A new policy that limits what university units and employees can include in their email signatures. went into effect Friday, Jan. 25. This has led to concerns from faculty and students that including pronouns could violate the policy. South Dakota BOR created the new branding and communications policy during their board meeting in Brookings in.
South Dakota is more than 8% Indigenous, but both the faculty and staff and the student body makeup at Board of Regents universities range from 0% to 3.25% Indigenous.
Dakota State University's enrollment topped 3,500 which is more than half the size of the city of Madison's estimated population of about 6,000. The figure from the South Dakota Board of Regents includes all students. The full-time equivalent enrollment is 2,173.
The website, Our Dakota Dreams, rolled out earlier this summer as a joint product from the state Board of Regents and the state Department of Education. Its purpose is to help influence prospective students to choose to attend one of South Dakota's six public universities and four public technical colleges.