PIERRE, S.D. (AP) - The state Board of Regents is reevaluating how it offers instruction in three South Dakota cities that lack a comprehensive public university campus.
The Board of Regents on Tuesday is set to discuss what the future may hold for the state’s “university centers” in Rapid City, Pierre and Sioux Falls. A report prepared for the board says that disruptions in higher education from new course providers and technology, among other factors, are occurring alongside a “marked decline” in enrollment at the university centers - the student headcount has decreased by about 12 percent overall from fall 2008 to fall 2014.
The university centers offer classroom-based instruction emphasizing adult and working students.
“Since those centers were created, the landscape has changed pretty dramatically. Particularly … the economy has changed, (and) the availability of online education has made a radical change in how place-bound people particularly can access higher education,” new Regents CEO and Executive Director Michael Rush said. “That has necessitated another look at what the centers are doing and how they offer their services and what value they add to their communities.”
The report to the board shows that from fall 2008 to fall 2014, headcount enrollment at the Sioux Falls center fell by about 27 percent to 1,618 students. The headcount enrollment at the location in Pierre fell by roughly 43 percent to 69 students, according to those numbers.
The Sioux Falls center is also projecting a $1 million shortfall of tuition revenue for the 2016 fiscal year. Craig Johnson, executive director of the center, said he wanted to wait for the regents’ discussion before commenting.
The Rapid City center’s headcount enrollment grew by about 22 percent from 2008 to fall 2014. But, between fall 2013 and fall 2014, it fell by about 8 percent.
Gene Bilodeau, executive director of the Rapid City location, said the center has been in “pretty good shape.” He praised a recent measure that rebranded the satellite center as a campus of Black Hills State University.
The Board of Regents could consider lower or different pricing at university centers and look at alternatives to the university centers’ emphasis on four-year degrees.
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