How a small South Dakota college became a national cyber powerhouse

MADISON, S.D. (AP) — A seed planted by South Dakota legislative and higher education leaders four decades ago has blossomed into one of the nation’s top high-tech universities located in a small city in the rural midsection of the state.

The story of how Dakota State University rose to become a powerhouse in cyber technology academics, job creation and research is one of ingenuity, strong leadership and a bit of fortuitous timing.

Those factors have combined to build DSU into a university that has received well over $140 million in public and private donations over the past decade. The university has developed numerous working partnerships with government and private industry, and it’s expanding its campus with a massive research and development facility in Sioux Falls. Soon, DSU could become a leader in research into the world’s next major technology breakthrough in quantum computers.

And it all began at a time when the future of the entire university itself was in question.

In 1984, the South Dakota Board of Regents, under pressure to cut its budget, closed its Springfield campus and the state turned it into a women’s prison. The late Gov. Bill Janklow that spring also signed a law that changed DSU’s mission to focus on technology in all academic programs, a hopeful effort called, “A Brand New Day.”

The decision to reinvent a teacher’s college founded in 1881 into a technology-focused university in a somewhat isolated rural city of 6,000 people may, in retrospect, seem like a risky move.

But as told by current DSU President José-Marie Griffiths, the new focus on tech dovetailed with the decision by financial giant Citibank to move its credit card operation to Sioux Falls, an hour’s drive from Madison.

“Citibank was in need of mainframe programmers. And as a result of that, somebody came up with the idea that, well, we could turn this college that’s fumbling a little bit into a computer school with software development and engineering,” Griffiths told News Watch. “That way, we could supply the needed programmers to the Sioux Falls workforce for Citibank and ultimately for others, and I guess the advantage of proximity was in favor of Madison.”

Initially, mission shift not universally supported

DSU business and information systems professor Lynette Molstad Gorder was teaching at the university 40 years ago when the shift to a high-tech campus began. In a video recorded by DSU, Molstad Border recalled that there was initial hesitancy on campus about the mission change.

“The first thing that goes through your mind is apprehension,” she said. “How it’s going to affect you personally and how it’s going to affect faculty and the curriculum we had set up.”

Molstad Gorder, who was teaching typing and office and records management at the time, said acceptance of the shift to technology slowly washed over the DSU campus.

“Later on we looked upon it as a welcome opportunity,” she said. “It was kind of hazy (at first) and then all of a sudden, it just clicked.”

Suddenly, computers replaced pens, pencils and typewriters in classrooms. And later, the need to delve more deeply into computer science, and eventually cyber security, became a greater focus at DSU, she said.

“Somehow we had to protect this whole digital infrastructure,” she said. “With our faculty and staff we were able to move into the whole cyber security realm of problems and issues and teach our students. And we’ve had great success.”

Molstad Gorder said she sees a continued bright future for DSU.

“When you look at 40 years ago in 1984 what we were using to accomplish the tasks and what we have today, it’s absolutely amazing,” she said. “Everything seems to be going faster and faster (and) it takes a lot of power and leadership to keep abreast of all the changes that are happening.”

DSU’s venture started with computer science

In 1984, while still known as Dakota State College, a name used until 1989, the initial jump into technology came with creation of a bachelor’s degree in computer science using a curriculum from IBM. That foundation in teaching computer science and software development – and in forming an industry partnership – laid the groundwork for what was to come, Griffiths said.

With a mix of private and public funding, the university was able to slowly but consistently expand its facilities and academic offerings, she said.

In the early 2000s, a further step forward came when DSU began to focus on cyber security.

“We were actually quite late in the game to get into cyber security,” Griffiths said. “But DSU decided to get into that game and did so with a vengeance.”

A milestone achievement, and a significant source of mission confirmation, came 20 years later, in 2004, when the National Security Agency named DSU a Center of Academic Excellence in computer security, one of the first. It is now one of just 10 in the nation to hold three center of excellence designations from NSA.

Now, another 20 years later, that gradual growth has exploded into almost constant expansion of academic offerings, research opportunities, industry and government partnerships and construction of new facilities to accommodate it all.

Enrollment has risen steadily, from 867 in 1985 to 1,801 in 2000 and to 3,509 in 2023. The number of female students enrolled in technology programs has jumped about 300% in recent years, according to DSU data.

Dakota State University now offers 44 degrees, including seven master’s degrees and four doctoral programs. Upon graduation, 99.7% of students in 2022 got jobs or went further in their educational journey, the university said.

Shift toward research

When Griffiths arrived on campus, DSU had a strong academic reputation but was not known for its research. In her time at the helm, she has pushed to obtain funding and the infrastructure necessary to conduct research and develop doctoral programs to involve students and faculty in the work.

In 2017, the research and development efforts took a major step forward with the launch of the Madison Cyber Labs, or MadLabs, facility on campus. A sparkling, glass-encased $18 million research building is at the heart of what overall was a $40 million program to expand research into groundbreaking fields of cyber security, digital forensics, machine learning and artificial intelligence, among others.

The state pitched in $10 million in Future Fund money to add to a $30 million donation from Premier Bankcard CEO Miles Beacom and wife Lisa, along with Denny Sanford, owner of the Sioux Falls-based First Premier Bank and Premier Bankcard.

Up next for DSU is an expansion into Sioux Falls, where thanks to roughly $100 million in combined public and private funds, DSU will build an off-campus Applied Research Lab on the city’s northwest side.

That funding package included another $60 million donation from Sanford and $30 million in state funding to build the research facility and to launch the Governors Cyber Academy on the DSU campus. The academy will include a dual credit program for high school students in South Dakota. The city of Sioux Falls is contributing $10 million to get the applied lab up and running.

