Sisseton Wahpeton College looking toward bright future (fwd)

[Phil CashCash]

Sisseton Wahpeton College looking toward bright future
School in midst of remodeling project, massive campus expansion

By Mike Corpos
American News Writer
http://www.aberdeennews.com/mld/aberdeennews/news/7740532.htm

Building projects and program improvements mean a high-tech learning
environment is taking shape for students at one South Dakota tribal
college.

The ongoing work to the infrastructure and educational approach at
Sisseton Wahpeton College carries a price tag of more than $2 million
and will hopefully result in academic achievement and more students
attending there.

The Sisseton school is in the midst of a massive campus expansion and
remodeling project, said the college's director of development, Pam
Wynia.

"We're working right now on the whole campus," Wynia said. "It started
with a 12,000-foot addition to our original building."

That $977,800 addition, Wynia said, increased classroom space and
allowed for faculty members to have individual offices. It was
completed last year and marked the first time since the college opened
in 1979 that its facilities were improved.

The addition also includes a student lounge, alternative study area to
the library and Early Childhood Center.

"It gives the students a place where they can gather and make a little
noise or study in groups, since you have to be so quiet in the
library," Wynia said about the addition. "We try to foster a family
type of atmosphere since so many of our students are tribal, and for
them their first priority is always family. This gives them a place
where they can feel at home."

Wynia said the school is working to make it so the infrastructure of the
school is not a factor, so that students don't have to worry about
going to school in classrooms without amenities such as air
conditioning.

Wynia also said, with recent grant funding, the school has been able to
update much of its technology to include state-of-the-art computers,
software and classrooms.

Perhaps the most notable project on the campus is the construction of
the new $1.6 million vocational education building.

The 13,831-square-foot two-story building will allow the college to add
classes such as carpentry, electronics, plumbing, jewelry-making and
home economics.

When finished, the new building, which was designed by Aberdeen's Vic
Runnels and Dean Marske, will look like a giant drum surrounded by four
singers.

The building will house classrooms, a smart lab with enough computers
for each student in the room, and the school's vocational training
programs.

The roof of the building was designed to hold about 300 people and could
be used for banquets and graduations, while the interior will be used
to build pre-fabricated single-family houses indoors. The homes will be
lifted out of the building via an overhead door.

During the next few weeks, the new building will begin to take shape.

"Suddenly we will go from a hole in the ground to having a building,"
Wynia said.

The concrete foundation is currently in place and the walls, being built
off-site, will be delivered later this week. The building is expected
to be completed by July 4, when a dedication ceremony is planned.

But construction is not the only way the school is looking to grow.

New programs are being added and some of the college's existing programs
are being updated.

The South Dakota State Nursing Board voted unanimously to reinstate the
college's Licensed Practical Nursing Program on an interim basis last
January, and the program will be considered for permanent approval
after the first two classes graduate.

Wynia said the school is trying to expand the Early Childhood Center's
Dakota Language immersion program to include adults, and further a slow
revitalization of the Dakota language. It's feared the dialect will
become extinct if not made available to tribal members.

"Currently most of the people who speak the language are over the age of
55," Wynia said. "We're starting to see a bit of a resurgence, and now
is the time it needs to happen, before (we lose the people who speak
it)."

Overall, the college has seen a significant increase in enrollment in
recent years - 25 percent from spring 2001 to fall 2001. That put the
school's enrollment at around 290, which has remained steady since.

Wynia said she hopes the improvements at the campus will further
increase the number of students being educated there.