DSU hopeful about library expansion

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Although funding to expand Dickinson State University’s Stoxen Library and the Theodore Roosevelt Center was shot down this legislative session, officials remain hopeful the project will some day become a reality.

“It’s too bad,” Gov. Jack Dalrymple said about legislators’ decision not to fund the project during a visit to Dickinson on Wednesday.

“I think that they’ll have another chance. The college may actually come at their request in a slightly different way next time.”

Kayla Effertz, senior policy advisor for the Office of the Governor, said $750,000 was awarded to DSU for the library for this

biennium.

“Once legislators decided that they didn’t want to include that to their capital projects, they did look at digitizing the documents,” she said.

DSU President Dr. Richard McCallum said the university received the same funding for the project in the last biennium.

The $750,000 will be used towards “four lines of effort,” McCallum said.

Those are the creation of a comprehensive Theodore Roosevelt digital library, the annual Theodore Roosevelt symposiums, the advancement of Theodore Roosevelt scholarships and public outreach efforts which include interactive kiosks, McCallum said.

He said DSU will propose funding for the project during the next biennium.

“We were awarded funding from the legislature in the last biennium to work with an architect on schematic designs and so that work has been completed,” McCallum said. “It will be our goal to carry forward those ideas into the next cycle that the State Board of Higher Education has for major capital construction.”

McCallum said he is unsure why funding was turned down.

“It’s called the Stoxen Library, but as you know, it was much more than a library,” Dalrymple said. “Sometimes it’s just the makeup of the committees and the individual legislators who are on certain committees that kind of determines how those things will shake out.”

The proposal is a two-phased project which includes a 40,000 square-foot addition to Stoxen Library and then renovation to the existing facility, McCallum said.

The building expansion would cost about $10.6 million and the renovation of the existing facility will cost $6.1 million, he said.

The expansion would allow for a new home for several ongoing programs including the Theodore Roosevelt Center and digital library, McCallum said.

“It’s proposed to become the new home for our academic success center, including modern tutoring facilities to enhance our retention and graduation rates,” McCallum said. “It’s also proposed to become a state-of-the-art learning commons area for faculty, students, visiting scholars and Theodore Roosevelt Center guests.”

It may also house the new Confucius Institute and Theodore Roosevelt scholars program among other

activities.

“The largest single space allocation was projected to be in support of our Theodore Roosevelt Center and our comprehensive digital Theodore Roosevelt Library,” McCallum said.

He is unsure what DSU’s next step would be if the funding can’t be secured for the next biennium.

“I think we would have to do an assessment at some point if that were to occur,” McCallum said.

Tags: stoxen library, news, dsu