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| Type | Private (closed) |
|---|---|
| Active | 1883 – 2005 |
| Location | , , |
| Affiliations | formerly NAIA Division II |
| Nickname | Screaming Eagles |
| Website | sitanka.edu at the Wayback Machine (archive index) huron.edu at the Wayback Machine (archive index) |
Huron University, also known as Si Tanka University at Huron, was a private university formerly located in Huron, South Dakota. Founded in 1883, it closed on April 1, 2005.
What became Huron University was founded in 1883 as Presbyterian University of Southern Dakota, founded in Pierre while it was still Dakota Territory. A year later, the school became Pierre University, but was commonly known as Pierre College. On May 31, 1887, the university conferred its first degree, which was the first degree to be awarded in the Dakota Territory. [1]
In 1897, the efforts of John L. Pyle, Mamie Shields Pyle, and other Huron residents led to the university's move to Huron, where it became Huron College. [2] [3] By 1915, the school had become accredited by the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools (NCA). Two years later one of its alumni won a Rhodes Scholarship and in 1932 one of its attending students also won the award. One student was George M. McCune, co-developer of the McCune-Reischauer romanization of Korean. [4]
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By the 1980s the school had fallen seriously into debt. After the town of Huron agreed to take over existing debt as well as to purchase the school's Fine Arts Center for $1.5m, Midwest Educational Systems Inc. (owner of Rapid City-based for-profit business school National College) agreed to manage the school. The deal was finalized on July 11, 1984, marking the end of the school's 100 years of Presbyterian affiliation. The new owner shifted the school's emphasis from liberal arts education to business. After three years of managing the school, Midwest Educational Systems exercised an option to buy the school for $1 and became the Higher Education Corporation of America.
In January 1989, the school was sold to Lansdowne University Ltd., a South Dakota corporation with ties to a college in London. The board of trustees of the school changed the name to Huron University, and soon opened a new branch: Huron University USA in London, which became an independent institution.
In February 1992, Eastern International Education Association, a Delaware-based corporation headed by a member of the Japanese House of Representatives, purchased the school and set up a branch campus in Tokyo. Businessman Chikara Higashi was assigned as president of the university and chairman of the board of trustees. Unfortunately, different management styles and a lack of understanding of the American education system caused problems for the school, and the North Central Association threatened to not renew the school's accreditation in 1996. Higashi resigned in July of that year and the school went up for sale once again.
In December 1996, the Huron and Sioux Falls campuses were sold for $3.5 million to for-profit Whitman Education Group, Inc., then owners of Colorado Technical University (CTU). The Sioux Falls campus currently remains a part of the CTU system. A group of local investors bought the Huron campus from Whitman Education Group in August 1999.
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In April 2001, the university was purchased by Si Tanka College, a former community-college chartered by the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe of the Cheyenne River Indian Reservation. Si Tanka College, named after the Teton Sioux chief of the same name, already had a campus in Eagle Butte, and both campuses became the two-campus Si Tanka University. The Huron campus became Si Tanka University-Huron, the first off-reservation university controlled by a Native American tribe.
The Tribe financed the deal with $6.6 million in loans and guarantees from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, but soon found it could not support the school. The federal government grants that the Tribe had been counting on required at least 50% Native American enrollment, and Si Tanka couldn't meet that threshold with its new, primarily white Huron campus. The situation was further complicated by a scandal in April 2002, when a freshman basketball player at Si Tanka was arrested and eventually pleaded guilty to intentionally exposing another student to the AIDS virus. The case received national media coverage and student enrollment the following fall declined by 53 students to 475. The school was faced with too many professors and facilities for its number of students, leading to problems in paying faculty and staff.
The property fell into foreclosure in 2004 after the Tribe defaulted on $6.6 million worth of loans and faced a $2 million federal tax lien. On February 26, 2006, the Higher Learning Commission of the NCA voted to revoke the school's accreditation, effective on August 7, 2006, because the school's trustees had voted to cease operation as a university in the previous January [ permanent dead link ]. By March 2005 teachers and staff had suffered multiple missed paychecks, and gave the administration a vote of no confidence, walking off the job and effectively ending classes on March 28, 2005.
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The Huron campus officially closed on April 1, 2005, ending its 123-year history. On April 9, Si Tanka filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. By April 25, the U.S. Department of Education alerted the school that it was no longer permitted to take part in federal grants and that its students were no longer eligible for federal student loans. On April 30, an unofficial graduation ceremony was held for the school's final seniors. Northern State University, a public university in Aberdeen took control of the school's transcripts.
