There will be no civics center at Black Hills State University after lawmakers killed a bill with that goal.
Opponents successfully argued the scope was simply too narrow and the cost too high.
A single vote decided the fate of the BHSU Nicholas W. Drummond Center for Civic Engagement in the state Senate Monday.
The proposal was supported by Isabel Sen. Ryan Maher.
“This will allow Black Hills State to set up civic engagement and will provide undergraduate students across the Regental system with a foundation to succeed as lifelong citizens and future leaders in political, economic, and civic life," Maher said. "The interdisciplinary center will draw from expertise in subjects such as history, political science, philosophy, sociology, communications and many more.”
However, the proposal faced pushback. While Watertown Sen. Lee Schoenbeck described it as “well-intentioned,” he said there are bigger problems at the university.
“First, we’ve got another issue with Black Hills State which is the rebasing, which is an important issue for the future of Black Hills State," Schoenbeck said. "This actually takes money away from that purpose, it would divert up to almost $300,000.”
While some lawmakers argue this would provide a new mission specific to BHSU, others like Sioux Falls Democrat Sen. Reynold Nesiba say this kind of programming should be wide-reaching.
“All of our Board of Regents institutions need to be doing this work," Nesiba said. "This isn’t something that needs to be a center. All of our universities need to be promoting civic engagement, they need to be making sure that our students are registered to vote. That they are prepared to participate. This needs to be throughout our entire system.”
Other concerns include the top-down nature of putting this center into law.