THURSDAY, DECEMBER 30, 2023 - MISSION CHANGE AT DAKOTA STATE - #4

 THURSDAY, DECEMBER 30, 2023 - MISSION CHANGE AT DAKOTA STATE - #4

This week, I’ve been writing about the academic mission change at Dakota State University in Madison, South Dakota.

GET YOUR UNION CARD, BRUCE

With Dr. Richard Gowan’s prompting, I started looking at Ph.D. programs.  I didn’t want to uproot my family.  I had two choices - the University of Minnesota or the University of Nebraska.

Minnesota had a stellar program - one of the tops in the nation in Management Information Systems.  When I visited and said my college in South Dakota wanted me to get a doctorate, they said, “You cannot / will not go back to the small college after getting a Minnesota MIS degree.” That put me in a bind. I didn’t want to move my family; I had a moral obligation to Dakota State, and I was the Dean of the program.

Nebraska was building their program, and they said, “You won’t want to go back to your little South Dakota college when you are finished here.” But it wasn’t the total negative that Minnesota put out. I smiled.

So, I became a graduate student at the University of Nebraska.  To make it all fit, I had taught at Dakota State for three years, and they would give me a “junior sabbatical” of 8% a year for each year completed (or 24% of my annual salary).  Nebraska offered me a graduate assistantship and teaching one class.  And Dakota State hired my wife (Connie) as a math instructor to teach two classes. (Connie only had a bachelor’s degree in math - not a master’s).

All in all, we were close to meeting our financial needs.  My parents gave me a car to drive to Lincoln, Nebraska.  (We lived one block from campus, so I didn’t need a car in Madison).

Surprisingly, nothing major went wrong with the house, car, or our health that year.  I got a room in a graduate dormitory - about a quarter mile from the School of Business.  I ate in the dorm cafeteria.  

On Friday afternoons, I loaded my dirty clothes and books in my car and drove the 5 hours from Lincoln, Nebraska, to Madison, South Dakota.  

I reversed that trip on Sunday afternoons after church and lunch with the family.  

[Aside - College football was big in Nebraska.  I stayed only two weekends in Lincoln that fall semester.  The first weekend, I had a major paper due and needed to research in the library.  It was a cold, rainy day, and I estimated when the third quarter would end - and I walked to the stadium.  People were leaving as the Cornhuskers were ahead 35 to 3.  The usher looked at me and didn’t say anything, and I just walked in, found a seat, and watched the end of the game.  

The other weekend was Thanksgiving weekend, and I had significant papers to write for the end of the semester.  For that weekend, my family drove to Lincoln, and we all stayed in my dorm room.  

I took four classes, taught one class, and shared an office room with three other graduate students. Usually, you could only take ten credits if you were a graduate and teaching assistant, but I was allowed twelve credits (or four classes).  

I majored in Management Information Systems and minors in Business Administration, Computer Science, and Educational Administration.  That year, I got most of my classwork finished (including the summer semester), and I became “ABD” - “all but dissertation. 

I’ll admit I generally hated it.  I liked my teaching and Dakota State - why did I need to get a doctorate?  On Sunday afternoons, it was hard to leave my family.  

But 40 years later, I am SO GLAD I GOT MY DOCTORATE!!!  IT IS A UNION CARD!!!

The drive was long.  (I hate to admit the following).  My car had a radio, and that was it.  I wanted music I liked, so I had a cassette tape recorder/player and listened to music that I had recorded.  (Many weekends, I’d record something from our record player that I could listen to on the way).  

There weren’t iPods, iPhones, internet music sites, and not that many good radio stations to listen to. 

*****

After a calendar year, I returned to Dakota State as Dean - and “almost” forgot about completing the dissertation.  

By 1988, I had completed the research chapter of the dissertation. I submitted my research plan to my committee, and it was approved.  Now to do the research.

My topic was “The Development and Implementation of an Expert Systems for the Advisement of Undergraduate Business Administration Majors.” I selected one of my faculty members who was a great advisor and had her use the system with half of her advisees, and the rest of her advisees were a control group; then a second newer faculty member who wasn’t (yet) a good advisor and one that was more in the middle.  So, each faculty member had two sets of students - students who used the system and students who didn’t (that is, the control group)

My faculty administrated the advisement system, and students evaluated if the software advisement system enhanced the advisement system. I did the statistical analysis and found a good correlation with the system being helpful with some aspects significant at the P .05 level.

In the fall of 1990, I returned to Lincoln to defend my dissertation before my committee - and I passed!!  I became Dr. White!!!!  (WOOO!) 

After completing my doctorate, I was promoted to full professor, significantly increasing my salary. 

And, in 1990, I was asked by the Academic Vice President to step down as dean - and I did and went back to the classroom full time.

After completing my doctorate, I started actively researching and publishing.  I chaired my academic conference (ISECON) four times, and while I could have been a better academic writer, I became competent enough!!!

*****

I told people that Dakota State would put a glass office in the middle of the Kennedy Center hallway with me inside to show off that we had a doctor of philosophy in information systems. It was that rare at that time.  Now, Dakota State offers doctoral degrees!!!

In 1998, a faculty friend commented that I was the highest-paid professor on campus.  Somehow, that surprised me.  (And … sorry to say, that gave me a huge ego - but that’s another story - and was later than Dakota State - and part of the Bruce becomes Karen story).

LOVE WINS

LUCK IS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN PREPARATION MEETS OPPORTUNITY
LOVE TRANSFORMS

KAREN ANNE WHITE, ©, NOVEMBER 30, 2023