2023-2024 Academic Catalog 
    
    Mar 28, 2024  
2023-2024 Academic Catalog

About Southeast Technical College


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Welcome to Southeast Tech

Southeast Tech provides quality technical education opportunities to residents of South Dakota and the surrounding area.

Southeast Tech is one of four state-supported post-secondary technical colleges in South Dakota. Over fifty different major fields of study are offered. Southeast Tech grants associate of applied science degrees, diplomas, and certificates upon successful completion of individual program requirements.  Southeast Tech offers programming in a variety of instructional formats to meet the needs of students, including traditional, online, hybrid, evening and weekend.

In addition, a wide variety of Adult and Continuing Education (credit and noncredit) classes, workshops, and seminars are offered to assist area residents in expanding and augmenting their occupational skills or to assist in general improvement of their chosen lifestyles.

Vision

Educational excellence for tomorrow’s workforce.

Mission

To educate individuals for dynamic and rewarding careers that promote lifetime success and meet the workforce needs of our region.

Southeast Tech Core Values

Student Learning: Southeast Tech provides an environment for student mastery of academic and technical skills.

Student Centered: Student satisfaction and success are valued by Southeast Tech and have a high priority among all the stakeholders.

Diversity/Equity: Southeast Tech values and respects the dignity and worth of all persons and the diverse opportunities that are available to everyone.

Excellence: Southeast Tech strives for excellence and quality in all of its endeavors.

Innovation: Southeast Tech values creative solutions and continuously seeks new, flexible and responsive ways to achieve its mission and goals.

Collaboration: Southeast Tech fosters the development of a partnership with all stakeholders in the delivery of its mission and goals.

Accountability: Assessment and evaluation of student learning, programs and institutional effectiveness are systemic processes for assuring success and improvement.

Goals

In Fall 2016, Southeast Tech established the following institutional strategic goals to achieve its mission:

Goal 1: Institutional Leadership & Management

Goal 2: Marketing & Recruitment

Goal 3: Programs & Partnerships

Goal 4: Resource Sustainability

Institutional Student Common Learning Outcomes & Assessment

As part of Southeast Tech’s Strategic Planning process, a review of the college’s Common Learning Outcomes (CLOs) was conducted in 2016-2017, resulting in the following CLO definitions:

By the time Southeast Tech students graduate, they will demonstrate competence in:

Technology: Graduates will be able to explain industry-relevant technical concepts (knowledge), and demonstrate industry-relevant technical skills (performance).

Problem Solving & Critical Thinking: Graduates will be able to define the problem; analyze the problem; generate solutions; evaluate solutions; and select the best solution.

Communication: Graduates will be able to define the purpose of the communication; organize and structure the communication; provide supporting material; demonstrate precision of language; and professionally deliver and format the communication.

Professionalism: Graduates will be able to demonstrate positive work ethic; collaborate as part of a team; adapt to change; adhere to professional standards; and model integrity and ethics.

At the institutional level, these common student learning outcomes are measured through sampling student work, projects, presentations, or clinical/internship experiences, use of institutional rubrics, and/or analysis of course projects.

As an integrated component of programs, the common student learning outcome concepts are taught and evaluated in every program. Samples of student work are selected from general education and program courses and are annually evaluated to determine the level of student achievement. Results of these direct measures are compared with indirect measures such as employer surveys, graduate surveys, focus groups, and student satisfaction surveys.

Southeast Tech is committed to maintaining a campus culture focused on learning. Southeast Tech recognizes that for learning to be successful, there must be meaningful measures, faculty ownership of the assessment, and strong support from the administration. Southeast Tech characterizes assessment of student learning as a comprehensive student-centered process that is continuous, systematic, structured, and sustainable.

Assessment of student learning outcomes flows from Southeast Tech’s mission and the competencies taught in the various programs. Instructors use a variety of measures to determine how well students achieve learning outcomes. For example, many programs in the Health and Human Services Division use mock licensure and board exams; Transportation Division programs use national certification exams to check student competency. Programs in other divisions use a variety of locally-developed instruments including pre- and post-tests, portfolios and capstone projects to measure competence.

Cocurricular Outcomes

Career Readiness: Students will engage in opportunities that develop skills (teamwork, technical literacy, leadership, networking) to prepare for career success and promote lifelong learning.

Civic Responsibility: Students are able to identify and participate in activities that utilize their skills and impact their communities in a meaningful way. 

Personal Responsibility: Students will accept responsibility for their personal wellness and development, positioning themselves to make responsible life choices.

Campus History

Southeast Tech has offered nearly 50 years of educational excellence to students in the Sioux Falls area and beyond. In May 1965, Sioux Falls was designated by the State Board of Vocational Education to be one of the four areas in South Dakota to provide post-high vocational technical education. Southeast Area Vocational Technical School opened its doors in 1968. That year, Southeast Area Vocational Technical School began operations offering the following programs: Practical Nursing, Major Appliance Repair, Industrial Electronics, Drafting, Data Processing, Diesel Mechanics, and Airplane Mechanics. The original enrollment was 118 students.

