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More than half of South Dakota’s landscape, around 24 million acres, is covered with the most abundant ecosystem in the world, rangeland. More than pretty scenery, the complex and varied environment is home to relationships among plants, animals and soil that were formed over millennia to mutually thrive and now play a crucial part in the South Dakota way of life.

�ձ�av��Ƶ’s two largest relationship-building partners have consolidated into one organization, effective Jan. 1, 2026.

�ձ�av��Ƶ Theatre and Dance’s fall 2025 musical production of “Thrill Me: The Leopold and Loeb Story” has been selected to be presented at the 58th annual Region 5 American College Theater Festival Conference in Rochester, Minnesota, on Jan. 20. To help defray the costs of taking the production to Rochester, a one-night-only fundraising performance of the show will be presented at 7 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 15, at the Fishback Studio Theatre in the Oscar Larson Performing Arts Center on the �ձ�av��Ƶ campus.

The South Dakota Nurses Association recognized nurses from across the state — including many with ties to �ձ�av��Ƶ — at its 2025 Convention and Annual Business Meeting.

�ձ�av��Ƶ’s student-produced literature and arts magazine, Oakwood, has been a community and regional favorite for decades. Thanks to a generous estate gift from Mary F. Buckmiller, the School of English and Interdisciplinary Studies will revamp the publication to continue flourishing in the future. The Mary F. Buckmiller School of English and Interdisciplinary Studies Endowment fund will support the Oakwood in perpetuity.

During their first seminar, the 22 members of the South Dakota Agricultural and Rural Leadership Class XIII cohort visited the �ձ�av��Ƶ College of Agriculture, Food and Environmental Sciences last week to learn about the wide-reaching impact of the college, and the university, on agriculture in the state of South Dakota.

The South Dakota Board of Regents approved a request by �ձ�av��Ƶ on Thursday to add a new academic program in finance. Starting in fall 2026, pending approval from the Higher Learning Commission, the Ness School of Management and Economics will offer Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Science degrees in finance.

Six electrical engineering students at �ձ�av��Ƶ are among 244 students nationwide to have been selected for a prestigious scholarship in the power and energy field. Students selected to receive the Power and Energy Society Scholarship Plus Award from the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers are described as “high achievers with strong GPAs with distinctive extracurricular commitments and are committed to exploring the power and energy field.” The awards are for $3,000, except three-time recipients receive $4,000. The IEEE is the world’s largest technical professional organization with 500,000 members in more than 190 nations and 189,000 student members. The �ձ�av��Ƶ selections are Nick Erickson, Nick Ankrum, Cole Brown, Cyrus Nelson, Jaxon Lohnes and Connor Delehant.

Four �ձ�av��Ƶ students in the College of Agriculture, Food and Environmental Sciences have been awarded national bison industry scholarships from the Throlson American Bison Foundation and the Rich Zahringer Memorial Scholarship Fund.

Subash Thapa, a doctoral student in the �ձ�av��Ƶ Department of Agronomy, Horticulture and Plant Science, has distinguished himself with several recent recognitions for his research and academic achievements.