Summer on the Mines campus is always a bit quieter, allowing us to reflect on the accomplishments of the previous academic year and to be grateful for the students, faculty and staff who call South Dakota Mines home. Some of the summer activities happening on campus include camps for middle and high school students in topics like explosives and AI, field camps for geology majors, and athletic camps for youth as well as prospective Hardrocker student athletes.
As alumni and employees of Mines, we know how great of an education this university provides. Yet, I continue to be amazed at the national recognition we receive from multiple national entities, including the Wall Street Journal, US News and World Report, Forbes, Best Colleges, College Factual, Niche, and more. It is great to be recognized in this way, and it also helps us recruit new students. I hope these accomplishments make you proud to be an alum of South Dakota Mines.
The construction on the Nucor Mineral Industries building will be completed later this fall, and we’re looking forward to celebrating the ribbon cutting on April 25, 2025. The building will be a significant addition to our campus and will serve a crucial purpose for our state and nation as well. The fundraising for the Surbeck Center expansion project is underway, and we hope to begin that construction in the near future. We are so grateful for your continued support of these projects, which are so important to the continued success of our students and our university as a whole.
But new buildings wouldn’t mean much without the top-notch research and teaching our faculty and graduate students provide. In 2023-24, Mines was selected to join the prestigious Universities Research Association (URA). URA partners with the University of Chicago to create the Fermi Research Alliance which manages the Long Baseline Neutrino Facility at the Sanford Underground Research Facility in Lead, South Dakota Mines faculty and students have been intimately involved in SURF research, and we are honored to become part of the URA. We are also partnering with South Dakota State University on the Dakota BioWorx project to create new markets for ag and forest products. As part of this partnership, the CNAM-Bio Center was opened to create biodegradable bioplastics and specialty chemicals from biomass. These relationships and the innovation they spur have long been part of the environment we create at Mines, not only serving our communities but our students and our alumni like you.
I hope that you are already making plans to be back on campus for the Rocker Days (Homecoming) on Sept. 20-21, 2024, and the All-School Reunion on July 9-13, 2025. Campus lights up when you and your families come back to spend time with your fellow alumni and former faculty. Thank you for being engaged with us as mentors, class speakers, local alumni chapter chairs, and as donors. Your continued support means more than you know.
