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.
History
Founding
What became Huron University was founded in 1883 as Presbyterian University of Southern Dakota, founded in Pierre while it was still in 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.
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. 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.
For-profit ownership
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.
Tribal ownership
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.