SDSTATE - Key Persons
This co-ed residence hall was built in 1962. Located next door to the University Student Union, Mathews Hall is home to over 380 students on campus.
The hall has four floors, with a study area on each floor. The lowest level features a kitchen, pool and foosball tables, ping pong, laundry room and a T.V.
Mathews has three living-learning communities; engineering, pre-health professionals and Oyate Yuwitaya Tipi. Students that are a part of the living-learning communities have access to special programs and computers within the hall.
Mathews Hall was named after Hubert B. Mathews, (1892), a former physics department head, dean of engineering and the first secretary of the Alumni Association from Willow Lake, South Dakota. As a student, he was a member of the first SDSU football team to play the University of South Dakota, and was the first King of the Hobos. He returned to SDSU as a physics and chemistry instructor and is credited with organizing the electrical engineering department and engineering division. He served as the vice president and acting president in 1905-1906 and was also a mayor of Brookings.
Wagner Hall was renamed at a May 6, 2010, dedication in recognition of Robert T. and Mary K. Wagner and their years of service to the university and the state of South Dakota. Robert Wagner taught countless numbers of students at SDSU in his popular Marriage 250 class and served as vice president for academic affairs before becoming the 17th president of SDSU April 4, 1985, serving until December 31, 1997. He earned his doctorate in sociology from SDSU in 1972. Mary K. (Mumford) Wagner began a political career in 1975, serving on the Brookings School Board. She earned her doctorate from SDSU in 1978. She was later elected to six terms in the South Dakota Legislature. She joined the SDSU rural sociology faculty in 1990 and retired as an assistant professor in 1996. Originally known as the HEN (home economics and nursing) House and then NFA (Nursing, Fine Arts, and Arts and Sciences), the building and the Bailey Rotunda were built in 1969 in tandem at a cost of $2.7 million.