Since the addition of management courses four years ago, the revamped Mining Engineering and Management program at South Dakota School of Mines & Technology has seen its enrollment grow from nine students in 2004 to 85 students today.

And the recent establishment of the John and Jeane Hull Professorship is another encouragement to keep the program running.

"In the late '90s, it was down to only a handful of students and it was possible that they would lose the program completely," said John Hull, who graduated from the mining engineering program in 1977. "I always felt it would be the wrong degree to lose here, as the name is the South Dakota School of Mines."

When it looked like the mining engineering program had no future, the department established the Mining Advisory Board. Comprised of alumni, professors and business leaders in the mining field, the board came up with the idea to add management studies to the degree.

Tony Jensen is one of the alumni on the advisory board who was instrumental in implementing the management curriculum. The president and CEO of Royal Gold, the leading precious metals royalty company, Jensen graduated from the School of Mines with a degree in mining engineering in 1984.

"The field is very unique in that you often get put into a management role very quickly," said Jensen.

Jensen said that although Mines' graduates have the reputation of having a good work ethic, they needed something more to set them apart.

"The program was on its last leg and we needed to do something different," Jensen said. "So we asked ourselves, 'How can we differentiate ourselves from other programs?'"

Now, in addition to core classes such as theoretical and applied rock mechanics, students take classes like managerial economics and finance.

"It's not just the tons of ore you produce per day, but whether or not you make a profit at the end of the day," Jensen said. "That is why the financial part of the program is paramount to a lot of what these folks will do."

Jensen said that by keeping the core curriculum, and then adding in the management courses, the graduates could find their way in many other disciplines.

"Not only can these students sit behind a computer and design mine ventilation systems, but then can go out and implement it and take care of the economics of the plan," he said. "With their management skills, they have a leg up on anyone else out of their peer group and the employer should be more attracted to these students."

The current students see the benefits of having the management training, too.

"Switching it to the management part definitely helped because now you have the best of both worlds," said Mark Davis, a freshman in the MEM program from Gering, Neb. "You have the management and the labor sides of it," Davis said. "To be a boss, you need to understand the problems of the workers and know how to fix it, which is what they teach you."

The board set a goal of recruiting and retaining 80 students, a number they have already surpassed.

"It is gratifying to come back here to a room that isn't big enough for all of the students to participate in," said Jensen.

According to alumnus John Hull, there are not very many mining engineering programs in the nation and even in the world that offer the management training.

"It is now a more rounded program that is a more holistic academic experience," said Jeane Hull, his wife and a School of Mines alumna. "They supplemented a really strong technical program with the management courses to create a blend to meet business needs."

The Hulls, who have held many senior leadership positions in various mining companies, recently established a professorship to help expand the program. Dr. Charles Kliche of the MEM program was named as the first Hull Professor.

"If you don't have good professors, then your students will leave after a few years," said Jeane Hull. "Good professors are an important part of the organization."

The Hulls have supported the School of Mines in various ways throughout the past, but they felt that it was time to give back even more. The amount of their donation is not being disclosed by the university.

"The School of Mines set the foundation for our lives," said Jeane Hull. "It provided us with that academic background, it got us our first job, and it is where we met each other. It has played such a big role in our lives we always felt that we would find a way to give back."

The professorship will encourage the program to grow so that it is not wiped out in the future, as it almost was a decade ago.

"We've known people in the mining industry whose schools got rid of their program," said Jeane Hull. "They feel a bit bereft; it's like losing your home and your foundation. I think they feel that like their degree is devalued."

The Hulls' donation should encourage current students to see the value of the program, university leaders said.

"Bringing the leaders from industry to show the past successes of other students, that's what makes current students interested," said Dr. Shashi Kanth, MEM program director.

However, with the starting salary of the MEM graduates and the high job placement, attracting students should not be a problem anymore.

The average starting salary offered to last year's graduates was $65,000, the highest average out of all of the degrees offered at the School of Mines, according to the school's career services office.

The School of Mines has 100 percent job placement for their MEM graduates, and not enough students graduate across the country to fill all of the positions available in mining engineering. Currently, there are only 13 colleges and universities offering degrees in mining engineering. In 2003, there were only about 110 mining engineering graduates nationwide, according to a survey by Dr. Charles Kliche, one of the professors in the MEM program.

"There may be a market demand to expand this program even more," said Jensen.