News Home

Dakota State University Scholarship Banquet Attracts Record Crowd

(Madison, SD – 10/13/99) The Dakota Prairie Playhouse Conference Center was wall-to-wall people last night as nearly six hundred donors, students, parents, faculty, staff and other guests gathered for the annual DSU Foundation Scholarship Banquet.  The event, held each year for more than a decade, offers an opportunity for donors, scholarship recipients and their parents to meet and interact in a casual setting, which is just what the record-breaking crowd did.

“We are very excited to see you all here,” said Dale Kringen, Chairman of the DSU Foundation Board. “Our first scholarship gathering was held in the basement of the Mundt Library and we didn’t need all that room.  Now we fill the largest facility in Madison and we’re still growing.”  Kringen expressed his deep gratitude to the donors for generously helping so many students.

His theme was echoed by Dr. Jerald Tunheim, DSU President, who reflected on how he was the first in his family to complete a four-year degree and that he probably would not have been able to do so without a scholarship received during his undergraduate years.

“I don’t know where I would be today without that scholarship,” Tunheim said, “but it certainly wouldn’t be here.”  Tunheim also took time to thank DSU faculty and staff for their concern and dedication to the students, “without whose efforts,” he said, “our university could not succeed.”

“I have worked in other institutions,” Tunheim continued, “where the relationship between students and faculty was excellent.  But I have never experienced any place where the quality of that relationship was even close to Dakota State.”

The program, which included a reading of the roll of the names of all the donors, their scholarships and the student recipients, was anchored by Marty Gallanter, DSU Foundation Director who acted as Master of Ceremonies.  Gallanter thanked and praised students, scholars and donors, who he called “the three legs of the stool that give Dakota State its strength.”   Gallanter also announced the dedication of new giving society named in memory of Dr. G. Donald Montgomery, DSU’s largest benefactor who passed away last spring.

“The Dr. G. Donald and Marian James Montgomery Society will honor donors to Dakota State whose lifetime giving has exceeded one million dollars,”  Gallanter said.  “Right now the only members of that society are Donald and Marian Montgomery but through their example I know they will not remain the only members forever.”

Gallanter too expressed his appreciation, especially to the donors.  “When we help a youngster go on to higher education, we do more than simply reduce his or her debt.  We are changing the destiny of a family.  The children of college graduates attend college at a much higher rate than the children of those who have not graduated.  And college graduates tend to live a more financially and socially secure life.  So when we help a student to graduate we may be changing the direction of a family for generations.  That’s the work that we do at Dakota State and that’s why we have the best jobs in the world.”

-30-