Although SDSM&T received a Title III Planning Grant in 1995, this is its first Title III Strengthening Institutions Development Grant. The year-by-year breakdown of the grant is as follows:

The core committee for the Title III project included Dr. Karen Whitehead, Dr. Francine Campone, Mr. Bill Jones, Dr. Kathy Antonen, and Ms. Barb Dolan. Activity contributors to the project included Dr. Steven McDowell, Dr. Mike Langerman, and Dr. Wendell Hovey. Ms. Barb Dolan was the principal investigator for the proposal and is also the project director.

After conducting an in depth analysis of SDSM&T's strengths and weaknesses through focus groups, surveys, a review of advisory boards' and accreditation agencies' reports, and a review of institutional and Board of Regents' planning documents and minutes, the core committee formulated a comprehensive development plan. The comprehensive development plan focuses on two main activities whose ultimate goal is student success.

Activity I seeks to improve student success and retention through better identifying and tracking at-risk students, better mentoring/advising of students, and better data retrieval to support management planning and decisions by more full utilization of the new regental student database system, i.e., Datatel's Colleague. The total budget for this activity is $679,609 over five years. Approximately 93 percent ($629,609) of the budget is to fund technical staff that will provide documentation, training, programming, reporting and computer support activities SDSM&T needs to utilize Colleague. Seven percent ($50,000) is for staff training and the purchase of computer licenses, software, and hardware.

Activity II seeks to improve student learning outcomes and retention through the enhancement of the educational technology in engineering and science to a level that closely matches the current industry standards. It focuses on equipment upgrades and the corresponding curriculum enhancements, both priorities for SDSM&T's advisory boards and the agencies which accredit SDSM&T's programs. Activity II also includes the acquisition of assistive technology to meet the needs of our increasing number of ADA students. The total budget for this activity is $718,296 over the five years. About 29 percent($212,000) of the budget is for upgrading the chemistry and biology laboratories and 68 percent ($484,296) goes to upgrading the civil/mechanical engineering laboratories. About 3 percent ($22,000) goes to purchase ADA equipment.

Activity III is project management and evaluation. The balance of the total five-year budget ($274,168) supports this activity.

SDSM&T's Title III Office is located in Room 202 of the McLaury Building. For more information about the project please contact Barbara Dolan, Title III Project Director, at 605-394-1267 or via e-mail at Barbara.Dolan@sdsmt.edu.