Reflections

Reflection and New Beginnings

Every year about this time I go through a period of very serious reflection on what the past academic year has brought to Dakota State University. When students arrived last fall we were still in the last stages of some major construction projects – the finishing touches to the renovations of Higbee and Richardson Halls. While there were many adjustments and last minute “fixes” that needed to be made this improvement was certainly a positive addition to the campus. The new Myxers coffee place and convenience store was not quite ready but shortly after the beginning of fall semester it became a part of the campus experience. Other renovation projects included the new mailbox room in the Trojan Center and the refurbishing and renovating of the conference rooms in the TC. Beadle Hall also received a “face lift” with all new windows and window blinds etc. The admissions office in Heston Hall had a major up-grade with a new “high tech” look to reflect “who we are” when students first visit here.

Students had other adjustments to be made including our conversion to the D2L course management system and the use of a new tablet computer “the Fujitsu” in place of many of our Gateways.

While there is no way to capture all the highlights of this past year let me explore just a few.

· DSU was awarded a 2 million dollar grant to establish the National Center for the Protection of the Financial Infrastructure. Over the next few years this center will bring faculty/researchers that will work with graduate students and others on campus to advance our research agenda in the area of banking and finance information security.
· For the third year in a row, US News announced that DSU was the highest ranked public baccalaureate college in the Midwest region
· The Board of Regents approved a new Master’s degree in Health Informatics and approved the establishment of a Center for the Advancement of Health Information Technology here at Dakota State
· One of our students, Justin Kulm, was named the first student from DSU to be the student commander of the AFROTC unit based at SDSU
· We set a record enrollment number of 2780 head count
· Admitted our first students to the Computer Game Design major
· Launched a new look to our web site
· President launched his highly successful and stimulating “Coffee with the President” on Thursday mornings
· We welcomed a new Vice President for Student Affairs and Dean of Students – Jesse Wise
· Hired a new Vice President for Advancement – Judy Payne


It is always gratifying and amazing to think about all that happens here over the course of the year at a university that is as dynamic as Dakota State.

At this time, I also enjoy thinking about the changes that will take place this next year and new parts of the DSU experience that will wait for students who will be returning in the fall

· DSU will complete the renovation projects for our residence halls with Emry and Zimmerman receiving the same type of improvements that Higbee and Richardson received last year.
· We will begin a year - long total renovation of the Science Center. This will refurbish almost every area in the building and will bring a very technology rich experience to our science and math classes.
· There will likely be more Fujitsu computers on campus.
· A new audio production studio will be located in the TCB and will support the Digital Arts and Design curriculum
· We will unveil a new athletic logo with new banners hanging on the campus
· We will have new head coaches in Football, Volleyball and Men’s Basketball.

In the next couple of weeks we will also experience a couple of “Firsts” at the university. At our Spring 09 Commencement we will award our first ever doctoral degree. This is a hall mark event for this university and will make all of us reflect on how far DSU has come.

On the more celebratory and fun side of the next couple of weeks, I will host the first annual evening before commencement picnic for all our graduates at the new president’s residence. All the graduating student will be invited to attend a brief outdoor picnic following the commencement rehearsal on Friday, May 8th.

It has been an “awesome” year and more is still to come!!!