Sisseton
Wahpeton College looking toward bright future
Building
projects and program improvements mean a high-tech learning
environment is taking shape for students at one South Dakota
tribal college.
The
ongoing work to the infrastructure and educational approach
at Sisseton Wahpeton College carries a price tag of more than
$2 million and will hopefully result in academic achievement
and more students attending there.
The
Sisseton school is in the midst of a massive campus expansion
and remodeling project, said the college's director of development,
Pam Wynia.
"We're
working right now on the whole campus," Wynia said. "It
started with a 12,000-foot addition to our original building."
That
$977,800 addition, Wynia said, increased classroom space and
allowed for faculty members to have individual offices. It
was completed last year and marked the first time since the
college opened in 1979 that its facilities were improved.
The
addition also includes a student lounge, alternative study
area to the library and Early Childhood Center.
"It
gives the students a place where they can gather and make
a little noise or study in groups, since you have to be so
quiet in the library," Wynia said about the addition.
"We try to foster a family type of atmosphere since so
many of our students are tribal, and for them their first
priority is always family. This gives them a place where they
can feel at home."
Wynia
said the school is working to make it so the infrastructure
of the school is not a factor, so that students don't have
to worry about going to school in classrooms without amenities
such as air conditioning.
Wynia
also said, with recent grant funding, the school has been
able to update much of its technology to include state-of-the-art
computers, software and classrooms.
Perhaps
the most notable project on the campus is the construction
of the new $1.6 million vocational education building.
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