MADISON — Fourteen congressional staff members from across the country visited Dakota State University on Aug. 11 to learn how South Dakota has expanded rural broadband and how DSU helps communities use and protect the technology that connectivity makes possible. Staff members representing U.S. House and Senate offices and congressional committees visited as part of a multistate educational tour focused on broadband’s role in rural communities. At DSU, they heard how connectivity supports education, workforce development, government services, healthcare, agriculture, research, and economic opportunity. ADVERTISEMENT Mike Waldner, DSU’s director of SecureSD and Project Boundary Fence, spoke with the group about South Dakota’s broadband development and the University’s involvement throughout that work. “DSU was intertwined in just about every step along the way,” Waldner said. “We’ve done a lot of things with technology on a statewide basis, and they really wanted to hear the South Dakota story — what we have done dating back to 1999 and 2000, and how that work has grown into all of the technology we’re using now.” Waldner said one of South Dakota’s strengths is its ability to bring organizations together around statewide technology projects. That collaboration allows communities to share resources, reduce costs, and maintain systems that continue to produce value decades later. “I think we do an extremely good job of pulling together,” he said. “If we continue to come together and do these statewide projects, we can create economies of scale and make them less expensive for taxpayers across the entire state.” The visit also gave staff members a look at the next stage of that work: protecting the networks, public services, and sensitive information that increasingly depend on broadband. Waldner said he hopes visitors will take South Dakota’s collaborative approach back to the members of Congress and communities they serve. “I hope