The Associated Press
ABERDEEN - Limiting
enrollment at South Dakota State University might steer students to
the five other public universities in the state, a Northern State
University administrator said.
The idea came from
Bob Olson, Northern State's athletic director, at a public forum on
higher education held in Aberdeen on Tuesday.
A few states have
capped enrollment at land-grant universities, said Tad Perry,
executive director of the South Dakota Board of
Regents.
"But I don't know
of too many," he said.
"The regents have
talked about it," added Regents' President Harvey Jewett of
Aberdeen. "But I don't think there's any sense it would work or
benefit other schools."
Land-grant
universities were authorized by federal laws passed in the 1860s;
the acts funded the universities by granting federally controlled
land to states. SDSU is South Dakota's only land-grant
university.
There's no
guarantee that students denied admission to SDSU would go to
another public university in South Dakota; they might just get mad
and go elsewhere, Jewett said.
There are, however,
indirect ways to cap enrollment, such as raising admission
standards, he said.
SDSU President
David Chicoine has said he believes the university will see limited
growth beyond 13,000 or perhaps 15,000 students.
It is the state's
largest university with enrollment of 11,706 this
fall.
Declining high
school enrollment and crowded facilities at SDSU will limit
enrollment growth, Chicoine said.
The Aberdeen forum
was hosted by Aberdeen area legislators.
Al Heuton, with the
Brookings Area Chamber of Commerce, sent an e-mail encouraging
people to attend a similar higher education forum scheduled Monday
in Brookings and made reference to the Aberdeen forum.
"Although these are
public comments which may or may not have support of the regents,
it is important that Brookings becomes proactive and presents a
unified voice regarding our future," he said in the
e-mail.