As reported earlier by News Watch, DSU’s next big venture will be to lead a multi-campus effort to expand research in South Dakota into quantum computers, which are far faster and more capable than any of the largest, most complex supercomputers already in use.

The 2024 state Legislature approved $3 million in spending to pay for faculty and other resources to help DSU and other colleges take a leading role in understanding quantum computers and developing a path forward for their use.

“Obviously, there’s a sense of excitement around innovation because it doesn’t just happen everywhere,” said Griffiths, 72, who told News Watch her job as DSU president will be her last before retirement. “There’s a shared vision around the culture of innovation here, and we’re all excited about that. It means you create an environment where people can try things out, and if they fail, it’s not the end of the world.”

Opportunities for DSU graduates abound

People within and outside the university said DSU has a strong reputation in the high-tech industry as a pipeline for employers seeking well-prepared students.

Alexis Kulm of Sioux Falls said she had several employment options upon graduation from DSU in December 2022 with a degree in cyber operations, which she describes as “kind of cool, right?”

Kulm, 23, had a flair for math and science while at Washington High School in Sioux Falls and attended a pair of technology summer camps at DSU prior to graduation. She liked the small-town feel, the professors and administrators she met and saw great opportunity in the university’s growing range of cyber education options.

“That’s one thing I really liked, that it doesn’t limit your opportunities,” she said. “You get a strong real-world education in your classes.”

Kulm took classes in web and network design, computer programming and malware analysis, which she said all helped prepare her for the cyber workplace. As a native of South Dakota, and with close family ties, Kulm took a job at Sanford Health in Sioux Falls, where she joked she received a “not bad” employment and benefit package that allows her to live comfortably.

Sanford Health and DSU announced a partnership in November 2020 to create a CyberHealth innovation hub that will increase employment opportunities for DSU graduates while expanding the health care provider’s ability to innovate and create economic development across its footprint.

In her work on the Sanford Health cybersecurity team, Kulm works at the secure operations center, helping keep computer systems and information safe from errors or outside cyber attacks.

Kulm said her fellow DSU graduates took cyber positions in Hawaii and Washington, D.C., and she feels well positioned for her own professional future.

“What I heard a lot during the interview process was, ‘Oh, you’re from DSU, I know about them,’” she said. “It’s a small school, but it’s very well known.”

Dakota State University’s rising national reputation

The growing influence of DSU in the cyber security realm was highlighted when the university attracted Jen Easterly, director of the federal Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, as the keynote speaker at its DakotaCon event in March.

Easterly said the agency’s mission is “to lead the national effort to understand and manage and reduce the risk to the cyber and physical infrastructure that Americans rely on every hour of every day, for water, for power, for finance, for transportation, for communication, for health care and the networks and data that power our daily lives.”

She said that prior to her visit to Madison, she had been hearing increasing discussion on the national level about the growth and innovation taking place at DSU.

“The ideas generated at forums like this are just further proof that it doesn’t matter the size of the university. It’s really about the power of innovation and the focus on collaboration and the cutting edge of emerging technology that really makes this place something truly miraculous,” Easterly said.

She specifically praised the ability of Griffiths to establish meaningful partnerships across the cyber world and urged future graduates to consider working in cyber security in either the private or public sectors.

“I look at this (DSU) community as really being at the forefront of being able to keep our nation safe against very real cyber threats,” Easterly said. “I’ve been excited to make this trip for a while because I’ve been impressed by DSU’s efforts to actively inspire the next generation of cyber leaders to join alongside public servants and the private sector that are looking to keep our country safe and secure.”

Job creation in Madison and beyond

The cutting-edge academic programs at DSU have created a pipeline of new, well-trained employees for a wide range of companies across the country, including in its home city of Madison.

After graduating from DSU with a master’s degree in 2006, Jon Waldman and fellow graduate Chad Knutson started an information security company that got in on the ground floor of what has become a massive industry in the U.S. and across the world.

“We started as a handful of college kids with a garage-band mentality,” Waldman, a self-described “technology nerd,” told News Watch in an interview during DakotaCon at DSU in March.

The fledgling information security business began as Secure Banking Solutions, helping banks keep critical information safe and preventing internal systems from being hacked.

Over the past 20 years, the firm – now named SBS CyberSecurity and headquartered in Madison – has grown to include 90 employees with clients in 49 states that include the nation’s largest turkey farm and the Graceland Mansion tourist attraction.

Waldman, 43, said he saw great value as a student in the small class sizes and close faculty relationships he developed at DSU, which continue at the university today. He also credits DSU with providing students with educational and job opportunities they might not get at a university that lacks the industry and government partnerships DSU has secured.

“DSU might be smaller in size, but what they do for their students is so powerful, both in terms of the training and the relationships that are built here, among the students, among faculty and among industry partners,” Waldman said. “They’ve been on the forefront of what the cyber industry really needs for the last 25 years or more.”

Waldman retains close ties with DSU, serving on a cybersecurity industry advisory board at the university and by continuing to hire DSU graduates, of whom there are now 25 working at SBS. His company in June donated $300,000 to DSU to offer scholarships and to support the growing CybHER program that seeks to boost female participation in the cyber industry.

“We’re very proud to have big DSU connections and be part of that pipeline,” he said.

Waldman said DSU has “a commitment to innovation” that allows for a nimble approach to creation of academic tracks and degrees that allow DSU graduates to remain at the forefront of the constantly and rapidly evolving cyber technology and security industry.

A new degree focused on artificial intelligence and its applications is a good example of how DSU reacts quickly to changes in the industry and in society as a whole, he said.

“DSU is building new programs that apply to the kids of yesterday, today and tomorrow,” Waldman said. “So that’s part of what makes DSU really special.”

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This story was originally published by South Dakota News Watch and distributed through a partnership with The Associated Press.