In February 2006, the Chapter 11 case was dismissed when a federal judge found there weren't enough remaining assets for unsecured creditors. On May 5, 2006, the campus and all its assets were placed onto the auction block, including 23 acres (93,000 m2) with classrooms, campus center, dorms, library and gym — along with bleachers, band uniforms, bookcases and basketball banners. Two empty lots, including the football field, were sold immediately, but as of 2006, the bank was uninterested in selling buildings individually and continued to seek a buyer for the property as a whole.
In 2008, the Huron School District bought the university arena. The Fine Arts Center is now owned by the City of Huron and is a community Fine Arts Center.
In 2011, the City of Huron voted to tear down the campus to make room for Central Park, which was to include a park and new swimming pool complex. Demolition was started on September 19, 2011. Construction was due to start in early 2012, and the park to opened in 2013. As of 2021 all but a few buildings on the old campus was demolished: McDougal Residence Hall (1953), originally a women's dorm, was sold and converted into the Huron Area Senior Center in 1978; the city renovated and kept the Campus Center (1970) & Fine Arts Center (1973). [5]
Huron is a city in and the county seat of Beadle County, South Dakota, United States. The population was 14,263 at the 2020 census, and it is the 8th most populous city in South Dakota.
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Gladys Shields Pyle was an American educator, politician and the first woman elected to the United States Senate without having previously been appointed to her position; she was also the first female senator to serve as a Republican and the first female senator from South Dakota. Further, she was the first female senator from outside the south. She was also the first unmarried female senator.
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Huron University USA in London, also referred to as Huron University, was a private university located on Russell Square, Bloomsbury, London. The school offered American-style higher education. The university had over 350 students from more than 50 countries and offered a range of undergraduate and graduate programs in Central London. It is now the London campus of Hult International Business School.
Si Tanka University is an unaccredited private online university headquartered in Eagle Butte, South Dakota, United States.
Benjamin Reifel, also known as Lone Feather, was a Lakota Sioux public administrator and politician. He had a career with the Bureau of Indian Affairs, retiring as area administrator. He ran for the US Congress from the East River region of South Dakota, and was elected as the first Lakota to serve in the House of Representatives. He served five terms as a Republican United States Congressman from the First District.
The Huron School District 02-2 is a public school district in Huron, South Dakota, United States. It contains four elementary schools, a middle school, a vocational school, Huron High School, two Hutterite colonies and an alternative high school. The school district owns and operated the local arena and the former Si Tanka University sports center. Huron School District is a member of the South Dakota High School Activities Association. It offers special education, Title I, and a large ESL program.
Cebu Technological University, abbreviated as CTU and also known as Cebu Tech, is a public, non-sectarian, coeducational, state-funded higher education institution located in Cebu, Philippines. CTU was originally a part of the Philippine public high school system and traces its roots to the Manual Arts department of the Cebu Normal School, and was founded independently in 1911 as the Cebu Trade School. In 1928, the institution opened its own campus near the Port of Cebu, where its main campus still stands today.
The South Dakota Intercollegiate Conference (SDIC) was an NAIA-associated collegiate athletic conference that ceased operations following the 1999–2000 academic school year when it merged with the North Dakota College Athletic Conference to form the Dakota Athletic Conference. The SDIAC was formed in 1917 from twelve schools, though membership was down to five during World War II, as the religious schools formed the South Dakota College Conference. Those schools joined back in by 1948. From 1995 to 2000 seasons, the league was known as the South Dakota-Iowa Intercollegiate Conference, thanks to the addition of Dordt and Westmar colleges in Iowa. Westmar closed in 1997. The SDIIC split in 2000, with half of the schools heading to the DAC, while the other half joined the Great Plains Athletic Conference.
Harold Theodore Spitznagel was an American architect from South Dakota. Spitznagel was best known for residential and institutional architecture, including the original Mount Rushmore visitor center. His styles included Prairie School, Art Deco, and Moderne architecture. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania, was posthumously inducted into the South Dakota Hall of Fame, and has been called the "foremost 20th-century architect" of the state of South Dakota.
John L. Pyle was an attorney and politician from the state of South Dakota. A Republican, he was notable for his service as State's Attorney of Hand County (1886-1888) and state Attorney General (1899-1902).
