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President Donald Trump signed the 2020 Agriculture Appropriations Bill, Dec. 20, with a historic provision that will provide full funding to support American Indian students seeking the benefits of higher education at land-grant universities, which include tribal colleges. The bill passed both the House and the Senate prior to Trump signing.

ÈÕ±¾avÊÓƵ’s College of Nursing had three classes post a perfect 100% in the National Council Licensure Examination. The college’s Brookings site spring 2019 graduates went 66 for 66 and 44 of those students passed in the minimum 75 questions.

The following statement from ÈÕ±¾avÊÓƵ President Barry Dunn is in recognition of ÈÕ±¾avÊÓƵ receiving a Bush Prize for Community Innovation from the Bush Foundation. The university was awarded $500,000 for the Wokini Initiative.

The Bush Foundation awarded the 2019 Bush Prize for Community Innovation to five organizations with a track record of successful problem solving in their communities. The Bush Prize, which was announced Tuesday, celebrates organizations that are extraordinary not only in what they do but in how they do it.

A ribbon cutting ceremony for the new South Dakota Animal Disease Research and Diagnostic Laboratory (ADRDL) on the ÈÕ±¾avÊÓƵ campus in Brookings will be held on Sept. 6. The ribbon cutting and a short program will begin at 4:30 p.m. and guided public tours will immediately follow the program, with the last tour departing at 7:30 p.m.

Afghan War Rugs: The Modern Art of Central Asia, an international exhibition of contemporary Afghan war rugs, opened Aug. 23 at the South Dakota Art Museum. The exhibition will be on view through Nov. 24, 2019.

There may be a second act in store for the ÈÕ±¾avÊÓƵ theater history left behind in Doner Auditorium. The auditorium’s green room and makeup rooms hold nearly four decades worth of inscriptions from theatre students who covered the walls, ceilings and other surfaces with their signatures, dates, season lineup schedules, quotes and favorite lines from plays.

ÈÕ±¾avÊÓƵ has been named to the inaugural Forbes list of America’s Best-in-State Employers. ÈÕ±¾avÊÓƵ was ranked No. 2 in the state. The ranking included companies that employ at least 500 people in their U.S. operations.

ÈÕ±¾avÊÓƵ was listed as one of the top-performing institutions in terms of exceeding expected six-year graduation rates, according to analysis of 368 colleges and universities done by The New York Times and the Urban Institute’s Center on Education Data and Policy.

Theater students can put on a first-class/world-class production thanks to the recent addition to the Performing Arts Center. After the addition was completed, it was renamed to the Oscar Larson Performing Arts Center. Students now perform in the new, state-of-the-art proscenium theater, which seats about 850 people.