State Rep. Mark Kirkeby, R-Rapid City, says other legislators have called his proposal to consider closing some state universities "political suicide," but he's not sorry he raised the issue.

Kirkeby floated the idea during a legislative crackerbarrel in Rapid City earlier this month. South Dakota has six universities, and Kirkeby suggested the state's low population might not justify keeping all of them open.

"It might be the craziest idea that any legislator has publicly opened his mouth about," Kirkeby acknowledged Wednesday.

But he also said it wasn't a new idea. "There have been some discussions behind the scenes in the past, but I don't know anybody who has the backbone to go public with it," he said.

Kirkeby emphasized he was not suggesting closing any particular university.

But Kirkeby does think the South Dakota Board of Regents, the group that oversees the university system, should study the issue. In fact, during the next legislative session, which begins Jan. 8, he says he'll offer a bill ordering it. He says the study would cost "next to nothing" because the data is readily available.

"They should study overall infrastructure," Kirkeby said. "They should look at attendance numbers and at what would happen if a particular university, half a dozen years down the road, would close."

However, Kathryn Johnson of Rapid City, who is on the Board of Regents, said a study like that would find that university enrollment in South Dakota is more than 30,000 and at an all-time high.

Closing schools, Johnson said, "would just be shifting capacity from one place to another."

House Republican Leader Larry Rhoden of Union Center was at the crackerbarrel when Kirkeby announced his idea. "It seemed almost like he was saying it more for shock value," Rhoden said.

Rhoden also doubted whether the bill would survive a vote. The Board of Regents has argued persuasively before that state universities provide "quality education in different fields without duplication," Rhoden said.

But Rhoden did give Kirkeby credit for making people think. "The value in throwing something out like that is to kind of shake the trees and open some dialogue," Rhoden said.

Kirkeby said the regents could consider all options, though he emphasized he thinks Black Hills State University in Spearfish and the South Dakota School of Mines & Technology in Rapid City are efficient, well-run institutions. "What I'm going to be fighting for is trying to get a fair share of public educational dollars in West River," he said.

That would leave a short list of universities to close. The other four universities are:

* South Dakota State University in Brookings, the state's largest school and its only NCAA Division I university

* The University of South Dakota in Vermillion, the state's second-largest school

* Dakota State University in Madison, a small school that specializes in computers and technology

* Northern State University in Aberdeen.

Rep. Paul Dennert, D-Columbia, whose district includes Northern State, said closing the school "would have a pretty dramatic effect on the city of Aberdeen."

Dennert said he would oppose even debating whether to close any of the six schools, at least for now.

But Dennert did acknowledge that if population continues to shrink in rural areas, someday - maybe 10 or 20 years in the future - some universities might have to be closed. When Board of Regents President Harvey Jewett told him, "Northern will never close," Dennert responded, "Never say never."

Randall Morris of Spearfish, who has served on the Board of Regents for six years, said that the regents have discussed consolidations and eliminating duplication. Most duplication between Black Hills State and the School of Mines has been ended, he said.

A few years ago, when the regents considered hiring a single school president to run Black Hills State and the School of Mines, alumni of both schools opposed the change.

Morris said any cost savings might have been lost in decreased donations to both schools.

Morris also warned about the consequences that university closings might have for the less populated part of the state west of the Missouri River. The most pronounced duplications of service in the university system, Morris said, were in engineering programs at South Dakota State University in Brookings and the School of Mines in Rapid City.

"I'm not sure Mark wants to open that door," Morris said.

Contact Bill Harlan at 394-8424 or bill.harlan@rapidcityjournal.com