As SDSU aims for top-tier research designation, South Dakota poised to reap benefits

This paid piece is sponsored by South Dakota State University.

Iowa native Kennedy Roland grew up more than five hours from Brookings but chose to attend South Dakota State University as an undergraduate “on a leap of faith” after college visits were canceled during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“South Dakota State checked all my boxes; it is a midsized university and allowed me to attend college out of state at an in-state price,” she said.

Four years later, Roland again found herself faced with figuring out her next move. She earned an undergraduate degree in biology but wasn’t sure about graduate school.

“I never wanted to pursue a Ph.D.,” she added. “However, I wanted to be part of this program in particular.”

So Roland is staying at SDSU. She’s pairing a passion for teaching that she discovered through coaching gymnastics with her enjoyment of human anatomy and roles as a tutor and teaching assistant for the course.

Her doctorate program “will help me become an expert on both anatomy and education,” she said. “Additionally, I’m excited for guest lecture opportunities to prepare to be an effective professor. Earning a Ph.D. will also allow me to be a competitive candidate for professor positions.”

SDSU aims to attract many more doctoral students such as Roland.

One of the goals of the university’s 2023 Pathway to Premier strategic plan is research, driven by a plan to obtain R1 Carnegie Classification, which would be a first for South Dakota.

The classification framework was developed by the Carnegie Commission on Higher Education in the early 1970s to support its research program. The R1 designation indicates the highest level of research activity and is achieved based on factors such as how much the university invests in research and how many research-based doctoral graduates are produced.

South Dakota is one of just five states without an R1 university.

“R1 really isn’t about SDSU,” President Barry Dunn said. “South Dakota needs SDSU to do this so our state and region’s economy can compete on a national scale.”

For SDSU, which currently is classified as R2, “we’re already exceeding how much is spent on research — but where we need to grow is in educating future researchers at the highest level and creating a research and development workforce,” said Daniel Scholl, vice president for research and economic development and an SDSU professor.

“That’s a big focus of ours.”

Like Roland, Brandon Scott also became somewhat of an accidental SDSU doctoral student. After receiving his undergraduate degree in biochemistry at Slippery Rock University in Pennsylvania, he stumbled upon SDSU at a conference and decided to apply. He ultimately earned his graduate degree and Ph.D. in biochemistry, spending seven years in Brookings and advancing his research in microscopy techniques.

“When I came out, I was very impressed,” he said. “I couldn’t have gone to a better place, actually, especially with my mentor, Adam Hoppe. It couldn’t have worked out any better for me.”

He’s now an assistant professor in nanoscience and biomedical engineering and a CZI imaging scientist at South Dakota Mines.

SDSU’s pursuit of R1 classification is more about what it takes to earn the distinction than the number itself, he added.

“What you have to do to get there and maintain it is the biggest thing,” Scott said. “You look at R1 institutions, and they keep turning out graduates and research because they have that momentum behind them. It’s not just the students you attract but the faculty you’re able to attract once you reach that status. I’m still very much integrated into what’s happening at SDSU, and I think some of the labs there, especially in biochemistry, already are rock stars.”

Achieving the R1 classification would reflect both a learning and business environment powered by research and its impacts. More research tends to drive business spinoffs, resulting in economic growth and a more educated workforce.

That’s already starting to happen in South Dakota, Dunn said. He points to companies such as animal vaccine developer and manufacturer Medgene, which “has well over 100 employees and is innovating how we protect our nation’s food supply,” he said.

“Its platform technology started on our campus with our facility. R1 will help us multiply those kind of successes in the private sector.”

SDSU typically graduates about 50 doctoral students and needs to reach 70 annually to achieve R1 classification.

The first step in that direction “is remarkably simple and affordable,” Dunn said.

“We have to offer graduate assistants benefits. Think about it. They’re typically around 25 years old and coming off their parents’ health insurance. Often, they’re starting families of their own. If you’re one of those students, are you going to pursue a doctoral degree at SDSU, an R2 university with no benefits, or are you going to seek out a prestigious R1 that covers your health insurance?”

The classification also helps in recruiting and retaining faculty, Scholl added.

“Because this is a place where they can visualize having a successful career in their field,” he said. “That serves as an added attractor for Ph.D. students, and it all adds up to greater research activity. And when we do research, the funds we bring in through grants and contracts are spent locally, so it stimulates the local economy and the knowledge spills over into the economy.”

The Research Park at SDSU further supports its progression to R1 classification.

“It serves as a place where the private sector can be very close to the university without being in the university,” Scholl said. “You’re very close to the faculty expertise and expertise of the doctoral and undergrad students who are potentially recruitable.”

Companies such as General Mills, POET and Raven Industries, which is part of CNH Industrial, regularly use the research park for their work and to build relationships at SDSU, he said.

“Having things like a university research park and having the private sector close at hand will help us grow research and research education to perform like an R1 university,” Scholl said.

The good news is, achieving R1 classification isn’t far out of reach, Dunn added.

“From the strength, scope and scale of our academic programs to our beautiful, modern campus to our outstanding faculty, we are well on our way to achieving this status, which will benefit the entire state.”

To learn more about research at SDSU, click here.