College campuses nationwide face an interesting dilemma - should they be more functional or more fashionable?

Some universities are home to some of the most iconic and picturesque buildings and landscaping anywhere, while others have simply constructed a series of structures designed to provide an education, not an architectural experience.

The website Complex.com believes some schools aren't trying hard enough to provide the best visuals on campus. They've compiled a list of the 50 Ugliest College Campuses in America and a South Dakota school is among the offenders.

Rapid City's South Dakota School of Mines and Technology is number-42 on the ugly list.

The school, which opened in 1887 (two years before South Dakota became a state) as the Dakota School of Mines, is located on the eastern side of Rapid City, on the northern slope of some small foothills.

Like a lot of older campuses, SDSM&T has seen its share of expansion of the years. One of the three residence halls (Connolly) was built in the 1940s, the second (Palmerton) was constructed in the 1960s, and the third (Peterson) was completed in 2004.

When it comes to how the School of Mines landed on the ugly list, Complex did criticize the campus for being 'built for function', but they saved their harshest comments for the university's location, rather than its architecture:

Rapid City itself is dangerous and poorly patrolled, causing issues among the students (beyond having to attend an ugly campus day in and day out). Recently the city declared that they would improve the campus area in the interest of student safety. Maybe a renovation should come next?

All this for a school that just seven years ago was heralded by Bloomberg as having higher starting salaries for graduates than Harvard.

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