South Dakota School for the Deaf

Dr. Jon Green, Superintendent, South Dakota School for the Deaf, addressed the committee. He reviewed the SDSD budget request (Document #3). He reviewed the following areas in the handout: Operating Budget, Enrollments, Technology, Facilities, and Summer School. He stressed there are now two key groups with different views as to how to proceed with a deaf child. One group supports the use of cochlear implants while the other group supports the Deaf users of American Sign Language.

In response to Representative Adelstein, Dr. Green said that a cochlear implant can cost between $45,000 and $50,000. Representative Adelstein said that if it costs approximately $6,000 per year for a deaf child to attend SDSD, and that if a child attends the school for seven years, this cost would be equivalent to a $42,000 grant that could be used for an implant. Dr. Green indicated it is an extremely hot issue. Dr. Green answered more questions concerning implants. He said the implant must be done within the child's first one or one and one-half years, that SSI does not cover the cost of the implant, and that the results of the implant are not guaranteed.

In response to further questions, Dr. Green said that at one time the school's capacity had been at 80 students. He said that out of the 58 current staff, 54 are from South Dakota and 4 are from another state.

South Dakota School of Mines and Technology

Dr. Richard Gowen, President, South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, addressed the committee. He used a SDSMT budget request handout (Document #4), as the basis for his presentation. Reviewing page one, he thanked the committee for the reinvestment funds. He reviewed pages 1 - 4 including the areas of Budget, Enrollment, and Salary Competiveness. He thanked the committee for leaving the reinvestment funds in the SDSMT budget and said that salary competiveness needs to continue. Continuing with pages 5 and 6 he highlighted the Tech Fellows Program and emphasized that the SDSMT students had received the Nation's Outstanding Engineering Educator Award for 2000.

Dr. Gowen spoke about the Carbon Sequestration project and Laser Deposition and Friction Stir welding programs as outlined on pages 7 and 8 (Document #4). Finishing his presentation with page 10 of the handout, he answered questions from the committee.

In response to Senator Kleven's question, Dr. Gowen said that most faculty members have their
PHDs and are hired with the expectation that they are ready to teach with little mentoring.

In response to Representative Adelstein, he further explained the $3,849 Tuition and Fee charge as

found on page 12 of the South Dakota Board of Regents Fact Book, Fiscal Year 2002.

Dr. Karen Whitehead, Vice President, Academic Affairs, explained the math and english remedial courses offered at SDSMT. She said students are expected to be able to take calculus as their first math class.

Representative Clark questioned the school's capacity, both in faculty and space. Dr. Gowen indicated that the dormitories are at 99 percent capacity and are in need of renovation, and that academically the university could handle 2,688 students, leaving opportunity for growth. In response to Representative Lange, Dr. Gowen said the existing classrooms could handle close to 3,000 students but that additional faculty would be probably needed.

Dr. Gowen said he would provide Senator Greenfield with additional information on remedial classes. He referred Representative Pummel to page 10 (Document #2, 1/23/02 meeting) for a breakdown of FTE's by position category. In response to Representative Clark's question, Dr. Gowen said that 50 percent of incoming students were not ready for calculus.

In response to a question from Senator Cradduck, Dr. Gowen said that 19 percent of SDSMT graduates obtain jobs in South Dakota and that salary was in issue for graduates.

Dakota State University

Jerald Tunheim, President, Dakota State University, presented the university's budget request, using a Budget Request handout (Document #5), as the basis of his presentation.

Paging through Document #5, Dr. Tunheim said that both the FTE and headcount enrollments have increased. He said that the 1,263 student number on page 5 ( Document #5) contained duplicated numbers as it included the enrollment from spring, summer, fall, and distance learning classes. He thanked the committee for the results salary competiveness had brought, as detailed on page 10 (Document #5) and he said the faculty is stretched with the student to faculty ratio of 20 to 1.

Having finished the budget presentation, as detailed in Document #5, Dr. Tunheim welcomed questions from the committee.

Representative Clark questioned the university's capacity. Dr.Tunheim said that with the present buildings, the university could handle approximately 400 more students; although it would require tight schedules. He said at a 20/1 ratio, 20 more faculty FTEs would be needed to handle 400 extra students. He said that with present faculty, they couldn't handle additional students.

In response to a question from Senator Apa, Dr. Tunheim said that he would provide him with the costs for operating the Playhouse since July of 2001.

Thomas Flickema, President, Black Hills State University, presented the university's budget request (Document #6). He updated the committee on the Cook building project, saying the project is within budget and once started, will take 12 to 18 months to build.

Dr. Flickema said BHSU has undergone a steady enrollment growth, and brought out that enrollment is difficult to understand as students no longer enroll in just one area.

In response to a question from Representative Clark, Dr. Flickema said that 455 students are from another state, mainly Wyoming. He said BHSU has the largest Elementary Education and Special Education programs in the state.

Ms. Kathy Johnson, Vice President, Finance and Administration, continued with the presentation. She explained the breakdown of the $28,224,481 operating budget, as detailed within Document #6.

Representative Adelstein questioned whether the university could handle more students. Dr. Flickema said that with the university's high student/faculty ratio, more support staff would be needed for additional students. He said that resident halls would not be an issue due to the availability of private apartments.

Vice President Johnson continued with the presentation covering the areas of Operating Budget, Private Fund-raising, and Grants as outlined in Document #6. She said that Faculty Research Funds are not limited to faculty research grants, but are used for buying equipment, teaching distance technology, providing grants to work with teacher's curriculum, etc.

In response to a question from Senator Dennert, Dr. Flickema said that state funds cannot be used for academic scholarships.

With the areas of Salary Competiveness Plan, Technology, Technology Fellows, and Governor's Faculty Awards covered (Document #6), the presentation was finished.

Senator Drake announced that the University of South Dakota budget presentation was rescheduled for February 4^th.

Rena K. Ortbahn