Glen Bunday served as the first Director of the school until he retired in 1969. Ed Wood succeeded him and guided the school as Director for seventeen years from 1969-1986. Terrence Sullivan succeeded Ed Wood in 1986 and served as Director of the Institute for fifteen years until he retired in 2001. Dr. Stan Vittetoe served as Southeast’s Director from July 2001 through July 2003. Jan Nicolay served as Southeast’s Interim Director from September 2003 through May 2004. From June 2004 through June 2016, Jeffrey R. Holcomb served as the Institute’s President, and beginning in September 2016, Robert Griggs, JD, became the institute’s President.

In 1970, the Sioux Falls School District purchased a building at 15th and Western. The building was renamed The Career Center. In 1975, the building’s name was changed to the West Campus of Southeast Tech to reflect the increased involvement of post-secondary vocational technical training.

An additional facility that housed post-secondary vocational technical operations included the East Campus complex acquired in 1973 and 1978 and was located in the area of 9th Avenue and 14th Street. This complex included six buildings which served as the home for such programs as Advertising Design, Auto Body, Auto Mechanics, Diesel Mechanics, Printing, Horticulture, and the Sioux Falls School District’s Print Shop. In addition, just a short walk away, the former Beadle Elementary School had been used since 1981 to provide various training programs such as Heating, Ventilation, Air Conditioning, and Refrigeration, Franchise Restaurant Management, Accounting, Marketing, and Computer Literacy courses.

The 1989-90 school year witnessed the relocation of the vocational technical institute to new facilities located on the northwest side of Sioux Falls at the intersection of Maple Street and Interstate 29, Exit 81.

The Adult Learning Center previously housed at Lincoln Senior High School was moved to the new campus along with Data Processing, Office Systems, Franchise Restaurant Management, Advertising Design, Civil and Architectural Drafting, Electronics, General Education, Marketing/Accounting, Printing, Surgical Technology, and the School District’s Print Shop.

All of the remaining East Campus and Beadle School programs moved to Southeast Tech’s new campus in August 1990.

All of the former facilities were sold and the proceeds of the sale were applied to the cost of construction for the new facilities. The Scarbrough Child Care Center, named after Alva W. Scarbrough, an ardent education supporter and community leader, opened its doors in September of 1991 to provide infant, toddler, and preschool child care for students attending the institute.

In July of 1993, Southeast Area Vocational Technical Institute officially changed its name to Southeast Technical Institute.

In 1994, a fourth building opened its doors on campus to house the growing health programs. At this time, names were assigned to the three classroom buildings. “Ed Wood Trade & Industry Center” was the name assigned to the building that housed the industrial and technical trades in honor of Ed Wood’s dedicated service to the school. The main building was given the name “George S. Mickelson Education Center,” in honor of the late governor who made much of the development on the Southeast Tech campus possible. Finally, the new health building was given the name “Health Science Center.” The name was changed in 2001 to the Terrence M. Sullivan Health Science Center in honor of Southeast Tech’s third director.

In the spring of 1998, an additional 112 acres of land were purchased to the west and south of the Southeast Tech campus, allowing the potential to triple the size of the existing campus.

Faced with increasing storage needs due to double-digit enrollment growth since first occupying the campus in 1990, the Institute added its fifth building in 1999. This cold storage facility is located behind the Ed Wood Trade & Industry Center.

In the spring of 2001, Southeast Tech’s Technology Center opened.

Southeast Tech’s first student housing facility, Hummel-Nicolay Hall, opened in fall 2003 and accommodates up to one hundred students. Andera Hall opened in 2005 to accommodate an additional one hundred students.

An expansion of Southeast Tech’s Sullivan Health Science Center opened in Fall 2005 and doubled the size of the facility.

In 2010-2011, Southeast Tech remodeled its Mickelson Center to add a Student Success Center, combine and update the Admissions and Financial Aid offices, move and update the Southeast Tech Bookstore and Adult Education and Literacy Center, add classrooms, two conference rooms, a presentation room, and a student lounge, and to provide student learning spaces in several locations throughout the building.

In the fall of 2016, Southeast Tech opened a new building, the HUB Center, to expand the automotive and diesel programs, provide on-campus food service, additional classrooms, and more administrative offices, as well as an auditorium space.

Southeast Tech at a Glance

LOCATION

Interstate 29 & Maple Street, Exit 81
2320 North Career Avenue, Sioux Falls, South Dakota, 57107

PROGRAM APPROVAL/AUTHORIZATION

State Board of Technical Education

DEGREES, DIPLOMAS & CERTIFICATES

Associate of Applied Science Degree: two years
Vocational Diploma: one year or two years
Certificate: one year or less

2019 FALL ENROLLMENTS

Full Time: 1,388
Part Time: 1,068
Total: 2,456

PHYSICAL FACILITIES

Campus Site: 168 Acres
Buildings: (10) 699,610 Square Feet