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DSU Presidential Search Committee Includes No Reps from Education, Arts and Science

Last updated on 2014.11.26

The liberal arts are the bastard stepchild of Dakota State University. That statement should surprise no one who has spent time on our computer-clicky Madison campus during the last three decades. Ever since 1984, when Governor Bill Janklow gutted the college curriculum and appointed Citibank executive Charles Luke to oversee the campus's conversion to a training school for Citibank employees, the education and arts/sciences departments have clung to their second-tier existence only by contorting their every class into some sort of computer-focused instruction.

But for their loyal efforts, the nice folks in Beadle and Kennedy get this latest slap in the face: the 12-person committee that will vet DSU presidential applicants includes not one faculty representative of either the College of Arts and Sciences or the College of Education. Here's the full committee roster:

  • Regents: Randy Schaefer, Carole Pagones, Kathryn Johnson
  • Community-DeLon Mork, owner of Dairy Queen, Madison
  • DSU Foundation-Larry Canfield, CEO of Canfield Companies, Sioux Falls
  • Alumni-Michael Halverson, global senior vice president for information security administration at Citibank, Sioux Falls
  • Administration-Omar El-Gayar, professor and dean of graduate studies and research
  • Career Service Employees-Susan Eykamp, distance education specialist
  • Non-Faculty Exempt Employees-Margaret (Peg) O'Brien, associate professor and director of extended programs
  • Faculty-Jack Walters, associate professor of business management; Amit Vijay Deokar, assistant professor of information systems
  • Students-Sara Irvine, sophomore exercise science major and vice president of the DSU Student Senate, whose hometown is Tea; Eric Schwandt, junior marketing/management major and vice president of Delta Mu Delta Honor Society, whose hometown is Sioux Falls
  • Institutional Collaboration-Robert Wharton, president of South Dakota School of Mines and Technology
  • Member At-Large-Tammy Miller, CEO of Madison Community Hospital

I cast no aspersions on the fine folks named to this committee. However, this roster strongly suggests that the nice folks who train teachers (and who thus keep the DSU in state hands) and give our computer whizzes something resembling a well-rounded humanities education have no valuable input in choosing DSU's next president.

p.s.: The DSU press release reminds that interim President David Borofsky is not a candidate for the permanent position.