Sharon and I hosted another student/faculty dinner at the Girton House. These events are such a wonderful way to connect faculty and allow the students the opportunity to share their experiences here at DSU. The evening included a lively discussion of our “programming” requirement for all students and the exciting possibility of looking at other programming options such as Ruby or Python (actually I am IT name dropping as I just learned what Ruby and Python were).We are gradually working our way through a list that will bring each faculty member and a student guest to one of these events.
· Dan Weinstein had a fascinating presentation on “pod casting”. I am now in the market for an i River (okay name dropping again)
· Last Friday we had a great day hosting 65 Champion Scholars for a registration day. In 2005 this same event had 46 students attend – this is great news but also a challenge as we bring more and more academically accomplished students to campus our scholarship requirements increase. Great problem to have!
· I have been having a series of meetings to review salary recommendations for next year, work study allocations, and getting ready for the budget hearings that will begin this week.
· This past week I had a chance to visit with the CIO from the Martin Group company in Mitchell and actually had a chance to visit briefly with a couple of our recent grads. I also traveled to Mankato to meet the CEO of James Tower Co. This is the company that has helped us develop our recruitment publications, website and web based admissions processes. It was great fun seeing the big DSU logo on the wall of this corporation. They are considering future support for our scholarship program. I will be keynoting their client meeting in Minneapolis in June.
· This morning we began reviewing plans for remodeling our large auditorium classrooms and a conference room. Watch for more announcements as these plans proceed.
· Today I had a chance to review our support funding for faculty attendance at conferences and workshops. During the Fall 05 semester and to-date during the Spring 06 semester forty-four faculty received financial support for presenting at and/or attending seventy-eight conferences across the country in twenty-one different states. Of the seventy-eight meetings attended faculty presented at fifty-seven of the meetings. Additional information on the types of conferences and presentations will be released later.
· After traveling to Mankato I stopped in Sioux Falls to attend a retirement event for Regent Carole Pagones. Carole is retiring from Main Street Sioux Falls but will be continuing her work on the Board of Regents so we will get a chance to continue our relationship with this remarkable woman. She will be the Regent attending our Commencement in May.
· As a side note – we are very pleased that Senator Tim Johnson has accepted our invitation to be the commencement speaker in May.

Spring has definitely come to life today in Madison. Tulips, daffodils, and crocus are starting to poke through the ground – and actually look like they might bloom at the Science Center. Our baseball team played 4 games outdoors this weekend – winning 3 against Minot State – they are currently ranked 17th in the nation but look for them to go even higher this week. The softball team is also playing well and our Lady T’s hosted a special game for high school seniors at the DSU field house this past weekend. Our track team had a meet (a cold day) at Trojan field on Saturday.

Well enough news – I am off to watch March Madness come to an end. None of my teams made it to the final four. The rest of the week holds interviews for a variety of candidates interviewing on campus, a trip to EROS to discuss our relationship, attendance at DSU’s monthly “First Tuesday” event at Shenanigans in SF, budget hearings, a USDSU board meeting, SDSU presidential search committee meeting, residential master planning review, attendance at DSU’s theater production on Friday night and great coffee at Java City. Have a great spring transition!