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State of South Dakota
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EIGHTY-SEVENTH SESSION LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY, 2012 |
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Introduced by: Senators Nygaard, Adelstein, Begalka, Brown, Buhl, Cutler, Fryslie, Gray,
Hansen (Tom), Haverly, Heineman, Holien, Hunhoff (Jean), Johnston,
Juhnke, Kraus, Lederman, Maher, Nelson (Tom), Novstrup (Al), Olson
(Russell), Peters, Putnam, Rampelberg, Rave, Rhoden, Schlekeway,
Tidemann, Tieszen, and Vehle and Representatives Boomgarden, Abdallah,
Blake, Bolin, Brunner, Carson, Conzet, Cronin, Deelstra, Dennert, Dryden,
Elliott, Fargen, Feickert, Gibson, Gosch, Greenfield, Haggar, Hansen (Jon),
Hawley, Hickey, Hoffman, Hubbel, Hunhoff (Bernie), Hunt, Jensen, Jones,
Kirkeby, Kirschman, Kloucek, Kopp, Liss, Lucas, Lust, Magstadt, Moser,
Munsterman, Nelson (Stace), Novstrup (David), Olson (Betty), Perry,
Rausch, Romkema, Rozum, Russell, Schaefer, Schrempp, Scott, Sigdestad,
Sly, Solum, Street, Stricherz, Tornow, Tulson, Turbiville, Van Gerpen,
Vanneman, Venner, Verchio, White, Wick, Willadsen, Wink, and Wismer
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A CONCURRENT RESOLUTION, Honoring the University of South Dakota on its one
hundred fiftieth anniversary.
WHEREAS, the first Dakota Territorial Legislature, which convened in Yankton in the early
months of 1862, and whose members, recognizing quality education would be vital to the
development of Dakota Territory, approved legislation authorizing, though not funding, what
would become the University of South Dakota in the town of Vermillion located along the
Missouri River in Clay County, to which Territorial Governor William Jayne, who had been
Abraham Lincoln's personal physician in Springfield, Illinois, affixed his signature on April 21,
1862; and
1862; and
WHEREAS, despite the financial challenges and natural disasters afflicting the region,
prairie optimism persisted and territorial settlers, led by Darwin Inman, Justice Jefferson Kidder,
Dr. F.N. Burdick, and Civil War veteran Colonel John Jolley, raised private funds to build the
first facilities on the budding campus, beginning a private/public partnership that continues
today; and
WHEREAS, on the crisp morning of October 16, 1882, with Principal Epstein leading them,
thirty-five young men and women began their studies; this three dozen students would be the
nucleus of a University that would grow to include more than 9,900 enrolled students and more
than 75,000 alumni one hundred fifty years hence; and
WHEREAS, academics flourished under the tutelage of knowledgeable, respected, and
beloved faculty and administrators and grew to include the establishment of a comprehensive
College of Arts and Sciences, a College of Fine Arts, Schools of Education, Health Sciences,
and Business, and the state's only Schools of Law and Medicine, each serving to prepare
students to be critical thinkers, life-long learners and productive citizens, and whose alumni
have become leaders, healers, innovators, heroes, researchers, and nationally recognized
scholars, including nine Rhodes Scholars and Nobel Laureate E. O. Lawrence; and
WHEREAS, the University's commitment to fostering better state government is
exemplified in the contributions of renowned political science professor, W.O. Farber, the
founder and first director of the Legislative Research Council and stellar member of the
Constitutional Revision Commission; and
WHEREAS, the University has excelled in the gallery and on the gridiron, in the arena and
on the stage producing celebrated artists and athletes alike; and
WHEREAS, the University of South Dakota gave rise to a newspaper, the Volante, that
students have published since 1887, making it one of the nation's oldest continuously published
newspapers, the renowned National Music Museum, the Oscar Howe Gallery, and the South
Dakota Oral History Center that serves by preserving voices of all peoples of the Northern
Plains; and
WHEREAS, the University of South Dakota has a long tradition of celebrating diversity,
from including women in its first classes to the success of many Native American students, to
its current student body that is global in scope and contrast; and
WHEREAS, the University of South Dakota has dutifully executed its mission as the state's
comprehensive liberal arts university, offering undergraduate, graduate, and professional
programs within the South Dakota system of higher education and it continues onward as the
state's flagship university, pursuing academic, research and creative excellence with a growing
number of extraordinary students:
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, by the Senate of the Eighty-seventh Legislature
of the State of South Dakota, the House of Representatives concurring therein, that the
Legislature commend and congratulate the University of South Dakota as it celebrates its
sesquicentennial year.
